Sublime, Contemplation & Repose
Thesis
Sublime, Contemplation and Repose is an exploratory study into the potential for emotive architecture to expand contextual understanding of a given site. Research into the sublime and related discourse provides a foundational understanding of the powerful potential for the physical environment to instill lasting impact on an individual. The objective for architectural expression lies in the enhancement of existing context and the uncovering of hidden elements within a site.
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New River Gorge is chosen for site-specific investigation. The region hosts a multitude of contextual opportunities within notions of nature, history, industry and ruin. The New River Gorge Bridge sits at the western boundary of site, a massive bridge crossing the gorge which has become an icon for the state. Nuttallburg, an abandoned coal mining town, sits at the eastern boundary of site. The town has mining facilities which are still standing, having been re-stabilized by the park service on-site. In addition, multiple foundations of structures which once stood within the town may be found hidden within the landscape.
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Architectural interventions are established to support and enhance existing sublime within the gorge while providing otherwise absent emotive understanding of the context. The bridge is examined for its magnitude in relation to context and the potential for further enhancement of experiential understanding. The town as an entity is re-discovered through nearby architectural expressions, while the industrial coal context is partially excavated to reveal the subterranean conditions. New ways in which to traverse and explore site are developed through alternative entry opportunities, comprehensive trail pathing and elevation circumventing infrastructure.
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Thesis
Fall & Spring 2018-2019
Committee Chair Aarati Kanekar
Committee Member Michael McInturf
Committee Member Vincent Sansalone
Abstract
Sublime causes transcendence beyond individual understanding, prompting a mental feeling of smallness as a response to the environment. Contemplation follows the emotion-based response of the sublime, testing preconceived perceptions and initiating internal reflection and external dialogue. Repose is the comforting resultant condition, the calm that allows the sublime encounter to develop into memory, charged with the influence of an emotive architecture and environment.
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Sublime, contemplation and repose can be utilized as tools to formulate new respectful understandings of a site with hidden contextual opportunities.
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West Virginia has a rich industrial history which has helped to shape America in past centuries. This history has largely become dilapidated and confined to closed and abandoned facilities which are inaccessible and forgotten. The benefits that these facilities held within the country’s history is incomprehensibly great and West Virginia lacks the celebratory nature that the state deserves.
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The region of New River Gorge near the New River Gorge Bridge and the abandoned coal mining town, Nuttallburg, will act as a prototypical catalyst for architectural exploration and implementation through the sublime.
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Park service efforts have re-stabilized the existing coal facility structures within Nuttallburg, however have not provided further incentive for visitation and fall short in contextual comprehension.
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The site possesses inherent sublime elements within the surrounding nature, historical structures, coal production and hints of coal consumption. In proposing architectural interventions and expressions of site, aspects of the existing sublime will be enhanced, in addition to the creation of new complimentary moments of sublime. The unity between new architecture and existing context seeks to improve the perceived image of West Virginia and its vast contribution to nationwide industry.
Sublime Catalogue
Seven Architectural Expressions
Seven architectural expressions are generated to strengthen, and add to, the sublime aspects within the context of New River Gorge. The first of seven expressions, Nuttallburg Sanctuary, is primary. The remaining six are secondary, considering specific context to respond to and reinforce the intentions of the first.
Nuttallburg Sanctuary
The town of Nuttallburg was focused on, and dependent on, coal. The collapse of New River Gorge’s coal industry went hand-in-hand with the fall of the town. Nuttallburg Sanctuary is introduced as the dominant element within the set of architectural proposals, designed as the new focal point for Nuttallburg’s resurrection.
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Sublime causes transcendence of the regular and provides the mental feeling of smallness used to comprehend the combined vastness of the natural gorge, industrial history and human potential.
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Contemplation follows the emotion-based response generated by the sublime, mentally testing how to properly perceive the environment, initiating both internal reflection and external dialogue.
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Repose is the comforting resultant condition, the calm that allows for prior moments to develop into memories charged with the influence of an emotive, sublime architecture and environment.
Amtrak Stations
Entry into New River Gorge, and to gain access to its historic and natural elements, currently requires descent into the gorge, by foot or by car.
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The Amtrak Cardinal actively runs along the New River and with the creation of new Amtrak Stations at both ends of the defined site, allows for an alternative entry opportunity, one which places the visitor at the bottom the gorge. The visitor is no longer confined to vehicular transit and is free to explore the site on foot.
Nuttallburg Bridge
Suspension bridge piers lie dormant on either side of the New River, remnants of a demolished bridge that once was. With the resurrection of Nuttallburg, the desire for cross-river connection at the town becomes once again a necessity.
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Design intentions for the new bridge are to provide tribute to the original bridge by utilizing a diagonal relationship to the historic axis and to establish a platform at the center of the river to allow for a full panoramic view of the gorge.
Gorge Trails
The journey from New River Gorge Bridge to Nuttallburg is approximately three miles. To suggest multiple new elements along the gorge while disregarding the circulation pathways between them would be shortsighted.
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Three different treatments are defined, varied by response to the contextual conditions of nearby structures and historical locations.
Nine Beacons
The three-mile expanse covered in the scope of the defined site suggests the need for small moments of rest within the landscape. Nine Beacons, identical in structural form, are defined as landmarks, incrementally spaced along the Beacon Trail.
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The beacons provide support for the trails through tent site opportunities, lighting at night, directional way-finding, viewing platforms and incremental vertical circulation.
Soil Horizons
Nuttallburg mine is enormous in scale and importance and like many mines of its kind, is now abandoned and closed due to safety concerns.
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The hidden nature of such a sublime space will be uncovered within the Soil Horizons intervention by revealing the geological soil layers of New River Gorge and provide new experiential readings of the natural intricacies not commonly understood.
Steel Frame
In taking a structural cross-braced column element from the New River Gorge Bridge and utilizing the element as a portal, one can see the bridge from an alternative angle as well as appreciate the single incongruous element in respect to its part of a whole.
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The out-of-place steel frame is situated at a bend in the gorge, halfway between New River Gorge Bridge and Nuttallburg, accessible from the Beacon Trail.
Rendering Before & After
The following example renderings are generated through various Rhino3D models compiled within the site model. The base renderings provide site context and basic geometric forms from which Photoshop work is done to enhance the visual accuracy of the expressions as well as set the mood for the corresponding thesis topic.
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Slide the seam between images to show more or less of the process and finished rendering.