Santiago Calatrava Lyon Saint Exupéry Railway Station (formerly Satolas) Lyon France 1989-1994 Formal Strategies in Architecture EVDA 621 Paper 4: Space Courtney Clark
4 - Space Ticketing Train Schedule Purchase Process Point of entry (included in this space is the surrounding condition: parking lot to the attached Airport) (size determines volume of people arriving at one time) 1 To conclude this Case Study and diagrammatic exploration of Calatrava s Station in Lyon, the idea, production, and future potentials of space will be explored. Space can be of a perceptual experience, and is debated as strictly a physical construct. It is important through diagramming space to acknowledge the role of physical architectural and its potentials as well as ramifications of effecting a selected environment and its users. This regional rail node demonstrates its imposition on its site, however it is also important to understand and link space conceptually with the idea of perception as related to its users, and information exchange. Space thus becomes experiential, moving past a physical condition into one instilled in time, history, culture, and society. The creation of such a Landmark that this Station has arguably become and was also arguably chosen partially for this very reason as a winner in a design competition, this particular space contains a series of underlying meanings, justifications, or drivers that led to its overall production. Transport Park Car Depart Waiting Train Disembark Arrive Board Depart Tickets sold Weather Track Conditions Other Train Schedules Air Disembark Arrive Board Depart Information Exchange: Abstract Diagram representing the tasks and their ordering in relation to the different transportation modes of arrival and departure at the site. The three points of entry or departure become related through the sequence or ordering of tasks (entering, obtaining a ticket, and travelling to the mode of transportation). As this building is centered around transportation modes that then take individuals or groups to another location, it reads as not a destination but of a space of transition. Even the two lines drawn that connect from the Airport to the Parking area are presumed or predicted based on future population growth: more from the surrounding area will likely drive and then simply move through the Concourse to get to the Airport, or use the short term parking and not pass through at all.
This physical space of transition is governed by movement and perception caused by changes in that environment. Thus understanding the interactions of these stimuli in relation to themselves physically is important to understanding another layer of space perception. Section 1: Cut infront of the main Concourse Section 2: Cut through Concourse Information Exchange Body Movement 2 Sound intensities Natural Light/ View Space Activation: This diagram looks at the dominant process within the physical interior space of the building and those processes or stimuli that dominate the activation of that area. Acknowledged in this diagram are natural, physical, and mental processes. All combine to produce a certain experiential layering of space. To demonstrate this layering this diagram was produced in the section of the building. As is shown, though human transportation dominates the platforms in a physical sense, the nearby passing trains (specifically the central fast-moving trains that do not stop at this station), dominate the experience of the space. This is done through its movement and sound. The effects to do not bridge up into the concourse as the space is seperated by a concrete slab and glazing (in Sectino 1). The upper level space in Section 2 does become effected as the sound transfers up into this space.
Taken from a first person perspective, the following series demonstrates the sensation produced through visual experience within the architectural space. A sequential path begins outside, moves into the Concourse and ends on a lower platform. The lens or line of site expands and contracts based on the size of the space in relation to the person, and most of all access to views, light and overall elevation or height. Thus the lens as a whole demonstrates perceived openness, or qualitatively speaking, exposure. The architectural composition (size, proportion, material such as the Concourse glazing, expansive height and slim steel structure) produces greater overall exposure. The Concourse produces an open space due to its skeletal nature, which changes slightly moving through the upper walkway towards the platforms due to a relative reduction in ceiling height and glazing patterns in relation to the body. This expands again once movement occurs down to the platforms, being exposure again relative to the overall height of the building (the body in relation to the ceiling or roof), and exposure in relation to being in close proximity to moving trains. The trains produce a slimmer overall lens as they effectively cut off horizontal movement. Though the overall architectural space does not change, the perception changes due to location and both visual and physical cues restricting movement (raised platform creates an assumption of a non-accessible zone where the trains go, paired with a culturally accepted notion that this area or space is not safe to be on or is out of bounds, though technically, physically accessible when a train is not actually there). It is interesting to note that physical space defined by the train car does not produce less exposure; in fact this is reversed when the train leaves the Station, providing through speed and an open landscape access to broader views. Thus overall site lines is seen as just as important as overall height or size of a structure in measuring perceived exposure or openness of a space. This sensation likely varies from person to person as well depending on their individual preferences, a recognized limitation to this generalized diagram. 3 Relative Exposure Mapping Spatial Sensations through a sequential movement through the Structure: Comfort in relation to exposure can be both a negative and positive sensation. Here, for example, over-exposure could actually be unsettling in the large Concourse, however the relative change coming from outside isn t a drastic perceptual difference (also aided through the glazing of the Concourse). This contrasts to the boarding of a train that has not yet left the platform. Here, a sudden or drastic change in exposure would be more likely to produce discomfort or claustrophobia until the body is able to readjust to the smaller physical boundaries produced by the train; this is aided by the site lines out from the train. The effect is altogether removed as it leaves the station, actually producing greater exposure through visual access of the broad landscape then before entering the Station.
Qualitative in this regard is referring to individual development or impressions that compile into a species-wide generalization. As Delanda (2001) describes, though a species operates both temporally and geographically, it can be referred to as an emergent whole leading to what he terms a flat ontology (58). It is thus important to specify its speciation, an intensive process through which the whole emerges (58). When applied to this diagram of space production, it becomes evident that qualitative experience exists outside of a fixed boundary. It could be argued these qualitative evaluations define the heterogeneity of the individual that make up the generalized species- that portion of the species directly effected by this structure being increasingly broad due to the collapse of physical space by virtue of the hyper-physical or virtual. To conclude on space, analysis from the individual perspective and physical definitions of space as related to time is important, however being aware of an overreaching socioeconomic condition determines the role of the architecture in relation to its whole: referring to its species: an organism is defined both by its spatial architecture, as well as by the different materials...which give that architecture it specific mechanical qualities (Delanda, 2001: 57). It is argued here that organisms define an overall species, whom through interactions produce ongoing spaces- thus this architecture is one frozen expression of space as defined by the overreaching context of that time. An Integrative Design process looks to multidisciplinary approaches (construction, inspiration and integration of approaches such as biomimicry)(kolarevic, 2008) as both a horizontal and vertical process simultaneously. Architectural production in this regard could challenge past and future factors of production, continuing to form evolving expressions of that culture. Transportation Industry exposure link funding reputation jobs relative time intensification of: rail air and/or; automobile use internet: online communications Circulation people information goods electricity Space Production Economic Competition Entry Quick Decision Client Selection Recognition ticket sales jobs for Calatrava cost to run trains Future Production Qualitative memory meaning enjoyment quality experience Construction Material production and allocation maintenance and repair expansions (tracks or parking) Integrated Design Approach Sociocultural Context Analysis: Mapping Significant Factors that lead to the Production of Space and use of this Station and the Future Implications for the Region Natural Resource Availability Ease of Use Choice of transportation type France s economic standing Housing expansion and location of Lyon Inflation and global economy Population expansion or reduction Calatrava s Popularity and broader architectural style preference The production of space is linked directly to socioeconomic conditions, and qualitative preferences. If a decrease in economic standing occurs, for example, future maintenance of the building, job availability, and overall use of the building will be effected. It is also likely that a global change in economic conditions will likely be reflected regionally. This could altar popularity of certain styles with the emergence of new architectural forms, reducing the qualitative importance of the structure in comparison to when it was originally built. The Economic bubble is shown as expanding, along with Circulation, representing the shrinking of physical space through the innovation potentials of technology (circulation) and due to the expansion of space through a virtual reality (economic). Meanwhile, the qualitative bubble is an all encompassing aspect, informed through the linking of all other factors. Another words, individual qualitative experience is produced and informed by other factors individually, then collectively it effects future production at a species level. Though this particular building will only be directly effected by a few, it is the power of the collective society and culture, whose exposure is widening due to the collapse of space into a virtual realm, that defines future production of space in general,. This logic can then be applied to this particular structure. For example, through virtue of the internet I am personally researching a structure through which I have not been to. I have come to understand certain aspects of the structure and also have come to critique its visual appearance and usefulness without every having been there. I have thus created a supposedly informed opinion of a space, produced through a variety of factors as listed above, without physically experiencing it. For this reason the qualitative experience is all encompassing, it moves past the physical and will continue to widen and effect all modes of production in the future, while also intensifying or occurring more rapidly in time. This also creates time as a relative process when looking at its apparent or functional intensification as related to production. 4
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