de.VOID – Archive of Individuals

[THESIS STATEMENT]
/ CONCEPTION OF VOID
Void exists in both the literal and abstract meaning. The physicality of presence is experienced by the absence. It carries the notion of emptiness, endlessness and solitude.
This thesis tries to explore the concept of ‘void’ in relation to memory and space, its social-spatial implication on the urban level, and examine how the ‘void’ can be conceptualized, spatialized and symbolized to address the issue of memory and identity.
Berlin is a city of void in both physical and figurative sense. A void that is charged with the burden of history and weight of emotion. It exists in many levels, ranging from the political erasure of documents and buildings by the State to manipulate one’s memory, to the more abstract sense, the void of memory existed in people’s mind as they are constantly under secret surveillance by the State.
“The whole question of the political lies in the interpretation of this void.” by Jacques Rancière.

/ POLITICS OF VOID
The thesis tries to deal with the concept of void in 2 levels.
On one level, it tries to fill the void not only by physical means of simply occupying the empty site with architecture, but also to fill the void conceptually by uncovering the hidden truth such that the program of the project is set to be an Archive of Individuals where files of individuals collected by the State would be  gradually released and disclosed. On the other level, it tries to question through architectural expression on the legitimacy of the power, both the West and the East, to control one’s memory and manipulate the data of individuals. The focus of the thesis is to re-exam issues on the right of access and the tense relationship between the State and people, and to the broader sense, the ultimate solitude of every individual existing in the world.

[PROJECT DESCRIPTION]
/ CONTEXT OF VOID

Palace of the Republic, currently a hole in Berlin’s heart, is chosen as the testing
ground of thesis for its rich context. It has undergone twice political erasure, first after the GDR’s decision to demolish the former Royal Palace, and second time after the decision by the reunified government to pull down the former Palace of Republic.

/PROGRAM TO FILL THE VOID

Program of the design is set to be archive of individuals to house both Stasi files and files collected by the current government. The archive runs in a mechanism that continuously opens up hidden files of individuals. It is organized into 2 parts. The first part, the private domain, is first filled up with Stasi files from the Stasi Agency which are to be viewed privately. After a certain period of time, the files are slowly displaced to the second part, the public domain. The voids at the private domain will be gradually replaced by files released by the West. With the displacement goes on, the private domain acts as a processing unit in between presence and absence of files while the public domain continuously grows to allow all invisible files to be made open. The archive therefore starts from empty and continue to grow and fill up the whole site.

/SOLID-VOID AS DESIGN STRATEGY

By applying the concept of void, the architecture is built underground. Part of the land is further excavated to allow water to flow in, making the archive become an ‘island within island’. Water mediates between the normal world above ground and the constructed archive  underground.

Neutral non-archive programs are defined as void while all the archive space becomes solid surrounding them. By slicing of the mass, it creates a systematic space for archive usage.

[ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY]

Andreas Huyssen, ‘The Voids of Berlin’, 1997

The narration of the city void and its association to memory and city development gives inspiration and sets historical and theoretical background of the thesis

Georges Perec, ‘A Void’, 1969

The absence of the letter ‘e’ as an imposed constraint in writing has broadened the discourse on literature and inspired the architectural field

Gordon Matta-Clark, ‘Circus, the Caribbean Orange’, 1978

The figurative carving out of space as a criticism to the dehumanized urban renewal provokes how the act of erasure can generate a powerful statement.

Bernard Khoury Architects, ‘B 018’, 1998

An example of architecture of disappearance as a response to address the memory of the post-war site in an anti-monumental manner while reject the amnesia reconstruction

Daniel Libeskind, ‘Berlin Jewish Museum’ , 2001

The fragmented deconstruction and ‘void’ space in the museum reflects the linkage between history and architecture. This is one of the precedent buildings to investigate the relationship between the memory and space.

Peter Eisenmen, ‘Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe’, 2005

Minimalist concept is adopted for public memorial sites. The ultimate abstraction raises questions and challenges for people to rethink the public space for memorial.

Walter Benjamin, ‘ Excavation an d Memory’ , 1932

The analogy between excavation and search of memory provides the theoretical background of the project

Aldo Rossi, ‘An Analogical Architecture’ , 1966

The exploration of analogy as a design methodology to investigate the intangible relationships between elements of a city provides inspiration to the analogical aspect of the proposal.

Wim Wenders, ‘Wings of Desire’, 1987

The film captures the isolation of Berlin before the fall of Wall and provides a source to document the city for research. The scene in which the old man fails to find the Potsdamer Platz in his memory but only the empty wasteland carries multiple meaning. This scene evokes me to rethink the effect of ‘void’ on psychological and urban aspects.

Rem Koolhaas, Madelon Vreisendorp, Elia Zenghelis, and Zoe Zenghelis,

‘Exodus or the Voluntary Prisoners of Architecture’, 1972

The ironic statement on edge and void based on Berlin Wall provokes thoughts on the alternative meaning of these spaces in contemporary city.

Lebbeus Woods, ‘Underground Berlin’, 1988

The idea on the ambiguity between aboveground and underground of the proposal makes its reference to this project in which a utopian world is constructed and unified underground before the fall of the Wall.

Superstudio, ‘The Continuous Monument’, 1969

Influential manifesto on architecture and urbanism:

“if architecture is merely the codifying of bourgeois model of ownership and society, then we must reject architecture; if architecture and town planning is merely the formalization of present unjust social divisions, then we must reject town planning and its cities…until all design activities are aimed towards meeting primary needs. Until then, design must disappear. We can live without architecture…”

[Third Review Panel]