Searching for the Grandiose Johan Wallhammar

Johan Wallhammar

Handledare/

Anders Wilhelmson

Supervisor

Examinator/

Per Fransson

Examiner

Examensarbete inom arkitektur, avancerad nivå 30 hp

Degree Project in Architecture, Second Level 30 credits

25 may 2018

Searching for the Grandiose

the grandiose

Master thesis project in architecture

KTH - Royal Institute of Technology

Stockholm, Sweden

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Searching for the Grandiose

Johan Wallhammar, KTH may 2018

Context

4

Introduction

5

The

imaginary

6

The

imaginary

and

popular

culture

7

Aim

of

thesis:

8

Theoretical

references 9

Etienne-Louis

Boullée

9

Giovanni

Battista

Piranesi

9

Bruno

Taut

10

Sigfried

Gideon

10

Sacred

Geometry 10

Method

&

Process

11

Method

12

Process

12

The

Project 13

Elevation

14

Conceiving

the

grandiose

15

Site

plan

15

Entrance

plan

26

Section

27

Interior

perspective

of

the

nave

30

Interior perspective of the central space

31

Appendix

-

Presentation

Panels

35

Appendix

-

Theory

41

Appendix

-

Sketches

44

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Searching for the Grandiose

Johan Wallhammar, KTH may 2018

Throughout history, humanity has created grand edifices. Palaces, temples, tombs and whole cities become monuments of civilisations and transcend time. The most famous of these edifices have become symbols for entire civilisations, a building typology that represents a people and their aspirations. It seems humanity has a common inherent characteristic that shows itself though constructing grand edifices, be it religious, political or commercial. What is it that inspires such creativity in us that we constantly wish to construct more of these wonders?

This project is called “Searching for the

Grandiose” and consequently dives into this

both historical and contemporary field of architecture. Both built and imaginary, this area of architecture has always inspired and pushed the boundaries for the possibilities of our profession. Furthermore, in the search for the grandiose also follows a possibility of the limitless – both economically, technically and mentally. In trying to design the grandiose, the architect must loosen the chains of reality and strive for the impossible and awesome.

SEARCHING FOR

the grandiose

“Throughout every great cultural epoch, the constructive will of the time was directed at one ulterior, metaphysical building type”

- Bruno Taut, The city Crown, 1919

The pyramids at Giza, 2560 BCE _{Left: The Eiffel Tower, 1889 CE}

Right: Burj Khalifa, 2009 CE

Parthenon, Athens, Greece, 432 BCE

Aerial View of Burning Man festival, 2009 Taj Mahaj, Agra, India, 1653 CE

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Imaginary edifices are also a part of our collective memory. These conceptual buildings also mirror civilisations’ beliefs and traditions. Both architects and archeologists have

attempted to imagine the temple of Solomon, and the Tower of Babel is one of the strongest scenes in the Old Testament.

As architects, we have the ability to create structures and spaces in our minds.

“And he carried me away in the Spirit to

a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. It had a great, high wall with twelve gates, and with twelve angels at the gates.

... The angel who talked with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city, its gates and its walls. The city was laid out like a square, as long as it was wide. He measured the city with the rod and found it to be 12,000 stadia in length, and as wide and high as it is long. The angel measured the wall using human measurement, and it was 144 cubits thick.The wall was made of jasper, and the city of pure gold, as pure as glass. “

- Book of revelations 21

Fischer von Erlach - rendering of Solomon’s temple, 1721

Artist’s rendering of New Jerusalem.

Olympus - from Disney’s Hercules

Asgard - from Marvel’s Thor-series

Sam Jacobs - The even covering of the field Tower of Babel - Lucas van Valckenborch, 1594

“These forms of drawing allow us to approach

the act of drawing not as an illustration of an architecture which exists somewhere else. Not as a diagram of an idea either. But as the site where an architectural idea can be staged.”

- Sam Jacobs - Drawing As Project – Post Digital

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Searching for the Grandiose

Johan Wallhammar, KTH may 2018

Nowadays, popular culture is often ahead of contemporary architecture in conceiving the grandiose. Historically, it has been the vast monuments of literature that has taken on the grandiose. However in the 20th century other medias such as the movie industry and more recently also the gaming industry are at the forefront of grandiose architecture.

The strongest imagery from popular culture today is often structures of power and

economical might. For example the enourmous pyramid that is the headquarters of the Tyrell Corporation in the Blade Runner movies, or the gargantuan Death Star from the Star Wars series are symbols of ultimate power, expressed in architecture.

In the gaming industry, the concept of dungeons or temples often take on the

grandiose. What is most interesting with video games in relation to this project is the players ability to enter and explore these grandiose structures. Even though we often get a full understanding of cinematic architecture, the gaming experience surpasses the cinematic one as the player can get a longer and more interactive experience with the architecture. Furthermore, in many games the ability to climb any surface really gives a brand new experience to see all parts of an architectural structure.

The Death Star from the Star Wars-series Still from the movie Blade Runner (1982)

Still from the movie series Lord of the Rings

Still from the movie Metropolis (1927) Still from the game Zelda: Twillight Princess

The imaginary and popular culture

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Searching for the Grandiose

Johan Wallhammar, KTH may 2018

“A work of art has no responsibility to

anyone, a building to everyone. ... Only a tiny part of architecture comes under art: monuments.”

-Adolf Loos, Architecture, 1910

So how can we create art? By not considering any realistic circumstances such as economy, site, styles, rules and regulations. Thus, the project will be site-unspecific, without economic boundaries and with no building regulations to follow.

Historically this field has many practitioners, mainly in what has been called “paper architecture”.

Etienne-Louis Boullée

In the 18th century Etienne-Louis Boullée created many fantastic architectural designs, many of which are of great inspiration to my thesis. His most famous project was his Cenotaph for Isaac Newton - an enormous funerary monument to the father of calculus. Most of Boullée’s projects were mostly academic experiments intended to glorify abstract concepts like public gratitude or attempts to conceive new types of buildings for post-revolutionary France.

Boullee´s philosophy could be summarized with a quote from his manifesto Architecture: Essay on Art:

“Our buildings – and our public buildings

in particular – should be to some extent poems. … Grandeur, too, always pleases us whatever form it takes for we are ever eager to increase our pleasure and would like to embrace the Universe”

Giovanni Battista Piranesi - Group of Stairs

Giovanni Battista Piranesi - View of a magnificent harbour

Giovanni Battista Piranesi - Vestibule of an ancient temple

EtienneLoius Boullée - Museum

EtienneLoius Boullée - Metropolitan Church EtienneLoius Boullée - Cenotaph for Newton

Giovanni Battista Piranesi

Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1778) is one of the most known architectural illustrators, famously known for his etchings of ancient roman ruins. As an architect with a deep interest in archeology,

Piranesi later began to “rebuild” the ancient ruins of Rome in his etchings, drawing the ruins in their former splendour. In his later etchings he started to make up ancient roman landscapes and architecture – resulting in awe-inspiring detailed architectural fantasies. His etchings were Capriccios, architectural fantasies that took fragments of architecture and put them in a new context, into seemingly vast buildings with impossible layouts.

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1919), “Throughout every great cultural epoch, the constructive will of the time was directed at one ulterior, metaphysical building type”. In Europe this has mainly been the church or the cathedral for the last millennia, in the middle-east the mosque etc. Perhaps this can apply to history at large, a rough view over the history of architecture confirms that most historical cultures all seemed to have an edifice that represents the culture.

“A minster, a cathedral above a historic

city; a pagoda above the huts of Indians; the enormous temple district in the square of the Chinese city; and the Acropolis above the simple houses of an ancient city – all show that the climax, the ultimate, is a crystallized religious conception. This is, at once, the starting point and final goal for all architecture.”

- Bruno Taut, The city crown, 1919

If one accepts this prerequisite, it seems as if each culture has an unconscious collective will, a Geist, which aims to create a certain edifice. As such, the purpose of the architect is to channel this geist and try to create and appropriate edifice for the time. (But how can we understand what the zeitgeist is, and how do we know what the people wants?) Taut realized that our times do not have the same homogenous relationship to religion and as such tried to create a non-religious edifice that could encompass all people – the City

Crown. The city crown was an entirely new city

with several districts and communal buildings, crowned by a large colourful crystal-like building, which was entirely empty and had no function save as “pure architecture”.

Bruno Taut - the City Crown

Bruno Taut - Alpine Architecture

Sigfried Gideon was also searching for monumentality and wrote in his text The Need for a new Monumentality (1944): “The people want buildings representing

their social, ceremonial and community life. They want buildings to be more than a functional fulfilment. They seek the expression of their aspirations for monumentality, for joy and excitement.”

As such, we need more spectacles in our daily lives, and also more arenas where these spectacles can take place. For example, large parts of Europeans consider themselves atheists but still want to do their rites of passage in the religious buildings. Our most viewed events are still the sport events and concerts, it seems people wish to take part in grand events in large arenas. Like Taut wrote in The City crown on the public’s desire for going to the movies, concerts, theatres etc:

“The desire for amusement, … should

not be interpreted as a raw drive for amusement. Rather, in it sits the cry of the soul for something higher, for the elevation above the everyday existence.”

Maybe we should take this desire into consideration and start designing grand projects that can host large events and also give the public a sense of awe and inspiration.

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Karl Friedrich Schinkel - Architectural Fantasy

Interior perspective of finished project Continuing from the previous semester’s work

where I tried to deconstruct the monumental into its separate parts, this project focus more on creating a whole. This semester, the project has been an experiment in form and space, translating into a building. Size has been an important factor in this project, used as a challenge and design tool.

Through a process similar to that of historical Capriccios and architectural fantasies the project started with the making of collages of architectural elements, simply put together. Close studies of reference projects were made and constantly reworked. Many small and large proposals were made.

obsession as a driving force

As time went by, the proposals got larger and larger. The process could almost be called obsessive. It became clear that some kind of structure was needed to be able to work in the desired scale of the project. That is, a huge scale. Studies of geometry helped creating a framework for the immense size, and also tidied up the then rather messy project.

Just before the mid-critique, the general layout of the project was set. However, being so vast, the project was continuosly reworked and the large numbers of building parts needed a lot of attention.

In the end, the project started to circle around representation and creating large images of architecture. The main interior perspective, measuring two by five meters, became the ultimate representation of the project and received the most attention.

It is the intent of this project to try reflect on and to create grandiose architecture. In the spirit of my historical and contemporary predecessors - the project will be:

• completely imaginary, • with no site in mind,

• no restrictions in regards to economy and size and,

• no program.

• Furthermore, large size will become a goal in itself and a design tool.

The ambition for the final product is to have a grandiose design that allows me to fully make use of my architectural tools at hand and a design that is both awe-inspiring and fun. Boullée first tried to conceive the appropriate site for his projects.

Piranesi made cappricios, i.e. fragments of existing architecture and putting it in a new context.

Taut programmed for nothingness and tried to realize the zeitgeist.

Sacred Geometry provides a framework when working in the imaginary.

This project has followed a similar order, starting out with collages of the grandiose and conceiving an imaginary site. the next phase of the project consisted of making cappricios and architectural fantasies. The project was also programmed to have no program, and sacred geometry was used to tidy up a rather messy capriccio into a simpler form that was easier to understand.

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fall semester 2017 -

deconstructing the monumental

early Sketches

Later sketches fall semester 2017 -

deconstructing the monumental

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Searching for the Grandiose

Johan Wallhammar, KTH may 2018

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 1. Harbour + Pier 2. entrance monument 3. City of dreams 4. Lake of the mind 5. Fields of expectation 6. Road of fantasy 7. Plateau

8. The project On the waves of imagination we sail when we

suddenly see land on the horizon. Sparkling on top of white cliffs we see a building, massive in size. We approach a pier down by the cliffs, where we anchor our ship and disembark. A long and winding stairs take us up on the cliffs where a big field spreads out in front of the building. Here, thousands of visitors have taken up shelter in a massive city of tents, surrounding the architectural fantasy. As we walk along the massive boulevard through the city we see a myriad of people and events taking place in this festival-like city. Once through the city of tents we enter the actual complex, with large green areas in front of the massive hill where the building sits.

Stairs as wide as a four-lane highway take us up and close to the building. Its size is immense, almost impossible to grasp. It is clearly wider than it is tall, however its height impresses us. We make a quick jump up in the air and suddenly we soar high up above the complex. Up here, we see both the majestic layout of the tent city and the building. Its eight-armed shape is symmetrical and all its arms lead into a vast dome, almost shaped like a flower.

As we enter the building we realize just how big it is. The doors are massive and the corridor is at least one hundred meters wide. Inside, the building stretches hundreds of meters in front of us, like the nave of a church only much longer and wider.

Conceiving the grandiose

After some time we finally reach the center of the building. The nave opens up into a vast circular space with even more columns, even larger than the ones before. In the middle of the space a huge dome opens up into the sky. Here, countless number of visitors walk around the space, mesmerized by its size and scale. Kids run around and adults laugh. We walk the stairs down into the central space where we really get to feel the immensity of the building. The opening in the ceiling lets the sun in and its light play on the walls of the dome.

Here, we realize that many of the other visitors come from other directions, from the other parts of the building. We realize that even though the building seemed symmetrical from up above, there is still much more to discover. After walking around in the central space we realize that we do not remember from where we came.

We are lost inside an architectural fantasy.

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Searching for the Grandiose

Johan Wallhammar, KTH may 2018

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Top view of the project and the plateau The easiest way to understand the building is from above. Here, you can easily see how one enters the building and the direction of all spaces. The dome on top of the building signals the epicenter of the building.

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Searching for the Grandiose

Johan Wallhammar, KTH may 2018

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Searching for the Grandiose

Johan Wallhammar, KTH may 2018

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Searching for the Grandiose

Johan Wallhammar, KTH may 2018

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Searching for the Grandiose

Johan Wallhammar, KTH may 2018

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Entrance plan

5. Rotunda - great hall 6. Lower rotunda 7. Meeting spaces

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Searching for the Grandiose

Johan Wallhammar, KTH may 2018

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Searching for the Grandiose

Johan Wallhammar, KTH may 2018

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After some time we finally reach the center of the building. The nave opens up into a vast circular space with even more columns, even larger than the ones before.

In the middle of the space a huge dome opens up into the sky. Here, countless number of visitors walk around the space, mesmerized by its size and scale.

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elevation of large column elevation of walls

in nave

elevation of grand entrance hall and stairs As this project takes on a massive scale, one

of the main obstacles has been the scale of the building in relation to the human body. How can we interact with a space that is almost a hundred meters high?

This project has tried to solve this dilemma by the use of ornament. Large building blocks like columns become smaller by giving them a plinth and a capital.

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Searching for the Grandiose

Johan Wallhammar, KTH may 2018

elevation doorway between nave and great hall

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Searching for the Grandiose

Johan Wallhammar, KTH may 2018

appendix

jOHAN W A LLHAMMA R, S TUDIO 2 ex ter ior elev ation Ax onometr ic view of entr ance s itu ation Ax onometr ic view of c onne c tion na ve - r o tund a Ax onometr ic view of fir st ha ll Ax onometr ic view of the na ve IS OMETR IC VIEW FR OM BEL O W TOP VIEW On the wa ves of imagination w e sail when w e sud denl

y see land on the horizon.

Sparkling on top of white cliffs w

e see a building, massiv e in size . W e a ppr oach a pier do wn b y the cliffs, wher e w e anchor our ship

and disembark. The main f

ocus of the pr

oject is its interior

.

After entering the na

ves, a long pr omenade to war ds the central r otunda f ollo ws. The main r ooms ar

e vast in size and height.

The

entrance and the na

ve ha

ve a linear dir

ection

wher

eas the central r

otunda f

ollo

ws a

cir

cular plan.

The sheer floor height al

wa ys turns f ocus upwar ds. Ev en though the building is symmetrical, ther e ar e ne w details to be f ound e ver ywher e. The easiest wa

y to understand the building

is fr om abo ve . Her e, y ou can easil y see ho w

one enters the building and the dir

ection of

all spaces.

The dome on top of the building

signals the epicenter of the building. Fur

thermor

e,

the building has openings in

the ceiling,

making the visit neither an inside

nor outside one

GSEducationalVersion 5�400 1 A rb e ts b la d Ax onometr ic view of the g r ea t ha ll top view of r o tund a Ax onometr ic view of s tair s d o wn the g r ea t ha ll GSEducationalVersion 1 En trepla n 1 -2000 GÄLLANDE pl an - 1:25 00 LONG S EC TION OF I SL AND - 1:15 000

text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text ex

ter

ior elev

jOHAN W A LLHAMMA R, S TUDIO 2 pr oblem of s c a le As this pr oject tak es on a massiv e scale , one

of the main obstacles has been the scale of the building in r

elation to the human body

.

Ho

w can w

e interact with a space that is

almost a hundr

ed meters high?

This pr

oject has tried to solv

e this dilemma

by the use of ornament.

Large building

blocks lik

e columns become smaller b

y

giving them a plinth and a ca

pital.

Fur

thermor

e,

these close-ups of diff

er

ent

building blocks giv

es a better understanding

of the actual scale of the pr

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Searching for the Grandiose

Johan Wallhammar, KTH may 2018

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Roman stadium, Arles, France

Santa Croce, Florence, italy

Aldo Rossi

The Architecture of the City (1966)

Marcel Poéte: “the evolution of cities is centred around persistences”

“Cities tend to remain on their axes of development, maintaining the position of their original layout and growing according to the direction and meaning of their older artefacts.”

“The artefacts remain or change but their physical sign, their locus remains.”

“… the urban artefacts are a part of the city that cannot be supressed because they constitute it.”

“ a monument persists in the city both symbolically and physically. A Monument’s persistence or permanence is a result of its capacity to constitute the city, its history and art, its being and memory.”

Cities and their artefacts are tightly connected. As such the monuments that sprung from their civilisation and city also affect the development of cities and their identities. Hence it could be argued that societies need artefacts and monuments, in the sense as artefacts (buildings, plazas, streets, parks) that create identity and keep our collective memory.

“A minster, a cathedral above a historic city; a pagoda above the huts of Indians; the enormous temple district in the square of the Chinese city; and the Acropolis above the simple houses of an ancient city – all show that the climax, the ultimate, is a crystallized religious conception. This is, at once, the starting point and final goal for all architecture.

“If the architect does not want to become

unnecessary, and if he wants to know the purpose of his life, he will have to design the crown of the city.”

Historically, humanity has constructed grand edifices. It seems something inside us wishes to transcend time and space, and create something eternal and grandiose. Consequently, the architect must search for the Zeitgeist and create the City Crown. A place where the people can elevate themselves above the everyday-life.

Bruno Taut, Illustrations from The City Crown (1919)

Bruno Taut, Illustrations from The City Crown (1919) “Monumentality derives from the eternal need of

the people to own symbols which reveal their inner life, their actions and their social conceptions.”

The people want more spectacle, joy and monumentality in their everyday life. Also, there is a great need for more spaces where people can fulfill these needs, wihtout consuming. As such, Gideon sees the need for civic centres, for rites of passage, meetings, concerts and much more. The civic centres will become new symbols of the people and their aspirations. As the latin meaning of monument is “to remind”, these new monuments will remind coming generations of time passed.

Etienne-Louis Boullée, Monument to the divine being Etienne-Louis Boullée, Museum

Etienne-Louis Boullée, Cenotaph for Newton (1784)

Etienne-Louis Boullée

Architecture, Essay on Art

“Our buildings – and our public buildings in particular – should be to some extent poems. The impression they make on us should arouse in us sensations that correspond to the function of that building in question.”

“Grandeur, too, always pleases us whatever form it takes for we are ever eager to increase our pleasure and would like to embrace the Universe”

“The aim of religious ceremonies is to induce a state of profound reverence. It is therefore necessary to use every possible means of inducing grandeur and majesty.”

“in a large project, we must use the ingenious techniques we have described to multiply objects to the greatest possible extent, but in the exact proportion to the whole that we find in the Greek temples, so that the objects are neither multiplied to excess as in our Gothic churches, nor do they have such colossal proportions that they are gigantic, like St Peter’s in Rome.”

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Searching for the Grandiose

Johan Wallhammar, KTH may 2018

Hans Hollein, High Rise Building (1964)

Hans Hollein, Valley City (1964) Adolf Loos, Mausoleum for Max Dvorák,1921

Project for the stables of Count Sangusko in southern France, 1924

Adolf Loos

Architecture (1910)

“A building should please everyone, unlike a work of art, which does not have to please anyone. … A work of art is brought into the world without there being a need for it, a building meets a need. A work of art has no responsibility to anyone, a building to everyone. The aim of a work of art is to make us feel uncomfortable, a building therefore is our comfort.”

“Only a tiny part of architecture comes under art: monuments.”

“If we were to come across a mound in the woods, six foot long by three foot wide, with the soil piled up in a pyramid, a somber mood would come over us and a voice inside us would say, “There is someone buried here”. That is architec-ture.”

Most buildings have a certain purpose and function, and must therefore also please the users and the public accordingly. A few other types of buildings in stead serve a different purpose, as symbols for a group, a sensation or even an entire civilisation. These buildings can becom art and does therefor not need to please, they please by being themselves and by challenging our preconceived conceptions, just like art.

Hans Hollein

Everything is Architecture (1968)

“A building can become entirely information—its message might be experienced through informational media (press, TV, etc). In fact it is of almost no importance wheth-er, for example, the Acropolis or the Pyramids exist in physi-cal reality, as most people are aware of them through other media anyway and not through an experience of their own.”

“Built and physical architecture, freed from the tech-nological limitations of the past, will more intensely work with spatial qualities as well as with psychological ones. The process of “erection” will get a new meaning, spaces will more consciously have haptic, optic, and acoustic properties, and contain informational effects while directly expressing emotional needs.

A true architecture of our time will have to redefine itself and expand its means. Many areas outside traditional building will enter the realm of architecture, as architecture and “architects” will have to enter new fields.

All are architects. Everything is architecture.” New media and technology have the ability to replace architecture and its symbolism. Through media like TV and the internet we will face new types of architecture and the built environment. Even unreal architecture will become famous architecture in the minds of people. Architecture can become more like images, stories and experiences rather than traditionally built structures.

Rem Koolhaas

BIGNESS - Or the Problem of Large (1993)

“Beyond a certain scale, architecture acquires the properties of BIGNESS. … BIGNESS is the ultimate architecture.”

“Theory of BIGNESS” based on five theorems: 1. BIG building – such a mass can no longer be controlled by a singular architectural gesture

2. The elevator - … render null and void the classical repertoire of architecture. Issues of composition, scale, proportion, detail are now moot.

3. In BIGNESS … the façade can no longer reveal what happens on the inside. … interior and exterior architecture becomes separate projects. … Where architecture reveals, BIGNESS perplexes.

4 Through size alone, such buildings enter an amoral domain, beyond good and bad.

5. BIGNESS is no longer part of any tissue. It exists; at most, it coexists. Its subtext is fuck context.”

“BIGNESS means surrender to technologies; to engineers, contractors, manufacturers; to others.”

Many of today’s current projects are subject to BIGNESS. All is programming rather than architecture. How can architecture straike back, be big and also expressive and have a purpose?

OMA, Seattle Library (2004)

OMA, Seattle Library (2004)

Roland Barthes

The Eiffel Tower (2012)

The tower “First of all as a universal symbol of Paris”

“... the Tower to be an utterly useless monument.” “At first, … to make it into a temple of science; but this is only a metaphor; as a matter of fact, the Tower is nothing, it achieves a kind of zero degree of the monument; it participates on no rite, in no cult, not even art; you cannot visit the tower as a museum: there is nothing to see inside the tower.

“then why do we visit the Eiffel Tower? No doubt in order to participate in a dream of which it is (and this is its originality) much more the crystalliser than the true object.”

“The tower is not a sacred monument.”

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the grandiose

Master thesis project in architecture

KTH - Royal Institute of Technology

Stockholm, Sweden