Sound of Silence

– Thesis Statement
Architecture nowadays is usually defined as buildings and other physical structure that creating space. However, there is an ambivalence occurs whether architecture is a line between inside and outside, or confusing inside and outside because of transforming one into the other.

“The outside is not a fixed limit but a moving matter animated by peristaltic movements, folds and foldings that together make up an inside: they are not something other than the outside, but precisely the inside of the outside.”  Deleuze – Foucault p.96-97

 Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated areas in the world. It is glutted with spaces that crowded with people or flowing with high velocity of traffic. The boundary of “city” is so clear that people need to travel for relaxing and enjoying a peaceful moment. The discrepancy between chaos and calm is coherent with that between inside and outside when architecture is acting as connector and separator at the same time.

The fluidity of wind created due to the ventilation facilities of railway system would be a demonstration of such ambiguity. The free flowing of air exhausted is easily merged with the atmosphere. Meanwhile, the integration of them can produce sound effect that construct calm ambience. Meditation space is not necessary to be close to the nature, but creating nature itself.

– Description of project
The thesis is to create break area in this speed demanding city. On one hand studying how transition can be constructed by making use of the contrast between the intense outside and inside. On the other hand, examining the separation in the way that more than enclosure. The ambiguous sense of in and out is created, at the same time the architecture construct atmosphere asynchronous with surrounding.

A series of prototypes with various scales would be designed responding to site with different conditions. Several ventilation shafts of MTR station would be selected and examined. In order to adapt to the context, the ventilation shafts would be redesigned in the way that create different sound effect as well as matching with human circulation.

The acoustic of wind in the architecture would be systematically analyzed, together with the light effect that creates meditation space.  This construction would be a transformation of noise pollution into an intentional sound effect, enhancing the quality of life of people by providing a new kind of public space in the city.

The thesis would also study the bunker morphology, making use of those military spaces as products of violence to create calm space, with the contradiction.

– Outline of Research
Selection of site
Site Analysis
Analysis of wind acoustic
Analysis of meditation space

– Bibliography
The architecture of deconstruction  Derrida’s Haunt
Bunker Archeology Paul Virilio
Between silence and light: Spirit in the Architecture  Louis Kahn
Made in Tokyo, Junzo Kuroda & Momoyo Kaijima
Meditation Space, Paris, Tadao Ando, 1995
The Tower of Winds, Japan, Toyo Ito, 1986