~

Atlantropic (Re)Adjustment

2012-02-13T18:43:00.001Z

In 1929, German engineer Hermann Sörgel proposed 'the boldest plan in living memory'. He proffered a somewhat utopian vision of a pan-European grand projet that could alleviate food, land and energy problems, whilst politically uniting Europe with Africa, forming a superpower to rival the Americas and Pan-Asia. Its name was to be Atlantropa.

To form this supercontinent, significant engineering schemes were developed - the grandest of which was a colossal hydro-electric dam spanning 35 kilometres across the Strait of Gibraltar. By vastly reducing the inflow of water from the Atlantic Ocean (the Mediterranean's main source of replenishment) evaporation could lower the sea-level by 1650 millimetres per annum, down to the desired minimum of 100 metres below the contemporaneous level in the western half and, with the help of a second dam between Sicily and Tunisia, down to 200 metres below in the Eastern half.

All along the Mediterranean's circumference, a slow but steady constantly shifting boundary would unfurl land, context, space, and distance to the present coastal towns and cities. A diplomatic interzone of the soon to be accessible would emerge, and the inevitable bickering from future alterations to countries' borders would follow, whilst a host of curiosities would be revealed by this recession and constant re-mapping of the frontier.

The Cosquer Cave, home to 27,000 year old cave paintings, was discovered off the coast of the Calanques of Marseille in 1985 by the diver Henry Cosquer. Its entrance is presently 37 metres below sea level, and thus, given the estimated rate of evaporation, would have resurfaced after 23 years and would likely have been (p)re-named The Sörgel Cave.

Whilst most of the coastal beached whales would have been left floundering for survival after their livelihoods receded, there was of course special dispensation for the Jewel of the Adriatic, Venice. A city built upon canals is dangerous in a world of rising sea levels, yet what becomes equally disastrous is the inverse. A drydock. An anti-Atlantis.

Sörgel’s conservation proposal was to create a reservoir around Venice, large enough that in clear weather, the Campanile di San Marco was barely visible from the opposite edge. Essentially, Venice’s previous context was to become the city’s concept. A merchant city, developed over centuries as a trade route into and out of Europe was to become a historic relic perched within a vestigial sea, 500 kilometres from its usurped coastline. Instead of operating with any integrity as a trade post, the proposal leaves it to fester as a touristic wet dream; fiercely regulated, and conceptually complete.

An interpretation of the proposed reservoir is partially defined by a circle with a radius equal to the distance to the Campanile di San Marco's true horizon.

d ≈ 3.856 √h [where d is in kilometres and h is in metres]

Campanile di San Marco = 98.6m

Campanile di San Marco’s true horizon ≈ 38.3.km

Les Îles du Frioul [Horizon Model]

2012-01-20T12:27:00.003Z

Excuse the fingerprints...

Les Îles du Frioul [3D Printed Model]

2012-01-20T12:23:00.001Z

Les Îles du Frioul [Plaster Model]

2012-01-20T12:19:00.001Z

The Scarecrow and His Servant: the Machine Age domestic condition

2012-01-11T19:24:00.000Z

A study into the changing domestic environment of Machine Age America, which focuses on the influence of the industrial efficiency movement through an Analysis of Motion and an Analysis of Things.

Buster Keaton's The Scarecrow is referenced throughout, as a piece which presents and parodies the contemporary domestic and industrial trends, informing a reciprocal analysis between the film and the era.

Images courtesy of O.G.F.

Notre-Dame de la Garde

2011-12-21T10:57:00.002Z

Immaculate Conception

Born in Paris in 1869, the Madonna w/ Child came to be in the Parisian workshop of Christofle, conceived as the largest ever piece to be created through the process of electrolysis.

This required a container filled with 90,000 litres of copper sulphate solution, into which the moulds were placed, creating a facsimile in a thin continuous sheet of copper.

She was transported in four pieces by train from Paris to Marseille, where she was transferred across the city, before being hoisted up to the summit of la Garde and coated in 18oz of gold - a practice repeated approximately every 27 years.

Camera Obscura

A spiral staircase rises through La Madonna’s core, up to a now defunct viewing platform, which once allowed spectators to peer through her gaze.

This drawing imagines a camera obscura, i.e. the view formed on her theoretical retina..

Visible Horizon (Archipelago)

A survey of La Madonna’s visible horizon reveals a series of islands, floating in intangible space.

This archipelago exists solely for her... It is unique to location and elevation.

Continental islands; connected inherently, purely, and totally to La Madonna, they provide an isolated response to her presence.

Les Îles du Frioul

2011-12-21T10:40:00.000Z

Continental Islands
Les Îles du Frioul fall into the category of continental islands; formed by a separation from the mainland through erosion.

“An island is any piece of land surrounded by water. An island is any object lost in an endless extension of uniform element. As such, the island is isolated. The island is by definition remote, separated, intimately alternative. The island is elsewhere.”

Mateo Chidoni, 2011. San Rocco Islands.

Continental islands are fragments of a once existent totality - ruins of what once contained them. Separate / Other /Distant / Close / Urban.

“They host the domesticated heterotopias that are necessary in a city: prisons, zoos, hospitals, theme parks.”

Image Courtesy of Marseille, Un Siecle d'Images

Plan
Les Îles du Frioul have for centuries been used as a proxy for Marseille - providing both an extended, and reciprocal gaze. Forts have been built to watch nervously back at the rebellious city, artillery batteries have been positioned to watch out over the horizon, whilst hospitals guarded the city from foreign disease and contagion.

The archipelago is a look-out..
The archipelago is a quarantine..

Equally, the archipelago is a relic.

Sliced Topography
Sectional topographical samples taken at 25 metre intervals throughout the entire length of the Frioul archipelago, graphically portraying the undulating terrain in a legible manner, mimicking the ever present striated limestone horizon.

The highest point of 87m is located on the îles de Pomégues to the South, directly next to the lowest lying areas, including the main port and small town, population: 200.

The remainder of the island is populated by little other than habitual dereliction, the world’s first organic fish farm all connected by a serpentine incision traversing the mountain- ous terrain across the full extent of the two main islands, allowing vehicular access during the war, but which now stands, itself as a relic of motorised travel on the island...

Frioul Bombing

The archipelago’s utility as the primary line of defence from Mediterranean invasion led to substantial bombing by the allies during the Second World War.

The gun armourments had been placed looking out to sea - peering at the horizon for incoming naval fleets. They were not capable of aerial defence - an oversight which resulted in much of the islands’ destruction at the hands of B-26 bombers during September, 1944.

L'Hopital Caroline (Plan)
Original 1821 plans for a hospital to cater for 200 patients and 60 convalescents were redrawn to provide for 48 patients and 24 convalescents. It is positioned on an artificial terrace, so that the prevailing north-west winds can sweep the wards, whilst seawater cisterns provide amply for the daily sluicing. Pavilions provide areas of segregation and categorization within the walled precinct.

The redesign and rescaling allowed Penchaud to address initial issues of omniscience - the need to control and overlook

the entire facility from a single panoptic point. The redesign came after a report of 1822 on yellow fever, which demanded a new level of separation and clarity of function.

The new design became an overlay of stratified access, superimposed on a nine square grid. Two entrances afforded different journeys through the building.

Two distinct circulatory systems...

L'Hopital Caroline (Aerial)
The decayed ruins of the hospital are all that remain today - continuously overlooked by La Madonna. The internal wall that once separated the service area from the patients is now gone - no longer is segregation present within the floor plan - instead we are left with a series of pavilions - a small village surrounding a Doric chapel within the town square.

Beneath the chapel was an undercroft which allowed staff to leave goods, which could be picked up on the other side by the patients or their nurses.

Contamination and segregation were kept to a minimum, whilst the pavilions were raised up to allow arcades so that the buildings could be washed down each day, whilst the patients were regularly bathed in the building conjoining the pavilions.

Image courtesy of Marseille, Un Siecle d'Images

ho . ri . zon

[huh-rahy-zuhn]

noun

1. the line or circle that forms the apparent boundary between earth and sky.

2.Astronomy; a) Sensible: the small circle of the celestial sphere whose plane is tangential to the earth.

b) Celestial: the great circle of the celestial sphere whose plane passes through the center of the

earth and is parallel to the sensible horizon. 3. Geology; a thin, distinctive stratum useful for stratigraphic correlation.

4. Archaeology; a widely disseminated period of common art or artifacts. 3. The scope or range of perception, knowledge, etc.

Etymology 14c., orisoun, from O.Fr. orizon, earlier orizonte (13c.), from L. horizontem (nom. horizon), from Gk. horizon kyklos "bounding circle," from horizein "bound, limit, divide, separate," from horos "boundary." The h- was restored 17c. in imitation of Latin.

Image courtesy of Marseille, Un Siecle d'Images

True Horizon
The distance that one can see to the horizon is determined by one’s height above sea level.

d ≈ 3.856 √h

The Earth’s surface dematerialises before our eyes to remind us of its absolute continuity...

Taller objects / things / landforms / landmarks appear over the horizon, their height compensating for curvature - beckoning in an alternative mapping system; of not mere proximity, but also visibility. Nautical maps contain informa- tion on both the tall and the conspicuous, irrespective of merit. Conversely, what may be consider of importance or worthy, can be totally ignored or sidelined as irrelevant.

This map imagines the theoretical makeup of a horizon map for all positions at sea level on the Iles du Frioul. It does not consider that which may be blocked or eclipsed, purely that which has height sufficient to clear the horizon.

The surface area of visible sea fluctuates daily according to the tides [±10-15mm].

Occasionally the horizon appears to cut away below visible land, resulting in hills and mountains penetrating through the sky. This is related to atmospheric conditions causing the sky to appear to continue in place of the sea, which has been obstructed by itself on the other side of the world...

Maregraphe de Marseille
Sea level determines one’s true horizon. Thus measuring this sea level is of the utmost importance (whilst it has also been proven to aid scientific research into global warming, and provide warnings of impending tsunamis...)

The Marégraphe de Marseille was one of the first tide gauges in the world, and continues to perform as France’s primary measurement. The N.G.F. was taken from the average level in place between February 3rd, 1885 and December 31st, 1896. More recently, electronic devices have been placed in the building, which read the levels automatically every 10 minutes, and report back the data to SHOM (the French oceanographic division of the Navy). The original float method is still maintained and continues to be functional.

To be continued...

Horizons

2011-12-21T10:19:00.001Z

To be continued...

Doors / Windows

2011-12-21T10:09:00.000Z

To be continued...

Marseille

2011-12-21T09:49:00.000Z

Gray Scale courtesy of F.M.

First Class Stamp...

2011-12-21T08:38:00.001Z

Laser cutting courtesy of A.P.

A Study of Buster Keaton's One-roomed House in The Scarecrow

2011-09-05T09:44:00.004+01:00

The Scarecrow (1920)

A Timeline of events in the One-roomed House

Plan of the One-roomed House

To be continued...

Serendipitous Serenity. Salcombe.

2011-08-17T15:10:00.004+01:00

Winners of the SISCO AI 2011

2011-08-17T14:37:00.003+01:00

Courtesy of A.H. & J.D.

Nominated for the CLAWSA 1st year Diploma Portfolio Prize

2011-06-27T09:13:00.004+01:00

I was nominated for the CLAWSA Prize for having one of the top four portfolios in the year, however the ultimate winner was James Kirk who managed a clean sweep of awards..

etc.

2011 (re)adjusted territories : Madrid etc …

2011-06-22T18:30:00.004+01:00

Westminster Diploma Studio 12

Large Brick Walls

2011-05-13T17:57:00.003+01:00

To be continued...

Hotel for Murderers

2011-05-01T10:16:00.009+01:00

Caius Alexander 001

2011-04-24T21:50:00.008+01:00

Mixtape 001

Mixed by Caius Alexander.

Berkeley Lawn

2011-04-24T16:00:00.007+01:00

Disgruntled Buildings

2011-04-24T15:32:00.008+01:00

To be continued (indefinitely)...

Courtesy of R.K. for the glum organ.

~ [Tilde]

2011-04-24T14:03:00.006+01:00

til·de /ˈtildə/

noun

1. In Language:

An accent (~) placed over a Spanish 'n' when pronounced 'ny' (as in señor) or used in Portuguese on an 'a' or 'o' when nasalized (as in São Paulo), or over a vowel in phonetic transcription, indicating nasalization.

2. In Logic:

a) The mark (~) used to indicate negation in logic and the geometric relation 'similar to' in mathematics.

b) The mark (~) used to indicate an approximate value.

3. In Likeness:

The mark (~) used to represent the approximately logical similarity between its appearance and that of a certain follicle protrusion eminating from beneath the nasal cavity.

Courtesy of Google.