Oz - Journal of the College of Architecture, Planning and Design-Kansas State University
/ The essence of Architecture
With Eva de Broche des Combes
“What goes up must come down.”
Sir Isaac Newton
This is something Architects understood well before Isaac Newton. Never to be underrated, stairs are our passage to heaven, or hell confluently, and archeological discoveries from various different parts of the world, dating back to more than 7400 years ago, reference the creation of what is now the modern staircase. But quite who first invented the stairs is impossible to say.
We imagine the discovery would have been quite remarkable, like the construction of a fire place to house and prolong life-giving flames. Roll back the clock and imagine, you are a wanderer of the early Stone Age 3 million years ago, your tribe is active at the foot of an enormous hill littered with caves, but you don’t know it yet until one day you find yourself being chased by a wild animal and you quickly clamber up some rocks into the mouth of one such cavern. The animal loses interest and you’ve found a new improved home, with the help of a palaeolithic ladder. Or was it when you fist climbed a tree to avoid that pride of wolves? Either way, going for higher ground has its advantages, and once this thought has been processed, you start seeing big evolutionary changes taking place.
Next you find your neighbouring cave dwellers adjourning on your stoop to watch the sun down and shoot the breeze with freshly squeezed Cassava. When there are no natural means to attain it, you start to invent ways by piling stones as steps, in the same way that you start chipping stone to create tools. This is a rough understanding of how the Homo Habilis brain must have conjured into existence what now to modern man has become an invaluable part of architecture. Fast forward a couple million years and the conversations have now moved into the spiritual realm and you and your friends are hitching a plan to construct a staircase that touches the clouds, and your dwelling on the tip of that peak will look like a modern-day fairytale castle ruin to tourists coming to visit from far and wide in the distant future.
Made up of a singular succession of steps, inventing a system that could bridge your ascent from the ground up into a higher elevation seems like natural compulsion. Yet what about the descent? Was there as much thought put into the notion of coming back down to the primary departure point, or was the method of return just a by-product of the original intent? We did call it a Riser after all, and not a Faller. The wonderful thing about stairs is that they go both ways. That’s probably irrelevant, because over time all the reasons we would find to build stairs, starting with a path up a mountain side to a grotto called home, or a means to transcend earth and rise up to meet the Gods in the heavens cast a shadow over the mere pragmatism which ignited the spark in the first place. This notion alone is demonstrated in the case of Sarah Winchester, who supposedly by the advice of her mediums had a myriad of staircases leading nowhere built into her 160 room Mansion as a tribute to the souls who had lost their lives at the hands of a Winchester gun.
Let’s celebrate the Stair, which has grown in its complexity to meet a multitude of demands and desires made by those that always seek to push the envelope that little bit further. The Stair, which has become a legend unto itself for saving lives or shrouding itself in mystery like the abandoned staircases reddit followers all over the world are finding in forests. It will remain, undoubtedly, one of the single most important inventions in the history of humanity. And, we can agree, a discipline unto its own in the realm of Architecture.
After 12 years the project reaches finality. An arduous task, with a mountain of research, due diligence and calculations, mathematics. The commission will be awarded the highest honour by the Universal Committee of Architects for its excellence.
The team, overseen by one shy and intellectually gifted leader, had gone over all the possibilities meticulously and had studied every aspect with a painstaking fastidiousness before starting construction. The building, in perfect harmony with its natural surroundings, will serve as a monument to all those before and after. A Ray for enthusiastic and enquiring minds.
The new vertical line theorem was developed, derived from the careful analysis of the corresponding angles between the ground to floor elevations. Based on this the alternate exteriors singularly allowed for only one outcome, the much sought after but seldom attained simplest solution, yielding to a linear dimension with minimal perturbance.
One can feel the liminality in the surrounding space, and the corresponding potential for each transversal gives way to a faceted utilisation of negative matter. This was tested on the materials, mainly concrete, to proof the power of the withstanding forces and it was concluded that the position and distance off the ground was truly effective. Of course there was no need for unnecessary additional punctures in the skin, one opening is sufficient to serve as a main portal for all external connections. All the utilitarian equipment fed by means of the shaft from the ground up.
Finally all is reduced to the absolute essentials in both symmetry and angle, hitherto suggesting zero weaknesses in structural elements. The ultimate supplementary proportions are contained on a non-rudimentary basis, resulting in absolute finite sums of where the Super Point is contained and from which the entire construction unfolds like an expression of worship.
The walls, stripped of vanity, are reduced to the essence of the line from which they originate, and the purpose of defining the meeting point of all the adjacent surfaces has been hailed a feat of precedence. No need to transcend the properties of equality, in their barest form, the fourth postulate of Euclid is born to evidence. No cheap tricks have been employed to transform the geometry or create superfluous points of interest, freeform geometry was avoided purposefully to ensure the purest shapes possible, save for the cylinder, however unavoidable. The interior, a void of serenity, without distraction to the eyes or the mind, it is almost an act of lavish curiosity to enter within the expanse, as that in itself deranges the immaculate organisation.
Unto the question of sustainability, within such a form-driven perfect super structure the question falls away, as the pure nature of the divine presence makes it a moot point. Behold, this is architectural magnificence.
Diary entry wk12 Monday
Finally alone, Melody and the kids have gone to her mothers for the summer. At last I can sink my teeth into this new project. My mind is free, there is so much I can do with this. Bonus is that they said they would be up for anything. No constraints. Except for the budget of course.
Diary entry wk13 Monday
Sitting here for the better part of a week and still not finding an entry point. I can’t think of anything specific I would like to do for this project yet.
Diary entry wk15 Wednesday
It’s simply not possible, 3 weeks and I am stumped. Every approach I’ve tried just lands up in the waste basket. Perhaps a trip to see Melody and the girls in the countryside will blow in some fresh perspective. Surely a bit of bonding with nature will help.
Diary entry wk16 Tuesday
Spent the weekend with the family, and found a little plant in the forest that we planted in a pot and I brought it home with me. This touch of nature will be my inspiration now. Look at the positive curvature on these leaves. Nature is just incredible!
Diary entry wk18 Monday
My biomorphic approach unfortunately isn’t working! There was something I could feel it but, finally no, had to throw it away and start from the ground up. This time perhaps something more landscape driven. This structure has to express a philosophy of movement, growth, sustainability and timelessness. I want it to to become one with its natural space and transcend the barrier of the mediums being used in it. Why is it always so hard to do something when there are no constraints? Or what if… what if my material were to come directly from the site? Nope, the budget isn’t big enough for that kind of R&D. A pond! Yes! We could add a pond on the site. Alrighty back to the drawing board.
Diary entry wk19 Tuesday
Onto something here but it’s not quite what I was expecting. There’s too much finite structure and too few curves. This is frustrating to say the least. Perhaps we could just put a few pigeon holes into the south wall to create a closer link with nature…