Listen to the site: A methodology to understand the site

Name: Yunsha Xie

Course: MA Architectural Design

Date: 16 April 2012

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In a winter afternoon, I sat in a waiting shelter at the island platform of Kirkgate station in Wakefield, watching varies kinds of passengers drop by the station: some departed; some just arrived, while some were waiting for trains. The sun was verging toward the horizon little by little, more and more people came. They were all waiting for trains to take them to next destinations, home probably. Bearing with the cold wind, some of them kept wandering up and down on the platform, some sat in the shelter quietly, some just stood next to the rail line and stared at it as if the train would come sooner if they kept staring. As the daylight ebbing away, the classical style station building became mysterious under the cover of the dim street lights. I kept sitting there, watching the people, the orange sky and the well-worn buildings; felt that time had stopped and I could hear every bricks of the building whisper softly and gently around my ears. It was a moment of silence and peace. And at this moment, a scheme of my project: the regeneration of Kirkgate station came up in my mind.

Kirkgate Station, Wakefield;

Pictured by Tyrone Fleming

As architectural students, we all struggle with mountains of information about our site from the beginning of the project. We consider as many aspects as possible of the site, such as culture, history, topography, materials, and so on. We take photos of the site, measure it, sketch it and even make questionnaires to get ideas. After that, we put all the data into a ‘formula’ we built by ourselves based on what we learnt to produce a scheme. This method may be safe and comprehensive, yet it has two fatal flaws. On one hand, the information may be huge that it blows up our mind, we are buried in the endless ‘site survey’ and the project will never be pushed forward; on the other hand, this method easily lead us consider all aspects of the site evenly that our scheme will lose its character under the seemingly information. So what shall we do to the site after we get all the valuable information? How to trigger an amazing and more important, reasonable idea for the site? One of the methods I would like to discuss in this essay is ‘Listen to the site’. It is a procedure after site survey and before the ‘real design’ begins. We also do it during the whole design process to trigger and exam our ideas. It provides us a moment to sort out clues, help us to find an aim and stick with it to achieve success.

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What is ‘listening to the site’? In order to ‘listen to the site’, first of all, we should try to regard the site as a ‘person’. To explain this concept, I am going to discuss it from two aspects: social properties and natural properties. Speaking to the social properties, the most significant mark on the site should be the artifact our predecessors left to us, namely, the existing buildings. As David Littlefield says in his book ‘Architectural Voices’, ‘all buildings are products of the human imagination and the role of the imagination does not cease once the design has been committed to paper. All buildings are, more or less, psychological entities – projections, even.’ [1] In other words, a building has soul and characters in it once it was built. Apart from the designer’s initial ideas, as time passed by, stories happened in the building. These stories became memories of independents, histories of societies, and characters of the building. It is these stories made the building significant beyond a simple shelter. Yet the significant of the building is hidden in normal times. It may hide in the scratches on the wall, in the weeds of the corner, or even in the users' using habits passed from generations. It required us to observe closely, listen carefully to identify the vague yet real existing atmosphere in the old building. As for natural properties, I always believe there are some spirits in the nature. The anciently spoken ‘Atman yoked mahatman’ has been passed down from generations to generations in the east. That is a Sanskrit script. ‘Atman’ means the individual self; while ‘mahatman’ is for ‘the greater self; the collective’. In this case, we can consider ‘the collective’ as ‘the nature’, ‘the atmosphere’, or ‘the environment’ which relate to us. The ancient Chinese artisans pursued the ‘harmony of man with nature’ when they built a city. They tried to understand the nature, went with it, and imitated it. Shinto, the native religion of Japan, believes god exists in objects with extraordinary specialties. They believe that the god may be in a one hundred years old cedar, or a wayside floret. There is no denying that our emotions are always affected by the changeable nature. For example, a rainbow may make us happy while sunset causes sorrow. These emotions are invisible, difficult to catch most of the time, yet ‘the invisible affection is more precious than the visible entity.’(Kurokawa Kiso) [2] To conclude, ‘listening to the site’ is to understand the character of the site. In most cases, we can only catch a fragment of the site’s character; just as it is difficult to understand a friend from all angles at a time. Yet we can catch the fragment which moves us and use it as a concept, a starting point of the project. How to ‘listen to the site’? Now that we understand a site has its spirit, we shall try to ‘listen to the site’ to understand ‘its mind’. Only after understanding the site in some respect can we find a way to respond the site and create reasonable designs. Each professional has his/her own way to ‘listen to the site’ either consciously, or unconsciously. They may

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do it from the angle of history, traditions, using scales, and so on. Below I would like to introduce some cases about how do designers ‘listen to the site’ from the angle of materials. A. Wang Shu and his recycled building materials In China, thousands of buildings are demolished every year due to ‘the growing of economic’ and lack respect for traditions. Among all the demolished buildings, lots of them are full of historical value. Yet because of a variety of reasons, architects usually can do little to save them. Wang Shu is one of the architects who care about the history and traditions. He spent a number of years working on building sites to learn traditional skills; and try to paraphrase the traditional culture with recycled materials using modern technique. One of his commonly used design technique is using the recycled tiles and bricks to build new walls, which he called them ‘tile wall’. Time breathed life into the tiles and bricks from local old houses. The stories and sensibilities of the tiles carried from the old generations touch the new generations; and these sensibilities should be remembered and carried on. Even though the old buildings no longer exist, yet with a proper way, the reconstruction of the old materials can recreate spirit of local place in a new site. ‘China has so profound culture, yet demolition of old buildings happens everywhere nowadays. Those building materials with dignity in the past time are now discarded like garbage. We should use our wisdom to let them back to life’, Said Wang. [3] In this way, Wang found his way to listen to the site and respond the site.

Ningbo History Museum, Ningbo, China (2008) Picture from official website of Pritzker Prize 2012 The wall of the museum is consisted of ‘tiles’ and ‘bamboo-template concrete’. The recycled tiles and bricks are put in the lower place to let people touch them. The

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slanting line which divided two kinds of materials emphasizes the terrain of the site.

Xiangshan Campus, China Academy of Art (Phase II) Hangzhou, China (2007) Picture from official website of Pritzker Prize 2012 The bricks of the elevation are recycled from demolished domestic houses. Traditional scales and languages are used in this case to create a studying atmosphere of old Chinese literary men.

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B. Kengo Kuma and his ‘defeated architecture’ Wang Shu’s case is a good example showing how architect deal with the site’s history and culture; while Kengo Kuma, another Eastern architect has his theory to explain the relationship between human being and the nature. In his book ‘Defeated Architecture’, he argued that nowadays we tend to build architectures to pursue symbol meanings and visual demand on purpose; we have forgotten the original meaning of architecture is to let us live in it, to make us live more comfortable. [4] His ‘defeated architecture’ is a kind of compatible architecture, which calls for the understanding of the nature. It is said the Hanshin-Awaji earthquake, which caused serious damages in Kobe in 1995, made Kengo rethink how buildings adapted the nature. In fact, the theory ‘defeated architecture’ implies the philosophy of Taoism: ‘Does not contend, so none contend against him’. ‘Defeated’ does not mean ‘give up’. It means ‘follow the nature’. It is a ‘negative’ way to built, yet it shows the respect to the nature. It is a way human beings and the nature can live in harmony. To put his theory into practice, Kengo particularly interests in using natural materials, playing with light and shadow, to create places ‘hidden’ in the nature. In his work Bamboo House, which stands adjacent to the Great Wall, he used bamboo as material, built a distinct space aside the Great Wall that they could face each other. “It almost incredibly achieves the circumstance of ‘built a hut amid the throng of men’”. [5] In his work Nasu History Museum (also called as ‘Stone Museum’), Kengo studied the local stone and used a technique to interpret the civilized meanings and the primitive role of the stone. With the inclusion of a series of stone slats and gaps between them, light is led into the room, the wall is de-solidified.

Bamboo House, Beijing, China (2002) Picture from website http://www.zhulong.com/ Double glazing glass softens the edge of the house while bamboo, the only decoration of the building, makes the building fit in to the wood.

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Nasu History Museum, Nasu-Gun, Tochigi Prefecture, Japan (2000) Picture from website http://www.zhulong.com/ Different ‘Voices’ of the site Above we have talked about two architects using their own way to ‘listen to the site’ and understand the site. In fact, every architect has his/her own way to ‘listen to the site’. The ‘listening’ is a process of interacting between the inner thinking of architects and the outer physical world. Thus, thousands of possibilities can be created in a same site. It not only depends on the physical data of the site, but also relies on the personal experiences of the architects. Architects from different backgrounds find their own starting points on the basis of their knowledge and interests. In the meantime, one architect can also hear different ‘voices’ from the site. A site with all its past contains lots of information. Some of the information is significant while some is less important; and some may hide behind the semblance. A design usually cannot interpret all meanings of the site but only one or two significances. Architects should distinguish the value of the site and identify the character of the site. To know whether they find the true value or not, it requires architects to test their thought over and over again during the design process. In this way, architects can create a solid concept to backup their schemes. Conclusion To sum up, ‘listening to the site’ is a procedure during the design process. It requires us to carry all the information in our mind and go to the site; to interact with the site, listen to the site and let the site tells us what it want. It is a way of understanding and representation; a method architects turn the visionary into reality. Architects all do this procedural either consciously or unconsciously. Yet how to do it right, it may cost one’s whole life to find out.

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Bibliographies 1. David Littlefield & Saskia Lewis, Architectural Voices: Listen to Old Buildings,

Wiley-Academy, Great Britain, 2007 2. ‘Kochuu: Japanska Forma’(Taiwan Version), Chimei DVD, 12 May 2009 3. Zhejiang News Online, Wang Shu has been Awarded the 2012 Pritzker

Architecture Prize, Available at: http://zjnews.zjol.com.cn/05zjnews/system/2012/02/29/018228304.shtml (accessed 16/04/2012)

4. Kengo Kuma, translator: Ji Liping, Defeated Architecture (Chinese Version), Shandong People’s Publishing House, China, January 2008

5. Zhu E, Forward of ‘Defeated Architecture’, Shandong People’s Publishing House, China, January 2008