The poetics of spaces... In the stairwell...

Chris Dugrenier 5 years ago
The college stairwell is one of the dominant features of the Graham Sutherland Building.
Spending time there, continuing my peripatic journey around the selected heterotopic spaces, I start to make a list of observable characteristics to consider for future space research... the basics in a way... what to notice first, what to know first... 
This consideration came about after I read one of Michael Asher catalogue describing how he “visits the location prior making work to collect first hand the physical characteristics of the space and familiarise with the surrounding...” 
The characteritics of any space and its location comprise of:
  • Orientation of the space within the building
  • Orientation of the building to the sun and to the cardinal points and other surrounding elements,
  • Details of the physical space: measurement if possible or measuring on the basis of the human scale (see Le Corbusier Modulor Scale of proportion)
  • Style of architecture and epoch (a new building could be a faux 60’s)
  • Sense that the space gives
  • Its material construction
  • Flow of people + actions they do and don’t do there
  • Direction of travel
  • Environment elements such as light, sound, air flow, temperature, acoustic, tactile,
  • Usage details: when, how, how often
  • Maintenance/cleaning schedule can be revealing
  • The key features
  • Environmental elements such as services, heating pipes/elements, plumbing
  • Ecological elements such as material efficiency, technical tools to reduce usage ie sensors activating lights
  • Dead spaces if any...
 
After preparing this list, I totally ignored it focusing instead in looking at the dead space around the stairwell and thinking yes about dead space.
Thinking about this expression that  I know without really knowing exactly precisely what it means... An expression giving a sense of comprehension until the need to explain it reveals that comprehension is but superficial... not having any other words to describe it...
Architecturally, a dead space is a luxury... a space with no use but that of giving a sense of space,
Dead spaces are absences, gaps for air flow, sllts, voids where things get lost or cannot be  retrievable. 
 
Another aspect that attracted my imagination was the multi-effect of placing The Hidden Dimension by Edward T. Hall and Eccentric Spaces by Robert Harbison on the inside corner of the balustrade. 
First it made people slowed down as they see the books and want to read the titles. One person stopped and leafed through them. 
Secondly, when not slowing down, they force people to change the angle they take to turn the corner on their way down or up. 
Those consequences make me think of possibilities for affecting changes, even if it is to change a small taken for granted journey down the stairs, those small changes in habits can lead to changes in thinking, in how to see the world, or simply in not taking things for granted...
 
Lastly, I find something interesting in placing books, jackets, scarf, objects on the balustrade, balancing on the balustrade. It is half a finger width so quite small yet big enough to place books, bottles glass cases on or hang coats and scarfs over.
To me there is an element of risk and uncertainty, a tension build as there is the danger of them falling, the potential for something dramatic to happen...
I dropped one notebook that fell from the 1st floor all the way down to the basement. In the moment (5 seconds or so) the atmosphere changed, heighten by the silence until the sound of the book landing resumed the normal state of things.
What if I encourage people as they pass to push things over the edge. Since we hear in the news that we are going over the cliff, it might be cathartic...