Abstract

ABSTRACT
JOSEPH THOMAS MONICO
Interpreting the Landscape: An Architecture of Place
Under the direction of Assistant Professor José L.S. Gámez, Ph.D.


Interpretation of a place...architecture as a physical and interpretive construct of place — a dialogue between cultural artifacts and the living landscape.

This Comprehensive Architectural Project will present an architecture that is conceived from, and rooted in, the landscape. It will be a study in an interpretive architecture tied to a specific cultural site, where spatial, formal and programmatic concepts are resolved as a response to the hermeneutical phenomenology and ontological significance of place. The basic themes of hermeneutical phenomenology are interpretation, textual meaning, dialogue, culture, and tradition.[i] For example, the study of how things appear is phenomenology and how things and their appearances are functions of human culture is hermeneutical phenomenology. Phenomenology requires one to be receptive to the potentials associated with understanding human experience as a powerful reality. Hermeneutics imparts a deep interpretive quality to the notion of phenomenological experience. The fusion of this philosophy into architecture has ontological significance as it involves a willingness to pursue sensory experience for the potential revelation of truth, thus, a perception of reality in space and time.[ii]

In addition to phenomenology, the relationship between site and its cultural history compels architecture to be an interdependent construct of place. Various elements in and of the design are essential to the whole composition. The architecture is not simply an assembly of separate elements or influences, but rather a cohesive, interwoven assembly conveying meaning much greater than the sum of its parts. As a work of architecture, the construction becomes an integral part of the site, local culture and meaning, and individual interpretation, at the same time, the natural and metaphysical phenomenon of site is an influence over the architecture. The resulting construct exists as part of this interdependent relationship and cannot exist separate from it.

This notion of site, proposed by Carol Burns in the essay “On Site,” presents the concept of the constructed site. She defines the constructed site as a synergy between natural site form, natural phenomenon of the earth, existing cultural artifacts, perceptions from our surroundings and the emotions they evoke, and the constructed form of the building. Nature, cultural history and the individual and collective perception of it, impart an order upon the site and the architecture is guided and shaped by these forces.[iii] An example might be a community center designed to maximize shared activity that evokes notions of tribal community organization - as sharing and mutual caring dynamics displayed in these cultures are reinforced in the design of their villages.

The natural, visible and invisible phenomena of site, along with cultural artifacts and traditions, are the basis for the interpretations used to generate the conceptions that become a literal basis for construction. This construct is an architecture that yields to natural interruptions and evokes a deliberate perception of place. It seeks to harmonize or define itself with nature and the artifacts within, as well as, the interpretations and meanings associated with human habitation.

The project I am proposing will be an Interpretive Center located in the historic Landsford Canal State Park, in Chester County, South Carolina, along a section of the Catawba River that is protected and identified as a river restoration site. This state park is notable for its historic canal ruins, flora and fauna, and the southern end of the park is traversed by the “Great Wagon Road,” a colonial trading and migration route that ran from northeast Pennsylvania through the Carolina Piedmont, and crossed the Catawba at Land’s Ford. The ford is an ancient crossing, used first by animals and Native Americans. It is located along the geographic fall line.

I have chosen this site for its rich history and the cultural artifacts it contains. I believe the site has all the elements for an intensive study of place and invention of an interpretive architectural construct. The park contains a cultural history and historic artifacts worthy of preservation, exploration and discovery by present and future generations. I believe the proposed project is an appropriate venue for this purpose.



END NOTES


[i] Phenomenology Online, http://phenomenologyonline.com/inquiry/5.html
[ii] Leach, Neil. Rethinking Architecture. New York: Routledge, 1997. pg. 83.
[iii] Burns, Carol. “On Site,” Drawing/Building/Text. New York: Princeton Press, 1991. pg 147-155.