de.Void – In-between Presence and Absence

CONCEPTION OF VOID    

Void exists in both the literal and abstract meaning. The physicality of presence is experienced by the absence. Its nature of emptiness always leaves space for interpretation and imagination.

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.

“The Berlin Wall as architecture was for me the first spectacular revelation in architecture of how absence can be stronger than presence” by Rem Koolhaas

Berlin being a city where urban voids were found as a result from the fall of the Wall, provides a unique context for architectural interrogation of these voids and contemplation on its alternative notion in contemporary cities, exploring how the void can be preserved yet programmed and act as a connector to re-stitch the city fabrics as well as the past with future.

“The ‘void’ may have been filled physically but the memory and history will always linger” by Andreas Huyssen

After the fall of the Wall, numerous projects have been carried out to quickly fill the void with an effort to erase its trace. Architecture appears to be constructed for the sake to escape from the haunted past. There is an underlying danger that ‘the more we build, the more we forget’, provoking questions on the ‘presence’ of architecture. Here the concept of ‘void’ is applied as a critique of the amnesic reconstruction, without any trace of Berlin’s identity, which is built out of naive thought that the city would be reunified with the void physically filled.

Instead of looking at architecture as something replacing the void and having a prominent built form, can we design and value the presence through the acts of erasure and absence? Here architecture taking on the concept of ’void’ is proposed to challenge the idea of presence taking over absence. By architectural articulation of the void into architecture, it tries to address the psychological void which can hardly be erased by any physical construction and prevent itself from being another amnesic development or rhetorical monument.

CONTEXT OF VOID

Potsdamer Platz, once was the largest void created by history, is chosen as the testing ground of thesis for its rich context. Its development has changed from the transportation hub in the pre-war period to the no man’s land after the erection of Wall, up to the current isolated development which has the issue of disconnection in both urban and psychological levels.

(DE)MATERIALIZATION OF VOID

In response to the current development of implanting generic high-rises to physically fill the void, the proposal here takes the concept of void, articulates it in both a literal and figurative sense, by excavation into the ground and carving out space from existing buildings to create architecture in between presence and absence such that one disappears instead of standing and is built into the ground instead of above it.

The excavation is tested out in two levels, the urban and building level.  First, the architecture created out of excavated negative landscape acknowledges the memory of the site being a void, reveals the hidden city fragments while cultivates its programmatic potential to transform it into a social hub as the new gathering space to connect East and West Berliners. Second, the space carved out from the existing buildings serves as new public space. The void created re-establishes urban relationship by framing views of city symbols. The shadow of figurative void may also cast on the negative landscape to arouse psychological effect.

The proposal takes on a poetic and narrative role. The analogy between excavation and memory searching comes from Walter Benjamin’s theories of memory such that one is walking into the ‘void of articulation’, both the social hub created underground and public space created within existing buildings, to fill up his ‘void of memory’.

The project positions itself in various ambiguity: it lies in between East and West, underground and aboveground.  This space navigates the locus of memory, rejecting the amnesic reconstruction while also walking away from unnecessary nostalgia, exploring ambiguity between remembering and forgetting.

[Methodology]   

3 different ‘voids’ are juxtaposed for analysis and investigation

Void of Memory – intangible perception in minds resulted from the traumatic history.

Void left by Destruction – physical empty space in the urban fabrics as fragments

Void created of Articulation – architecture using ‘void’ as spatial articulation to address the above ‘voids’

Methodologies include:

-superimposition and collages between different means to experiment the double tension between making and erasing something and extract spatial quality of the ‘void’ over time.

-reverse the design method from designing the positive to designing the negative using ‘solid-void’ as spatial configuration. Casting models will be made to test the various configurations.

– extract the intangible relationship between city fragments by deconstructing visual and urban connectivity, elements of light and shadow. The abstraction then acts as a driving force to deform the ‘void’ as architecture.

[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

Superstudio, ‘The Continuous Monument’, 1969

“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…”

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.

Raimund Abraham, ‘Church on the Berlin Wall’, 1982

The symbolism of the project and his design methodology of carving out space characterized by marked graphic and figurative signs give inspiration to the project.

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 amnesic 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.

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

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.