The Matter of Form in Invisible Components Role of Foundations

What is the role of form in visible and invisible components? How do hidden structural elements (such as foundations) enable or influence the final appearance of visible elements (form)? This thesis aims to investigate the role of form in its generative relationship with structure in the contemporary Swiss cultural context, focusing on ground connection. This is because the area where structure and ground meet is a point of confrontation, more than ever between exposed and hidden. The purpose is to analyze and show how foundations may or may not become part of the final perception of the architectural body, evaluating their formal influence. For this the intention is to make physical models and drawings of some case studies, imagining to modify the ground line, showing and revealing the components of the foundations.

The structure of the thesis in a first part frames the cultural context of the research, defining the relationship between form and structure in a theoretical key and analyzing the characters of the geographical context (Switzerland). In the second part, the specific research components are analyzed, referring to the relationship with the ground (ground connection, foundations and topography). Finally, in the last part, a research by design is carried out, analyzing some possible variations on the selected case studies. The reasons that lead the research in Swiss territory are defined by the presence of difficult orography, with different kind of materials, which imposes in many projects an accurate study of connection with the ground, always looking for new solutions. In addition to this, the historical and contemporary importance of the formal and structural role in many Swiss “schools of thought” should be noted.

Normally the works are published, admired and studied for what emerges from the ground, without paying particular attention or wondering what is hidden underneath. The intention of the research is instead to analyze the relationship with the ground, revealing what is hidden below the ground line, investigating how a hidden structural component can influence the formal component of the visible building.

This introduce the idea of logical and physical unity between different components that can be linked to the idea of tectonics. Bottincher, in fact, interprets the term tectonics giving it the meaning of a complete system that binds each part into an unique whole, endowed with meaning. Ground connection not as an element itself, but as an element capable of transmitting and synthesizing the character of the work. (fig.1)

So the foundations become a spy, a "clue paradigm" 1 for research, an element that is commonly not analyzed, but able to highlight very relevant characters in the study and reading of the building. In fact this method has been pointed out by Carl Ginzburg, highlighting several examples of the application of this method. One of these is that used by the art historian Giovanni Morelli, 1 in the definition of a new paradigm for the association of works of art to their author. For this Morelli outlined a method that does not start from the most striking and recognizable characters of an artist but, on the contrary, from unusual characters, which are rarely observed (such as the representation of the hands or the ears) because it is there that the true artist is recognized. (fig.2) Similarly, in the intention to analyze the relationship between form and structure in known case studies, where the intention is not to start from the components where this relationship is clear and evident, but from a more hidden condition, such as foundations. For Luigi Snozzi the foundations are able to communicate the framework of the architectural idea and therefore to be a synthesis of the entire design process, defining how every building begins in its foundations. Therefore, to understand an architecture it is enough to observe the foundations, because the most beautiful and mysterious project plans are those of the foundations, where the whole idea matures in the subsoil. 2 (fig.3)

This is because it is evident that the path that translates an idea into a built architecture, structurally stable and adequate in its spatial location, finds a decisive moment in the way the artifact touches and binds to the earth's crust, putting down roots. According to Diethelm 3, the contact between the building and the ground does not only determine the transfer of loads, but also the interface with the topography of the place, in a relationship that is not only structural but also compositional. 4 In fact, architecture is inscribed in the geomorphological structure of the landscape through its form. 5 The zero point of this relationship is a section at the surface of the earth. 6 This identifies all the layers of land with which the site relates, layers that are more or less dense, strong or weak, imposing different solutions to anchor the building to the ground.

In this sense, the reasoning carried out by Alison and Peter Smithson, with “Ground Notations”, is central. Here is highlighted the importance of the grounding of the project as a design strategy, capable on the one hand of marking the physical nature of this component as an artifact and on the other hand the link to the place that is established. 7

DDR

"That of fantastic hypotheses is a very simple technique. Its form is precisely that of the question: what would happen if...". (1) So what would happen if ...to a building the ground line changed or if many layers of land disappeared? If the foundation was suddenly completely visible and no longer hidden? If elements were added or removed from a given structure, how would the design react? With the intention of analyzing how a building appears if in its final perception the ground line is modified, revealing hidden layers from time to time, it is interesting the work that Steven Holl does in the chapter "correlation programming" - contained in the volume Parallax. (2) Here Holl shows what he calls "primary relationships" that is the fundamental relationships that a building establishes with the ground, dividing them into: below ground, in ground, on ground, above ground. This highlights how the same volume completely changes its perception and form according to the different relationships it can establish with the ground. Similarly, Pierre Zoelly, imagines the section of the Pantheon completely underground, drastically changing its perception. (4) The intention is to investigate through drawing the possible variations of the case studies examined. (Fig. 4) This becomes an experimentation, through which an attempt is made to generate new knowledge. The motivation is driven by the intention to investigate the theme of the relationship between form and structure, in the connection to the ground. Besides studying different examples of ground connection, the intention is to evaluate how the same project reacts in the modification of some elements.

The next step for this part will be to define some possible design solution to inhabited the foundation part and image, show, design what would happen if..

NOTES

(1) Rodari Gianni (1973): “Che cosa succederebbe se..“, in Grammatica della fantasia, Torino: Einaudi Editore

(2) Hool, Steven (1997): Parallax - working with doubts, Primary relations, Princeton: Princeton Architectural Press

(3) Zoelly, Pierre. Representation of Panthoen (113 - 124 d.C.)- in Alois Diethelm, “Foundation - Plinth, Building underground” in Deplazes, Andrea (2008) “Constructing architecture: material, processes, structures; a Handbook” Basel:Birkhauser