A Design Narrative: Design Intent, Perception, Experience and a Structural Logic of Space.

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A Design Narrative: !

Design Intent, Perception, Experience and a Structural Logic of Space. !!!!

!!Table of Contents !List of Figures 4!Abstract 4!Chapter 1 Introduction: Architecture and Narrative 1.1 Introduction 61.2 Background 7 1.2.1 Questions of Design 7 1.2.2 Relevance Of Narrative 9 1.2.3 Relevance of Museums 9 1.2.4 Significance Of Bernard Tschumi 101.3 Research Questions, Aims and Objectives 11 1.3.1 Research Questions 11 1.3.2 Aims 11 1.3.3 Objectives 111.4 Research Gap: The Case Study - The New Acropolis Museum 2009 121.5 Description of Subsequent Chapters 12!Chapter 2 Literature Review2.1 Introduction to Literature Review 142.2 Questioning the Modernist Idiom 142.3 Narrative Discourse 152.4 Framing Tschumi & Psarra 172.5 Understanding Museums & Knowledge of the Case Study 182.6 Spatial Syntax 192.7 Conclusion to Literature Review 19!Chapter 3 Methodology3.1 Overview of Methodology 213.2 Analysing Space: Spatial Syntax 213.3 Analysing Space: Tschumi 223.4 Limitations 22

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!Chapter 4 Main Discussion

Part 1: Tschumi’s Approach to Narrative 4.1 Introduction to Discussion 23 4.1.2 The Structuring Logic of Narratives 23 4.1.3 Tschumi’s Narrative Triptych: Context, Programme and Event 25 4.1.4 A ‘Mise en scène’ Approach to ‘Narrating Programme’ 26 4.1.5 Choreographing Sequence: Designing a Narrative 28!Part 2: Analysing Tschumi’s Narrative within the Acropolis Museum 4.2 Narratives within the Acropolis Museum 29 4.2.1 Introduction to Part Two 29 4.2.2 A Narrative Geometry 30 4.2.3 Program, Circulation and sequence 32 4.2.4 A Narrative of Visual Connectivity: Spatial Syntax in The Museum 33 4.2.5 Ritualising the Familiar 35!4.3 Conclusion to Chapter 4 38!Chapter 5 Conclusions5.1 Transgression; the Acropolis Museum as a Phenotype 39!6.0 Notes 41

!7.0 Bibliography 46!!

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List Of Figures !All figures and images are from Pantermalēs, D., Aesopos, Y., & Tschumi, B. (2009). The New Acropolis Museum !Image 01 - The base middle and top of the Acropolis Museum - Page 84!Image 02 - The archeological ruins below the museum, page 64!Image 03 - The ramp as a central feature of the atrium, page 111!Image 04 - Circulation diagram, page 83!Image 05 - Transverse section through the museum, page 80!Image 06 - Archaic exhibit, page 48-49!Image 07 - The caryatids, page 18-19 !Image 08 - The Acropolis Museum in context with the Acropolis hill, page 134-135!

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!Abstract

A Design Narrative is to re-evaluate 'narrative' as both a conceptual approach, design process and medium of communication in architectural design. This assessment will specifically consider the link between the way architectural space, movement and experience is conceptualised, and how that progression is translated within a design process and finally realised as a project. It is contended that a narrative structure is not only present but fundamental to culture and its expressive agencies, and in many respects part of human nature itself as a way of composing ideas and thought. Given this, narrative is inextricable from the very nature of architecture as an expression and by extension a design method that would inform it.In looking beyond the issues of style and image, attempts to find correspondences between the broad role narrative plays in literature, its capacity for abstract conceptualisation in composing and organising space and its flexibility as a multi vocal idiom of communication. In examining a number of writers in the field of architectural narrative and spatial syntax the research then focuses upon the writings of Bernard Tschumi to establish the extent to which 'narrative' influences both design thinking, its processes and project resolution within the new Acropolis Museum (2009).While the research suggests a positioning of narrative within architecture as a structuring method for design, it is importantly not a grammar we can simply apply and evaluate, because like the library of Babel , it is without boundaries, intent or 1

implicit meaning, but rather constructs a way of thinking.!!

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� Borges, J. L. (1941). The Library of Babel. Argentina: Editorial Sur. (Spanish: La Biblioteca de 1

Babel) is a short story by Argentine author Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986), conceiving of a universe in the form of a vast library.

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION: ARCHITECTURE AND NARRATIVE

!1.1 Introduction The context of this paper situates itself in examining the relationship between project, theory and design process. It will consider the potential for ‘narrative’ as an approach to a design process, through evaluating the work of Bernard Tschumi, whose writings and projects primarily focus on cultural issues from urban contexts to individual building elements. It will examine how spatial syntax operates to create and orchestrate a range of relationships between space, circulation, objects and users. On the basis of inquiry defined above, the paper will then define how these qualities have informed the design process in the case study of Tschumi’s new Acropolis Museum. The museum is a unique building type with a didactic intent expressed within an emerging design grammar that makes it a model for cultural communication. The museum is analogous to the paradox of knowledge explored by Borges in his short story The Circular Ruins (1940) where humanity finds itself in a position of ‘me 2

watching you, watching me, watching you,' in an attempt to make sense of ourselves. In understanding the design issues of the museum as cultural narrative we can by extension appreciate how in similar ways the built environment defines us through spatial relationships that are profoundly social in nature. In considering the structuring quality of the ‘event’ constructed within a narrative spatial dialogue, the theoretical writings of Bernard Tschumi and specifically his Acropolis Museum, affords particular insight as a modern architectural manifestation of the museum. These writings become a platform upon which to appreciate Tschumi's provocative rethinking of disciplinary orthodoxies and design methodology which has evolved throughout his career. The Acropolis Museum, charged with exhibiting Greek antiquity, establishes a narrative discourse that places the observer in a position to consider and reflect upon the exhibition and with it architecture’s role in creating and transmitting cultural knowledge and relationships at multiple levels, both individually and collectively, becomes the basis for a narrative discourse.Museum architecture is an ideal test situation to evaluate not only the demands of increasingly flexible interpretations of program, site and context, museums also demonstrate the need for a high degree of intelligibility from the standpoint of user experience. The museum communicates cultural information through its narrative structure by establishes a dialogue between the building as a spatial context, and the variable presence of user groups that provide a social context. (See explanatory note 18, page 45)!

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� Borges, J. L. (1940). The Circular Ruins. Argentina: Sur. (original Spanish title: Las Ruinas 2

Circulares) is a fantasy short story establishing the social interactive nature of perception.

1.2 Background !1.2.1 Questions of Design The starting point for this paper began as an attempt to make sense of the links between culture (in its broadest humanist sense) and architecture, whose role it is to reflect upon, to interpret and give expression and representation to a diversity of cultural values where they become our collective experience of a place. The frequently fragmented, incomplete, often contradictory and ambiguous association between meaning, values and experience through perception, has been the subject of architectural discourse for almost half a century, as architecture attempts to define itself.In many respects architecture has always been guided and informed by tradition. It situates itself in an ever-widening divide between a reverence for the past and an uncertain future composed of trends and ‘isms’. Since the appearance of a breadth of critiques of ‘modern’ architecture’s failings in the 1960s, architecture as a discipline, has sought to re-invent itself, to recompose the tangled threads of humanism and to weave a pattern of ideas that will eventually become the fabric of a discipline. Historically, architecture has always been what is often an ad hoc set of borrowings from a range of other disciplines. Architecture continues to be a discipline in search of a supporting body of knowledge through which to order itself. 3

Within most contemporary western societies there has been a radical shift, epitomised by the digital-media/information age, towards an appreciation of an emerging globalism. While there is much to be questioned concerning the politics of globalism, it is perhaps sufficient to acknowledge its impact on architectural design. Culture has become virtually synonymous with ‘design’ and in popular terms with a ‘western lifestyle’ and language of values it promotes. But, with the emergence of each generation of architects and designers we are forced to critically understand both the content of cultural communication and how it is communicated. It is precisely a working definition, a methodology, or a process of interpretation, that begins to orchestrate every architectural concept that must be critically understood as a dynamic part of the design problem itself. If architecture and design as it’s medium of creativity is directed to satisfy Vitruvius’s three edicts, translated by Sir 4

Henry Wotton (1624) as: firmness, commodity and delight, then it is the ‘art of delight’ that needs to be studied as a process of communication. Ambiguous and open ended as it is; a critical exploration of culture is nevertheless the raison d’etre of design and the locus of where architecture is ‘meaningful’. To focus on particular aspects of narrative, a number of generally accepted disciplinary assumptions have been built upon. Architectural issues perhaps begin and end with the city. Rowe examines in Collage City (1983) what in appearance seems to be an 5

randomly stitched patch-work fabric of diversity that raises the central issue of 'context' as a generator of architectural responses. Additionally, it begins with the

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� Venturi, R. (1977). Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture3� Vitruvius, M (15 BC). Da Architectura published as Ten Books on Architecture4� Rowe, C., & Koetter, F. (1983). Collage City5

assumption that buildings can be considered as relatively closed sets of attributes, developed through relationships at a variety of levels and perceived and understood through the experience of their space. Against this background it establishes the pervasiveness of 'narrative' as a social vehicle to define and communicate perception. The expanding framework of the ‘cultural’ is becoming so broad and complex it is also at risk of an equally reductive relativism. Yet for the architect attempting to assess the interaction of space, context, and activity as constructed ‘by design’ then the contemporary museum will prove itself to be an unparalleled comparative model or ‘how to’ resource in understanding design as a structured narrative. Here buildings are seen as sets of conceptual properties and perceptual experience. Psarra (2009) interprets this as “sequences of spaces accessible by the senses and as frameworks connecting these sequences into larger conceptual system” , meaning that,6

"Architecture is brought into this process as a model of structural similarity highlighting the relationship between things we access gradually through our perceptions and their organization into graspable wholes." 7

Significantly, from both designer’s and a viewer’s perspective ‘architecture’ is a field of inquiry rather than a prescribed set of knowledge. Within this paradigm, design as an activity is about capturing the tentative: exploring ‘the possible’, as meaning becomes more permeable and to a degree subjective. With an emphasis on interpreting information rather than on final or agreed references, viable design parameters are found in Tschumi’s fascination with the idea of a ‘program’, a structuring set of relationships creating an ‘operational context’. Significantly, it is argued that Tschumi’s architecture achieves something beyond formal architectonic arrangements, by layering cultural references and complexities, similar to what Robert Venturi’s describes in Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture . This is 8

an important achievement in the way design may colour the space of activity and understanding.!

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� Page 104 Psarra, S. (2009). Architecture and Narrative : The Formation of Space and Cultural 6

Meaning (1 ed.)� Ibid, page 1077

� Venturi, R. (1977). Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture8

1.2.2 Relevance Of Narrative Why is narrative an important discourse in relation to architecture? Roland Barthes states,

“…under this almost infinite diversity of forms, narrative is present in every age, in every place in every society; it begins with the very history of mankind and there nowhere is, nor has been, a people without narrative.” 9

Thus expresses narrative could be identified as a constant; a part of humanity and by extension inextricable from architecture. Mark Rakatansky argues,

“Architecture is permeated with narratives because it is constituted within a field of discourses and economies (formal, psychological and ideological), to any one aspect of which it cannot be reduced, from any one of which cannot be removed.” 10

The eminent philosopher Bertrand Russell captures the potential of narrative to 'evoke' and qualifying Borges’ visionary association of the endless library of the mind, and analogously the discourse between architecture and narrative; “While it liberates imagination as to what the world may be, it refuses to legislate as to what the world is.” Thus narrative in the scope of this paper identifies the relationship 11

between architecture and its user, understanding how space is created to influence and shape cultural meaning. It is an architectural concept that confronts human experience with what could be. !1.2.3 Relevance of Museums Narrative within the museum carries the potential to speak to the experience of the everyday and our sense of self by bringing a controlled focus to the significance of time and the event. Museums have evolved from being containers of art, artefacts and catalogued antiquities putting forward a particular ‘official’ discourse or doctrine, to adopting new roles grounded in the analysis of body & site; identity & community, morality, politics and ethics. With contemporary museums often becoming significant and high profile objects, they are also able to seduce and influence the visitor through the weight of being cultural icons themselves. Iconic museums presently challenge traditional assumptions of a relative objectivity towards the content displayed inside, creating a somewhat tense relationship between container and content. While Curatorial vision need not not align itself with the image of the museum itself; neither does the sense of the architecture need to be neutral or detached from its context. Tschumi’s Acropolis Museum was not designed to be an ‘icon’, yet neither is it an anti-Bilbao” as the architect described 12

it, but more importantly a critique and commentary of its Athenian context.!

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� Barthes, R., & Lionel, D. (1975). An Introduction to the Structural Analysis of Narrative. New 9

Literary History, 6(2), 237-272.� Rakatansky, M. (1992). Spatial Narratives. In J. Whiteman, J. Kinpnis & R. Burdett (Eds.), 10

Strategies in Architectural Thinking (pp. 201-221).� Russell, B. (1914). Our Knowledge of the External World11� Dimitris Rigopoulos. “Acropolis museum to be anti-Bilbao.” (February 26, 2002).12

!1.2.4 Relevance Of Bernard Tschumi Since his formative early work at the AA Bernard Tschumi, has set out and developed a number of significant ideas in architectural theory and practice. Tschumi has been selected as a 'test case' because he is both a significant writer and emerging practitioner through which he elaborates and tests his ideas. While Tschumi would resist any effort toward classification of his work, the case is made that there is a narrative orientation that has underpinned much of it. In this respect, Tschumi's practice and projects as a continuum appear like consecutive chapters in a larger story that is unfolding, updating and exploring alternatives. Tschumi's focus on the relationship between building and user becomes the inspiration and catalyst for ‘events’, which in turn is what makes him so relevant to a study of narrative.!!

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1.3 Research Questions, Aims and Objectives

!1.3.1 Research Questions It is through the exploration of narrative and the exhibition space within the new Acropolis Museum that we begin to unfold the relationship between architecture, social context and cultural meaning. This raises the following questions; How is a narrative conveyed through spatial relationships in architecture? how does narrative underpin much of Bernard Tschumi's theoretical writing and projects? And, how does Tschumi's ‘narrative language’ as an applied approach become a practical reality within the Acropolis Museum? By exploring and discussing the concept of constructed ‘events’, as both narrative and architecture, A Design Narrative explores how narrative can influence the conceptualisation of architecture to create new phenotypes.!1.3.2 Aims In a broad sense the aim of this research is to recognise how a narrative orientation constructs and communicates buildings as sets of conceptual properties and perceptual experiences. This research aims to analyse ‘narrative’ as a potential common language within architectural design, with the power to unite experiences, integrating objects and space, through a ‘narrative environment’. It endeavours to explore the power of stories as structured experiences unfolding in space and time, and to critically assess the potential for exhibitions to act as integrated multi-dimensional narrative environments in ‘moving’ the viewer.!1.3.3 Objectives Based on the proposition that the contemporary museum and its historical evolution represents a clear progression of architectural thinking. The museum then becomes a test case through which we can assess and discuss both theory and practice. Given this assumption and the idea that museums are by nature cultural narratives, can narrative also be a fundamental framework for structuring a design problem? This raises the following objectives:

1. Discuss the broader notions of narrative from literature to architecture.

2. Discuss special syntax in relation to narrative structure.

3. Discuss Bernard Tschumi’s theories and how they engage with issues of narrative.

4. Discuss the acropolis museum as a culmination of Tschumi’s theoretical and practical work as a narrative piece of architecture.

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!1.4 Research Gap: The Case Study - The New Acropolis Museum 2009

In Tschumi's earlier seminal essays within Architecture and Disjunction, he identifies with Borgesian narratives because similar to sequential notions of perception through language, buildings are experienced gradually through movement. Tschumi is fond of saying, “That the future of architecture lies in the construction of 'events'." This paper will explore this proposition further to consider how 'events' 13

become social constructions of knowledge.A large body of research and publications exists separately on Tschumi’s architecture/theory and narrative architecture, but it is in identifying Tschumi’s design theory as narrative architecture and ultimately describing it as a design method, that this paper finds it research gap. Identifying in Tschumi’s work how a design process centred on context, program and event, becomes a vehicle to translate design issues into human experiences, and thus a potential for communicating knowledge in the case study of the Acropolis Museum. In defining the research gap it is important to understand how the idea of 'narrative' becomes a lens to examine and a catalyst to expand rather than a filter to limit.!1.5 Description of subsequent chapters !Chapter 2 - Literature Review

This chapter positions A Design Narrative within various contexts appropriate to the field of architectural research. The field of architecture and narrative is considered from potential disciplinary influences: from the historical thread of literature structuralist anthropology philosophy (phenomenology) and spatial syntax. Additionally, the field of museology must be examined for its links to narrative architecture and the case study. The museum has become as important architecturally as it is for the art it contains, because museums are about cultural communication and hence a model for architecture as a cultural activity.!Chapter 3 - Research MethodologyThe research method of the paper is established within this chapter. A framework for narrative architecture and museum architecture is established through a critical analysis of the aforementioned subjects. The outline of these ideas provides an interpretive framework through which to consider the narrative significance of Tschumi’s architectural theories and project commentaries.!Chapter 4 - Main DiscussionThis chapter is split into a two part discussion; first, it chart the evolution and background influences of Bernard Tschumi's theoretical writings with a view to appreciating their relevance in assessing a narrative capacity within architectural design method. And secondly, by evaluating how these ideas contributed to a

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� Page 256 of Tschumi, B. (1996). Architecture and Disjunction13

narrative discourse within the new Acropolis Museum, that distinguishes it as a museum phenotype.!Chapter 5 - Conclusion

“Each Society expects architecture to reflect its ideals and domesticate its deeper fears.” 14

Tentative conclusions are proposed on the basis of the discussion that qualifies many of the orthodox assumptions concerning how contemporary museum communicate. The philosophical and architectural realities of the case study are evaluated, in the presence of narrative architecture and Tschumi’s own writings. It suggests that the assumptions about architectural building types are too narrow as description based and insufficiently critical in assessing meaning through conceptualising structures. !!

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! Page 72 of Tschumi, B. (1996). Architecture and Disjunction14

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW !2.1 Introduction to Literature Review There are three primary texts used in this research to understand narrative architecture as a design theory and method within the New Acropolis Museum are: Tschumi’s Architecture and Disjunction (1996), The New Acropolis Museum (2009) and Psarra’s Architecture and Narrative (2009). With supporting texts on spatial syntax and narrative museum explorations.!2.2 Questioning the Modernist Idiom In Robert Venturi’s Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture (1977) we find a seminal starting point in appreciating what architecture needs to achieve in reflecting upon the paradoxes of contemporary society if architecture is to ultimately convey meaning. Venturi describes his small volume as “self-conscious”, part criticism and part polemic, a “gentle manifesto” and importantly written from the point of view of a practicing architect speaking about his work at that time. He begins his argument with: “I like complexity and contradiction in architecture” . In 15

this vane he goes to some length to outline many of the qualities that we now take for granted in a forest of theoretical pillars whose plurality continues to evade a unified theory of architecture. Towards this larger philosophical ideal Venturi writes,

“But an architecture of complexity and contradiction has a special obligation towards the whole: its truth must be in its totality or its implications of a totality. It must embody the difficult unity of inclusion rather than the easy unity of exclusion. More is not less.” 16

Venturi saw architecture as creating the conditions through which perception and contextual understanding move satisfyingly towards greater complexity and greater 'irony'. Venturi quotes August Heckscher ,17

“…equilibrium must be created out of opposites... A feeling for paradox allows seemingly dissimilar things to exist side by side, their very incongruity suggesting a kind of truth”. 18

Venturi's translates these intellectual roots into; “….a calculated ambiguity of expression is based on the confusion of experience as reflected in the architectural program. This promotes richness of meaning over clarity of meaning.” 19

The issues posed by Venturi’s essay are in many ways a challenge to rethink how architecture ‘operates’ and offers a preface to a broader theory of architecture. It is clear that Venturi appreciates the persuasive richness of architecture over the picturesque that appeases the eye alone. A cultural shift occurred during the 1960’s

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� Page 16 of Venturi, R. (1977). Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture15

� Ibid.16

� Heckscher, A. (1962). The public happiness: Atheneum. Heckscher 1848 - 1941, Immigrated 17

from Germany to the United States in 1867 and was a capitalist and philanthropist.� Page 16 of Venturi, R. (1977). Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture18

� Ibid, page 2019

where architecture found itself looking towards other disciplines from which to borrow and superimpose ideas from art and literature into its own conceptual thinking. Architecture was looking to re-invent itself and distance itself from the 20

modernist failings of the last 50 years. Smith notes, “The unfolding of events in a literary context inevitably suggested parallels to the unfolding of events in architecture” . For Tschumi this abstraction between words, spaces and events 21

began a discourse into a narrative exploration in which texts provided programs or events to develop architectural works.

Tschumi’s earlier architectural examinations in Architecture and Disjunction, of the conceived, perceived and experienced notions of architecture, form the basis for a design strategy and a narrative discourse. In The Architectural Paradox (1975), Tschumi recognises the disjunction between the major oppositions of ‘conceptual’ and ‘perceptual’ facets of architecture and describes,

“On the one hand, architecture as a thing of the mind, a dematerialized or conceptual discipline with its typological and morphological variations, and on the other, architecture as an empirical event that concentrates on the senses, on the experience of space” 22

In Spaces and Events (1983); Tschumi puts forward that the unfolding of events in a literary environment incontrovertibly suggesting parallels to the unfolding of events within architecture. Sequences (1983), depicts the various ways we may move through space in both a physical and psychological realm, and the various ways it may be manipulated. Additionally, essays such as Violence of Architecture (1982), The Pleasure of Architecture (1977) and Disjunctions (1987) can all be interpreted as positioning architecture with an underlying narrative. Tschumi in the 1970s at the time of writing these essays was influenced by ‘Situationist International’ and expanded on the works of such thinkers as; Jorge Luis Borges, and his use of architecture as a model for the theoretical ideas within his fictions. In reading these and other similar ‘questions on the nature of space’ it is interesting to note that lingering in the background of Tschumi’s ideas are the skeletal remnants of structuralism. Certainly Tschumi is wary of any notion of determinism and particularly when it concerns so complex an idea as culture yet he remains fascinated by how there could be a structure that informs the logic of thought/decision making at the simplest level of social perception/experience/communication as the above passages confirm. Making a wider reading of; Georges Bataille’s 'economy' of the pyramid and the labyrinth, Roland Barthes and Structuralism, Michel Foucault and Post-Structuralism, contributing factors to a contextual reading of Tschumi.!2.3 Narrative Discourse Narrative as an architectural concept has sparked many and varied responses and interpretations from diverse fields of research. A concern with the term ‘narrative’, is its varied definitions, which adds much complexity. The word itself can be used as

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! Smith, K. (2013). Introducing Architectural Theory: Debating a Discipline. From Chapter 5 20

‘Function and Form’, Smith reflects on excerpts from Architecture and Disjunction (1996).! Ibid.21


an adjective to narrate, or it can be used as a substantive of ‘story’ or ‘plot’. Genette notes that “one will define narrative without difficulty as the representation of an event or sequence of events.” Monika Fludernik for instance questions that 23

narrative isn’t simply a sequence of actions or events, but rather defines it as the “communication of anthropocentric experience - the experientiality which is inherent in human experience and feelings, and depiction perceptions and reflections.” 24

Similarly Barthes links narrative as part of the human condition, “Indeed narrative starts with the very history of mankind; there has never been anywhere, any people without narrative.” 25

In post war Europe and rising to prominence in the 1970s was the idea of pan cultural systems seen as fundamental reservoirs to thought and expression. This was commonly argued and largely accepted through comparative linguistic analysis (Saussure amongst others) which was applied to social order in anthropology by Levi-Strauss and also to literary themes by Roland Barthes as narrative structures. With ‘reasoning’ acting as a common thread of structural dynamics: a binary logic based on classification systems that would establish a strong basis for pan cultural thinking through archetypes. There was also considerable debate upon the nature of ‘archetypes’, on the literary application of structuralist ideas between Barthes and Derrida as well as Foucault. These latter figures in particular were important to cultural narratives that included architecture. While it is not important that the whole of structuralist theory is pivotal to the uses of narrative in particular or cultural assessment in general it is useful to consider its influence, even passively within the role of ‘reason and logic’ in design thinking, which is frequently though obliquely referenced in the writings of Bernard Tschumi.In the late 1980s and early 1990s Nigel Coates was at the forefront of introducing a narrative theory and practice into architectural works. In the pursuit of architectural meaning, Coates (2012) frames an architecture that takes account of the human experience, with narrative working in parallel to the basic architectural language to add depth and meaning.

“On the one hand the physical nature of architecture makes it comparable to the physical object of a book, which sits between the author and the reader. On the other hand buildings can be invested with narrative content by the architect in ways that are only possible through the medium of space. Having both substance and void, content and relations, space is a medium ready to soak up associative meaning” 26

Hence, there is a potential for architectural space to manifest as the ultimate medium in opening a narrative discourse with its reader. Narration shapes and simplifies events into a sequence that can stimulate the imagination. Coates additionally comments “…a narrative approach to architecture suggests a familiar dialogue between the physical and the phenomenal, and discovering how each can

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! Genette, G. (1982). Frontiers of Narrative Figures of literary discourse: (pp. 126-144).23

! Page 59 of Fludernik, M. (2012). An Introduction to Narratology (1 ed.)24

! Page 237 of Barthes, R., & Lionel, D. (1975). An Introduction to the Structural Analysis of 25

Narrative. New Literary History, 6(2), 237-272.! Page 31 of Coates, N. (2012). Narrative Architecture26

be found in the other.” This intrinsic phenomenological relationship described by 27

Coates was earlier explored by Claude Lévi-Strauss. The Savage Mind (1966) is an exploration of structuralism as an approach to analyse culture and society, through its manifestations of everything, from ritual to domestic life. In response to Jean Paul Sartre , Levi-Strauss elaborates on how the mind conceptualises its external 28

environment. Levi-Strauss wrote to clarify the relationship between ‘analytical reason’ and ‘dialectical reason’ which he argued were confused in Sartre’s Marxist’s view of history contained in his Critique de la Raison Dialectique (1960) claiming history as being the ultimate narrative of human experience . Levi-Strauss uses the 29

two types of reasoning to describe how humanity both discovers and assesses the world around them to construct a ‘known’ (or knowable) reality. Merleau-Pont’s 30

work develops the idea that knowledge evolves from the interaction of the physical body with the space that surrounds it. The space of experience is essentially a 'narrative' in its description of our how space impacts upon human behaviour. At this level the space of experience is essentially social in nature as a background to all human interaction.Tschumi's design for Parc de la Villette (1983-98) made the connection between structuralism and design theory by arguing that designers should deconstruct modernist dogma such as 'form follows function' and use its obverse 'function follows form'. Although 'deconstructed', this shows a formative sensitivity on the part of Tschumi to a structuralist perspective of social relationships as a medium of communication. !2.4 Framing Tschumi & Psarra In the early 1980s narrative was used to describe a set of architectural values, which placed the activities surrounding a building in a higher position than the building itself, holding the ‘event’, as Bernard Tschumi called it, to the highest esteem of the architectural object. Among the realm of architectural theorist Bernard Tschumi was the first to identify that there was, a ‘disjunction’ between the conceptual and perceptual facets of architecture. The conceived and perceived notions of space are often cast in architectural theory as a powerful opposition. In Tschumi’s early studies such as The Manhattan Transcripts (1994) he drew parallels between a sequence of events in space and the physical conditions of the city. In linking ‘stories’ such as a soccer game or a murder mystery, Tschumi produced a series of theoretical drawings, which explored the dynamic relationship between the physical form of architecture and what happened in it. In a broader sense the Transcripts are a narrative critique of architecture as an institution of limits to be transgressed, not of forms to be examined. They propose a fiction but are not ‘behaviourist’ in orientation. They on the contrary depart from the relative innocence of a user as merely an ‘observer’, to who one who begins their own narrative, as Tschumi explains, "the place your body inhabits is inscribed in your imagination, your

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! Ibid, page 3427! Sartre, J. P. (1960). Critique of Dialectical Reason28

! Ibid.29

! Merleau-Ponty, M., & Lefort, C. (1968). The Visible and the Invisible30

unconscious, as a space of possible bliss. Or menace” Tschumi continues to 31

explain that ‘events’ are about “social and symbolic connotations” or “programmatic sequences’ that combine “the presentation of an event with its progressive spatial 32

interpretation” . It is from this reading that Psarra presupposes an “implied 33

narrative exists” in Tschumi’s work. Through his framework she positions the 34

following key question in defining a design process, "How can we describe the interface between the conceptual strategies, perceptual experience and cultural meaning?" 35

In Psarra’s Architecture and Narrative, we begin exploring the space of the intellect in contrast with the space we occupy with our body and explore with our senses. An exhibition is a narrative unfolding in space and time and, as a medium it distinguishes itself form other narrative formats in as far as the visitor is physically moving.

"When architects refer to design they cast it as a mental activity that is concerned with arranging forms, spaces, programme and materials. When they speak about a building they often describe it as narrative invoking a hypothetical viewer and a journey through space. Thus while design is portrayed as an activity of the mind, a building is seen as something to be experienced. This experience follows a route and unfolds in time. For some architects spatial narrative is central not only to the way in which they describe buildings but also to way in which they design." 36

Here Psarra's seminal thinking examines architecture's importance as a platform for conceptual, social and spatial narratives. Psarra explores how ones relationship with space is determined through its organisation and arrangement. That architecture is the ‘thinking mind’ behind our cultural perception of space. !2.5 Understanding Museums & Knowledge of the Case Study In considering the potential for narrative to create an embodied architectural experience and how stories are told within it, the analysis would follow a similar method as Macleod outlines in Museum Making (2012) where narrative forms, “a mechanism for the creation of engaging and meaningful interpretive environments” . She analyses in depth the museums ability to utilise narrative 37

ingrained in the spatial character of the building to “connect on the deepest levels with human perception and imagination” . Herman Kossmann in Narrative Spaces: 38

On The Art Of Exhibiting (2012) establishes a comprehensive theoretical, practical and cultural-historical framework, in defining the conceptual tools to probe the dynamics of exhibitions as narrative spaces. The encounter of architecture and

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! Ibid, page 15432

! Ibid, page 16333! Page 4 of Psarra, S. (2009). Architecture and Narrative: The Formation of Space and Cultural 34

Meaning (1 ed.)! Ibid, page 21535

! Ibid, page 6736

! Page 1 of Macleod, S., Hanks, L. H., & Hale, J. (Eds.). (2012). Museum Making: Narrative, 37

Architectures, Exhibitions.! Ibid.38

narrative is studied here in museums, galleries and cultural buildings, examining how the arrangement of space relates to the arrangement of objects and the design of exhibitions. Exhibition narratives are different from other narratives in that they are constructed by the interpretation of a collection of artefacts. Meaning that objects are categorised and displayed in a space that accords to either an aesthetic principle or a conceptual underlying framework that aids in ordering knowledge in a particular field. While narratives in other media platforms are founded on the representations of time and space, museum narratives are organised depending on the ways in which the artefacts are positioned in space. Objects are then seen for their individual importance, while a cumulative design of the exhibition holds the potential to convey additional meanings for each piece owing to its spatial and visual interrelationships with others. Given these characteristics, museum narratives can illuminate the ways in which the conceptual and perceptual characteristics relate to the mechanisms governing the display. Additionally, the analysis of museums can explain how the organising principles of space and the collection relate to the exploration patterns of visitors and, therefore, how these buildings become sites for differing and subjective narratives. !2.6 Spatial Syntax

Hillier's Space Is the Machine (1998); is an analytical framework for studying how designs interface the conceptual with the perceptual in establishing social meaning. As a two-part study: Firstly observing geometric properties independent from the situated observer, such as symmetry, rhythm, alignment, congruence, or repetition. Second, it examines buildings as perceptual fields and explores configurational properties that can be discovered through the in situ experience. Similarly Psarra, in Architecture and Narrative, (after Hillier et al.) states that “narrative enters architecture through the ways in which space is structured to achieve specific effects on our perception.” She posits that the study of ordering and positioning of 39

spaces, social relationships and cultural content is of primary framework to how buildings are shaped, used and perceived. Kali Tzortzi’s paper, Space: Interconnecting Museology and Architecture (2011) is a comparative study of museums (between Pompidou, Tate Modern and Acropolis museum), which much like Hillier and Psarra, analyses spatial syntax and the creation of narratives that respond to the user. This is through either direct or indirect choices where perceptions are either highly structure or allow for a considerable variation in experience.!!!!!!

!!19

! Back cover descriptive comments of Psarra, S. (2009). Architecture and Narrative: The 39

Formation of Space and Cultural Meaning (1 ed.)

2.7 Conclusion to Literature Review As defined above the term narrative in the scope of this paper explores the relationship between architecture and its user, understanding how space is created to influence and shape cultural meaning. Architecture carries meaning through the arrangement of space, materials, objects and cultural relationships with which it is invested. Underpinned by agencies and systems of thought that are involved in its production, narrative architecture becomes a concept that prioritises human experience.!!

!!20

CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY !3.1 Overview Of Methodology In identifying Tschumi's design method and observing a narrative framework between the perceptual and conceptual aspects of architecture, this paper will use a interpretive-historical research method. Defined by Groat & Wang (2002) as the "Investigations into social–physical phenomena within complex contexts, with a view toward explaining those phenomena in a narrative form and in a holistic fashion." The research seeks to collect and evaluate as much supporting evidence 40

as possible in providing a logical argumentation and credible interpretation.Primary sources for this research analysis are derived from Tschumi’s essays in Architecture and Disjunction and the documentation of his New Acropolis Museum. By surveying Tschumi’s texts in Architecture and Disjunction and analysing a range of relevant interpretations of these texts, a response to questions raised by defining an architecture as having narrative sensitivities can be proposed. Additionally, by applying the spatial analysis of Sophia Psarra’s Space Syntax (after Hillier), which examines the way in which space is structured by interpreting the viewers movements and sight views as they interact with space, circulation and display, the case study's (Acropolis Museum) narrative qualities can be critically evaluated. (See also additional note 20, page 46)The case study aspect is proposed to be in keeping with Groat and Wang’s (Groat & Wang, 2002) assertions in “studying a case in relation of the complex dynamics with which it intersects” . Through the use of historical sources and various interpretive 41

and theoretical responses to ‘narrative design’, A Design Narrative will provide a comprehensive overview of a “multitude of contextual factors and phenomena” , 42

thus fulfilling the requirements for an architectural case study. By compiling information from a variety of sources with differing views it is believed that they will strengthen the argument of architecture as narrative by presenting differing perspectives in which the chosen works can be critically and comparatively assessed.!3.2 Analysing Space: Spatial Syntax Narrative as a ‘design structure’ used by Tschumi and analysed by Psarra, is quite a specific interpretation of ‘narrative’ and needs to be carefully explained and explored so that it becomes an approach and method rather than just a passive description. As a methodology, it is pro-active and based on the dialogue between designer and user. This is conducted by analysing the exhibition space in two directions:

Firstly: in the abstract space of conceptual ideas and structuring organisations.Secondly: in the visual relations that describe the viewer's experience of actual space relations.!!

!!21

! Page 136 of Groat, L., & Wang, D. (2002). Architectural Research Methods40

! Page 347 Ibid.41

! Ibid42

3.3 Analysing Space: Tschumi To achieve this, a careful review of Tschumi's terms of reference; context, program and event provide an evaluative framework to structure analysis, and position his theoretical approach to ‘conceptualising structure’ and thus a practical methodology. Tschumi’s approach to a logic of architecture translates the conceptual to the figurative, but unlike the idealism of the past that positioned architecture as a ‘solution’, Tschumi looks at disjunctions as signifiers and moves them from the background of ‘process’ to the foreground, as mediums of communication. Architecture then does not solve cultural issues it represents them, and more pro-actively communicates them as a ‘reality’ within the built environment. The most obvious example is Tschumi’s use of ‘superimposition’ which reflects a conceptualising process of assembling and expressing attributes as ‘overlays’ as a logic of association and comparative disjunction. !3.4 Limitations It can be noted that by adopting ‘narrative’ as an analytical lens through which to examine architecture, this dissertation excludes other, possibly opposing, theories on describing architectural design qualities. Although attempting to introduce a narrative discourse as being fundamental to a variety of architectural typologies, it is acknowledged that by exploring these issues within a singular case study, it somewhat limits the conclusions drawn to that architectural typology (museums). References to several of Tschumi essays and built works are made, but only the Acropolis Museum is explored in detail, thus conclusions derived from this paper can not be adopted as a generalised condition for all his works.!

!!22

CHAPTER 4 MAIN DISCUSSION

Part 1: Tschumi’s Approach to Narrative

!4.1 Introduction To Discussion A key aspect of this research is to consider the argument that narrative is a structuring part of the design process. The following discussion will consider some of the influences for a narrative case. While it is beyond the scope of this paper it is suggested that narrative, and a structuring logic that guides it, are central to cultural communication and hence it’s relevance to architecture. Robert Venturi’s seminal critique of modern architecture is itself a challenge to the processes of creativity or the nature of conceptual thinking. Typically, a critical examination of conceptual 43

thinking and its part in the design process is too frequently absent from the discipline’s review of significant projects. Instead as Tschumi critically comments, the aesthetics of image predominate. Guiding this research, and used as a project test case is the work of Bernard Tschumi. The other areas cited and contributing to this paper have all played a role in the evolution of Tschumi’s writing. It is not the intention of this paper to apply a particular label to his work but rather to establish its relevance to architectural design through its narrative qualities. Significantly Tschumi’s approach to narrative uniquely addresses how design develops a structure of questioning as a bridge between the conceptual and the experiential.!!4.1.2 The StructurIng Logic Of Narratives At the risk of over simplification, ‘structural logic’ represents complex processes, not just a medium we can isolate or control, but rather a process that informs our reasoning, our thinking itself. What is relevant to the design process is how an interplay of 'reasoning’ is able to create a poetry of experience; a poetic quality that is often characterised as ‘delight’ or serendipity in architecture. While this quality is often only alluded to as Christopher Alexander’s 'quality without a name' it is 44

proposed that it has more tangible aspects within the design process. Reasoning should be at the heart of solving any design problem in an architectural discourse. Contemporary designs are qualified and defended by ‘good reasons’ emphasising their rationality. But for Tschumi the use of structural logic in design thinking, is more about questioning a design solution, rather than establishing an argument for the appropriateness of a single solution. On reasoning Levi Strauss writes;

"In my view dialectical reason is always constitutive; it is the bridge, forever extended and improved, which analytical reason throws out over the abyss; it is unable to see the further shore but it knows that it is there, even should it be constantly receding." (Additionally see note 01 page 41)45

Similarly for Tschumi, there is a tension between the two types of reasoning that begins in speculation (design concept) and concludes in conjecture (project). In

!!23

! Illeris, K. (2008). Contemporary Theories of Learning: Learning Theorists... In Their Own Words43

! Alexander, C. (1979). The Timeless Way of Building44

! Page 246 of Lévi-Strauss, C. (1966). The Savage Mind45

Tschumi’s view these are the circumstances that circumscribe the pivotal moment when an observer moves from the acknowledgement of an idea to feeling it as an experience. As will be discussed in greater detail below this is the quality of an ‘event’ based upon a constructed disjunction between conceptual perceptions and their conscious/subconscious recognition as meaningful experiences, whether in the realm of the ordinary or the symbolic. In reference to the Acropolis museum, this translates to the dialogue between the sacred and the profane, between the Acropolis and the Makriyianni site excavations. 46

Tschumi is interested in illuminating the potential instability that is a condition of knowledge through design. It is an instability or perhaps ambiguity that arises as human thought through the tools of language reflect upon relationships, real and projected within the context of experience.In the essay Questions of Space Tschumi writes,

“1.31 If the structure of the mind imposes an a priori form (that precedes all experience) to the perception of the external world, is space such a form?”

And later in the same essay he queries,“3.3 (for linguists only) if space is just a thing, a) Does it determine thought and language; b) Together with thought, is it determined by language; c) Together with language, is it determined by thought?” 47

Clearly Tschumi appreciates the complexity of the interconnected nature of these abstract questions, though he is far from clear or willing to define the ‘specifics’. This holds the significance of the questions to a higher esteem than a definitive answer. Alternatively, Architecture as a discipline has too frequently sought rational answers at the expense of the question's conceptual significance, reducing discourse to tangible qualities of objects that occupy space- a play of material aesthetics rather than ideas. The character of space as typically perceived through the object within visual relationships is unquestionably significant yet variable in its nature. Norberg-Schulz describes,

“Character is at the same time a more general and a more concrete concept than 'space'. On the one hand it denotes a general comprehensive atmosphere, and on the other the concrete form and substance of space defining elements… Any real presence is intimately linked with a character. A phenomenology of character has to comprise a survey of their manifest character as well as an investigation of their concrete determinants. 48

In contrast to Norberg-Schulz, though without denying character, Tschumi is looking beyond descriptive attributes that would appeal to aesthetics. Instead qualifying space through the relations that structure it. He attempts to focus his attention on the experience of space as it would be cognitively mapped in a way that affords the observer a knowledge of the conditions of space that are constructed through visual orientation. In this way space is more complex and becomes the medium through which cultural experience is communicated. Thus, how space is structured is

!!24

! The uncovered ruins depicting the life of the everyday citizen below the museum46

! Page 61 of Tschumi, B. (1996). Architecture and disjunction47

! Page 14 of Norberg-Schulz, C. (1980). Genius loci: towards a phenomenology of architecture48

fundamental to how choice (and by extension experience) is manipulated by design in reading the environment.

In his essay The Architectural Paradox (1975) he writes: “The concept of space is not a space”: here Tschumi begins by establishing a distinction between space as the object of knowledge and actually existing space. Using Georges Bataille’s concept of the pyramid and the labyrinth, Tschumi establishes two reciprocal architectural ideas; the pyramid of ‘concepts’ and the labyrinth of ‘experience’, that simultaneously occur in architecture. The paradox arises from, “the impossibility of 49

both questioning the nature of space and at the same time, experiencing a spatial praxis." Architecture, being both conceptual and perceptual, in its very nature is 50

both pyramid and labyrinth, that is its paradox. He offers that the only way to unite "conceived" and "perceived" spaces was through discovering architecture's eroticism, or to reach a point where ones subjective experience of the space in turn becomes its very concept. The disciplinary implications of the paradox were a rhetorical dramatisation for the introduction of the third term of architecture: "experienced space". For Tschumi, situated at the limits of conceptual and performance art, 'experienced space' was a concept similar to Bataille's notion of a ‘deep interior experience’. 51

In Violence of Architecture (1982), Tschumi opens by stating; “There is no architecture without action, no architecture without events, no architecture without program.” Tschumi’s violence is not some brutal act, but rather attempts to define 52

a heightened relationship between the individual and their surrounding space. By staging a battle between man and space Tschumi observes the way these opposing two camps affect each other. On the one side ‘bodies violating space’ sees us ‘intruding’ upon very controlled architectural environments. This constant act of bodies moving about space sets up a relationship of 'intercourse' between space and its user. If we are to state that ‘bodies disturb the purity of space’ can the same be said for space intruding upon the visitor. Each one of us has a set of subconscious systems for interpreting space and with it we tend to emotionally react to varying spatial constructs. Tschumi critically works with space at the level of perceptions and associated emotions rather than abstract rationality. In fact architecture itself is given an anthropomorphic quality, “Architecture is the only organism engaged in constant intercourse with users, whose bodies rush against the carefully established rules of architectural thought.” Tschumi goes on to state 53

that, "the architect designs the set, writes the script, and directs the actors" , but 54

ultimately there exists a subtle relationship of reciprocity where the actor injects his/her own independence. The architect’s compositions may be challenged by the user and/or challenge the user. This is where a pragmatic ‘violence’ exists between events (users and actions) and architecture (space and programs). At the same time Tschumi argues in The Pleasure of Architecture (1977) that the context of experience is one in which the subject moves between the experiential (sensual) and the

!!25

! Hays, K. M. (2000). Architecture Theory Since 196849

! Bernard Tschumi, The Architectural Paradox: Studio International, Sept.-Oct. 197550

! Page 29 of Mandler, M. (2008). Body. Architecture. Narrative51


! Ibid, page 12353

! Ibid, page 12854

intellectual, between known relationships and abstraction. It is a specific appeal to a recognition of bodily experience as the basis of our perception and understanding of the external environment. (For additional see note 02 on page 41)!!4.1.3 Tschumi’s Narrative Triptych: Context, Programme and Event In the aforementioned essays, Tschumi establishes a framework of ideas that have been fundamental in informing his successive writings and architectural projects in a reciprocal dialogue between theory and practice . In his writings, Tschumi clearly 55

defines two principle areas of questioning, ‘context’ and ‘programme’, which explore and critically question a means of gaining insight into existing and anticipated relationships. Within the design process and particularly the early stages of conceptualisation both areas invite speculation through which to interpret and frame significances. On the basis of a questioning of the normative qualities Tschumi sees architecture’s role through design, not as one of traditional accommodation, but rather the invention of strategies through which both context and programme reveal the potential for new meaning. (See also additional note 12 on framing, page 44)As a process Tschumi envisions that through understanding the disjunctions within relations of context and programme a concept will evolve within a logic of those relations to reconfigure them; to create the ‘event’ that is architecture. The relationships that emerge from imposing a programme on a particular context develop to be more than a building type, but a particular expression within a morphology of that type. These variations that question the normative assumption and which are effectively conceptualisations, he terms ‘codes of assemblage’. This through a design process, become a project narrative of actual physical relations that are the subject of user perceptions. A ‘code of assemblage’ would then be, in the light of the above discussions, a structured narrative, that is its own critique of contextual meaning set against a programmed use that directs perception. The project narrative then becomes a push-pull of connected ideas whose interaction through relationships has the ‘totalising’ effect of an ‘event’ in shaping experience. (See note 5 for additional, page 43)!!4.1.4 A ‘Mise En Scène’ Approach to ‘Narrating Programme’ To appreciate Tschumi’s view of how a building becomes its own critique; that is, an evolving knowledge developed from a set of constructed relationships arising from the context and programme, it is important to recognise that the set of relationships is neither static nor pre-determined, but rather a dynamic and changing reciprocity. This reciprocity between user and building at its most confrontational, approaches the conditions of performance as it unfolds primarily through movement and stages of perception. Movement within Tschumi’s writings and more recently his projects is

!!26

! Notably, Tschumi’s architectural practice is not limited to actual building. In his writings he is 55

very careful in defining his terms of reference.

key to an evolving understanding of how buildings are conceptualised and allow an architect to control important aspects of perception, and with that, experience. Specifically, Tschumi employs visual relationships because the visual aspects of cultural communication dominate contemporary society. Tschumi’s adoption of cinema-graphic techniques puts him outside the traditional canons of architectural composition. Importantly, cinema-graphic techniques such as ‘framing’ provide a measure of continuity from within an established language principally drawn from a global urbanity. (See additional note 19, page 46)From the stand point of a design method, Tschumi then develops operational conditions to foster a dialogue between context, programme and event (See also explanatory note 21, page 46). To facilitate this Tschumi interprets the programme as if it were a script; functioning in most respects as it would in a theatrical sense. He comments that The Manhattan Transcripts (1976-81) were, “an attempt to deconstruct the components of architecture” They developed representationally 56

like a ‘story board’, or a visualisation of a script sequence; the movements and actions of a narrative as they are progressively ‘played out’. The script is an important organisational tool which acts as a medium of translation between the abstractness of conceptualisation and the immediateness of impromptu experience. Accepting the performance theatre as the model for staging ‘events’ the script then could be seen as a metaphorical dramatisation of the programme. Like good theatre it attempts to stimulate the audience; occasionally prescriptive but more frequently loosely structured as a set of guiding prompts. Potentially then the script for a project could operate at two levels corresponding to both very formal experiences as well as the ordinariness of social occasions. As will be discussed this capacity to integrate multiple domains of an experience is a fundamental aspect of exhibition design addressed by spatial syntax studies.The importance for Tschumi of the programme acting like a script is that it functions to structure real and perceptual relations within the spatial geometry of a building. In doing so, it constructs a unique set of relationships as a paradigm that is a reflection upon the variations of time, place and observer. Conceptually, both aesthetics and style are quite secondary to ‘structure’ here and at best evoke Norberg-Shultz’s character references. Structuring experience is a fundamental part of how architecture ‘operates’ to create, comment upon or challenge cultural conventions. As a medium of cultural change architecture is undoubtedly a slow process yet internally within a project it is its raison d'être to challenge assumptions. Within even the ‘everyday’ it is reliant upon how relations are communicated in a delicate balance between the opportunity for ‘control’ and ‘choice’ within the ‘script’ (settings) and hence an intentional part of the narrative reciprocity. If architecture communicates ‘intentions’ and a logic of intelligibility through the control and development of perceived relationships at multiple levels within space, its primary vehicle to achieve this is through defining the sequence of experience. (See also note 03 for additional)!!!

!!27

! Page 176 of Tschumi, B. (Ed.). (1989). Parc de la Villette, Paris56

4.1.5 Choreographing Sequence: Designing a Narrative Tschumi writes:

“Spatial sequences are generally structural; that is they can be viewed or experienced independently of the meaning they may occasionally evoke. Programmatic sequences are generally inferential; conclusions or inferences can be drawn from the events or the décor that provide the sequences connotative aspects.” 57

Though within these categories there is an element of variability wherein sequences of spaces and sequences of events are not bound together in a final configuration but rather interdependent; each mutually conditioning the other. In introducing the impact of sequencing upon perception and with experience, it is important to recall the critical capacity of ‘disjunction’ in qualifying relationships. But disjunction is the result of a shifting conceptual orientation, at time reinforced or alternatively restrained by movement, which in turn is strongly influenced by sequence. Sequence is an important conditioner of how programmes are unfolded and perceived by the user. Tschumi notes that, “Programs fall into three categories: those that are indifferent to the spatial sequence, those that reinforce it, and those that work obliquely or against it.” Meaning an implied narrative is always there, 58

whether of method, use, or form, it comprises the presentation of an event (or chain of events) with a progressive spatial interpretation (which of course alters it).Like any good story, it is difficult for architecture to be a narrative without a certain degree of tension, provoking the visitors thinking and experience. Yet in a media driven world of hyperbole it is also of paramount importance to not create pseudo-narratives found in shopping malls or departure lounges around the world, but rather create an architecture (space/surfaces) that engages with you and provokes you into creating a field of meaning. Architecture needs now more than ever to connect with the body in a balance between function and fiction. In our digital age of opulent information, where every building form can be simulated and more often then not built, narrative can provide the architect with an additional tool in drawing from the world of human nature.!

!!28


! Page 159 Ibid.58

4.2 Narratives Within The Acropolis Museum

“Theory is a practice, a practice of concepts”“Practice is a theory,A theory of contexts” 59

!4.2.1 Introduction To Part Two

Over the course of this research the discussion has centred upon the potential of using narrative in architecture as a means of conceptualisation and more importantly as a vehicle of design exploration and spatial structuring. What is important here is to appreciate the movement from abstract conceptualisation to the dynamics of experience, through which architecture could be said to engage in the dissemination of cultural knowledge. In addition to the explanatory capacity of narrative in its literary sense, it also has a powerful association with syntactical spatial analysis.The museum as a building type is ideally suited to represent the dynamics of human interaction and behaviour as it unfolds in ‘architectural space’. Hillier notes, "From the historic buildings to the contemporary ones, museum architecture moves from ‘showing’ to ‘telling’ and from classification to narrative.” The ideas and 60

approaches of Bernard Tschumi are very sympathetic to both narrative form and the issues raised by spatial syntax. The following will demonstrate an assessment of Tschumi most recent museum project and reveal the extent to which a ‘narrative discourse’ informs his design and transforms experience refocuses meaning.The Acropolis Museum has influences far more profound than most museums even by international standards, as it deals with a significant portion of our human history. Yet despite its global importance, it has not for the most part followed in the footsteps of contemporary architectural practice. Tschumi himself called the design his ‘anti Bilbao’ statement. To understand this comment and in applying Tschumi’s 61

own theoretical writings, it would be difficult not to begin with his seminal affirmation, “That there can be no architecture without program, without action, without event.” 62

The Acropolis Museum is itself a cultural statement. It is about a history, set in a physical, economic, social and political context. It is about a program not directed towards resolving the issues of that history but rather of giving them a voice and representative form in a larger ongoing dialogue. The Acropolis Museum is more than just a linear narrative, it is a unique expression of a ‘narrative method’, displacing or restructuring an orthodoxy of museum conventions. In both an architectural and curatorial sense, this extends the existing typology to embrace a new paradigm. In this context the museum is more than just a casual reference point in understanding human activity within physical space, but as Tzortzi cites “it is a

!!29

! Page 619 of Tschumi, B. (2004). Event-Cities 3: Concept vs. Context vs. Content59

! 3 of Macdonald, S. (2010). A Companion to Museum Studies60

! Page 63 of Pantermalēs, D., Bernard Tschumi, A., Aesopos, Y., & Tschumi, B. (2009). The 61

New Acropolis Museum! Page121 of Tschumi, B. (1996). Architecture and Disjunction62

suggested way of seeing the world” . It is also pertinent to an architectural process 63

as we contemplate the larger analogy of how we both conceptually read and construct various degrees of the built environment, from a domestic collection of rooms to the complexity of urban master-planning.To understand how the Acropolis Museum has pushed the boundaries of narrative architecture from theory to practice, it is instructive to begin with its organisational structure expressed as the ‘parti’. The ‘parti ‘is often defined as the essence of architecture distilled to a set of relationships without which, the building would not make sense. (See also note 24 on parti, page 46)

!4.2.2 A Narrative Geometry In consideration of the movement from conceptual ideas to a design process it seems clear that there is an evolutionary focus upon two primary mediums. The expression of geometry as both spatial containers and circulation systems that orientate the user. From this standpoint, a design logic of ‘rules’ or ordering principles develops. (See note 6 for additional, page 43) Psarra describes these principles as,

“Architects use geometry to organise relations among spaces through architectural drawings and models. Geometry captures not just abstract patterns but also the visual framework of these patterns, turning abstract rules into representations. Crossing the divide between the abstract and the visible, geometrical systems represent our knowledge as visual entities and as abstract conceptual structures.” 64

Interestingly, Psarra then moves a step further, and on the basis of comparative museum studies, finds a representational correspondence between stable geometric arrangements and its often axial spatial properties with a sense of order. By contrast she associates a greater choice and diversity of experience (knowledge) with a loose narrative, provided by openly expressive geometry. In the case of the Acropolis Museum, its geometry is regular, albeit its rotated layers are intensionally provocative and create a perceived instability and tension. Its articulated volumes set one above the other, have been operated on by ‘contextualising rules’ that imply a conceptual re-ordering of the context according to disjunctions. While it also may be in part as Psarra notes, "an attempt to construct a critique of the ways in which geometric entities have been associated with idealism in Classicism…” , it is 65

primarily intended to stimulate a new way of perceiving the larger relationships within the project. This is consistent with Tschumi other writing and design projects. In contradistinction to Psarra, Tschumi finds 'instability', whether in 66

geometry or other relationships, characteristic of disjunctions that juxtapose realities rather than degrees of conformation with a orthodoxy of archetype expectations.!

!!30

! (MacDonald 1996:14) on page 31 of Tzortzi, K. (2011). Space: Interconnecting Museology 63

and Architecture. The Journal of Space Syntax, 2(1), 26-53.)! Page 222 of Psarra, S. (2009). Architecture and Narrative: The Formation of Space and 64

Cultural Meaning (1 ed.)! Ibid, Page 22865

! Similar to Parc de la Villette, and Architecture and Disjunction66

A primary aim of the Acropolis Museum is to reconnect the evolving present with it's historical past. The physical presence of Athens as a living environment and the adjacency of the Acropolis as a historical site, profoundly represents a unique context from which its ‘parti’ is derived. (see also note 17 on context Tschumi’s writing reinforces his conviction that there is an elementary level at which architecture is abstract and figurative, through which to confront disjunction of existing or projected spheres of space and use. As in his writings, the parti as a figurative conceptualisation confronts the multiple disjunctions of the totalising experience that is the ‘sense of place’ and the larger site. This disjunction of space is revealed conceptually and figuratively through superimposition. The use of superimposition conceptually and strategically was used in earlier projects, most notably Parc de la Villette in Paris. As applied to the Acropolis Museum, the parti is composed of three layers expressed as successive connected building levels. (See figure 01)

Each layer is correspondingly a program level of the museum. The museum's connection to the external physicality, from which it draws its history, is again interpreted within the museum's design. Each layer appears as if an independent element given its geometry, characteristic of form and absence of alignment with the other layers. On a number of levels Tschumi’s project sketches are more diagrammatic or conceptual than artistic; yet they also convey emotions associated with the perception of spatial context. The ‘parti’ sketches are illustrative developments of the museum through a layered geometry of space relations. Creating a multi-vocal dialogue of complexity and contradiction as a ‘proposition’.

!!31

Figure 01 - The base middle and top of the Acropolis Museum

As again Psarra notes, “The creative tension between the conceptual and the perceptual translate to a tension between seeing and understanding” . (See note 67

04 & 07 for additional page 41)

!4.2.3 Program, Circulation and Sequence In placing the museum typology, Psarra describes,

“Set in context, museums carry the task of presenting knowledge as a social construct. They favour the messages coming out from knowledge over knowledge itself as the object of attention. Architecture enters this context by constructing a variety of spatial experiences that emphasises the perceptual impact of space and collection.” 68

Here, space is defined as constructed space, with an intent to create the conditions within a program that direct the viewer, stimulate interaction and transmit knowledge. Designed space of this type is a dialogue between space and circulation (movement), and developed with hierarchical qualities to construct programmatic intentions through visual connections. Comparative spatial syntax studies of museums (as described by Psarra and Hillier et al.) define important behavioural characteristics that developed through the medium of circulation, which in sympathy with curatorial intent, can be seen as ‘deterministic’ and ‘probable’. How circulation is developed is obviously central to the experiential aspects of movement as it is literally “a built choreography of movement and encounter” . The choreography is 69

interdependent with other variables such as sequence, axiality and choice. Contributing to a totalising sense of place, built upon an innate tension between familiarity and a growing knowledge of the particular, which the user must attempt to reconcile. An application of this can be seen upon entering the New Acropolis Museum, where the glass floor of the lobby allows the viewer to study the archaeological remains below; (See figure 02) constructing visual connection through a literal juxtaposition of the past and present.

!!32

! Page 228 of Psarra, S. (2009). Architecture and Narrative: The Formation of Space and 67

Cultural Meaning (1 ed.)! Ibid, page 18268

! Page 290 of MacDonald, S. (2010). A Companion to Museum Studies69

Figure 02 - The archeological ruins below the museum

An internal ramp leading throughout the initial exhibition space (the atrium) reflecting its natural counterpart outside, (leading up to the Acropolis) building upon the visitors experience as one progresses through the museum (See figure 03). The route that one follows throughout the museum, prescribed by the changing layers of the built form, leads to an experiential culmination in the top level, the Parthenon Gallery. The upper most level is an intentional reference to the Parthenon, geometrically aligned, proportionately similar and establishing a direct visual connection. (See additional description of the museum at note 14 for Page 44)An interesting paradox for an exhibition, is that with increased ‘clarity of purpose’, that is a simplistic curatorial intent, comes at the risk of losing a broader context, whist adversely adopting an authoritarian didacticism that is mono-dimensional. Instead sequential ordering of a display strategy must be set against a largely interactive environment with an architectural space that is 'legible'. The issues of ‘user choice’ then become a distinct variable in the conceptual reading of space/display and ensuing a narrative design quality. (See also note 16 on 'reading' space, page 45) Psarra notes that there have been key changes in museums in their approach to the display of the collection. Historical museums displayed everything whereas contemporary ones exhibit fewer objects in spaces of varied sizes, “So, when these [contemporary] museums are described as ‘active containers’, in opposition to the ‘neutral warehouses’ of the past, what is meant is that they demonstrate a greater engagement with perceptual experience than their historical predecessors.” (For examples see note 10 on page 44) 70

!!33


Cultural Meaning (1 ed.)

Figure 03 - The ramp as a central feature of the atrium

4.2.4 A Narrative Of Visual Connectivity: Spatial Syntax In The Museum

For both Tschumi and researchers in spatial syntax there are a number of important areas of agreement that reinforce and emphasise the importance of visual connectivity, movement and a cognitive mapping on the part of the user. What is important is how visual connections are orchestrated as sequences. From Tschumi’s point of view all sequences are cumulative, “If all spatial sequences inevitably implies the movement of the observer, then such a movement can be objectively mapped and formalised - sequentially.” (See note 08 for additional, page 43)71

While all spaces are cumulative in Tschumi’s view, they are significantly not equal nor communicate the same level of information. Spatially speaking the Acropolis Museum is very simple, in that there is very little differentiation or variation in terms of spatial types or sequences. The circulation through the museum offers very little in the way of choice that would isolate and define particular spaces or groups of spaces. From a curatorial perspective this would seem a limiting factor of the organisation and effectively minimise curatorial opportunity. Given this, it seems clear that the representational intentions of the museum have been focused upon the more singular opposition between the everyday experience of the user (the profane) and the elevated idealism of the sacred. This focal opposition is strongly evident in the spiralling circulation system. (See figure 04)

Architectural knowledge is based upon an understanding of geometry as either strong or weak. Psarra writes that, “Perceptual space… is observable but not reducible into a visible schema” even though it can be conceptualised as a figurative idea through representational logic. Here it would seem that the dimension of a ‘representational logic’ and its implicit rules, become the formatting that translates the conceptual to the figurative. In the Acropolis museum this language is a cinema-graphic framing which disconnects the perimeter spaces from the internal atrium. (See figure 05)

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Figure 04 - Circulation diagram

4.2.5 Ritualising The Familiar

"A ritual implies a near-frozen relationship between action and space. It institutes a new order after the disorder of the original event. When it becomes necessary to mediate tension and fix it by custom, then no single fragment must escape attention. Nothing strange and unexpected must happen. Control must be absolute." 72

In Tschumi’s Acropolis museum the visitor is conditioned by the juxtaposition of two spatial types. First, a structuring central geometry in the form of a continuous vertical core element, creating a single interior atrium that connects the building’s geometry with a regular section that is largely self explanatory through its vertical visual connections. In this first spatial sequence or ‘procession' Tschumi uses geometry to evoke the meaning of the exhibit through perceptual experience. Curatorial intent and architectural intent; the dialogue between geometry and content, the dramatisation of program merges within circulation, not as access to knowledge but knowledge itself. Additionally, surrounding perimeter galleries of differing geometric proportions allow for degrees of external visibility at each level. By contrast to the interior core, in the perimeter galleries, exterior visibility is largely open, filtered horizontally only by columns and limited internally by the central core. The perimeter galleries though, have only limited association with the interior atrium where visibility and perception is concentrated at the opposing core ends. By contrast to the processional sloped floor as a narrative journey, the 'arrival' to the perimeter exhibition spaces reconnects the user with the distant object of their contemplation, the 'real' Acropolis site. As a narrative, Tschumi has used and intentionally mixed metaphors. The personal journey comprising of conceptual and symbolic frameworks are overlaid or 'superimposed' to create a multi-vocal experience that becomes the 'totalising' experience of the Acropolis Museum united by the icon of the Parthenon. The columns originate in the archaeological site itself at grade and there become is reference system. A loose grid of structural columns that become a dominant architectural motif through all the museum levels; holding down the layers, the metaphorical pins of a specimen box. The visitor begins at an archaeological site, which is only partially experienced through the glass floor of the museum. Here

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Figure 05 - Transverse section through the museum


there is something of a double meaning in which the archaeology is persevered in a container like box, viewed traditionally from above, yet the not all of the contents are accessible a one look leaving the archaeology as it were to be perceived as spreading out into the surrounding landscape/context. The large scale and neutral texture of the columns then become a dominant visual delineator in the exhibition spaces on the level above. The effect is unexpected as a sculpture collection is diminished as individual pieces, yet heightened in its collective ambiance like the irregular occupation of a crowd in a public urban space; a narrative defining the transitoriness of the object against the dominance of space. The sculptures as icons of the art world are not afforded special treatment but rather displayed casually in relatively open space which, for the user allows a perceptual familiarity that tends to de-mystify, by placing them in an ambivalent forest of structural columns (point grid) and repetitious facade panels. (See figure 06) (Additional on the user's experience see note 15, page 45)

The main galleries, tall and vast, house an outstanding number of sculptures and the sheer verticality of the space heightens the experience for the viewer through relationships of scale. Associated with issues of scale and particularly the monumental, the Acropolis rock and the Parthenon itself, which are the binding elements of the museum exhibitions. All the artefacts and objects are in one way or another connected to this grounding rock. The visitor is constantly being made aware of this innate unity as the museum’s design echoes along it. The relationship between the building itself and its surrounding context changes as the viewer moves, and it becomes evident that the visitor themselves are as much a part of the experience as the physical built form. The user becomes an integrated part of the architectural whole. A whole that is analogous to the circumambulation of the Parthenon temple and ritualised in the Parthenon gallery by a circulating the frieze.Another example is the visual prominence of the caryatids as a centre piece of the museum collection. Isolated and elevated in the atrium space, not as an art historian would have envisioned, but rather as they would have been originally viewed upon approaching the Erecthion. (See figure 07)

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Figure 06 - Archaic exhibit

Tschumi, in constructing a ritualistic promenade has intentionally made the caryatids not the focus of the axis, nor even an ‘event', but a visual part of the journey. One that is mapped by the observer but not savoured. This is important because as a significant part of the collection knowledge emerges, or become apparent through an often semi-conscious testing of increasingly familiar spaces. The exploration of the unknown though, is neither random nor highly structured but largely intuitive. Relying instead on environmental supposition defined by visual links. One aspect of cognitive mapping would be the propensity for affirmation as a normative part of the sequencing, with a build-up to a dramatic encounter. It is the propensity to confuse appearances with reality, a primary vehicle for didactic intent in literature that allows partial truths to appear whole or complete. This in part affirms perception and in particular our dependence on what is visually accessible to inform us, 'seeing is believing’. (See additional on cognitive mapping at note 14, page 44)Narratives by their very definition as a ‘believable’ structuring of ‘events’ are not necessarily guided by a concern for truth but rather by an internal cohesion. Pieced together or ’constructed’ through the experience of framing and sequencing, that would appear not just useful but satisfying as a directed ‘story’. Following from this the caryatids are not part of a literal reconstruction typical of most museum displays. In some ways this is the ‘praxis’ of Tschumi's 'event', which in principle could be either loosely structured or clearly orchestrated by circumstance and informed by the type of ‘knowledge’ conveyed. All of the impressions that a user is subjected to will vary according to the individual, the social factors of a ‘prevailing atmosphere’ and a receptivity to the didactic intent of both display and architecture. The understanding of the multiple forces that may be present or contend for identification. Tschumi on the one hand wanted to engage the monumental space of the gods (sacred space) and simultaneously reinforcing the user’s position as an ‘outsider' or 'initiate’ in being introduced to a ritualised awareness of ‘place’. A geometry of dominant space and correspondingly a freedom of visual perception is developed with curatorial display almost secondary. In some respects it could be suggested that there are no secondary and tertiary spaces developed as a hierarchy. Instead, there are a series of levels linked by an open ascending circulation. The circulation

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Figure 07 - The caryatids

itself composes the principle spaces and as it moves upward with increasingly expansive views to include the context, it has the quality of ritual circumambulation as an architectural and curatorial narrative as it reaches the Parthenon frieze. (See figure 08)

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Figure 08 - The Acropolis Museum in context with the Acropolis hill

4.3 Conclusion to Chapter 4

The research has endeavoured to understand how the concept of a narrative could be used as a design tool. In the examination of 'exhibition space', and more generally the New Acropolis Museum we were able to identify how narrative influenced the viewers perception of the content it displays. By critically testing and evaluating how the concept of narrative influenced the structuring of geometry, as architectural space, we began to understand how this approach was able to be both the space of ideas and the space of experience through a 'contextualising' design method. Through the case study of Tschumi’s New Acropolis Museum we were able to consider how it departs from the typical museum's internal dialogue to challenge the observer's understanding of the connection between the sacred and the profane, expanding cultural knowledge and redefining museum architecture.

Narrative reflection is unquestionably a significant part of the translation from intuition, an abstract sense of reality that is the seed of experience, a logic of discovery and finally a memory that is the basis of knowledge. If the difference between building and architecture could simply be put as the latter having more than just utilitarian purpose, and indeed at a fundamental level a didactic intent, then that intent must be at the heart of any project from conceptualisation to a materiality of building elements. Architecture, unlike the space in which literature exists, is a real constructed physical environment with real human interaction. But it is the ‘representational’ as a medium that provides the structural bridge between conceptual hypothesis and the conjectural imagination. Museums are an important testing ground for architectural theories not because of the material exhibited but rather to explore how a dialogue between perception and understanding is fostered by diverse strategies of didactic intent(s) involving the reading of a constructed environment through experience. Spatial syntax studies become important measures of spatial integration as a measure of how the space is read by the user/visitor. The complex hierarchical inter-relations of geometry as a conceptual schema, become through spatial articulation and overlaid with circulation sequences, structures that control the language of architecture. For researchers such as Psarra a strong geometry also heightens (clarifies) perceptions as expectations and hence formalise abstract properties into the representational. Psarra's measure of relative stability of geometry vs display strategy makes for a creative tension that accentuates perception leading towards knowledge between a curatorial intent and an architectural intent. Tschumi’s museum sets itself apart by denying that there should be such a division.Finally, the contextualising of the building is extremely important in that it has nothing to do with ideal notions of ‘fit’ but rather the complexity and contradictions that represent the totalising impact of the environment; historical, intellectual, physical and emotional. This, as the above discussion makes clear, distinguishes it not only from the way it has been conceptualised and then realised as geometry, space and circulation, but of equal importance from the way the user experience has been radically re-thought within the museum typology. (Also see additional note 17 on issue of context, page 45)

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CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSIONS

!“Each Society expects architecture to reflect its ideals and domesticate its deeper fears.” 73

!5.1 Transgression: The Acropolis Museum as a PhenotypeThis essay has been concerned with exploring the potential for a narrative approach to architectural expression, particularly as it develops from conceptualisation through the design process and ultimately to the figurative. In an effort to both narrow the scope and to capitalise on a building type that is customarily directed towards narrative issues of representation, the discussion has focused on the Acropolis Museum as a case study. The study has also been limited to attempting to link theory and practice to a single architect, writer and practitioner, Bernard Tschumi's work is particularly valuable in attempting to follow a consistent evolution of ideas that have an internal integrity and which directly inform his practical work.The museum as a building type is in many ways representative of the merger of architecture’s pre-occupation with space/use and urban planning’s larger concern for the inter-relationship of spatial uses. In the museum we find curatorial intent concerned with the display, set against an architectural intent of a hierarchy of spatial representations. In all of this, the focus is upon the experience of the viewer/user, which becomes the subject of manipulation so as to construct meaning and significance by selectively influencing or controlling perception. How a scene is represented; conditions, associations, depth of field, choices for focus and direction, information and importantly social interaction become a paradigmatic ‘field of knowledge'. In a broad sense this informational field can be influenced by a number of critical factors that are in themselves the essential variables that characterise any architectural design problem.

Bernard Tschumi's Acropolis Museum, in concert with his writing on context, space, program and event, explore narrative structure in two opposing fields of perception and bodily experience that simultaneously define the conditions of architecture as a complex field of relationships. The Acropolis Museum is a unique response to the paradox of the pyramid and the labyrinth. (See explanatory note 11, page 44) This is not to suggest it is a resolution but perhaps more interestingly that the two conditions can exist in the same place as a dynamic context. Where as Psarra notes of Borges influence that;

“Borges blurs the distinction between ideas, buildings and texts, first to create poetic relationships among these artefacts and second to intensify the fact that although they influence one another in reality they are different categories.” 74

This is because buildings as real events do not coincide with the theories that represent them. Likewise, real life does not correspond to its representation in fiction. Psarra concludes the role of Borges and narrative is to put forward theories

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Cultural Meaning (1 ed.)

and texts that are representations of the world, not reconstructions of it. But it is inspiring to consider that Tschumi’s museum returns us to a theatre of ‘events’, a street theatre of suspending disbelief in favour of the possible. What it seems Tschumi has done is to set a stage that ‘socialises’ the objects of culture by re-asserting them back into the cultural field, a frame of perception that is contextual in orientation. Tschumi's Acropolis Museum achieves the transgressional critique that he defines as appropriate to architecture's role as a voice in culture. Importantly, 'narrative' as a design parameter (and Tschumi’s approach or method) has demonstrated that only when architecture as a discipline challenges boundaries of its own language and internal discourse, can it effectively renew its cultural significance. Tschumi provocatively writes, "Architecture is the ultimate erotic act. Carry it to excess and it will reveal the traces of reason and the sensual experience of space. Simultaneously." (See note 09 for additional, page 43)75

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6.0 Notes 1. Levi Strauss continues the above passage with the qualification to refute the

hard distinction of dialectical reason from its analytical counterpart in writing that dialectical reason, "…is something additional to analytical reason: the condition necessary for it to venture to undertake the resolution of the human into the non human.” Levi-Strauss is emphasising the potential of a conceptual narrative to create a hypothetical realism through which belief may be postulated; where the intangible (receding shore) in a situation (or a designed set of relationships) may be brought to conscious awareness.!

2. Tschumi makes a number of important observations. The first; is a critique of what in the 1970s had become the reification of theory; a cerebral game of semantics which ultimately only supported an circular aesthetic idealism as a reaction to the sterile pragmatism of form and function yet even more remote (irrelevant) than early modernism’s optimistic belief in influencing social values. Second; is that architecture, its desire for a rationality self justification has eliminated all notion that architecture engages the physical body and its emotional experience of the environment. Additionally, Tschumi considers the ‘sensuality’ of how a user emotionally and intellectually engages experience likening problem solving as a logic of rules to untying the ‘knots of bondage’. The more knots (difficulty) the greater the pleasure. There is here an acknowledgement of a level of formalism in how culture is constructed and transmitted through ritual. Throughout most of Tschumi writings he emphasises that the relationships are neither static, or nor clinical in their clarity or predictability. Instead, Tschumi stresses the notion that there is a condition of reciprocity between user and event, a spontaneity that is beyond the control of the ‘script’, (architect as spatial script-writers) making the ‘narrative condition’ equally shared.!

3. In Tschumi’s writing there is a continuous undercurrent within his terms of ‘script’ or ‘strategy’ that heralds the importance of the ‘dramatic’ in the event, as a product of space and program which essentially combine in staging a performance that includes the observer/user as more than just an audience but part of the performance. In many respects Tschumi proposes a delicate balance between opportunity for ‘control’ and ‘choice’ within the ‘script’ and hence part of the a narrative reciprocity. As discussed, these are two fundamental aspects of museum/exhibition design addressed by spatial syntax studies. It is the view of this paper that they are also central to the narrative condition that develops within the design process and becomes part of architecture’s cultural expression. For Tschumi this balance is a persistent duality whose centre is somewhere between the faculties of reasoning and experience rather than an ‘opposition’. This is evident in Tschumi’s interest in ‘sequencing’, which is like the raw structure through which architecture constructs the space of performance. It is the intersection of user, space and program in the unfolding of events that encompass, order, conflict, reason, symbolism, sensuality, reflection, comfort and discomfort that evolves through experience to be knowledge.!

4. In assembling the pieces of architecture’s interactive nature Tschumi is not looking for fundamental structures that may suggest a common denominator but rather to the disjunctive qualities of thought to develop concepts and experience that would ‘trigger’ dynamic forces through which to model architecture. Using Venturi’s language these are the qualities that, sensed as ‘complexity’ and which foster ambiguity resulting in ‘contradictions’ and instability and with it the desire to see a new structure of relationships. Tschumi’s questioning and the potential

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for design exploring disjunction is the polar opposite to architecture accepted role to harmonise, or blend in; a smoothing out of irregularities that would result from synthesis and accommodation. Again, as in the Manhattan Transcripts the event of disjunction is the result of a collision between appearance and reality, the heart of any narrative story.!

5. Tschumi states that he is exploring new ‘codes of assemblage’, asserting that spatial sequences are structural yet not necessarily didactic in that meaning can be experienced independently as an order of experience rather than an order of composition. Tschumi is here emphasising the role of sequence in influencing perception and ultimately knowledge of the world and ourselves within it. This is to be found in how Tschumi conceives two narrative frameworks that are not mutually exclusive. A ‘loose narrative’ that is largely open ended, as opposed to a 'directed narrative', which is didactic in intent. In the case of the Acropolis Museum, Tschumi is wary of any theoretical agenda, and instead with an admirable consistency, allows the ‘context’ to be self-evident and assertive of its own parameters. Tschumi provides continues evidence that a 'context' coupled with 'program' will combine to articulate a particular 'set' of internal architectural parameters. That’s not to say these 'orders' may contrast or even contradict exterior reading of the building as it responds to a number of local contextual interpretations.!

6. Design is a process of going back and forth among hundreds of ideas, where partial solutions and details are repeatedly tested in order to gradually reveal and fuse a complete rendition of thousands of demands and criteria… An architectural project is not only a result of a problem solving process; it is also a metaphysical proposition that expresses the architect’s mental world and his/her understanding through human experiences .!

7. Here context is abstractly represented as composite ‘design issues’; a mixture of emotive interpretation based on existing knowledge distilled as a ‘summary’ through graphic notation of a ‘sketch’. There is in this respect an interesting correspondence between the analysis of’ ‘sketching’ and spatial syntax diagrams of display types. They are similar in recording a time/focus patterns that show emphasis at particular intersections and then ‘leaps’ to other areas. Palms', J. Elaborates in The Thinking Hand (2009) observes, “The design process simultaneously scans the inner and the outer worlds and intertwines the two universes.”!

8. Psarra also notes that, “[open] space lacks a fixed shape of visible knowledge.” Space in this sense is neutral in that it has no boundaries; no relations, it is space that is un-configured and non-representational in nature. This raises the question of how conceptual space develops. From the observations of spatial syntax studies of perception discussing circulation’s relationship to a hierarchy of spaces, definition is variable and the subject of speculation and conjecture in the form of design hypothesis because perceptual, that is emotional component, that grows within the skeleton of conceptual space rendering it knowable and ‘real’ however imaginary. Drawing (regardless of medium), the dialogue between the hand and the eye, between conception and perception facilitates the visualisation of space as a knowledge of geometric form.!

9. Whether literal or phenomenal transgression, architecture is seen as the momentary and sacrilegious convergence of real space and ideal space. Limits,

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remain for transgression does not mean the methodical destruction of any code or rule that concerns space or architecture. On the contrary, it introduces new articulations between inside and outside, between concept and experience.!

10. The architect conceives of forms and relationships in such a way as to express an idea or an intent that, the whole of which is more than the sum of the parts… hence the ‘idea’ dominates and becomes part of the experience. In this instance the geometry, although governed as forms, become configured and experienced primarily as spaces. But, architecture constitutes the abstraction of absolute truth, (how big is the labyrinth?) while this very truth gets in the way of the telling. We cannot both experience and think of what we experience. “The concept of the dog does not bark, the concept of space is not space.” - Tschumi, Architecture and Disjunction.!

11. Pyramid and the Labyrinth. Pyramid = A mental conceptualisation of space based on rules or reason (such as a pure geometrical figure). Labyrinth = Space occupied by the body - space that has been configured in hillier terms. As per Borges’s images. This conceptual process is the dematerialisation of architecture’s reality and an entity and is in turn focuses on the how and why of relationships. !

12. When one considers how Tschumi frames his train of thought it is significant to observe his terms of reference, the unfolding logic of ‘premise and conjecture’ that is a ‘scripted/staged’ narrative of experience. Tschumi’s use of narrative is in many ways a parallel exploration of how individuals and, society (ultimately generalised by culture) attain knowledge through experience.!

13. For example, director for Centre Pompidou, Pontus Hulten describes his museum as having a spatial structure that resembled a city, "...that consists of squares, streets, dead ends…” In some sense cognitive mapping is partly a process of appropriation of the experiential qualities of a space; ‘identifying’ them within both their immediate physical context and a parallel conceptual context of meaning. Creating an invisible pedagogy of spatial narratives that would develop and/or influence behaviour/experience through choice.!

14. One can reflect on the architectural narrative through which they have just traversed. Bringing together the numerous stories into a unified whole. The directed movement paths allowing specific encounters tie to predetermined logics of history. The idea and intentions behind the museum building’s spatial layout are experienced through the situated encounters with very different types of exhibition spaces and specific ways of bringing the visitor in contact with the exhibits, and not least, with the museum’s context, the adjacent Acropolis Hill. By allowing transparency and direction through movement routes the viewer is almost forced to direct their attention to the 'relational in-between-ness’ of the architecture and its context. While doing this it does also lead one to notice the physical distance and separation between the Acropolis and its museum. The character of these possible connections allow for the viewer's experience to be both spatial and temporal, as the “here and-now in Athens, in the twenty-first century and yet points towards the historic past, to ancient Greek culture.” - Annette Svaneklink Jakobsen. The architecture of the Acropolis Museum pre-conditions the historical experiences of the viewer, pointing towards certain views and ideals yet to a degree still allows contemplation and individual connections. Local factors may reflect particular types of engagement or act as

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counterpoints, all of which become a recognition of a larger cultural context. For example, a clear distinction can be made between patterns of movement and relative spatial connectivity, though this cannot be argued as necessarily positive or negative. There are also social factors which expresses patterns of movement created. In this regard, space is not simply a framework that contains human activity and experience, but a conduit and catalyst for it. Thus space as a variable can be unpredictable, yet influential upon the dynamics of a particular configuration as it is an important part of the holistic cultural experience.!

15. In assessing a narrative intent it is fundamental to consider the user like a reader, or any observer looks for logical clues to read the environment. The Acropolis Museum achieves a unique synthesis of ideals distilled from his projects to achieve a merger of architecture and curatorial strategy. In Tschumi’s project and in accord with his writings, experience encompasses a critical review of context, and program to create an event through which the structure and morphology of a museum is reborn as a phenotype. As a phenotype the museum is profoundly contextual as a signifier. In appearance the Acropolis Museum is dominated by the space of geometry. In particular its scale and in contrast to its actual context, is surprisingly large, almost the space of urbanity turned inside out.!

16. Reading space is concerned with how a user conceptualises the fundamental characteristics of architecture, through geometrical organisation, shape, scale, symmetry, axiality, order/hierarchy, sequence, circulation and direction. Against these pragmatic physical dimensions is added, the addition phenomenological characteristics that define a sense of place through the qualities of enclosure ambiance and amenity. In attempting to review a project for its narrative capacity and in particular its use of a design approach that is narrative in nature we must necessarily define design parameters that are generic in scope. It is sufficient for an elementary assessment that relationships be simple and comparatively oppositional in nature. The assessment is concerned to define strategies rather than particular rationalisations. !

17. Context is a primary source of information in terms of how a work of architecture relates to its physical and social setting. For Tschumi this issue cannot be reduced to one of complementariness or ‘fit’ but rather a, “Pragmatic context versus urban typology versus spatial experience versus procedure, and so on to provide a dialectical framework for research.” 76

!18. In answering the question of how space is conceptualised and then structured to

produce readable and comprehensible environments, we must identify space as not neutral, but rather configured by objects that create relationships between the viewer and themselves. Spaces are themselves also connected to other spaces to develop varying degrees of integration. From the standpoint of a spatial syntax (Hillier et all) the patterns of connectivity between spaces may be evaluated to assess an integration value. The integration value would also correlate with patterns of movement. Ultimately the level of integration produces a rating of ‘Intelligibility’, which as a measure of integration suggests how socially meaningful and informative the experience becomes. The property of integration can be measured based on axial, convex or isovist maps depending on the different types of layouts, or the characteristics most crucial for the questions at hand. In contrast, seeing what individual spaces are like; developing a sense of them, requires movement as does any understanding of

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relationships between spaces which than acquires a temporal dimension as well. There are then two opposing notions of space ; one through a logic of geometry (abstract and generalised and conceptual) and the other an interpretation of space in terms of or in relation to levels of integration which implies a system and hence how space is configured. How space is configured may have a reference base far beyond the immediate circumstances to include global allusions.!

19. The idea of an integrative mechanism, one that takes into account different aspects/dimensions of experience, from the physical to the psychological is often assumed by terms like cognitive mapping. There is evidence to suggest a cross cognitive referencing between levels of meaning/recognition from ‘local’ to ‘global’ conforming to the practical and symbolic.!

20. This methodology importantly is neither prescriptive as a ‘how to’ nor didactic as a philosophical intent but rather appropriately neutral aesthetically, concerning itself instead with structuring key relationships.!

21. The design method then as a series of logical operations based on context and program that will produce a limited number of generally familiar typologies, constructing relationships in the form of ‘building sets’ which define a design paradigm for those conditions. The development of building sets as a base of a building typology has the important quality of displacing style/appearance as a criteria of categorisation in spatial assessment.!

22. "The parti is the dominant idea of the building which embodies the salient characteristics of that building. The parti diagram encapsulates the essential minimum of the design, without which the scheme would not exist, but from which the form can be generated." 77

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! Page 203 of Clark, R. H., & Pause, M. (1979). Analysis of Precedent: An Investigation of 77

Elements, Relationships, and Ordering Ideas in the Work of Eight Architects

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A Design Narrative: Design Intent, Perception, Experience and a Structural Logic of Space.

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