]dis[ placement

]Dis[ Placement

]Dis[ Placement

Odenis Vitoreli JuniorSpring 2010

Chair: Professor Adeline HoferCo Chair: Professor Hui Zou

A Master Research Project presented to the Graduate School in partial fulfillment for the degree of Master of Architecture

Contents

Acknowledgements Introduction

Part One

Book I: The Book of GesturesBook II: The Book of StillsBook III: Site-Location-Place

Part Two

Book IV: A Collection of PaintingsBook V: The Book of RitualsBook VI: The Catoptrics’ machine

Part Three

Book VII: The Book of MirrorsBook VIII: The Book of WaterBook IX: The Book of Scenes

Bibliography

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Acknowledgements

Professor Adeline Hofer Your knowledge, enthusiasm, and positive outlook inspired me throughout this project. Thanks for making this past year fun, challenging, and exciting.

Professor Hui Zou Thanks for your guidance and support during this project and also throughout my undergraduate studies. Your classes helped me to discover my love for architectural history and theory.

Professor Diana Bitz Thanks for all your wonderful advice and support throughout this project.

Professor Lauren LakeThanks for letting be part of your Drawing Seminar, and for all the support in this past semester

My wife Anne VitoreliThanks for the love, support, and understanding during this past five years.

My father Odenis VitoreliObrigado por ter sempre acreditado e suportado todos meus sonhos.

My sister Karina and stepmother Alice Thanks for all the love and support

My familyWalter, Terry, Christina, Amy, Erich, Andrea, Erich Jr. and Christopher Thanks for all the encouragement, and also for all the fun times we had together in the past years.

My good friend Dorina Bakiri

“So after 12 semesters I can finally use yellow again”

Thanks for all the critiques, conversations, arguments, laughs, support, and many many many glasses of wine.

My Friend Ryan McGinn

Thanks for your friendship and support

Barnie, Betty, and Tibirius Thanks for all the joy you bring to my life

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Introduction

This book is a collection of studies that investigate the role of the human figure in the process of making architecture. In this collection there are studies of the relationships between the figure and space, between a figure and another figure, the figure as a sculpture, and the figure moving through a space. In the past the human body was an essential part of architectural design. The proportions of the body were used to generated form and create relationships. The body was also incorporated in architecture in the form of sculpture. These processes created spaces that were imbedded with visible and invisible relations between the figure and form, which created poetic ways to encounter and experience space. Throughout time, perhaps because of a shifting on the design process from a poetic ritual to a pragmatically and over functionalized process, the figural gesture has been diminished if not totally eliminated from architectural design. In the present day, the excessive use of digital media is yet another step in the dehumanization of architecture. In the modern design process forms and shapes are produced inside of a virtual world, and then sent via wireless connection to a laboratory where machines cut, print and assemble architectural models.

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The connection between the mind, hand and object has been broken during the process of making. This masters research project is not advocating the elimination of digital media in architectural design, but it is hoping to use diverse methodological approaches such as collection, literature, ritual, film and painting to look at historical precedents and create a design process that re-establishes connections between the human figure and architecture.

Part One

Book I: The Book of GesturesBook II: The Book of StillsBook III: Site-Location-Place

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Section One

The Sanctuary of Bom Jesus do Matosinhos

The Sanctuary of Bom Jesus do Matosinhos is located at the top of the “morro do maranhao”. The compound consists of six square chapels and a church. The construction of the chapels started in 1757 and was inspired by the sanctuaries of Bom Jesus do Matosinhos, not far from Oporto, and Bom Jesus de Braga, which are both in Portugal. The exterior of the chapel was created in the Brazilian Baroque style, while the interior is inspired by Rococo. The chapels are connected to each other and to the church by a cobble-stone path. Each of the small chapels contains sculptures depicting scenes of the Stations of the Cross. Antonio Francisco Lisboa “Aleijadinho”, who is one of the most important Brazilian artists, created the sculptures. Aleijadinho was also responsible for the sculptures of the twelve prophets that are located on the staircase which lead from the ground level to the raised courtyard.

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The visitor experiences the compound by moving in a sequential path that goes from the first chapel to the bottom of the staircase, and then up the stairs to the entrance of the church. During the movement through the path, the body is constantly shifting directions both horizontally and vertically. An overall view of the sculptures presents a compositional juxtaposition between the fragile characteristics of the sculptures inside the little chapels and the robust character of sculptures on the staircase. This juxtaposition can also be seen in the materiality of the two sets of sculptures. The first is made of wood and the latter of soapstone. The two situations divide the itinerary into two parts. In the first part the visitor is removed from the context and becomes only an observer to the story. In the second part the visitor is inserted amongest the sculptures and become part of the context. The wood sculptures are arranged inside of each of the small chapels and the visitor look at them from the outside through the door. In this case the sculpture acquire the qualities of a painting, and the architectural detail becomes a background that emphasizes the context of the scene. Each small room has a distinct way of bringing the observer to the door of the chapel. The way the body comes to the door is sometimes related to the way

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the sculptures are organized inside the space. In the third room, for example, “The Passo da Prisao”, Jesus’ sculpture is placed in the center of the scene and roman soldiers surround it. The entrance to this room is composed of two symmetrical sets of steps that bring the observer to the center of the opening. In this situation the observer has to pause, observe, and finally make a choice of which path he wants to take to the top of the platform. The duality of the scene, which consists of an interaction between good and evil, is translated architecturally in the arrangement of the steps of the entrance.

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In contrast, in the staircase entrance to the sanctuary one is completely surrounded by the life-size sculptures and becomes part of the choreography. Each sculpture contains a script in Latin. The gestures and the direction that the sculptures are facing are related to these messages. There are sculpture pointing to the little chapels and the path to the church, and these sculptures contain messages about sin and redemption. There are sculptures pointing to different directions and the heavens, and these sculptures contain warnings of punishment to different nations. Finally, the last two sculptures, located on the top of the staircase, point straight to the observer and contain a message of hope and salvation. The scale, gesture and arrangement of the sculptures transform our experience of that space. The body of the observer becomes the thirteenth sculpture on the staircase, and becomes part of the story.

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Sanctuary of Bom Jesus do Matosinhos Site Plan

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Itinerary Diagram

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Chapel 1: Passo da Ceia

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Chapel 1: Passo da Ceia

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Chapel 2: Passo do Horto

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Chapel 3: Passo da Prisão

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Chapel 4: Passo da Fragelação

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Chapel 4: Passo da Fragelação

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Chapel 5: Passo da Subida ao Carvalho

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Chapel 5: Passo da Subida ao Carvalho

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Chapel 6: Passo da crucificação

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Chapel 6: Passo da crucificação

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1. Isaiah

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2. Jeremiah

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3. Baruch

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4. Ezequiel

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5. Daniel

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6. Oseas

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7. Jonas

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8. Joel

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9. Amos

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10. Naum

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11. Abdias

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12. Habacuc

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Henry Moore

I would give everything, if I could get into my sculp-ture the same amount of humanity & seriousness, nobility & experience, acceptance of life, distinc-tion, & aristocracy with absolute no tricks no affec-tion no self consciousness looking straight ahead, no movement, but more alive than a real person.Henry Moore (Compton 1988)

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Recumbent Figure 1938

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Reclining Figure 1939

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Reclining Mother and Child 1960

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Four themes occur through out the film; the repetition of the triad, the four elements, the body as a sculpture and the use of the mirror. These suspend the body in a constant shifting between the real versus surreal and the present versus the past. The four themes are not used in isolation, but come together in different configurations to create a series of painterly moments that can tell a story in a single frame. The arrangement of the body, space, matter, light and time into a scene transforms the single moment into an experience of being. In one example, one-point perspective view of the hotel room focuses the viewer on three elements the window, the bed, and the bathroom’s door. These three elements are used to displace the body from its place in time and reality. The window is an opening where the body looks to the outside and is exposed to the reality of the present time and location. The body lays on the bed motionless as a sculpture and the mind is activated with memories from the past. The bathroom’s door is also used as a portal to brings elements from the past back into the present. The mirror that is framed by the opening of the bathroom’s door is one of the many mirrors that are placed through out the film to provide the body with a moment of self-reflection. The metaphysical use of the mirror not only represents the idea of the mirror as a window to the soul, where the body is confronted with its inner self, but

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also depicts the mirror as an instrument that can transform one body into another. In the film the body experience water in many different stages. The body sees water, the body is placed water, the body walks over puddles of water, and the body at some moments almost completely disappears in a thick fog. The physical properties and symbolic implication of water change the way the body experience spaces. Water symbolizes life and death, feminine and maternal elements, and is also associated with time. (Pallasmaa, 2007). Water also acquires characteristics of a mirror. In the last scene of the film the body is reclined by a lake staring at the reflection on the surface of the water. Although the scene can be compared to the image of Narcissus staring at his own image on the water, the reflection in the scene connects the body with elements of the present and past opposed to alienate it from. The study of cinema can open new possibilities to think about the design process. In the film “Nostalghia” the body is not only placed in the spaces, but the body is part of the space and part of the experience of the space. The experience is not only physical but also sensorial.

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Triad

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The Body as sculptures

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The Elements

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Mirror

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Only the painter is entitled to look at everything without being obliged to appraise what he sees.(Merleau-Ponty 1923)

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Devil’s Millhopper Gainesville, FL

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Immersed in the visible by his body, it self visible, the see-er does not appropriate what he sees; he merely approaches it by looking, he opens onto the world. And for its part, that world of which he is a part is not in itself, or matter. (Merleau-Ponty 1923)

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Architecture BuildingUniversity of Florida

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Depth thus understood is, rather experience of the reversibility of dimensions, of a global “locality” in which everything is in the same place at the same time, a locality from which height, width, and depth are abstracted, a voluminosity we express in a word when we say a thing is there.(Merleau-Ponty 1923)

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The union of the eye, hand and mind creates an image that is not only a visual recording or repre-sentation of the object, it is the object. As Jean-Paul Sartre observes: He [the painter] makes them [hous-es], that is, he creates an imaginary house on the canvas and not a sign of a house. And the house, which thus appears preserves all the ambiguity of real houses.( Juhani Pallasmaa 2009)

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If we are to experience architectural meaning and senses, it is vital that the effect of the build-ing should find a counterpart in the world of the viewer’s experience.( Juhani Pallasmaa 2005)

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Part Two

Book IV: A Collection of PaintingsBook V: The Book of RitualsBook VI: The Catoptrics’ machine

Paul CezanneLarge Bathers

It is not enough for a painter like Cezanne, an artist, or a philosopher, to create and express and idea; they must also awaken the experience which will make their idea take root in the consciousness of others. (Merleau-Ponty 1923)

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Paul CezanneLes baigneurs au repos

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Paul CezanneBathers

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Paul CezaneLes grandes baigneuses

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Edward HopperEleven A.M. 1926, Oil on Canvas28 1/8 X 36 1/8 in.

In drawing and painting, the pencil and the brush become inseparable extensions of the hand and the mind. A painter paints by means of the unconscious intentionality of the mind rather then the brush as a physical object. ( Juhani Pallasmaa 2009)

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Edward HopperA Woman in the Sun

1961Oil on Canvas

40 X 60 in.

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Edward HopperMorning in a City1944Oil on Canvas44 5/16 X 59 13/16 in.

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Edward Hopper Morning Sun

1952Oil on Canvas

28 1/8 X 40 1/8 in.

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De ChiricoThe Return of Ulysses1968

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De ChiricoDivine Horses of Achilles1963

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De ChiricoNymph with Triton1960

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De ChiricoHector and Andromache1924

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Mirrors are instruments of a universal magic that converts things into spectacle, spectacle into things, myself into another, and another into myself.(Merleau-Ponty 1923, 130)

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Vitoreli The mirror2010

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vitoreli Redemption

2009

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In fact, every act of sketching and drawing produces three different sets of image: the drawings that appear on the paper, the visual image recorded in my cerebral memory, and a muscular memory of the act of drawing itself. ( Juhani Pallasmaa 2009)

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A painter must consciously undergo the effect of his every brush stroke or he will no be aware of what he is doing and where his work is going. Moreover, he has to see each particular connection of doing and undergoing in relations to the whole that he desires to produce. To apprehend such relations is to think, and is one of the most exacting modes of thought. ( John Dewey 1934)

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VitoreliMadam Butterfly2008

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In drawing and painting, the pencil and the brush become inseparable extensions of the hand and the mind. A painter paints by means of the unconscious intentionality of the mind rather then the brush as a physical object. ( Juhani Pallasmaa 2009)

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VitoreliApproaching virtue2008

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Apollo and Daphne

Her prayer was scarcely finished when she feels a torpor take possession of her limbs – her supple trunk is girdled with a thin layer of fine bark over her smooth skin; her hair turns into foliage, her arms grow into branches, sluggish roots adhere to feet that were so recently so swift, her head becomes the summit of a tree; all that remains of her is a warm glow.Loving her still, the god puts his right hand against the trunk, and even now can feel her heart as it beats under the new bark; he hugs her limbs as if they were still human, and then puts his lips against the wood, which, even now, is adverse to his kiss.(Ovid 2004)

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Byblis and Caunus

She didn’t even recognize her passion nor did she think it wrong to kiss him often or throw her arms around her brother’s neck; and she herself was for some time deceived by the appearance of affectionate devotion.” “As pitch drops drip from gashes in pine bark, as gummy asphalt oozes from dense soil, as frozen water, touched by the soft breath of the west wind, now melts beneath the sun, so Byblis, quite consumed by her own tears, is changed at once into a flowing spring, which, in these parts, still bears its mistress’ name and has its source beneath a shrub-oak tree. (Ovid 2004)

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Achelous and Hercules

We separated for just a little while, and then we come together once again, each holding firm and neither backing down, and standing there, toe to toe, finger knotted, breast against breast, and forehead pressed to forehead: I’ve seen two might bulls rush at each other in competition for the herd’s prize heifer.(Ovid 2004)

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Phaethon

But Phaethon, his bright red hair ablaze, is whirled headlong, and tracing out an arc, seems like an comet with a tail of fire, or like a star about to fall that doesn’t. In Italy, far distant from his homeland, the river Eridanus [now the Po] receives his corpse and bathes his seething face. (Ovid 2004)

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Part Three

Book VII: The Book of MirrorsBook VIII: The Book of WaterBook IX: The Book of Scenes

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Reflection

This film is not a final product or a conclusion to this MRP investigation, but creates new possibilities to think about the design process. The cinematic process allows one to create a drawing where light; movement, sound, taste, texture, smell, fire, water, wind and earth are not static but retain their qualities. It allows for the temporary coalescence the many elements of this project. The analysis of Tarkovsky’s films, Henry Moore’s sculptures and the sculptures on the entrance sequence of the Baroque Sanctuary of Bom-Jesus in Brazil are translated into ideas of inter-placement, the body becoming sculptures, and sculptures transforming into moving bodies. Dante’s Inferno structures the film. Ovid’s “Metamorphoses” and the “I Ching or Book of Changes” become ways to understand the continuous flow of energy from one element into another, the transformation of meaning and form. In the book “The Thinking Hand” Juhani Pallasmma writes that in drawing and painting, the pencil and the brush become inseparable extensions of the hand and mind. (Pallasmaa 2009) The creation of drawing through a cinematic process goes one step further and the inseparable extension becomes between the brush, the whole body, and mind.

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My whole being is involved in the drawing as I touch the wind, hear the water, I can taste the ground, I can feel my body moving, and my whole body is overwhelmed by the experience of the site. This creates a profound understanding of the landscape, and redefines my understanding of the relation between body and space. This new perception of body and space also redefine how my body experiences other locations. The result is that a drawing becomes not only a representation of a place, but my hands transfer to the paper my understanding of the essence of that place. The sensorial experience is not about my body and the place, but is about the moment when the body and the place become interchangeable. The line between the two elements disappears and one can no longer look at either of them in isolation. The metamorphoses create a third element, which is called Architecture.

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In Loving Memory of My MotherIzanira Romera Vitoreli

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Dante Alighieri, Robert Pinsky, and Nicole Pinsky. 1994. The Inferno of Dante: a new verse translation. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Deschamps, Jérôme, Macha Makeieff, Jacques Tati, Bernard Maurice, Jacques Lagrange, Art Buchwald, Jean Badal, et al. 2006. Play time. [Irvington, N.Y.]: Criterion Collection.

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Moore, Henry, David Sylvester, and Alan Bowness. 1988. Henry Moore: complete sculpture. London: Lund Humphries.

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