Stephan Jentsch

intro

The tide peaks are displaced in time 50 min. every day. Rhythm and a contradictory movement is the topic of my graduation project. The building will be a ‘being of time’. The geometry of the building disappears into a topology of time.

Event: back to nature

The mud flats are a space of the tides. The sea covers the sand and disappears again in a regular rhythm. Everyday at the same time the wanderer will find the mud flats as a different space. He will be able to reach an island one day, another day he will find a wide stretch of water in between. (Diagram 2: tidepeaks/ time (1 day); shift on following days)

Dissonance

To be able to distinguish our own point of view from an ‘outerworld’ we need to have a dissonance between our own life’s frequencies and oscillations and the actions of our environment. The disturbances of our movement defines it as our own.

The tides are such a disturbing event. The ebb and flow of the sea changes the space for our movements asynchronously to our time.

Diagram 1 shows the ebb and flow of the tide in 24 hours of the day. The other line represents the possible number of people visiting a conventional museum through the day. These curves perform in a contradictory way.

experimental model

The ‘House of the Tides’ is a test model for an anti-rhythm. The place where the tide will practise its influence -as in the example of the wanderer at the beach- has to be built artificially. Artificial is also the level of the water itself.

The levels of the water become information for the programming of the building. They will be read externally and sent as abstract data. They will be the parameters for the program. The exhibition- parts A1-A6 will be opened and closed depending on water-level information. (diagram 3: tidepeaks/ time and opening hours A1-A6/ tidelevel)

vocabulary of space

In order to allow an ‘ability to move’ for the building there will be a structure with two systems. The first system is a ‘land-space’, which will be influenced by the tides only indirectly. I call it the finished zones. The geometry of the finished zones is generated by their function.

The other system is a soft, programmed part, the space of the tides, the mud flats. The available space shifts in accordance with the time of opening. I call it the unfinished zones.

‘being of time’

The only important space for the visitor is the one he can enter or watch. Through the change of these possibilities the opening hours of A1 to A6 become more important for the visitor than the theoretical existence of the rooms.

Time (the tide) is more important than the geometry of space. Now the building has shifted from a topological state towards an expression of time.

‘functional scenario’

The visitors enter the building at their own time. The 24 hours of the day is their rhythm but the opening hours of the building are shifted 50 minutes per day.

To reach the point of intersection of their own time with the time of the building they may use a timetable or choose the time of entering the building by chance.

The events of the city overlap the events of the building on the ground floor. The middle of the ground floor starts at the same height as the room outside. This is the point of intersection. From here the floor rises towards the eastern and western ends. This point is the main entrance, from where the visitor steps into the time-world of the building.

From outside this geometry is obvious: the foyer rises and is transition space. Above one will see the ‘oscillating’ ramps of the exhibition.

Storage, parking and technical facilities are as blind spots underneath the ground-floor-plus level.

The beach bar to the south and Bar Two reflect the use of the building: They will be crowded when the entries for the exhibition parts nearby are open and quiet when closed.

Extro

„...were the sea a machine, that produced feelings, that threatened you und made you happy, that oppressed you and liberated you, that surprised you and were everything, that you always knew.“

---

SCHUNCK cannot guarantee the correctness of content and expression. The participants themselves are responsible for their entries. The copyright of the projects underlies to the authors, any reproduction or use of the shown material is strictly forbidden.