Architectural definition of an environment suitable for contemporary art

Architectural Definition of an Environment Suitable for

Contemporary

Art

by Pierre E. Leclerc

Bachelor of Fine Arts

University Concordia, Montr6al, 1984

Submitted to the Department of Architecture

in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree

Master of Architecture

at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

February

1990

@ Pierre E. Leclerc, 1990

The author hereby grants to M.I.T. permission to reproduce and to distribute

publicly copies of this thesis in whole or in part.

Signature of the author

...

Pierre E.Leclerc

Department of Architecture

19 January 1990

C ertified by

...

:...

...

...

...

y. ... ... o...

... ...

Fernando Domeyko

Lecturer

\"V

Thesis Supervisor

Accepted by...

William Porter

Chairman

Departmental Committee for

Graduate Students

MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

MAR

0 2 1990

Remerciements

/

Acknowledgment

Je dedie cette thbse

a

Sylvie qui, au cours des trois dernieres annees, s'est

montree totalement comprehensible et patiente, et ce , malgre

la

distance qui

nous separait. Je lui dois beaucoup et encore plus aujourd'hui apres tous les

efforts qu'elle a mise dans cette these... Nous pouvons enfin nous retrouver.

I would like to express all my gratitude to Fernando Domeyko who has been

during all my studies here of extreme support. I respect him very much and

consider having learn more than I can express from him. Without him my

studies in this school would have been of a completely different texture. I am

not sure that I would have done it.!

I also want to thank Waclaw Zalewski for his insights on structures along those

years.

Frank Miller and Michael Singer for their insights, in this thesis,as readers.

I would like to thanks those who helped me during this thesis, especially Amy,

Eugenie and, indirectly, Julie. Thank you also to Kairos who took the time to

read this text. Thanks to Choing and Chin for their helpful drawings

After those three years passed in this school , there is one person that I want to

thank especially. It is a friend and a roomate: Chan-Li who had been of great

support. I am glad to have lived with him, it was special. The best luck.

The best luck to David also. We had some really good time together as

classmates and roomates.

3

ABSTRACT

Architectural Definition of an Environment Suitable to Contemporary Art

by Pierre Leclerc

Submitted to the Department of Architecture on January 19 1990

in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Architecture at The Massachusetts

Institute of Technology.

The title of this thesis implies a critical consideration

of the subject, i.e how do we create, show and consume

the product of art today, which environment suits it

the best and why.

The term itself, contemporary art is

actually too vague and encompasses such a long

historical period

that I will restate its period, for the

purpose of this project,

to the actual; and its actors:

those who are affecting the art community now.

The environment that I am proposing here is neither

a museum or a gallery space, neither a studio or a

housing project.

The main intent of this work is to

create an environment which is a living one, not a

monument to art or to a particular period.

It is an

environment which can facilitate the creative act: in

its process as well as in its consumption

.

It is an

environment

which

offers

to both,

curators

and

artists

liberty

and

stimulation

to

redefine

and

confront their particular concerns, which is in my

understanding the beauty of art, i.e. their needs to

question and search ones own visions.

This thesis

is the

synthesis

of my

professional

understanding.

Working in art for many years and

being involved

in architecture

through my studies

here at MIT,

I wanted

to

end by

creating

an

environment which

will be a representation

of a

living place where I

,

as wellas other artists, would

want to be involved; where the quality of its rooms

and spaces (light, materials, sensual qualities...), the

discovery

through

intellectual

and

physical

movement,

would offer conception,

feelings and

images of work to be realised, telling me that there is

so much to do once I am out of here!!!

Art and its process is a representation of our life. Its

physical environment is also a possible interpretation

of a physical environment which could be applied to

many individuals...

Thesis Supervisor:

Fernando Domeyko

Title:

Lecturer

4

Table of Contents

Abstract... 3

Introduction...5

The Diversity of Works...

7

The Site:

1.Montreal...13

2. Its Location...14

SiteAnalysis...15

The Existing Structures...24

TheProject :

The Attitude Toward the Project...31

The Project...33

Site Plan ...

35

Site Attitude...37

Plans:

General...41

Details...48

Sections...

65

Elevations... 95

Bibliography...111

=Fvt-, -- - ;%-- - --- - -cm - - - 9-- - -.-

-5

New Gallery, Stuttgart

James Sterling/ Michael Wiltord 1977-198?

su

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INTRODUCTION

The

premisses:

Contemporary Art needs a certain context in which to be created

and shown to the public. Museum and galleries have been

generally the context in which such art has been exhibited, while

the artist's studio has been considered a place for making art.

Since the 60's the art production shifted considerably and

exploded beyond all its previous borders. The range of work

produced was considerable; it challenged the notion of art, its

process, its exhibition as well as its quality as a commercial artifact.

New and different categories of art appeared such as happenings,

performances, installations, conceptual art, earth works,

environmental'art, computer art. Such an important transition

requiered a reconsideration of the art world in terms of politics and

spaces.

In response to these needs, museums as well as contemporary

galleries offer a type of sterilized environment, where the piece of

art is supposed to express itself in all its grandeur, without

interference with the architecture. The result is banality instead of

discovery,

The artist, imagining the place where his work will come to grief, is

led to conceive all possible situations of every work (which is

quite impossible), or a typical space (this he does). The result is

the predictable cubic space, uniformly lit, neutralised to the

extreme, which characterizes the museum/gallery of today. This

state of affairs consciously or unconsciously compels the artists

to banalize his own work in order to make it conform to the

banality of the space that receives it.

(Daniel Buren)

I will go even further: the banality of those spaces influence the

museum/gallery curators whose choice of particular pieces of art

lead to the work's automatic appurtenance to human history.

Those choices influence strongly the production as well as the

direction of contemporary art.

By exhibiting only the final work, museums do not offer to the

viewer the possibility to understand artistic production as something which is built through trial and error like any other creative activity. If museums demonstrate the process as well as the final product in an environment which could accomodate both, the distance between art and life could be diminished.

While art works are shown in galleries and Museums, they are created in other places, generally the artist's studio.

In the studio we generally find finished work, work in progress, abandoned work, sketches - a collection of visible evidence viewed simultaneously that allows an understanding of process: this process which constitute the actual construction from which the final work is only a residue. What we observe is that trough the transfer of the final work to its place of exhibition, all this esssential information about its making dissapears: the reality of the work, its "truth", its relationship to its creator and place of

creation, is irretrievably lost in the transfer. it is this aspect of

the work that is extinguished by the museum's desire to "install". (Daniel Buren)

This sense that the main point of the work is lost somewhere between its place of production and its place of consumption forced me to reconsider the significance of the work place, and its

relationship with the display of the art work.

Municipal Museum, Monchengladbach Hans Hollein, 1972-1982

191

II

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0

7

8

1 .Overhead View.

2. No Title

Spirale Jetty. Great Salt Lake, Utah, April _{Detail, No Title, Lewiston, New York, 1976.}

1970. Robert Simthson _{140 feet across, eight feet deep, steel,}

Photography by Gianfranco _{concrete, crushed rock. Mary Miss}

Gorqoni/Contact. 4tj it il 11110 AN Sw 77 , Tw 4b -4k ot Aif 4w, 3 Wr

9

Nonsite, Oberhausen,Germany, 1968;

10

46. Andy Goldsworthy (b. 1956). Arch, 1982. Stone. Blaenau Ffestiniog, Wales. Photograph by the artist.

Body of Thought, 1987 -88

Aluminum 110 x 333 165 in (280 x 846 x 419 cm.)

Courtesy of Marian Goodman Gallery, New ,York.

Blind Deaf and Dumb,1985

Laminated wood,122 x 338 5/8 (310 x 860 x

11

1. Nam June Paik, Videoskulptur fur die tV-Show

Bei Bio 'WDR", Koln 12. April 1984

Anselm Kiefer,

To The Unknown Painter,

Dem unbekannten Maler, 1980

Watercolor on paper, 18 1/2 x 19 1/2 Collection of Antonio Homem, New York. Drums of Chaos

12

qw-4

13

THE SITE

Montreal

Montreal was chosen to implement this project for many reasons. I

lived in Montreal for 8 years before my studies and I had the chance

to appreciate it. It is an extremely liveable city, one where people still

live, and often enjoy life. I plan to return to practice in Montreal and

so this project is an important source of information directly related to

an environment that I will eventually confront and shape.

Montreal is a city on the verge of becoming an international city, and it

has the potential and the infrastucture to offer a lot to the people

coming to its center. Its cultural activities are numerous and of great

quality. Its food is also excellent and varied. Many of its public places

are open quite late at night, even all night. Its transportation system is

remarkable. Its subway system smooth and rapid. But Montreal is

isolated and needs to receive more input from the exterior to inform

its people and to built its reputation.

14 -- 7 o- T -. - . -- -1--1

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THE SITE

Its location

The choice of the site was crucial to the project. The necessity to

create an environment where the dynamism comes from the

stimulation of working and showing works of art requires a site which

offers a range of interaction from extremely public to extremely

private. The project should not appear as an alien on the site, where

an institution which brings together life, work and culture with the full

range of privacy and publicness, can inscribe itself into the existing

traditionnal network of its surrounding. The city center seemed to

offer such a potential, especially along two of its main vehicular axes:

St-Laurent and Sherbrooke.

Those two main axes cross the entire island and meet in the

downtown area where the site is situated. They are also two cultural

axes of the public institutions and the underground and ethnic

cultures.

The east-west axis of St-Laurent is the shear between the French

and the English communities. It is an ethnic street from Chinatown to

the Portuguese neighborhood, to the Greek and Italian communities.

Bars, shops, restaurants are also part of the picture. Even

prostitution has its roots on sidewalks of St-Laurent between my site

and Chinatown.

St-Laurent is also a major cultural street, where galleries, alternative

theaters and dance groups perform and exhibit. Most artists have

their studios and often live along this street.

Sherbrooke running north-south is the street of the public

institutions: museums, commercial galleries, libraries, universities

and public parks. It is also the topographical limit of the "plateau".

Sherbrooke acts as the retaining wall before the first major slope

toward the river. The site is situated exactly at this point, on the east

15

SITE ANALYSIS:

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THE SITE

The existing structures.

I was attracted to the site by two existing buildings which are located

on both side of St-Laurent: a burned down church on the south side and an old abandonned brewery on the north side.

These two buildings have an extremely interesting and strong character. They also have a living experience that a new building cannot offer which permits a confrontation of the artist with his (her) work in relation to the site. I decide to use them along with the adjacent empty lots and abandonned buildings

25

An Old Brewery

A Burned down church

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26

The existence of buildings through their work, or more precisely through their history marked by human activities is the representation of human presence. Buildings keep in their structures that atmosphere and that human presence.

By creating an environment for intensive activity of humans, here

artists This quality of human presence in the old is renewed and reinforced in the new.

28

Kawamata; Destroyer church

March-September, 1987

Projet; participated to documenta 8 in

Kassel

Olt.

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- I4 -William Bennett .

View looking into Wedge

Perimeters Pavilions Decoys, Nassau country museum, Roslyn, New york

(stone Boat) .

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29

Charlemagne Palestine, Drawing vs. book; Jim Lapine. "installation view,".

First Gate Ritual Series Part II. 1978.

Wood , stone and phagmites, 100 x 156 x 180 ".

Collection of the artist.

B'

pj~

Interior Design (phase 2-3) Andree Putman.

ICoyote: "I Like America and America likes

me. Joseph Buvs

Action Galerie Renee Block, Ney York, mai

1974

Georq Dietzler

The attitude toward the project:

My attitude toward this problem is one of synthesis

where the facilities related to art in process and in

consumption are blend together to create a total

living environment. Artists come and work for a

specific period of time varying from 3 months to a

year. The artist are sponsored by specific programs

of exhibiton and /or education planned by an existing

group of curators. The environment is conceived as a

highly flexible in which access and spaces permit the

curators as well as the artists to define entirely the evolution of their project as well as its spatial setting.

It is conceived as a place of experimentation and

production, where the work is done on site and / or in

the city and/or somewhere else. In this place the

artist is invited to work live and exhibit, work and

live, or live only. This range of possibility could

accomodate people from many medium, with a

minimal reconfiguration of the space. The work

produced could be built inside and brought outside by

trucks or strictly exhibited in situ The center can also

exhibit existing works that are ship to the center.

My decision to address contemporary art as I

explained it at the beginning of the abstract is more related to the fact that the art produced today is the

one living today. Creating an environment for a

living art implies people living and also performing. It cannot be done with dead people, even if their work

is incredible. That is one of the roles of the museum,

to conserve the work of the dead, it is not the role of

the environment that I am proposing here.

There are already some examples of such living art

environments, PSI in New York , Villa Arson in Nice,

the Magasin in Grenoble, or Plan K in Brussel. In

addition there are many other small places, sometimes alternative galleries like in Montreal or in New-York

(less and less), or specific events such as the

Documenta in Kassel, or the sculpture project in

Munster, both in Germany.

These examplary placesc are less interested in the

commercial aspect of the art market than in

producing interesting exhibitions, showing the

production that we could consider at the edge of the

artistic thinking and experimentation.

Architecturally they are in most cases situated in old

factories renovated which have been renovated and

adjusted to their needs. Their facilities varies from

exhibition areas with, or without, residences and

working areas.

33

THE PROJECT

The architectural project is thought of as a whole constituted of zones of activities. The two main activities are defined by the north and south sides of St-Laurent and by the two existing structures of the church and the brewery, that are kept architecturally intact.

The general organisation is based on maximum flexibility and an easy access with minimal control points. The importance is to offer buildings which are connected to the whole of the site, but which could also be isolated for specific periods while leaving public access through without stopping their intemal activities.

My decision toward the access system is the following:

1. A main access through the entire site on the south side, which

bring the public through the entire length of the building and finally into the building or to the street.

2. An internal street at the lowest level, which crosses the street underground and give complete access from below to the entire site on both side of St-Laurent. This street is pedestrian and vehicular.

On the south site, a major building is added to the church complex to house artists, major exhibition spaces and commercial/public areas such as theater, restaurant, and lobby. On the other side, a new building is attached to the brewery as a support to the brewery and to the whole site. This building houses the administration and the bookstore in the front part, and the workshops for heavy equipment, metal, wood ,stone, etc., in its back part. The space between the two existing brewery buildings is covered with a glazed arch, and articulate the vertical access from the

underground street. This major public space acts as a cafe, restaurant, and auditorium for the north site.

35

LIZI

I

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SITE ATTITUDE

Despite its fantastic location the site is in ruins. One of the reasons is its strong topographical change. In order to stabilise the topolgraphcal change on the south part of St-Laurent, the ground is lifted to the level of Sherbrooke to create the main entrance from Sherbrooke. The change in level of the site is such that it is possible to carve out a major building from that new ground, and create a strong ground and underground circulation link with the other side of the site.

The entrance level on Sherbrooke organises the south side. It is the reference level from which the other levels are linked by vertical

circulation outside and inside the building. It is defined as a procession through a long bridge which takes you from the street, through the entire length of the site to its other end which is the official entrance to the complex thatoverlooks the roofs of Montreal

28 feet above ground. This public procession is an introduction

which could bring you down again through the fabric of the city or inside the art center to its lobby.

One level below the bridge is the street link with the north side at the brewery level. This connection is done at the middle of the south side, in line with the brewery, between its two buildings. It connects also Clark street and St-Laurent street through its plaza.

28 feet below the bridge is the entrance to the lowest level. This is

also the level of the underground plane which connects the site on both side of St-Laurent and through a building/tunnel. This level is essential to the understanding of the project as a whole. It is organised along an internal street on which trucks and

mechanical lift can transport materials and/or works. It permits an

easy access to all the facilities for the artists as well as for the public. It is also the ground floor for most of the individual studios as well as for the special exhibition/studios spaces. This level is like an underground city which connects with the outside at many points/levels through major vertical shafts which are strategically

placed and easily recognizable.

This decision of burying such a large area is characteristic of the

underground life of Montreal, which is a result of climatic

necessities.

The Internal street

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Plat form for hoist in twin nave with metal

balustrade added by Valade and Pistre.

2.First phase of conversion included adding gantries,catwalk and lighting to naves.

Ted Victoria, Oil, movement in six parts," Installation view".

Statues perch on metal beam hung from existing walls.

79

The exhibition space.I

The floors of the space have been removed,

leaving an open volume with a free structure.

it offers a flexiblky In plan and section. The

movement through the space could be

The exhibition space.

The floors of the space have been removed, leaving an open volume with a free structure. It offers a flexibility in plan and section. The movement through the space could be entirely redefined.

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Forging of Berlin Block for Charli Chaplin in Henrichshutte, Hattigen. 1977.

Rigging of Elevator by Ray La Chapelle and Sons, Steelriggers in Hudson River

Museum, Yonkers, N .Y. 1980.

Forming of Clara-Clara. 1983.

Steven Woodward in his studio constructing

Another Conundrum, and installing the on

1 RUE STAURENT SECTION C-C 04 & 16 32 83 - -~A.

84

The bridge: an experience of the site

As you take the main entrance: the bridge, the ground goes down

before the first wall (the slip) of the studio, revealing its foundation,

and the church foundation. You pass through the slip: walls of lead,

roofing coming down to your feet, evacuating the water along its

side. On top skylights are bouncing the south light into the studio

space down below. As you emerge from the slip, you overlook the

plaza level, 13 feet below. You are now facing the main building, a

mass separated into parts, inviting you to penetrate its membrane: its

glass skin. The way is now open, the wind maybe , the snow and that

membrane which is there to protect you, you cross and as you do you

have a glimpse of the other side of St-Laurent, where another glass

surface is coming down ,covering the space between two old

buildings, masses of gray stone. And then the wind reminds you of

your stay and of your goal... The membrane. You cross... a flight of

stairs goes down to the ground, using the surface of the membrane,:

the arch as a support. You have the choice to go down to the plaza

level or to penetrate into the membrane. You remark the water from

the rain flowing along the arch sides being received in a long pool at

the plaza level

You decide to penetrate the membrane: the volume defined by the

arch, the walls and the ground are entirely glazed as if the building

wanted to show its interior, its inner life. You are in a vitrine, looking at

vitrines; you are not sure if you are seen or if you see... You are still

over, but the surface of the ground is now a drop, 28 feet below,

screened by beams, and cranes under the glassed surface. It seems

that in the bottom there is water, and a guy... working< working!!!!

You realise suddenly your situation of witness. The sky let the place

to the glassed arch (membrane) suspended from above, hold from

the sky?...no, another mass is on your left, zones of circulation,

habitation and then again those beams but two stories over your

head. Next to you is glass still, open spaces, columns, and panels on

which art works are exhibited on one side: the gallery.

On the other side it is work in progress, many people doing,

scaffoldings up in a three stories high zone north lit by skylights.

You cross the entire zone discovering the buildings. Almost to its

other end the bridge expand and becomes an island over the glass It

receives you and re-directs you Here again you can leave by a major

vertical access system, which take you down 28 feet below to the

ground at the street level on St-Laurent.. Or, You can enter the

exhibit area on its sides, the main entrance to either the gallery on

the left, or the exhibition / studios on the right.

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House of the Silver Wedding,

2 d century BC. Atrium. Pompeii.

.La fin du 20 siecle, The Pack,1969.Joseph Beuys.

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installation in proaress:

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Los Angeles,California 1983

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The church

The church is used as an outdoor exhibition and work area. It is connected to a covered studio space by a double door where the artist can work protected from the elements. The church is the biggest outdoor space of the project and it is kept as intact as possible. The only transformation is the introduction of a circulation system to the south walls at the level of the top windows. It brings the visitors from the street level around the entire space where they can look down into the space through the windows or down at the street. The viewer can then access the ground level using the stairssituated in the back of the churh. From the ground level;, the visitors can either re-enter the exhibit area, facing now the main door and its tower, or they go out into the middle plaza. The ground of the church is of earth, its ceiling the sky ,and the walls the ruins of the church. It is a cosmic space, where the artist has the freedom to shape, transform and respect the ruin.

The light defines the main entrance

In the early morning, the sun shines through the back opening (east side) of the church and lights the three front doors sequentially. First the left door of Christ, followed by the central door ofgod and then finally the right door of the holy spirit. In the adjacent studio building, a slip, six feet wide is carved straight through the building. This slip not only leadsthe way to a bridge which defines an axis from Sherbrooke street up to the other end of the site, but when the sun shines on the thrid door, the light defines the axis of the bridge, opening the site and indicates the main public entrance.

111

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Art Front Gallery, Kawamata.

Gendaikikakushitsu publishing . Japan . 1987 Artstudio, Special Joseph Beuys.

Printemps, 1987.

Bearley John, Earthworks and Beyond.

Abbeville. Press . N.Y. 1984.

Caldwell John, Richard Deacon. The Carnegie Museum of Art, 1988. Canali Guido ,Museum.Parma. Italy.

The Architectural Review 1094:p:60-71. Ap. 88. Celant Germano, Identitee Italienne.

Centre Georges Pompidou, France .1981.

Frampton Kenneth, Histoire critique de I'architecture moderne Philippe Sers. France . 1985.

Gehry Frank. Buildings and Projects Rizzoli, Inc. N.Y. 1987.

Hobbs Robert, Robert Smithson Sculpture. Cornell University. Press.1981.

Michelson Annette, October The First Decade. 1976-1986, M.I.T. Press. Cambridge. 1987.

Mollard Claude, L'enjeu du centre Georges Pompidou

U.G.E. Editions. France. 1977.

Norberg-Schulz Christian, Meaning in Western Architecture.

Rizzoli,lnc. N.Y.1980.

Onze Article Anthology, Works of Jean Nouvel 1945.

A + U no 24. JI' !988.

Savitt Brentano, 112 Workshop. 112 Greene street.

New York University. Press. N.Y. 1981 The Princeton Journal, Landscape. Princeton Architectural Press. N.Y. 1985. Waldman Diane, Michael Si

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, N.Y. 1984 Walker Art Center, Sculpture Inside Outside