Eva Kierspel
Diminuendo-Presence and Retreat. RWTH Aachen (Germany)
Assignment
Certosa, an island nearby Venice, is to become a centre for musical scholars. The program includes an open-air theatre, a small concert hall, accomodations with restaurant for 30 musicians, a library and also a docking station for the Vaporetto (Venice´s public transportation).
Concept
Certosa’s quality lies in its contrast to Venice. A visitor leaving the urban density of Venice will discover Certosa’s atmosphere of privacy and nature’s silences.
My project intends to make the beholder aware of this transition into a different atmosphere.
It allows him to submerge into the silence of the island.
Production
The boat ride on a loud and noisy Vaporetto takes time. The visitor becomes aware of his growing distance to the city and observes Venice turning into scenery.
Stopping at a broad, outreaching footbridge the visitor leaves the boat. One walks over the water towards the island where the footbridge widens up into a square, surrounded by an open-air theatre, a concert hall and dense greenery.
Both buildings form a perfect circle. They instigate a series of several buildings and sculptures made of bright and smooth concrete walls, strongly contrasting to the islands’ natural environment.
Along the path the architecture dissolves; buildings become smaller and fall apart, turning into artificial fragments of nature.
The beholder moves through structured spaces as well as through open spaces of nature. In different forms and shapes they appear to be cut out of the greenery. Deeper in the forest they become less noticeable – now nature designs the environment.
Even the visitor partakes in the production.
The deeper one travels into the greenery, the fewer people one encounters. A cafe, bistro or library allure visitors, giving them the chance to stop by and to retreat afterwards.
The path, being an interference of nature, is forced to blend slowly into the environment by its varying widths and materials. It leads one into the heart of the forest and disappears.
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