Space within a Space : Well in Joji

Space with a space : A theme I am currently exploring where one can perceive two spaces simultaneously. Even though the smaller space is embedded inside the larger one, both have distinct sense of enclosure independent of each other. The original trigger was the reading of the Orinda House designed by Charles Moore, in which the two rooms (the bathroom and living) are embedded  as pavilions with in the larger perimeter of the house. The thematic idea is to explore of the condition of ‘simultaneity’ in crafting of space.

A still from Joji

While watching this brilliant Malayalam movie Joji, i had made a quick note on the well (or pond) in my notebook. I was intrigued by the stone retaining wall registering the slope of the landscape.The net tied on the top to hold the falling leaves adds to the degree of enclosure. In the movie, it is in this well Joji plots up the evil ideas to kill his own father. A place where he is himself, devoid of the mask of innocence he is wearing in the house otherwise. The writer of the movie Shyam Pushkaran says “The idea was that Joji, as a child, had a fort at this pond, Whenever he felt abandoned by his father as a child, he would go there and cry. The pond was a comfort to him. He returns there after the murder to seek comfort.” (1) In contrast  to his own closed bedroom inside the house, the open well, slightly far away from the house, helps him grow his intentions is private. Two facts, which i figured out later about making of the movie, made me more curious. The well was added to the existing plantation to shoot these important scenes. And another fact is that Shyam completed the script after the location is chosen(2)( A classic move which Frampton would have loved to indicate in his ideas of critical regionalism). The need for the well is a great reminder on what has architecture to offer. A sense of enclosure in the form of a refuge, a frame to articulate darkness and most importantly an interior space. Architecture in India has always had affinity towards the subterranean and the cave. Like the stepped wells. And this well is a classic illustration of that primal urge to move into the ground.

Unlike I have discussed earlier on the same theme in Melkote (link), here it is strategy of the landscape. A space within a space at the scale of the landscape. 

Notes.
Link to the Film Companion piece where  (1) and (2) are discussed.  https://www.filmcompanion.in/features/malayalam-features/malayalam-movies-2021-how-houses-in-films-make-for-the-perfect-crime-scene-kala-aarkkariyam-joji-irul/

List 01 : Steven Holl

“All words are pegs to hang ideas on.” Henry Ward Beecher

I love lists (tables included). They are sharp, focussed, definite yet open ended and elemental. In an online lecture Steven Holl gave recently, he presented this list below (reproduced for clarity here). It covers a wide range of thoughts. He builds upon first two columns from a pre existing Colin Rowe’s list (not to able to place the original source). I was delighted to read the subtle differences between the terms Exact-Precise, Predictable-Mesaurable-Differential, Ritual-Functional-Operative.

Sequential Diagramming

Sequential diagramming (not sure where I came across this term or if I cooked it up) is a way of showing process with continuity. It makes the rigour visible and the journey of the thought with all its deviations and convergences. Here are some of the origins of the idea and its possibilities.

In days of still camera, Eadweard Muybridge’s photographic series ‘Horses in Motion’ (1870’s) is believed to have helped the invention of the movies or the moving images. Muybridge’s work was commissioned by Leland Stanford. This experiment was to find evidence for a huge bet to prove that when a horse gallops, does any of the feet touch the ground. Muybridge set a series of cameras in a sequence triggered at planned intervals. He was able to prove that all the legs of the horse are in air at a particular movement. A wonderful example on the important of capturing the ‘sequence’

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Eisenman always used this method of tracing the process from the starting point – the cube in this case. For him this ‘sequence’ was inevitable. Pronouncing these spatial operations became the evidence of his thinking process.

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This is a drawing from John Habraken’s must read book for academics : ‘ Conversations with Form’ where the process of design is recorded in a this analytical method. This is the original trigger for this piece.

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Vaishnavi’s (WCFA, Batch 2018, Sem 5) diagrams here happened almost at end of the semester for a public building design. Here rather than diagrams generating ideas, it helped her consolidate and give a comprehensive weave to all the fragmented enquires from the earlier process.

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Atul’s (WCFA, Batch 2018, Sem 2) here crisply captures the different options on how a wall negotiates the threshold of moving from a street to a residential neighbourhood. This design exercise was an extension from Habraken’s methodology

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Nagashree’s (WCFA, Batch 2018, Sem 2) design is a different outcome of the same brief as above.

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Tony’s (WCFA, Batch 2017, Sem 5) explores here the possibility of ‘three dimensional verandah’ and conditions of movement in a public building.