Creating Place in a Placeless Space

Creating Place in a Placeless Space

Van Haeren, K.D.

Havik, K.M. (mentor)
Schreurs, E.P. (mentor)
Van de Pas, R. (mentor)

Architecture and The Built Environment

Architecture

2015-06-26

Place, being a product of personal perceptions, makes the establishment of such an inevitably subjective endeavor. The unavoidable Canadian perspective that I bring to each experience of the Dutch landscape has led to a project initiative aimed at revealing the uniqueness of currently ‘placeless’ spaces that reside within the fringe area of many Dutch cities. As an outsider, and in many cases a wanderer, there are spatial qualities and characteristics that present themselves during my own experiences that would otherwise go unnoticed by the native eye. Channeling such circumstances, and utilizing architecture, due to both passion and educational requirement, this thesis works to concretize uncategorized and unrecognized space by providing and establishing a place that is a result, a response, and a means of reinsertion into the Dutch landscape. This thesis proposes an architectural approach to place-making. It explores the process of narrative within the application of small scaled and curated installation spaces so to find a means in which architecture can create a place experience. The research investigates how a series of architectural interventions can establish a sense of place; a sensual experience that allows both person and place to be intertwined and resultantly defined. The aim is to better understand the relation of users to space and place so to comprehend that which is necessary to convert one into the other respectively. The objective is to design an architectural intervention that creates place within a placeless space by reviving and revealing the hidden aspects that are ever existent in space but gone unexperienced. The research reveals the layers that make up place and how it can be identified, established and experienced. A series of case studies at various scales reveal how installation like spaces fabricate place. By means of their small and intense atmospheres that are staged but without program they create an opportunity for an open dialogue between self and the situational surroundings. The projects demonstrate the freedom of imagination and interpretation necessary to have people engage with and identify themselves within a space, both in the moment and in memory. Place, being a personal product, therefore is relational to each individual, and must be weak in the sense that it is not strict in regards to its ways of being experienced. How one is situated within a space defines the place that is established. Place can exist in many forms, but what is essential is that it can be engaged with, lived in and experienced. By enabling one to insert their own narrative into a space, it becomes a personal and explicit place. An architectural place must allow moments and memories to form through personal encounters and engagement so that one can truly in and of the place. The resulting project series is located on three ‘placeless’ sites on the outskirts of Rotterdam with a design objective is to reveal what is hidden within each interstitial landscape. Though each has the same task, the resulting places are explicit to the site they are situated on. The installations ignite an intrigue within users, standing bluntly within the context, and invite a wondering and wandering within its walls. The forms are not only implanted but integrated within the site to show their site in a new light. Through a sequencing of events within each architectural intervention, the existing site is intermittently restricted and revealed to the reader; the experiencer. The architectural form establishes new circumstances to engage with the landscape, awakening one’s distant gaze to one of focus and precision, exposing a composition of site specific qualities that had previously not been realized. Each design being both a response and reaction to the landscape, they offer unique experiences and moments of pause within their respective chaotic contexts. Each architectural installation offers the opportunity to identify, orient and dwell in the here-and-now; in a personal and momentary place.

place-making

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:e6e15f5a-7b30-4cdd-b73f-fb5166ef82fc

Student theses

master thesis

(c) 2015 Van Haeren Kristen , D.