GEORGE KATODRYTIS / STUDIONOVA ARCHITECTS :: article :: PROJECTS :: Texts on PROCESS and FORM :: ARCADEUROPEA part TWO

Urban strips and vectors of views
The project is generated by three linear strips that start from the landscape, gradually gain programmatic characteristics, and become three distinct architectural spaces [artist / public / thematic], before they interlace within the “container.” The strips turn from landform to interior surfaces: at times horizontal, vertical or diagonal.
In reverse – from within the container – these routes, and their shifts, become centers of vision for selected views, which can be experienced from different levels within the volume. These preferred views are important in establishing the link to Prague. Folds and splits create secondary axes and deviations, and turn the structural system into a matrix of weaves.
Stitching / weaving
In following the directions of entry and movement, visitors are unwittingly engaged in an ongoing experience of compression and expansion. The strips bend, twist, widen and split, creating a variety of compositions in a complex matrix of stitched and woven surfaces, with wedged gaps between them, referring to the geological formation of the island of Cyprus that resulted from a volcanic eruption, compression and slicing. The movement of “bodies” within the voids is seen as casting and re-enacting of the historic layers of the island through time.
The sequence and unpredictability of the interlocking allows visitors to experience the public exhibition space in different ways: sometimes as a whole, sometimes as a fragment (space occupied by the artist). The thematic strip acts as an artificial surface that frames projected images, as a linear postcard, as a collage of symbols and references to Cyprus (earth, light, water, culture, history), as a filmstrip of frozen emblems. The artist’s space and the exhibition space are in transition: their boundaries are fused. The artist residence is placed at the top, as a cantilever over the public space, and facing the park.
The ground level is left intact; it is filled with a thin layer of water, which reflects and transforms the structure into a floating island. Thus, the silhouette quality of the section is reinforced. Light floods in from above; it tunnels through the narrow triangular wells and cracks. As though in a theatre of shadows, direct daylight create dramatic triangular pools of light and heat intensity, of mystery and sensuality. Thin layers of water may also be placed inside floating glass pools on the roof. There are two entrances, each on either side of the “container.” As one moves along either route, and beyond the entry points, territories are fused and re-negotiated, and boundaries dissolved in a truly animated space.
Materiality
As the various parts weave, interlock and laminate into each other, they provide unique opportunities for material resolution. Metal slices into wood, glass joins with plastic and polished metal. Each material is grafted into another and allowed to grow as a parasite, hence each structure retains its own integrity and materiality but morphs into another, in a seamless transition. The materiality used may be interactive –reflective or translucent- or responsive to the presence of visitors. This may be achieved with the adoption of cameras and TV monitors, scanners and heat sensitive surfaces that memorize and “play-back” in the form of a spatial “fingerprinting” and body violation against a space. This recording and residual evidence of the presence of “global” visitors may remain for a period of time or until the artist decides to erase it and to interfere by drawing in new imagery. Thus the space functions as an interface between the global vs. the local. Different components fit into each other, as though the project were a toy, a kit made of parts, a refined industrial object. To enhance the sense of materiality, and the sense of origin, construction might take place in two different places, with the “thematic” strip manufactured and packaged in Cyprus, and transported to Prague as cargo. Once unfolded, it will be assembled on site.
The Game: artist and the public
In continuous dialogue, the artist’s space and public space interact, separate or fuse in a game of territorial occupation and shifting boundaries. The entire space, whether replete with artifacts or not, is an exhibition gallery. At various points, visitors will be addressed directly by billboard-like surfaces. At times the artist may occupy, work and exhibit in the entire space, and later retreat into a smaller area – his/her accommodation – allowing the public to occupy the space. The house is both a studio and an exhibition gallery in a he game of re-negotiating one’s territory and temporary occupation within a boundary. The proposal is a three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle, with multiple vectors of movement and theatrics. When the public scales to the highest platform next to the artist’s quarter, the separation between the two spaces is defined by a slice of glass, with changing translucency, which can be controlled by the artist, like a television set.
Bridges in a vessel
The space continually unfolds into new and unpredictable experiences, as though in a fusion of the Greek myths of the Labyrinth and of Pandora’s box. The paradoxical “labyrinth within the box” is expressed as a series of bridges suspended in the container, and sandwiched between the two-sided partitioning walls. In a sense, though the space physically exists in the geographic location, it does not belong there; it acts as an agent or a satellite for the other country it signifies. Finally, the interior is read as a continuous and fluid space composed of bridges and connections that create a total animated and dynamic experience, while providing some glimpses of the outside world.
Project by GEORGE KATODRYTIS: ARCADEUROPEA: PART TWO, 2004:
(in collaboration with C. Kalisperas)

Filed under: PROJECTS+ Texts-PROCESS-and-FORM