UFA Cinema CenterCOOP HIMMELB(L)AU

formbodyspacetechniquetechnique

morphological process from vitruvian symmetry to deconstructivism (UFA Cinema Center)

techniquetransitional relationships

EDCBA F

Deconstructivist ideas of the broken body are applied to UFA as it does not follow symmetrical ideals of the Cartesian grid and proportions of the perfect male body. In a sequential order of breaking down the grid to create a formula conducive to deconstructivist ideologies, the perfect form is transformed into another form that is arguably as perfect with the UFA. This process requires a literal break down of the parts and at points may seem confused from plan view. The final image is settled into a new system not unlike bones that have been broken and have not been reset properly, causing a new outcome. The elastic nature of the new plan exhibits future potential for systems that can further break from traditional symmetry that provide an outcome that is as much if not more successful that its predecessors. Part of the success of the UFA is the transition from old to new system still maintains Cartesian logic that has adapted to manifest itself in UFA.

technique

government public space

public access/thoroughfare

UFA public space merged with governmental public space

pedestrian restriction potential moments of user interaction of public space as shortcut/leisure/interaction

public space transitioning with private UFA space

Elizabeth Grosz discusses the dichotomy of wall and window and their ability to divide us from the world and provide new connections with those on the other side. “The wall darkens, keeps out light and natural forces: the window selectively enframes them again to return them to the interior, to bring illumination inside. The wall, floor and windows each enframe, that is, divide and select both each other and their collective outside.”(Grosz, 17). Building the theatre with glass walls open up the public space and does not create a division from the street. Instead, the technique of glass curtain wall invites the outside in, creating a sense of the building turning inside out to create a dialogue with the city. Coop Himmelblau have specific intentions with UFA to increase public space within an area that previously had little public space. UFA also opens up public flow for pedestrians and the building provides potential for shortcut, allowing the user to use the space much differently than movie goers or other recreational themes such as conversation, sitting, relaxation. Providing access vertically and through the building allows for a complete three dimensional experience for pedestrian. The explicit nature of public space

blurring between building and sidewalk are a result of developing public community space

blurring of public space

technique

body as observed and observer

sitelines

fold: literalfold: deluezian

folding and the affect of self on self. Producing the ability to be seen multidimensionally

viewpoints of self and others (multiple stages)

12

43

sitelines as fold (in section)

The UFA Cinema Centre has reconsidered the cartesian grid with the assemblage of the building and in part, there is a reliance on Computer Aided Design to achieve the complex geometry that is a result of this process. The UFA has components that change in scale to add a further complexity to the project and the build is off axis to take the best advantage of providing as much public space as possible. Cecil Balmond argues that this new technique for building does not need to be explicit and becomes a participant in the architecture, a “trace rather than skeleton with pathways that attempt to interpret space” (Balmond, 77). The pathways that run through UFA can act as short cuts but also become folded in to viewpoints. The body works its way through the space, seemingly as an actor who is continually framed through various perspective; on display and potentially watching while being watched. The pathway technique ties to the commercial function of the building but more importantly, the lack of borders and boundaries transform into lines of passage and transition points that reinforce the public space that is essential to the building. It is these moments where public and private overlap, folding into one another and become one and the same.

bibliography

Elizabeth Grosz, Chaos, Territory, Art: Deleuze and the Framing of the Earth, 2008.

Cecil Balmond, “New Structure and the Informal”, in Pierluigi Nicolin, ed. Lotus International 98, 1998, 70-83.