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FLUID DIALOGUES Designing Spatial and Ecological Toolset to Re-engage with Urban Waterways

Fluid Dialogues Master Dissertation Project Author: Selin Büyüktaşcı Academic supervisors: Rolf Hughes Rachel Armstrong Nel Janssens Academic year 2021/2022 Date of publication: 22.01.2022

International Master of Science in Architecture KU Leuven, Faculty of Architecture: Resilient and Sustainable Strategies Campus Sint-Lucas Ghent

FLUID DIALOGUES

Designing Spatial & Ecological Tool-set to Re-engage with Urban Waterways

Foreword

I have been assisted in this master dissertation by various friends and family. I want to thank my dear friends Nida, Ying and Tara for believing in me in the times of isolation and dispear. Thomas for helping me to see the bigger picture and making me laugh in moments of stress. My parents for their calls and motivation all the way from Turkey. Last, but not least I wish to thank my supervisors, Rolf Hughes Rachel Armstrong and Nel Janssens for their insight, advice and guidance throughout this process.

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Table of Contents

1. Prologue 2.Position and Methodology Chapter I 3.Environment and Us 2.1 Identification 2.2 Detachment 2.3 Mediation 4. Designing with Nature Chapter II 5. On the Edge_ Acts of Water 6. Focused site & Design Objectives Chapter III 7. Free Flowing-Vocabulary 8. Orchestrating Journey of Water 9. Tools for Design 9.1 Proposal I 9.2 Proposal II 9.3 Proposal III 9.4 Proposal IV 10. Reflections & Future proposal: Towards a Urban Water Festival

11. Epilogue Bibliography

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fig. 1 clay model.wires.photoshop / interaction own image

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fig. 2

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clay model.fabric.photoshop / habitation own image

1 Prologue Sense of Virtual

Changing a place where we live has a power to open up

new questionings and understandings about interaction between the environment and ourselves. Breaking of the habitual conditionings and struggle of locating oneself in a new realm exposes the physiological and behavioral effects of the character of place on human. The intuitive motivation for this research is rooted in my personal experience of moving to Ghent, Belgium for my master studies in 2019. My story starts with my arrival to the city of Ghent, eager for an internal transformation and adaptation to the new foreign environment. However, I felt a distance, a distance to the urban fabric, a blockage in the communication between me and the environment, which accumulated over time and ended up in an internal state of imprisonment. That was a new sensation for me whom I considered myself as explorative and adaptable. After the initial denial state of these new sensations, I initiated to observe myself and my environment, in an attempt to understand the parameters of this condition. Through time, I came to a realization; during the times of internal change, in the times of uncertainty, we require a changing, moving, transforming; a dynamic environment which would correlate to our feelings, makes us reflect on it, allow a moment of joy or silence through diverse interactions. And the city of Ghent was the opposite, the aesthetics of the historic city was complete, un-changing; it was composed of beautiful picturesque sceneries that I cannot touch, alter or be a part of. Flatness of the geography, strict fragmentation of nature and functions, monotony of space and time was very different from my habitual environment. The socioeconomical dynamics such as commercial activities, tourism is built- in to the fabric of the cityscape; the constructed paradigm with its physical and non-physical systems seemed detached from its essence, I couldn’t feel and commune with the place. As I communicated with international students, I begin to realize it is not only me that feel disconnected, that the free dialogue with the surrounding reality is blocked. It seemed that the language of the environment has an extreme influence on our psychology.

The singular and controlled nature of the experience I was having here reminded me word virtual 1 where I myself was not an active participator of reality anymore but a passive observer. The sensation of imprisonment raised in me as I was interiorizing my environment motivated by built-in survival mechanism of adaptation. I myself was trapped in a singular role and identity, resistant to flow and change. As I observe and talk with people, I realized core of the most of the psychological problems arises from this resistance of internal transmutations that correlates the frozen aesthetics of the exterior landscape and architecture. Within the urban fabric, only the water was in motion; the waterways that has been running through the Ghent through many years, the water that marked the place for the first settlements, the water that emerged marshlands and created the culture of trade in the city of Ghent; water that has been breathing of freedom to the soul, spreading its life-giving force to its surrounding. In spite of its cultural, historical, ecological and psychological importance, it seems to be today the presence of water was not much celebrated. In the light of this experience and personal observations, I wanted to use my master thesis as an opportunity to think about ways to alter this barren relationship with the urban fabric into a more fertile 2 and fluid 3 dialogues with the agency of design and architecture. What would be the role of design and architecture to enhance, augment, alter, and transform this relationship? What is the language spoken in between, what binds us and departs us? Is the identity of self, identity of places are stable or transformational? How do they speak to one and other?

1 “Virtual adjective: created by computer technology and appearing to exist but not existing in the physical world.” Cambridge dictionary. [online] Available at: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/virtual [Accesed June 08,2021] 2 The word fertile is used to refer for both visible and invisible realms; ability to give life to an offspring such as a plant, or a thought, flourishing imagination. Cambridge Dictionary. [online] Available at: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/ dictionary/english/fertile [Accesed June 08,2021] 3 “fluid adjective (likely to change ): If situations, ideas, or plans are fluid, they are not fixed and are likely to change, often repeatedly and unexpectedly.” Cambridge Dictionary. [online] Available at: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/ dictionary/english/virtual [Accesed June 08,2021]

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fig. 3 sense of virtual . own sketch

fig. 5 motion of water . own painting

fig. 4 own sketch. Automatic drawing

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2 Position and Methodology

In seek for a fertile and fluid dialogue in between environment and us; I would like to design a human-scale project situated in the public sphere of the city of Ghent, which reveals, and highlights the processes nature while bringing unexpectedness and a sense of empathy to human being through participation. As there are many possible answers to this question, I would like to start from my own habitat, the city of Ghent, which becomes a pool of ingredients, that design proposal both feeds itself and responses to. I didn’t start this thesis with a certain agenda even if I wanted to. Rather than that I allowed the process guide me in a continuous state of uncertainty, it is a process of a chaotic mind, sometimes becomes hard to frame in a linear fashion, however I hope the reader can find something to reflect on for her/himself. Through the process, I gather information about the city, from the city; excavating its authentic character and its evolution through visiting local museums, exhibitions and examining online resources; the historic, cultural and ecological significance of urban waterways reveals itself. (Chapter I) I observe water and its actions within the cityscape; in this process photography, filming and sketching becomes my method. Observations evolve into design objectives. (Chapter II) Meanwhile, I collect tools, devices and mechanisms which would act as interface to engage with water; let it blend with my imagination in a free flowing mind space which accumulates in a reservoir of possibilities. Within this process collaging becomes my method to perpetuate new inter-relations, compositions with the collected items. Collages evolve into detailed drawings through the design process, results in architectural proposals. (Chapter III) Throughout the paper you can encounter my automatic drawings and models which I do calm down and expose my subconscious intuition about the project.

The attitude of this thesis research is both objective and subjective. The process of exploration can be seen as both a seek for a a sense of belonging to the place I live as I felt a distance before which is very personal; but also it attempts to react to the potentials of a new era, a paradigm shift both environmentally and psychologically, seeking ways of communication with the non-human world and questioning and challenging curated identity of places and ourselves.

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Process of ollaging, from parts to whole

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CHAPTER I from detachment to inter-being

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3 An Essay On Environment and Us Introduction

As humans we built, change and live in places mostly

unaware of the impact they have on us. Through the time we get accustomed to the environments and daily routines, we don’t feel the requirement of actively sensing and communicating with the surrounding reality. Putting ourselves as a separate entity unrelated to the rest, detached from non-human, slowly impacts the physical realm we dwell in also, it becomes silent and distant from the self; we dwell in the representation of the reality devised by the mind, rather than touching the source. The mental division manifests itself in the physical realm as frozen, fragmented and confined forms and spaces, and spirals back to our inner worlds; we become more and more imprisoned in a singular identity of ourselves; the conversation becomes singular and restricted. This barren relationship has destructive consequences on us and the world we inhabit; the loss of diversity, richness and complexity both in psychological and physical landscapes. Therefore it is essential to reflect this issue and develop new roles for design and architecture to inherit which would shift the position of the human from passive to active while highlighting and celebrating the environment we live. Acts of human consciousness in defining the environment and relating to it evolved through time; identification, detachment and mediation can be seen as interwoven steps of this evolution. Following these steps, I would like to excavate and comprehend the evolution of city of Ghent in line with some views from philosophers, architects, artists and scientists in order to explore, reveal a holistic vision on the subject. What was there before the culture initiated, what was the distinctive character that shaped the world of man? How did it get lost through time? Through revealing the source and its story, I also would like to understand the reasons and parameters of the boundary I feel between me and the city which would pave the steps for a proposal that reverse this distance and define a role of architecture to inherit as a driving tool for a fertile, generative dialogue to perpetuate in the contemporary times of undefinable complexity and change.

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fig. 5 fragmentation and emergence. own sketch

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3.1 Identification

In order to understand the essence, the source of dwelling

and evolution of the city of Ghent, we must dig-out the man-made layers of constructed identity; take a journey to the beginning. Only then the genius of the place reveals itself to us which is embedded in its local geography and ecology: The dense network of waterways that guided the evolution of the culture in the city.

Genious Loci Genious Loci is a term used by Christian Norbelg Shulz to refer the intelligence, or soul of the places; the term roots to the ancient times, meaning in the protective spirit of a place. According to Shulz, as humans we find an existential foothold, a sense of belonging and grounding in the world through the act of dwelling; human identity presupposes the identity of the place. The space transforms into a place in human psyche when there a distinctive character is identified. This meaningfulness of a place perpetuates through the conversations between the man and the surrounding nature; the activity takes place is bauen 4; the architecture becomes both the language and the outcome of the dialogue between men and nature; it concretizes genius loci. 5 The conditions of the local geography guide and inspire, to visualize and compliment his understanding of his environment. Therefore the roots, the essence of creation of man-made environment does not get lost throughout the activities of human; it gets translated, highlighted and mediated. “Where nature suggests a delimited space he builds and enclosure; where nature appears “centralized”, he erects a Mal, where nature indicates a direction he makes a path.” 6

fig. 6,7 / (STAM, Ghent)

fig. 8 / recipricol relationship . own diagram

“Bauen originally means to dwell. Where the word bauen still speaks in its original sense it also says how far the nature of dwelling reaches. That is, bauen, buan. bhu, beo are our word bin in the versions: ich bin, I am, du bist, you are, the imperative form bis, be. What then does ich bin mean? The old word bauen, to which the bin belongs, answers: ich bin, du bist mean: I dwell, you dwell. The way in which you are and I am, the manner in which we humans are on the earth, is Buan, dwelling. To be a human being means to be on the earth as a mortal. it means to dwell. The old word bauen, which says that man is insofar as he dwells, this word barren however also means at the same time to cherish and protect, to preserve and care for, specifically to till the soil, to cultivate the vine.” Heidegger, Martin. Poetry, Language, Thought (Harper Perennial Modern Thought,151. Later Printing Used, Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2013.

To read more about the subject: Norberg-Schulz, Christian. Genius Loci: Towards a Phenomenology of Architecture. Rizzoli, 1979.

Norberg-Schulz, Christian. Genius Loci: Towards a Phenomenology of Architecture. Rizzoli, 1979, p.18

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City on Water Geologically, the Ghent region belongs to the Northwest European lowlands; avast area with distant horizons, low relief and a dense network of waterways, the most important of which flow into the North Sea. The city is considered to be “city on the water” as it originates from the confluence of Leie and Scheldt. The name Ghent is derived from the Celtic Ganda, which means confluence or estuary.7 The very presence of water marks the space to be inhabited and emerges the culture of trade. It is the distinctive character that initiates identification for men. Archaeological research has proven that the earliest signs of human settlement in the Ghent area date back to prehistoric times. However, it was only during the Roman period that a community of note began to grow near the confluence of the two rivers Scheldt and Leie. 8

fig. 9 / Old-map-of-ghent “Battle Plans Europe, Ville et Citadelle de Gand 1708 | Mapandmaps.” Mapandmaps, mapandmaps.com/en/ low-countries-old-antique-maps/2137-old-map-of-ghent-gent-belgium-citadelle-de-gand-dumont-1729.html.

The existing of waterways creates a condition for marshlands to emerge. A marsh is a wetland that is dominated by herbaceous rather than woody plant species. Marshes can often be found at the edges of lakes and streams, where they form a transition between the aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. They are often dominated by grasses, rushes or reeds. 9 These conditions of the landscape emerges a culture of sheep-farming on chalky soils and coastal marshlands, which gave rise to wool production and cloth industry. In Ghent the production process was run by drapers who bought the raw material, had it treated by spinners, weavers, fullers, and dyers, and eventually sold the final product.Through the years cloth industry becomes bigger with some fluctuations where some of the wool is imported rather than produced.10

fig. 10 / (STAM, Ghent)

Waterways which gave rise to the settlement, becomes an important trade route and a port where exchange of goods took place. The canals are excavated, shifted and recreated in order to meet the economic and political requirements meanwhile industrialization and activities of factories pollutes the water without further consideration. Presence of the water in the city holds an pragmatic interest rather than a meaningful connection. 7

Lamberts, Emiel. “Belgium | Facts, Geography, and History.” Encyclopedia Britannica, 7 June 2021, www.britannica.com/place/Belgium. [Accesed June 08,2021]

A Brief History of Ghent | VISITFLANDERS.” VISITFLANDERS, www.visitflanders.com/en/destinations/ghent/history. [Accesed June 08,2021]

“Marsh.” Google Arts & Culture, artsandculture.google.com/entity/marsh/ m016nsr. Accessed 13 June 2021. [Accesed June 08,2021]

Denzil. “The Rise and Fall of the Medieval Flemish Cloth Industry.” Discovering Belgium, 29 Nov. 2020, www.discoveringbelgium.com/medieval-flemish-cloth-industry. [Accesed June 08,2021]

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3.2 Detachment

In the modern society the many layers human systems

casts a veil over the source of dwelling; the local geography and ecology. Processes of the urbanization escalate into a complete detachment from the reality of the surrounding nature. In the case of Ghent, throughout time waterways losses its economic importance as a trade route and it seems that presence of the water in the city has been abstracted into picturesque scenery to be watched and consumed.

Forgotten Source

In the book Simulacra and Simulation written by sociologist Jean Baudrillard, author suggests that today we live in the order of ‘simulacra’ which refers to a representation divorced from the reality itself. He puts the thesis that image constructed by the mind, is not based on the reality anymore; not a mere representation of reality or representation hides the reality, it is a baseless image with a forgotten source. 11 Baudrillard defends that all the meaning is becoming meaningless as our lives gets so filled with by the constructs of the society which has gotten so saturated with these simulacra; he refers to this phenomenon as “precession of simulacra”. 12 According to the author, the lack of distinctions between reality and simulacra originates from several phenomena such as the contemporary media, multinational capitalism, language and ideology. Most relevant reason of all for our discussion is the urbanization; as the process separates humans from nonhuman world, and re-centers the culture around productive throughout systems so large that they cause alienation. 13

fig. 11/ orders of simulacra , Jean Baudrillard

Baudrillard, Jean, and Sheila Faria Glaser. Simulacra and Simulation (The Body, In Theory: Histories of Cultural Materialism). 33601st ed., University of Michigan Press, 1994.

More info about the subject: Baudrillard, Jean, and Sheila Faria Glaser. Simulacra and Simulation (The Body, In Theory: Histories of Cultural Materialism). 33601st ed., University of Michigan Press, 1994.

Jessica Knouse, Mandatory Ultrasounds and the Precession of Simulacra, 54 San Diego L. Rev. 117 (2017).Available at: https://digital.sandiego.edu/sdlr/ vol54/iss1/5

Felluga, Dino. “Modules on Baudrillard: On Simulation.” Introductory Guide to Critical Theory. Purdue U.[ online.]http://www.purdue.edu/guidetotheory/ postmodernism/modules/baudrillardsimulation.html [Accesed June 08,2021]

World Exhibition and Constructed Identity

Detachment from the nature, from the source, which for Heidegger and Christian Norbelg Shulz was the origin of grounding in a world and devising a stable communication with the environment gets lost in modern times as Baudrillard describes. The meaningless nature of the experienced reality and blurred essence of the places can also be traced back in the urbanization process of the city of Ghent. In his essay “Photography and the Spatial Transformations of Ghent “ Brunno Notteboom shines light on the local and global events and influences which has impacted the character of the city, and paved the way to today’s Ghent. The writer points to the World Exhibition which took place in Ghent in 1913. According to him, the preparations of this event have vast influences of the spatial language of the cityscape especially the historic city centre. The global event became an indicator to constructing a new identity for the city. 14 “……..this process of modernization was paired with a search to create a proper identity, both architecturally and visually. The World’s Fair did not only bring along masses of domestic and foreign tourists who required an easy thoroughfare but it also stimulated the search for an urban image that could be distributed and marketed internationally.” 15 With the motivation of marketable images, the city is designed with vistas and sceneries to be watched and photographed; creating a picturesque atmosphere became the main goal of city planning. The identity is devised by eye-centric revival of the medieval city. “The 1913 exhibition, the small-town imagery culminated in “Old Flanders,” an assembly of plaster reconstructions of mostly sixteenth- and seventeenth-century houses from all over Flanders. During the time of the World Exhibition, the immersion in a (reconstructed) past was even extended to people: both Old Flanders on the exhibition grounds and the city center itself were turned into a décor populated with craftsmen, shopkeepers, and bartenders in historical costumes.” 16 Notteboom finally notes that the re-construction of urban identity referring to the historic past intended as a tool to devise and communicate coherence and place- attachments within the city and the citizens: “In the twentieth century, the picturesque sensibility and the fascination for the Middle Ages became an active tool in a civic pedagogical project: the construction of a collective identity and memory by means of a historicizing architectural language was anchored in an idea of urban aesthetics as a unifier.” 17

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Hegemonic Eye and Water as Commodity “It is language that tells us about the nature of a thing; provided that we respect language’s own nature...Man acts as though he were the shaper and master of language, while in fact language remains the master of man. Perhaps it is before all else man’s subversion of this relation of dominance that drives his nature into alienation”. 18

fig. 12/ Publicity for chocolate with a drawing of the three towers, lithography on publicity folder, 1913 (City Archive, Ghent)

fig. 13 / Old Flanders, postcard, 1913 (City Archive, Ghent).

Today the historic center of Ghent looks very similar to the image constructed in 1918. In my opinion through the careful construction of a picturesque aesthetics, the nature, most importantly the water in the city also becomes a commodity, scenery to be enjoyed in the city, losing its reality and falls into the realm of simulacra. The identity of the cityscape does not relate to the geographical conditions and the life it inhabits anymore. Meanwhile the revived aesthetics of middle Ages also creates a sense of contradiction; dishonesty as the language does not correlate with the acts take place within the cityscape. Through the readings I realized that this insincerity and unchanging visual poetry might be the condition created the boundary in between me and the city, the sense of virtual. In my opinion a sustainable collective identity arises from actions and interactions, happenings take place within the cityscape, it arises from the fields in between, inclusive to both human and non-human actors of the place; not from a frozen landscape of signature images. As Architect Juhani Pallasmaa suggests, ocular centric tradition, visual-centred culture became increasingly nihilistic in modernistic times. He refers to the phenomena as hegemonic eye, which seeks domination and weaken our capacity of empathy, compassion and participation within the world. 19

Jacobs, Steven, and Bruno Notteboom. “Photography and the Spatial Transformations of Ghent, 1840–1914.” Journal of Urban History, vol. 44, no. 2, 2016, pp. 203–18. Crossref, doi:10.1177/0096144216629969.

15 Ibid. , p. 210 16

Ibid. , p. 211

17 Ibid. , p. 213 18

Heidegger, Martin. Poetry, Language, Thought (Harper Perennial Modern Thought). Later Printing Used, Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2013. p. 144

fig. 14 /Claude-Nicolas Ledoux, “Eye Enclosing the Theatre at Besançon” ©www.researchgate.net

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Pallasmaa, Juhani. The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the Senses. 2nd ed., e-book, Academy Press, 2005. p. 22

3.3 Mediation

n contemporary times we are moving from Anthropocene to post-anthropocentric ‘ecocene’s. 17The current times hold a gateway or for the future, it’s the times of change and uncertainty including the impacts of climate change and global corona virus pandemic. 20 We can no longer unsee the interrelatedness of the world and the self, and imagine a detachment from our environments; in the contrary it is essential understand and care for the places we dwell and devise new ways to touch the source and essence of things. It is possible to see the current times as a potential field for rewiring and redefining our inner self and outer environments and the relationship in between, we can learn to embrace the unknown, the other, sort of like a therapy, and emerge new rituals, habits and daily routines which are not destructive but generative. To listen, to reveal, to care for, to heal and to flourish our environments shouldn’t be a compromise or consequence of necessity but a celebration, a meditation and a creative and embodied act that refers to nature of human also, so that we can evolve together and co-create in a mode of inter-being where the separation between self and the world blurs. 21

Dynamics Aesthetics and Fluid Identity Professor of Landscape Architecture and Planning at MIT Anne Whiston Spirn proposes a new aesthetics the communing with the world around us an aesthetic that encompasses both the grounding of identity and the transformation of it; ‘…This aesthetics celebrates motion and change, encompasses dynamic processes rather than static objects and scenes, and embraces multiple rather than singular visions. This is not a timeless aesthetic, but one recognizes the flow of passing of time and the singularity of the movement in time, and one that demands both continuity and revolution.” 22 The dialogue with the environment in Ghent changes through time as the acts of human body and mind shifts, however the presence of the water bodies in the city remains. The distinctive nature, the authenticity of the place is originates from water however veiled under the constructed image of the city, man-made world and non-human world seems to loss connection in the urban landscape both psychologically and physically. Nature in the city, especially water has an unrealized potential to be celebrated, and to be a binder of past, present and future transformations, composing a dynamic identity and aesthetics for the place, re-connection with the source of all in a creative way.

M. Küpers, Wendelin. “From the Anthropocene to an ‘Ecocene’ Eco-Phenomenological Perspectives on Embodied, Anthrodecentric Transformations towards Enlivening Practices of Organising Sustainably.” Sustainability, vol. 12, no. 9, 2020, p. 3633. Crossref, doi:10.3390/su12093633.

Merleau-Ponty Phenomenology. “In these eco-scenic spheres the nexus of mind-andmatter, culture-and-nature, self = and-world, are gathering and co-evolving together in non-fusing but holonic ways of part and wholes, thereby disclose an open process of‘betweening’. The embodied ‘subject’ or ‘inter-(sub)ject’ and its likewise embodied ‘inter(sub) jective’encounters with all their meanings and ‘inter-(ob)jective’ lifeworld and its forces are an extensive continuum. In the same and different ways, all of them are rooted and co-create together while taking part in a mode of ‘inter-being’ Merleau-Ponty, M. Nature. Course Notes from the College de France; Northwestern University Press:Evanston, IL, USA, 2003.

Spirn, Anne Whiston. “The Poetics of City and Nature: Towards a New Aesthetic for Urban Design.” Landscape Journal, vol. 7, no. 2, 1988, pp. 108–26. Crossref, doi:10.3368/lj.7.2.108.

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Future Transformations of the City It seems that future transformations of the city of Ghent will be based on the principles and objectives to create a climate-robust city based on the climate-adaptation plan that targets 2030-2050.23 The plan seeks to prepare and adapt Ghent to the projected effects of climate change (precipitation extremes and water nuisance, extended periods of drought and water shortage, heat stress, and rising sea levels). According to the report the urban heat island effect is crucially strong in the historic city center due to the large amount of sealed surfaces. The presence of the water within the city plays an essential role in reducing this stresses. “Our waterways constitute a significant climate system for Ghent. The idea here is to turn those into veritable climate axes through the combination of water and green.” 24 The published design principles for the public domain highlights the role of water and creating more space for it while greening the banks of the waterways. Other objectives include, exposing water and adding water elements in the public domain (trenches, open or covered gutters, fountains,). 25

fig. 15/ Modelled urban heat island effect,

(Gent: Klimaatstad. Working Towards a Climate-Robust City, Ghent Climate Adaptation Plan 2016–2019, 2014)

It seems that gradually water and green will find more space within the veiled landscape of the urban habitat, the growth and flow of the nature are going to act an essential part by shifting static aesthetics of the city. However, it is unknown that how these objectives will be implementing, is it going to be top-down designs, constructed overnight? Or can we find a way as citizens, students, travelers to engage with the changing paradigm, to learn, to act, to care for, and to celebrate the presence and expansion of the nature in the city, meanwhile sensing and communing with the genius of the place? In other words can the act of necessity and urgency be also become an act of creativity, a design challange?

fig. 15 / Towards a climate-robust city

(Gent: Klimaatstad. Working Towards a Climate-Robust City, Ghent Climate Adaptation Plan 2016–2019, 2014)

Gent: Klimaatstad. Working Towards a Climate-Robust City, Ghent Climate Adaptation Plan 2016–2019, 2014 stad.gent/sites/default/files/page/documents/Ghent%20Climate%20Adaptation%20 Plan%202016-2019.pdf.

24 25

Ibid, pp 28-29 Ibid, pp 28-29

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4 Designing with Forces & Processes of Nature

For some artists and architects, revealing and designing with the dynamic processes and cycles of nature is also becomes a tool for creating unexpected and engaging happenings for human participations while contributing to ecological processes. Hans Haacke is an artist who was influenced by systems theory and cybernetics. 26 Haacke was interested in artistic works that unfold as a process in “real time,” with components that communicate with one other and with their environment. Haackle himself suggest that: “A ‘sculpture’ that physically reacts to its environment is no longer to be regarded as an object. The range of outside factors affecting it, as well as its own radius of action, reach beyond the space it materially occupies. It thus merges with the environment in a relationship that is better understood as a ‘system’ of interdependent processes. These processes evolve without the viewer’s empathy. He becomes a witness. A system is not imagined, it is real.” 27 A physical process as basic as water condensation allows Haacke to redefine not only the work of art as a living system, but, most significantly, the role of the viewer or user of art. While the patterns of water trails within the cube have to do with the conditions of their immediate surroundings, the human presence is also part of this environment. The artwork depends on the physical presence of the viewers who, by their proximity, modify the work without a certain intention. Thus Haacke incorporates the viewer into the art

fig. 17 / Cybernatic Loop

In another artwork titled ‘Rhine Water Purification Plant’ Haackle highlight’s the effect that the sewage plant’s discharges have on the environment, the pollution of Rhine River by creating a system of chemical agents and filters that purifies the pumped water from the river. The treated water enters into a large glass container filled with gold fish, framing the life giving nature of water. A hose carries the overflow of the water to the garden of the museum, where it re-joins with the ground. 29 More contemporary approaches for purifying water rely on the symbiotic relationships; one example is Indus Project created by the Bio-Integrated Design Lab at the Bartlett School of Architecture. The project is composed of modular system of tiles inlaid with algae that filters the toxic chemical dyes and heavy metals out of water. The ravines of the tiles filled with micro-algae which are suspended within the “biological scaffold” of a seaweedderived hydrogel. This keeps the algae alive while also being completely recyclable and biodegradable. Once filled, the tiles are assembled into a wall and water is poured into the system through inlets at the top by local artisans. Water flows through the tile channels and is collected at the bottom. 30

“Cybernetics is a transdisciplinary approach for exploring regulatory and purposive systems—their structures, constraints, and possibilities. The core concept of the discipline is circular causality or feedback—that is, where the outcomes of actions are taken as inputs for further action.” -. “Cybernetics.” Wikipedia, 8 June 2021, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cybernetics. [Accesed June 08,2021]

Kastner, Jeffrey. “A System Is Not Imagined.” Places Journal, 25 Aug. 2020, placesjournal.org/article/hans-haacke-a-system-is-not-imagined/?cn-reloaded=1. [Accesed June 08,2021]

fig. 16/ Condensation Cube, Hans Haacke

MACBA Museum of Contemporary Art of Barcelona

MACBA Museum of Contemporary Art of Barcelona. “Condensation Cube.” MACBA Museum of Contemporary Art of Barcelona, 12 Aug. 2020, www. macba.cat/en/art-artists/artists/haacke-hans/condensation-cube. [Accesed June 08,2021]

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Another approach to engage with the environment and develop a sense of emphaty to non-human was explored through other projects that distorts and augments the perception by sensory enhancement and deprivation. In the late 1960s, a group of architects called Haus-RuckerCo decided to see what would happen if they created architectural designs that had the ability to alter a person’s state of perception or consciousness, which showed how people could affect their own environment. One example is the “mind expander” series, a wearable bodily prosthesis, green translucent double layered mask with prismatic eye pieces which allows the user to view the world from the specific visual perspective of a fly. 31

fig. 19/ Algae -infused Tiles , Bio-ID Lab

Hahn, Jennifer. “Bio-ID Lab Designs DIY Algae-Infused Tiles.” Dezeen, 25 May 2021, www.dezeen.com/2019/09/21/bio-id-lab-indus-algae-tileswater.

fig. 18 / Mr. Haacke’s “Rhine Water Purification Plant,” 1972.

Hans Haacke/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; via Paula Cooper Gallery

Rhinewater Purification Plant, 1972 - Hans Haacke - WikiArt.Org.” Www.Wikiart.Org, www.wikiart.org/en/hans-haacke/rhinewater-purification-plant-1972. [Accessed 19 Jan. 2022.]

fig. 20 / “ mind expanders”

Courtesy: Ortner & Ortner Baukunst

Hahn, Jennifer. “Bio-ID Lab Designs DIY Algae-Infused Tiles.” Dezeen, 25 May 2021, www.dezeen.com/2019/09/21/bio-id-lab-indus-algae-tiles-water. [Accessed 19 Jan. 2022.]

Haus-Rucker Co, Mind Expander, 1968, photographic print.

31 The Mind Expander Chair & Other Inventions from the Far-out World of 60s Architects Haus-Rucker-Co.” DangerousMinds, 21 Jan. 2016, dangerousminds. net/comments/the_mind_expander_chair_other_inventions_from_the_far-out. Online. [Accesed June 08,2021]

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Alternative ways of designing with nature is creating curated spatial experiences that provoke a valuable interplay and awakening in the audience which extends into all aspects of everydaylife. Immersive spaces that feeds itself from the acts of natural media such as water engages the senses of the visitor. “The bluring of these relationships between audience and actor, spectator and spectacle, coincides with the conceptual evolution of an installation into a complete and autonomus environment” 32 I had a chance to visit one such local installation called “Reservoir” curated by a art collective called 019 Ghent.33 The exhibition inspired me by revealing the processes of water, and working with its spatial implications. An old industrial building adjacent to the canal serves as a space for various experiments an exhibitions for the art collective. In the exhibition “Reservoir”, the water from the canal channels to the interior, flooding the space, accumulating in the reservoir. With the agency of water space transforms into a habitat for various plant species and algee. The living organisms purifies the water and water flows back to the adjacent canal. The water goes through several processes and motions within the space. It is introduced to the interior by a suspended pipe system mimicking precipitation. As a visitor, I can walk above the water, on a perforated metal deck. The artistic interventions such as kinetic objects and sculptures blends in with the living media, creating a unique atmosphere, a microworld. The precipitation creates a sense of rythim and the feeling of the humidity holds the atmosphere together. The cycle of water becomes an environment for the human to be experienced, stepping out the usual mundane world. It is a environment created by dynamic processes rather than objects. The experience really inspired me in the seek for a fluid dialogue with my environment, while helped me to understand the processes of water purification.

“ From September 2020 onwards 019 sheds its roof. Relentless rain(1) floods the building. What was once an exhibition space, becomes a knee-high morass; the floor submerged and overgrown. The former welding factory, turned artist-run space will now double as a public wetland and water treatment plant. Hydrophytes, rain, artworks, visitors and installations become submerged in the damp atmosphere and form moist alliances. 019 grows into an ecosystem, in which the different organisms and the environment are one functioning structure in a constant flux. 019 becomes a plant. The swamp works – to welcome visitors, to educate on botany, to purify water from the canal. It collects aquatic rituals and creates new ones. As a humid public park, it is a place that functions both as an unlikely(2) intervention in the urbanized, hardened surroundings, and, at the same time, as an extension of the canal next to it. Its borders are fluid. It blurs what is in- and outside. What’s artificial and natural, exotic and native, become superfluous distinctions. In the end, it pours down on everything and everyone. A guide leads visitors along black alders, installations, fountains, 34 gargoyles, pumps, sculptures, sedge, videoworks, sweet rush… “

Borges, Sofia, et al. Liquid Spaces. Gestalten, 2015.

33 “RESERVOIR: Paul Barsch & Tilman Hornig.” 019, 1 June 2021, 019-ghent.org/exhibitions/reservoir-paul-barsch-tilman-hornig. 34

Ibid

fig. 22 / scenes from exhib

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One thing cought my attention at the exposition was the lack of emphasis on the initial and final acts of water. The interior completely transforms becomes into a micro- environment and ecology; however the implications of it are not visible outside of the building. The space where the building meets with the canal, the in between space where the river water is channeled in and released back, is still derelict and not experiential, only one blue pipe is visible. As a visitor I would really like to see and experiece the initial connection and translation in an more exposed, more expressive way in order to feel the transition and its effects as a binder of in and out.

fig. 21 / interior space .own photo

fig. 23 / outside of the building .own photo

fig. 24 / cycle of water, from canal to reservoir back to canal .own sketch

bition .own photos

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CHAPTER II acts of water

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5. on the Edge

In this section I would like to explore and observe the urban fabric of the city of Ghent by walking near the canals, targeting the central city in order to reveal the presence and potentials of the existing natural forces and their current actions and internal dynamics. Processes and cycles of the nature lead to defining a language or tools for design to inherit.

The presence of

water bodies influences the language of the urban fabric. The character of the dialogue where the aquatic landscape and upper land intersects, the edges, is explored through walking and filming. Acts of water, air, birds and light in these threshold zones holds potentials to be orchestrated in a way that create an fertile internal dynamic including human participation. In the inner city of Ghent water is mostly contained by masonry stone walls, it flows inside its strictly defined container, not allowed to intervene to the land. Throughout my drift I realized there is always a distance in between me and the aquatic landscape both physically and mentally. There are only few places that my body is allowed to come close the water, and feel its presence; and few places that the life giving nature of the water is visible as the dialogue with the soil is mostly blocked by the hard surfaces. Even though it seems that the very presence of the canals is not celebrated in its full potential, water in the city brings a different spatial and temporal dynamism to the environment that embodies your body and mind as the observer when you volunteer. The text in the holds some of my observations.

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fig. 26 / water meeting and diverging with the land, various places inn Ghent. own photos

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Observing the motion of the water takes me to a journey of the surrounding landscape and the landscape takes me back to water. I see the water flow in one direction; simultaneously I feel the presence of the wind touching my body. I recognize the dancing patterns of waves projected on the metal surface of a bridge or stone walls and transform the matter in a canvas, I turn my head and feel the presence of sunlight; as if the water binds and exposes the inner relations and co-dependence of the place and me through its dialogue with surrounding matter. And sometimes water becomes a lens to view the surrounding facades and movements of the people, and suddenly the image gets distorted by a trace of a motion carried by the surface of the fluid medium, as if it acts as a platform that juxtaposes divergent realities. Water brings me a sense of time even it’s not present in the current moment of observation; realizing an expressive pattern of green algae on the stone wall makes me think that water was in dialogue. And this fluid landscape is main habitat or a stamping ground for various species; waterway birds, ducks, pigeons; the dwellers of the water are also the inhabitants of the city. Bird’s motion on the edges defines a temporal aesthetics to be encountered. I see seeds flowing in the air, just above the line of division, as a result by an act of hand; a seagull spirals down, moving the particles of air under its wings. The motion of the birds defines an ephemeral space of transition in between the upper land and aquatic scape. In another encounter, the scene is set by the presence of porous metal beams of a bridge, waterscape that runs under and the continuous railings of an upper platform for walking; the act of a lady feeding the birds and the motion of the birds reconstructed the relations of spatial elements of the city scape in an spontaneous choreography, which slows down by body and re-engages my senses.

Water carries Water reflect Water is refle Water trigger Water accum Water flows a Water invites Water transfo Water gives s

Through my observations, I tried to understand the character of the water and collect the gestures of it in an urban environment, the happenings is accumulated in a language that creates the tools of the design process.

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fig. 27 / projections. own sketch

s traces / ts the city / ected by the city / rs growth / mulates / and touches / s/ orms / shape to choreography

fig. 28 / ephemeral space. own sketch

fig. 29 / choreography. own sketch

fig. 30/ dialogoues. stone and water. own sketch

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fig. 31 / algae painting .own photo

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fig. 32 / traces of motion . own image

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6.1 Focused Location Graslei / Korenlei One of the most photographed place in Ghent is Gralei/ Korenlei. The place can be seen as backbone of the historic center of Ghent. The river Leile both divides and unites the two banks, which used as a trading dock for the ships in historic times, in history it served as a place of trade, from the water to the land a place of exchange. 35 In my opinion the character of the place does not reflect and flourishes the actual diversity and richness it inhabits in the means of ecology, culture and history. The city of Ghent holds on to the representational image of the place, there is a picturesque beauty to be appreciated, however it is bound to be fastly consumed. Tourist boats occupy the water unceasingly threating it as a ride in a theme park. The spatial language of the urban fabric does not offer any invitiations for the humans to relate to their environment, to participate the processes of it. Thus activities by the water mostly limited to sitting and drinking, unaware of the presence of the nature. Green finds a little space to grow in between the stones, fragmented and isolate while the river runs inside its container silently. The birds species are in seek for a better habitat for nesting and feeding as they mostly dwell on the trash islands accumulated in the water. Through my research I realized there are many community initiatives based on the various neighboorhoods, where the residents discuss projects for their environment, and the city supports it finacially. However, it seems that there is no collective initiative taking place considering the city center, as if the place is abondened by the citizens of the city, comprimised for touristic and commercial activity and publicity of identity. Throughout my research I would like to target the city center to challenge the existing paradigm ; what would be the possible exchange, dialogue between land and the aquatic landscape?

fig. 33 / Fragmented Nature , Graslei Korenlei. own sketch

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fig. 34 / Graslei/Korenlei (STAM, Ghent)

fig. 35 / View from st. Michaels Bridge. own photo

fig. 36 / fragmented nature, signs of life in Grasle. own photos

35 Traveller, Belgian. “Graslei and Korenlei, in Ghent.” Belgium Break, 2 Feb. 2016, belgiumbreak.com/graslei-and-korenlei-in-ghent. [Accesed June 08,2021]

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6.2 Design Objectives The edges are vital. They carry the unrealized potential of emergent property. If the mentality of the commanding and controlling manifested in the physical realm morphs into channeling and mediation, the potential of the edges might be flourish both ecologically and experientially. In current situation there is a strict fragmentation in between the mediums of water, land and air and the creatures inhabit them, the boundary is dimensionless; I seek to imagine a whited out space that would explore the possible translations in between these mediums; a fertile field of multiple dialogues where a micro ecology of nature and human behavior can be manifested. The actors of this scenario are both human and non-human. The proposal will explore the role of a translator, a mediator between worlds; an interface of a communication which collects and orchestrates the forces of nature where water is the lead actor.

To translate between worlds To orchestrate a process Architecture that translates. An instrument to communicate with other.

fig. 37 / potentaial habitat value of edges. (“The First-Ever Mile-Long Floating Eco-Park in the World.” The Wild Mile, www.wildmilechicago.org. )

Current design of the tresholds are built tobe durable and resistant. Stable strict lines.

Distinctive Mediums

Opens up for a dialo tween dif worlds. / Response flow, mov water. / Commun light rays, Initiates g invites sp dwell and cate to on er./ Enriches ty both ec and beha Augment man perc surround Creates a imaginati

Changing the nature of the border?

Can’t we design in a way that embraces motion and distinctive dynamics and translatesthem to one and other ? Through that triggers growth and inhabitation. Fluid lines. Potential Translations

fig. 38 / translations, fluid borders .own image

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p a space ogue befferent

es to the vements of

nicates with , projects./ growth and pecies to d communine and oth-

the diversicologically aviorally. / ts the huception of ding reality./ a space for ion.

fig. 39 / the field of interactions .own sketch

In Graslei/Korenlei everything moves in a linear way without interruption so does the time. The flow of water, wind, light, human.. The presence of nature gets lost due to its uninterrupted monotous motion, blends into static images. Idea is to channel the forces in a field where they encounter eachother, design will act as a translator. The concept of the field conveys relations, movements and transmissions: “The field describes a space of propagation, of effects. It contains no matter or material points, rather functions, vectors and speeds. It describes local relations of difference within fields of celerity, transmission or careering points, in a word, what Minkowski called the world.” 35 S. Kwinter

35 Kwinter, Sanford. Architectures of Time: Toward a Theory of the Event in Modernist Culture. Reprint, The MIT Press, 2002.

fig. 40/ the motion of natural forces .own diagram

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Something to think about..

A confessional is a box, cabinet, booth, or stall in which the priest sits to hear the confessions of penitents in some Christian churches 38 The confessional is usually a wooden structure, with a center compartment, entered through a door or curtain, in which the priest sits, and on each side there is a latticed opening for the penitents to speak through and a step on which they kneel. By this arrangement the priest is hidden, but the penitent is visible to the public. I am inspired by this piece of furniture as it creates an interface for an intimate dialogue. Confessional screens in between the compartments acts as medium for information flow. Mostly the pattern in the screen restricts the sight, creates a sense of anonymity and secrecy. While the vision is restricted, the sense of hearing and touch is enhanced. Flow of breaths circulates through the voids of the screen while speaking. The design of the furniture spatially creates a layer of privacy even though the person who confesses mostly exposed to the public. Few steps to enter inside the compartment, a wooden extension in front of the screen to put the elbows define fields of proximity. Overall the chamber itself is situated to a bigger interior space, the church itself. There is a hierarchical order to the conversation takes place in the field, where the priest is accepted as a higher power. The act of confession, the catharsis, reveals of emotions and thoughts flow in the space to be listened and hopefully disappear by the permission of the priest.

I would like to imagine what if a non-human actor inhabits one of the compartments, in this case the water. What would be the dialogue takes place? What would be the interface, the screen look like to translate the information? Would there be still a hierarchical order to the conversation, or it can be a mutual exchange, a fluid dialogue between human and water where they both get rehabilitated, purified through the encounter? These were my wanderings and questions when I initiated the design process, to imagine the interface in between in a journey of purification. The appearance of the typical confessional disappeared through the process however the ideas of proximity interface, senses and anonymity wove the fabric of next sub-sections. I use the technique of collage and drawing for exploring possible interface through the journey of water, using the tools and instruments collected.

38 Wikipedia contributors. “Confessional.” Wikipedia, 20 Apr. 2021, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confessional.[Accesed June 08,2021]

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fig. 41 /Confessions of Graslei .own collage

fig. 42 /interface of communication .own image

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CHAPTER III tools and orchestration

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8. Free Flowing Vocabulary This section accumulates some of the tools, creatures, spatial elements, concepts which collected through the process. They are not only the elements from nature and culture I observed, but also the elements of my response to my observations. A reservoir where the environment blends with my imagination. Invitations that swirl around in my mental landscape potential field of instruments to devise a fluid dialogue in between. Attempt to categorize and organize them didn’t work for me because in some of the cases I imagine to use them apart from their original purpose. So I didn’t name them but tagged them with verbs of actions belonging to the sphere of the process of this project. (In the next section the inter- relations and associations will be made and concepts will be discussed through them, the reader can refer to this page for references and information.)

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7. Free Flowing Vocabulary _ Tools for Design I encountered with a poem in Graslei, carved in the stones, just on the edge where the water and land meets and diverges . The original poem is in Dutch, both the original and the English translation follows as:

Melopee “Onder de maan schuift de lange rivier “Under the moon the long river slides Over de lange rivier schuift moede de maan Over the long river the moon sleepily slides Onder de maan op de lange rivier schuift de kano naar zee” Under the moon on the long river the canoe slides to sea Langs het hoogriet langs de laagwei schuift de kano naar zee schuift met de schuivende maan de kano naar zee

Past the high reed past the low pasture slides the canoe to sea slides with the sliding moon the canoe to sea

Zo zijn ze gezellen naar zee de kano de maan en de man So to sea they are companions the canoe the moon and the man Waarom schuiven de maan en de man getweeën gedwee naar de zee” Why do the two the moon and the man meekly slide to sea”37 Paul van Ostaijen Vertaling/translation: Marcel Volker Opgedragen aan: Gaston Burssens In: Gedichten, 1928.

I interpret the elements of the poem the river: the moon, the man, the canoo and the sea For me the poem reveals the interdependence of all: gravity of moon creates tides, river flows, and the man flows with it; he connects with all with a agency of a created tool “the canoe”. ...and all together they flow to the sea which for me represents the primordial existence, the realm of transcendal. So through the process I collected my own tools, which accumulated in a free flowing vocabulary .. to relate and flow together.

fig. 43 /poem carved in sto

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Dictionary 1/ ARCHIMEDES SCREW to elevate [water][rotation][hand][zone1] 2/ TREADLE PUMP to elevate [water][marching][feet][zone1] 3/RAIN-CHAINS to channel [rainwater][cone 3] 4/ HYDROULOPHONE to create[sound][touch][hand]/ to channel[water][splash][zone 2/3]

The previous page accumulates some of the instruments, creatures, spatial elements, concepts which collected through the process. They are not only the elements from nature and culture I observed, but also the elements of my response to my observations.

5/ KICK PEDAL to create[sound][rythim][feet][zone2]

A reservoir where the environment blends with my imagination.

6/ BIOSWALE to inhabit [plants]/ to collect [water]/ to purify[water][infiltration]/ to channel [water] [zone 3]

Invitations that swirl around in my mental landscape potential field of instruments to devise a fluid dialogue in between.

7/ FLOATING WETLAND to inhabit [plants]/ to invite [fish][birds]/ to purify[water][zone 1] 8/ MICRO-ALGAE to filter [water][zone 2] 9/ PIGEON TOWERS to define [space] [form]/ to invite [birds][zone 1/2/3] 10/ SCALE-WEIGHT to measure[weight][gravity][stones][zone3]

Attempt to categorize and organize them didn’t work for me because in some of the cases I imagine to use them apart from their original purpose. So I didn’t name them but tagged them with verbs of actions belonging to the sphere of the process of this project. (In the next section the inter- relations and associations will be made and concepts will be discussed through them.)

11/CONFESSIONAL CHAMBER to define [space][inteface][zone 1/2/3] 12/ OPTICS to reflect [light][zone 1/2] 13/ PROXEMICS to define [space]/ to measure [distance][zone 1/2/3] 14/ HERO’S JOURNEY to define[circulation][ water][human][zone 1/2/3] 15/ HOLOGRAPHIC SURFACE to refract [light][zone 2/3]

ones .own image

36 Marvol19. “Poetry: Melopee – Paul van Ostaijen.” Same Shit, Different Blog, 31 Jan. 2012, marvol19.wordpress.com/2010/05/04/ poetry-melopee-paul-van-ostaijen. [Accesed June 08,2021]

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fig. 44 /journey of water .own image

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8. Orchestrating the Journey of Water

fig. 32 /zones .own image

With the instruments that accumulated in the free-flowing vocabulary, I would like to invite water for a journey, from the canal to the land, and back to the canal; where she encounters various actors, such as human, microalgae and plants, pipes, musical devices. Every encounter becomes a moment of exchange, a fluid, fertile dialogue. At the end water rejoins with the river rehabilitated, purified.

Zone I Aquatic

Zone I Aquatic Inviting Water Objectives -Create habitat for birds and aquatic life forms - Creation of Floating Wetlands -manual interactable system for elevating water [1 Inviting the water 2 Pump upward 7 rejoining]

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Zone III Upland

Zone II Transition (Emergent)

Zone II Emegent Translation

Zone III Upland Growth

Objectives

-Water purification by bioremediation -Interface to interact in a creative way - Channel water back to canal

- Higlight Growth by creation of bioswales - accumulate and channel water - Collect rainwater -Interface to interact

[3 flow downward (bioremediation) 6 splash outwards (Hydrolouphone)]

[4 accumulate basin( bioswales ) 5 overflow-channel]

On Aquatic Landscape [ water journey [zone 1] ]

Out of Container Ghent is surrounded by water bodies; however there is not so many ways to interact with the water rather than sitting next to it from a distance. According to my personal observations, the aquatic landscape is framed and tamed by strictly defined containers the real presence of it gets lost within the monotony and fragmentation. In order to offer diverse ways of sensual engagement for the residents and visitors of the city is to invite water out of its container and take her to diverse journeys of flow. An overview of the tools and device can be seen here, the proposals will be explained detailly in the next pages.

floating habitat

Passive to Active Body and Mind Water wants to flow, and flow of the water can be guided through tools. I find it important to change the role of the residents from passive to active, create opportunities for them to be part of occasions, actions. Therefore, I decided to use mechanical devices such as diaphragm foot pump and Archimedes screw, rather than electrical pumps for elevating water from the canal, which is operated by public participators. Water Purification Water wants to be pure and purify us. Through the dense activity of boats water may be contaminated. Installations proposed to cleanse the water by bioremediation processes while being an experiential space for humans. kinetic membrane

Static to Dynamic,Living Environment Water wants to give life. Some of the modules changes the silent and sealed environment into a dynamic and living one which can support and invite wildlife, and highlifht growth.

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Translation [ water journey [zone 1 to 2]

archimedes screw

On Upper Land [zone 2 to 3]

foot-operated diaghram pump

living mask bio-active pools

living chamber

music devise- hydroulouphone

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9.1 Proposal Installation I [ Living Mask ] On Performance and Disguise Johan Huizinga in his book Homo Ludens suggests that play surrounds itself with an air of secrecy. Play here referred for both children activity, both also ritualistic and performative acts. I also see play as mental act, where we are able to take a distance to our own pre-constructed paradigm and conditionings and let the mind and body wander around and engage with the surroundings in alternative ways. “ The ‘ differentness’ and secrecy are motly expressed in in “ dressing up” . Here the “extra-ordinary” nature of play reaches perfection. The disguised or masked individual “plays” an onother being. He is an onether being. The terrors of childhood, open-hearted gaiety, mystic fantasy and sacred awe are all inextricably entangled in this strange bussiness of masks and disguise”.37 To invite the human residents of the public sphere to a playful a performative environment where he/she steps out from the ordinary world and identity, I wanted to create a mask-like installation with a program of water purification.

Sense of Rhythm For channelling the water upwards into the mask, I researched various interfaces for human participation; finally I decided to use a foot-operated diaphram pump 38, which would bring a sense of rhythm to the body, and a performative aspect to the experience. I imagined it combine the pump with the kick pedal device that used in drums, which would add a rhythmic base layer to the flowing sounds of water. The sound of the pump can be also perceived as a call, a premonitory that communicates the activation of the system, completion of circuit and transformation of the atmosphere both for the experiencer and the outer realm including other living creatures such as birds. Sense of Flow & Cleansing Elevated water channels into a mask-like space, infused with microbial algae in biological scaffold of a seaweedderived hydrogel. 39 Water flows inside the porous structure of the mask, flowing in a dialogue with the micro-algae, gets decontaminated and purified, and channels back to canal. The layered structure of the mask increases the area of contact between algae and the water, guided by a built-in bell siphon mechanism. When the water is filled beyond a certain point in the middle basin, a siphoning effect causes the cup to drain its entire contents to the surrounding layer where it drains out gradually. The mask can be made of a semi-transparent material such as plexiglass. The flowing water can distort the vision of the surrounding and propose new ways of seeing.. Installation The installation can be used on the waterways installed on floating stations or can be attached to the banks of the river with a platform. The cleansed water can be channelled back to canal surrounded by floating habitat raft installations or to the land dripping to built-in constructed wetlands.

fig. 45 / Living mask, front and side view. own drawing 37 Huizinga, Johan. Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play-Element in Culture. e-book, Martino Fine Books, 2014. p. 13 38

For more information about the device: Fraenkel, Peter. Water Lifting Devices. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 1986, “ section 3.5.7 Diaphragm Pumps” www.fao.org/3/ah810e/ AH810E00.htm#Contents. [ Accessed 21 Jan. 2022]

39 An example project of this purification process “bioremediation” can be seen here : Hahn, Jennifer. “Bio-ID Lab Designs DIY Algae-Infused Tiles That Can Extract Toxic Dyes from Water.” Dezeen, 25 May 2021, www. dezeen.com/2019/09/21/bio-id-lab-indus-algae-tiles-water. [Accesed June 08,2021]

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fig. 46 / sense of rythim and flow. own collage

fig. 47 / a water ritual. own s

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j. aluminium profile

f. water reservoir (living mask) ı. rotation mechanism (45 degree)

h. handle for support and rotation g. water outlet

e. one-way check valve

d. pvc water hose

c. foot-operated diapragm pump

b. floating platform

a. water inlet

fig. 48 / Living mask, front and side view. own drawing

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micro-algae nests With the process called bioremediation, microorganisms are used to consume and break down pollutants in the environment.

fig. 49 / Living mask- section cut - top view. own drawing

III

fig. 50 / water circulation within the mask (siphon mechanism) - front view. own diagram

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Bees, butterflies, moths, dragonflies, flies & flower beetles are attracted to the flowering plants.

coconot coir fibre (fastened using plastic mesh)

aquatic emergent plants

Green planted islands and edges provide shelter and resting grounds for aquatic birds such as ducks, coots and moorhens.

(Pontederia cordata Hibiscus moscheutos Typha angustifolia Iris pseudacorus Scirpus atrovirens etc.)

hollow plastic pipe(HDPE)

submerged plant roots Below the water surface, submerged plant roots provide excellent feeding grounds and protection for aquatic insects, invertebrates and fish. It becomes an ideal habitat for microorganisms, which use algae, carbon and excess nutrients in the water as a food source, purifying the water.

fig. 51 / floating habitat raft - section diagram. own drawing

Urban water features are often hard-edged with vertical banks that allow little space for wildlife and plants to settle. This is a missed opportunity, because water features can, with some small interventions, can support and invite wildlife that are much needed in the hostile urban environment. Floating ecosystems provide habitat for native wildflowers, insects, fish, birds and reptiles while cleansing the water. 39

More info about floating ecosystem can be found here: Floating Ecosystems.” Biomatrix, 28 Oct. 2019, www.biomatrixwater.com/floating-ecosystems. [Accessed on 21.01.2022]

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fig. 52 / Living mask installation on the banks of waterways with floating habitats. own drawing

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9.2 Proposal Installation II [Sound Chamber] Music of Water

Multiple Sensations and Perspectives

Hydrolouphone is an acoustic musical instrument that works with the hydraulic pressure of water where the interface is composed of circular voids that splashes the water outwards, through blocking the jets by the touch of a finger the sound emerges, each hole refers to a particular note. It has been used as a sensory exploration device for low-vision individuals. 40 I would like to use this devise as an interface for human interaction for the final act of water in the cycle; returning to the canal. The purified water that has been communicated with micro-algae, returns to the human where it accumulates in a basin connected to the hydrolouphone; hands dancing on the device splashes the water outwards to the existing water landscape and floating wetlands imagined, enhancing the growth of the aquatic plants.

I envision that the process becomes both an embodied experience for the human participator and a spectacle to be witnessed from outside of the chamber.

Surrounding Chamber Likely to the first proposal, I wanted to design a living chamber which would circulate and cleanse the water channelled from the canal with algal bioremediation processes meanwhile reflect and diffuse the sound. The design intention was to maximize the algae contact with water while surrounding the human body. In order to achieve that I used a system of communicating vessels that carry water based on the inverted siphon principle. Inverted siphons, a technique based on the simple physical principle that “water finds its own level” was widely used in Roman aqueducts in large scales to cross natural features such as valleys and depressions 41 I used this principle in a much smaller scale creating a an repetitively folding geometry composed in a spiral form that surrounds the upper body of the human. The communicating vessels carry water slowly from top to down, finally dripping into a basin. Accumulated water in the basin is transferred automatically to the hydrolouphone devise which splashes the water back to the canal. The system can be combined with footoperated pump to elevate the water by the user.

For the user, a sense of touch and sound activates the body, and direct contact with water evokes a cleansing and purification feeling which can be internalized. The motion of the water in the medium of the air may invite bird species to enjoy while creating an ephemeral atmosphere. Purified water rejoining with the canal creates ripples on the fluid surface. The installations create holistic perspective on dialogue between human and water, where the perception of time does not flow linearly but spirals, amplifies within the space. From outside the space, the happening can be observed and listened from the water, from the banks of the river and from the bridge. There is an old movable binocular installed in the St. Michael’s Bridge, looking towards to the Graslei/Korenlei. I imagined only the hands of the human body extending from the chamber, meeting with the water. The playful dialogue of the hands and the spreading water can be observed closely by this binocular; it may create an unexpected scene or an invitation for a person drifting in the city; while the rest of space remains in enchanting secrecy.

“Architecture is the art of reconciliation between ourselves andthe world, and this mediation takes place through the senses.” 42 Juhani Pallasmaa

40 Mann, Steve, and Mark Post. - Hydraulophone Design Considerations: Absement, Displacement, and Velocity-Sensitive Music Keyboard in Which Each Key Is a Water Jet. researchgate, 2006, https://doi.org/10.1145/1180639.1180751.) [ Accessed 21 Jan. 2022] 41

“Aqua Clopedia, a Picture Dictionary of Roman Aqueducts: Siphons.” Http://Www. Romanaqueducts.Info/, www.romanaqueducts.info/picturedictionary/pd_onderwerpen/ siphon.htm. [Accessed 21 Jan. 2022] 42 Pallasmaa, Juhani. The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the Senses. 2nd ed., e-book, Academy Press, 2005, p. 77

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fig. 53 / Multiple perspectives/the creation. own drawing, collage

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fig. 54 / aqueduct inverted siphon system.

cavities to be filled with micro-algae.

water inlet

communicating vessels for water circulation, transparent recycled plastic water outlet

fig. 55 / system of communicating vessels for water circulation and algae contact. own drawing

fig. 56 / repetetive siphons in spiral form- geomety of the chamber. own drawing

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fig. 57 / suspended chamber, side view. own drawing

hydraulophone water basin

fig. 58 / hydraulophone station, front view. own drawing

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fig. 59 / inside the chamber. own drawing

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fig. 60 / sound chamber, installed on the water, suspended- front view. own drawing

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9.3 Proposal III [Flowing Landscape] Barren Land In Graslei/ Korenlei, and most of the other urban water edges are paved with granite sets which sizes around 9x18 cm, I can barely hold it with my hand. Even though the stones have its historic charm, repetitive nature of the hard surface leaves no place for growth of nature, public place seems barren, unchanging. Water has no dialogue with soil or any growing medium. Volumes where Life Perpetuates There is a tension between the historical identity and the intended transformations of the place. Rather than removing all of those stones, I choose to remain their presence on the area, in order to reveal the process of the transformation and redefine and amplify the historic presence and function of the granite setts. Therefore in the design process the existing patterns and dimensions of sets are used to create bio-active pools embedded in the ground or installed on the borders that can be filled with growing medium such as clay aggregates and water, in order to allow life to perpetuate on the land and offer a spatial diversity in the area. The installation can be seen as a biological ornament which refers to the aesthetics of the site, while offering alteration and movement through agency of water.43 Forms can be casted from cement mixture.

fig. 61/ Pavement on Graslei. own photos-collage

An example approach can be seen here: “Vertipools.” Artecology, www.artecology.space/vertipools. [Accessed 22 Jan. 2022.]

44 For more information on Constructed Wetland design: Naipal, Ekaterina. “Critical Design Parameters of Subsurface Flow Constructed Wetlands for the Removal of Organic Micro Pollutants From Wastewater.” Wageningen University, 2014, pp. 12–15, www.saniwijzer.nl/media/stowa_saniwijzer_v2/org/1/documents/verwijdering_mps_in_helofytenfilters_e_naipal_-_thesis_report_2.pdf

Constructed Wetlands The modules can be attached to one and other, and function as stepped constructed wetlands44 that take advantage of the height difference in the site; a more controlled revision of the marshlands of Ghent. The roots of aquatic wetland plants planted in the growing media helps to cleanse the water gradually while attracting birds and pollinators to the area, creating a much more dynamic and diverse atmosphere and ecology. The pools gather rain water and channel it to the adjacent canal. The installation also can be used with human operated water elevating devices such as Archimedes screw in order to invite the visitors to guide the water from the canal upwards to the wetlands, where it flows downward to the canal filtered gradually. Overall, the installation reunites the land and aquatic landscape, offering a more gradual change for human and non-human actors rather than strict fragmentations.

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fig. 62/ Opening space for nature . own collage

fig. 63/ surrounded by water . own drawing

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fig. 64/ wetland module. section cut . own drawing

fig. 66/ suspended stones . own sketch

fig. 65/ geometry the pool . own drawing fig. 67/ possible organizations of descending pools, top view . own drawing

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fig. 68/ Flowing landscape of pools. own sketch

fig. 69/ Module assembly as a wall . own sketch

fig. 70/ Space for ducks . own sketch

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fig. 71/ Archimedes screw, front and top view . own drawing

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fig. 72/ Flowing Landscape . own drawing

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9.4 Proposal Installation IV – [Kinetic Membrane] Motion of Water Surface The surface of the water body is constantly in motion caused by various happenings, such as a duck swimming, a boat passing by, rain droplets falling from the sky or wind blowing. Even when the actors of those happenings disappear from the scene, water carries the traces of the action for a while and absorbs it gradually. Fluid Edges

fig. 73/ “Disturbed Water.”

Flickr, www.flickr.com/photos/pdk8/6378077373. Accessed 24 Jan. 2022.

The ephemeral disturbances on the surface of the water has a certain beauty, calmness and energy that can be translated in a new created medium to take the attention of the people back to the water and to the happenings affecting it. With this medium unchanging and solid character of the waterfront edges can be shifted into a more dynamic one. Translation with Shape-Shifting Mesh To design this medium, I imagined a continuous fabric like three dimensional surface that is elevated from several floating modules that moves with the water. Volumetric modules with rings linked together in a hexagonal pattern to form a bendable mesh. The mesh can be produced in different sizes and shapes, and parts of it is 3d printable as one object.

fig. 74/ Ship Wake .

Wikipedia contributors. “Wake (Physics).” Wikipedia, 19 Dec. 2021, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wake_(physics).

Changing Reflections The individual cells of the medium is designed to collect rain water. The water is gathered inside the cylindrical modules up to a certain level and then guided back in to the canal, which creates more motion on the surface. The collected water in circular patterns in contact with the light renders the surrounding environment; the movement of the mesh changes the reflections continuously, offering diverse scenes to the attention. Overall this proposed tool is designed to highlight to motion of the water, to take to attention of the viewer to the changes and inter-connectedness of the environment, offer diverse views and a dynamic aesthetics. The mesh can be combined with different mechanism of movement such as a rotation mechanism, seesaw mechanism which is installed underwater.

fig. 75/ Reflections on water . own photo

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fig. 76/ Shape-shifting fabric . own sketch

fig. 77/ Individual modules and connections . own drawing

fig. 78/ 3d printed mesh. own photo

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fig. 79/ Upwards, downwards motion . own drawing

fig. 80/ Rotation mechanism. own drawing

fig. 81/ Floating mechanism, motion with the water . own drawing

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fig. 82/ 3d printed membrane 1/10 scale . own photo

fig. 83/ Modules collecting and draining rain water . own diagram

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fig. 84/ Reflections on the surface . own drawing

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fig. 85/ The edge on the motion . own drawing

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10.Reflections and Future Proposal

“……play presents itself to us in the first instance: as an intermezzo, an interlude in our daily lives. As a regularly recurring relaxation, however it becomes the accampaniment, the compliment, in fact an integral part of life in general.” 45

45 Huizinga, Johan. Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play-Element in Culture. e-book, Martino Fine Books, 2014, p. 9

The proposed tools and installations act together to orchestrate the forces of nature and forces of culture all together , it becomes an autonomous environment that feed itself from the ingredients of the place, devices new relations within, the internalization of the received information makes it an sphere of a unexpected and transforming experience, a performative and responsive and embodied environment. Sounds and sceneries define a time interactive atmosphere, where water leads the way. Through the design process I considered to approach my objectives with designing wearable bodily prosthesis. However, defining particular spaces in the cityscape has a potential to emerge a ritualistic acts for the citizens; one can visit the place multiple times through time and observe, participate and relate to the transformations taking place, the human nature of to care for and preserve the environment may rise again while fulfilling the creative nature of human also. I acknowledge there are much more hidden potentials yet to be realized within urban public sphere with the agency of water . Therefore I would like to propose an Urban-scale Water Festival in the City of Ghent. My research, proposals and drawings from previous section can be seen as the first contributions for the imagined festival.

I [Graslei & Korenlei] Main quays of historic Ghent , commercial trade activity from Lieve design theme: “dialogue between water and land”

II [Rabot Gate] —Historic Gate of the City , two towers where erected over the water and served as a sluice on the Lieve, today the river stops there. design theme: “where the water stops, a passage to the outer realm ”

III [ Portus Ganda]Confluence of the Rivers Leie and Schelde, spot where the first settlements begin in Ghent design theme: “marking a place, intersections”

fig. 86/ Waterways of Ghent- ex. festival spots. own image

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Towards a Water Festival in Ghent

Vision Visions of the Water Festival are to highlight and enhance the beauty and characteristics of Urban waterways of Ghent in relation to its historic, cultural and ecological identity in an creative, celebrative attitude. Unrealized potentials of the water in the public sphere in terms of, *supporting wildlife in the city, *offering interactive atmospheres for human participation, *initiating collective urban rituals, *enriching diversity ecologically and socio-culturally, *binding human and non-human actors of the city *highlighting and enhancing the authentic identity of the places are envisioned to be met within the festival program. Locations The urban-scale festival will offer multiple artistic, architectural and ecological installations, interventions, activities and performances located in the various locations in Ghent. From land a walking route, from water a kayaking route will bind the spots together. Some historically and culturally important places in relation to water are offered in the map.

Organization The Water Festival is offered to be a part of the agenda of the Climate Adaptation Plan published by the City of Ghent. (see section 3.3) The plan seeks to prepare and adapt Ghent to the projected effects of climate change (precipitation extremes and water nuisance, extended periods of drought and water shortage, heat stress, and rising sea levels). The published design principles for the public domain highlights the role of water and creating more space for it while greening the banks of the waterways. Other objectives include, exposing water and adding water elements in the public domain (trenches, open or covered gutters, fountains,). 46 Water Festival can be a great way to realizing pilot projects in a bottom-up manner in line with the objectives of the City of Ghent to while creating an environmental awareness of the citizens and visitors of the city. In this way the act of necessity becomes also of an act of creativity, participation and celebration where water leads way.

Open Call An open call will be published to invite citizens from various backgrounds such as designers, architects, biologists, artists, scientist, and historians etc. to contribute and collaborate for the festival. City of Ghent being a student city with diverse educational institutions, students are encouraged to contribute to the festival within their own related skills and curriculums; workshops and lectures are offered on the subject. Dates and Duration The festival initiates on the first day of the spring season; the March equinox. After this date, the Northern Hemisphere begins to be tilted more toward the Sun, resulting in increasing daylight hours and warming temperatures; the season when the flowers start the bloom and life perpetuates. The duration of the celebration is flexible; main activities such as artistic performances can take place within 2 weeks while some interventions remain permanent on the locations to transform the located area gradually. The festival is repeated annually.

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fig. 87/ Orchestration. own collage

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11.Epilogue

Overall the process of researching and writing this thesis allowed me to explore and reflect on my environment, on myself and the creative field in between, and remained a vast field of potentials yet to be explored. Throughout my master studies, I slowly devised my own identity and positioning as a designer, as a creative human being, and this reflection note concretized it for me, I feel grateful for that. Mediation in between seemingly different worlds, in between fragmented fields of knowledge is my passion and ambition, and designing becomes my tool. Life perpetuates within dynamic acts, within motion and transformations, I see the architecture and art as an agent to be conscious of, to reveal and enhance this processes. Even though it is not complete this project guided me to see the possible ways, methods to further explore this intention. Throughout this thesis process I have searched for a fruitful dialogue with my environment, with the human and the other, sometimes immersed in it, sometimes as an observer. I found it in the creation of performative, responsive and symbiotic environments with the guidance of nature all aroud us. In the beginning it was a difficult period for where I was feeling introverted, crawling in my own cocoon, however the process of exploration, communing with the outer world, with the water immersed me back to life and the wander of it. I connected with the city I dwell (Ghent) as an international student within the process of the project, learning from the place, designing for the place, interweaving with the place through my imagination. It was a process of a chaotic mind, a continues ambiguity, most of the time I was not aware what I was trying to achieve or how to frame the intention and actions, however I am glad that I continued and learn to trust my intuition. I am grateful for the Wicked Home team, to my tutors for introducing, allowing and enhancing the fundamental wickedness, the irreducible complexity of everything, and all possible approaches to it in the studio environment.

Ebru art, drawing on water. own painting .

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