Below are notes from a lecture on Narrative Architecture by Professor Daniel K. Brown, curator of the recent The Machine Stops exhibition at Adam Art Gallery in Wellington, March 2022.
"Narrative Architectural Design usually employs ‘allegory’ as a means of storytelling. An allegory is a story that has another underlying meaning meant to teach us something. In her article "The Fall: the Allegorical Architectural Project as a Critical Method", Penelope Haralambidou writes about the role of literary allegory in architectural design and theory as an important, alternative critical practice. She writes: “Allegory is a structure of thought where meaning is not grasped directly but through metaphor, that often takes the guise of narrative and storytelling.” In other words, an allegory “signifies [an] intention that requires interpretation”. It invites agency in order to enhance our awareness of something that is important.
“The allegorical architectural project can be employed to unravel another piece of work, a site or drawing … by questioning its underlying syntax; allegorical design reveals an analytical inclination and becomes a vehicle for criticism.” – Penelope Haralambidou, "The Fall: the Allegorical Architectural Project as a Critical Method", 2007
To develop a Research Methodology for Narrative Architectural Design, we first need to establish a Research Problem or Provocation, and then articulate a Research Proposition that addresses that problem or provocation. The narrative methodology will vary––depending on the discipline and on the research problem or provocation that we are addressing. In this seminar, I will show you four examples of research methodologies relating to narrative design, taken from the point of view of four different disciplines: History and Theory, Landscape Architecture, Interior Architecture, and Architecture."
Notes:
- allegory as a means of story telling - a story with an underlying messages designed to teach us something
- can be employed to examine works by questioning its underlying syntax
- allegory is a structure of through where meaning is grasped through metaphor that takes the guise of storytelling; signifies intention that required interpretation; encourages agency in recognising something as important
- analytical inclination, a vehical for criticism
- to develop a research methodology for narrative design, two questions important: what is the research problem or provocation? what is the articulated proposition that addresses this problem or provocation?
- four examples of research methodology from different fields in this talk: history/theory, landscape architecture, interior architecture, and architecture
1. History/theory: In the Labyrinth: Substations by Adam Alexander (thesis on Wellington's electrical substations)
- "the novelist is free to a much higher degree than even the most independent architect" (mirrors something Pip Adam said in her response to Listening Stones Jumping Rocks exhibition on the freedoms of fiction writing)
- Alexander saw these substations as architectural examples of the subliminal and the subconscious; in relation, examined mithraeums, ancient underground Roman structures thought to be related to the subconscious, and Casa Malaparte, used as a filmset (i.e. relevant case studies.). In turn, discovered the disciplines of film and fine art played important roles in his findings
- Throughout his research, created a flowchart style diagram of his investigations. This diagram provided a clear sequential pathway for a multilayered narrative research investigation, allowing Alexander to explore the subliminal in relation to the substations in relation to Wellington's substations through the combined disciplines of literature, film, fine art and architecture.
2. Landscape architecture: The Forgotten World by Brad Dobson
- "in visiting a place we sometimes become aware of an extraordinary atmosphere that we find difficult or impossible to describe in rational language; we are simply conscious of that place adding up to more than the sum of its parts and having an additional, inexplicable dimension" - Malcolm Quantrill, "The House of Memory", p11
- the name of the research site, the forgotten world, implies a strong narrative that can be used to help generate the site's regeneration; the site once hosted a thriving town centre representative of rural pioneer New Zealand; the forgotten world is now reverting back to the wilderness state it was trying to subdue
- Research question: how can the formation of the new landscape infrastructure facilitate future growth and active renewal of abandoned rural townships by building upon rather than removing the elements of abandonment and decay that represents their historical context and identity?
- Proposition: a landscape can be conceived as a 'place that has been places', it and is the journey through the ambiguous landscape to those places that reveals the true nature of the area as a whole.
- Dobson's methodology drew upon Arnold Gennep's The Rites of Passage, a theory that looks at experiential journeys as rites of passage that transcend to the liminal dimension from the mundane, thus capable of generating a greater sense of connection to the area as a result.
- Went on to interrogate this in relation to 9 critical elements of landscape architecture a heightened narrative and enhanced connections to place identity, before going on to propose that that museum curation can be interrogated and applied to the field of landscape architecture.
- By curating an element, viewers are made aware of it as important in a narrative setting even if it would otherwise appear ordinary in a non-curated setting; the act of curating can transform the ordinary into the extraordinary.
- diagrams provided a clear sequential methodology pathway for a multilayered narrative pathway investigation
3. Interior architecture: The Black Box by Erika Kruger
- based her Master's thesis around a quote by Arden Reed ("Signifying Shadow"): "we don't simply see shadows, we 'read' them. That is, shadows inevitably signify, because they are at once and inseparably sensory phenomena and cultural constructs. They carry, for example, a long history and a mythology." Considered how this quote could be interpreted by interior architecture
- Kruger proposed the ability of shadows to promote subjectivities and narratively read as cultural constructs tied to a history and mythology has been overlooked in Interior architecture - how can drawing take on the role of communicating the interior of architecture through the language of shadow, and how can interior architecture establish specific objects and spatial relationships that are a result of the interpretation of the shadow and express that shadow's typology?
- frame methodology in 5 projects - 5 fictional rooms with fictional narratives taking place within each, each with 10 attributes. A diagram documenting this process provided a clear sequential methodology pathway for a multilayered narrative pathway investigation, and allowed Kruger to explore the shadow as a living inhabitant of interior architecture
4. Architecture: My History Is Not Mine by May Myo Min
- based thesis on a poem by Zeyar Lynn by the same name
- with the advent of globalization, Eastern culture is losing much of its identity with the influx of Western ideals. Min proposes architecture can play a role in enabling unique cultural aspects to be retained and unveiled for the next generation, and her thesis focuses on superstitions of the people of Asia and May's personal identity as a Burmese New Zealander. It argues that computer gaming can reawaken concepts of time and cultural narrative in unique ways that especially appeal to a younger generation
- how can architecture engage the members of the younger generation in the 21st century in ways that reintroduce them to the fundamental essence of their own cultural narratives?
- created a methodology diagram exploring 9 superstitions told by her grandmother, each interrogated against Jerome Bruner's 10 attributes of a successful fictional narrative; Min developed 9 physical architectural designs, which were then additionally moved into a gaming environment in which players have a choice in how they are experienced (allowing agency). This then progressed into a second methodology diagram, animated and designed to invite moments of disruption via unexpected spatial-player relationships, moving through different iterations which were mapped and tracked in the gaming environment.
- the static and animated methodology diagrams provided a clear sequential methodology pathway for a multilayered narrative pathway investigation, enabling Min to explore the interpretation of ritual superstitions as architectural environments, allowing each player to embark along a unique journey of their own
Each of these 4 methodologies interrogated Narrative Design from the POV of one or more principle narrative theorists:
- Roman Ingarden: the narrative requirements for architecture to be understood as a work of art
- Laura Hanks: curated objects understood as compelling narrative sequences, enabling the ordinary to be understood as extraordinary
- Penelope Haralambidou: the importance of allegorical narrative as a critical method
- Jerome Bruner: essential conditions for the construction or reality in narrative fiction
Each student developed matrixes derived from the theorists narrative principles; the discoveries from each matrix were drilled downs into further, developing additional matrixes. These were used to develop sets of iterative design experiments, and the final design outcome was the result of the combined experiments
Lecture | 'Speculative Allegorical Architecture: The Machine Stops' with Professor Daniel K. Brown
A video lecture by Professor Daniel K Brown, who is the curator of 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘔𝘢𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘚𝘵𝘰𝘱𝘴, an exhibition at Te Pātaka Toi Adam Art Gallery in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand. Daniel discusses how speculative architectural drawings represent a dynamic set of continually evolving conceptual ideas that an architect can draw upon to generate concepts for architectural designs. They provide the architect with a method of generative representation that reveals new creative opportunities by their ability to merge social, contextual, cultural, and even mythological references with personal experiences and intuition. This lecture reflects on how speculative drawings are created, how they can be interpreted, and how they can be applied to professional architectural practice. Daniel speaks with speculative architectural designer William du Toit about how he made the 3.8 meter high drawing 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘵𝘢𝘮𝘱𝘦𝘳 𝘉𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘺, which is the centrepiece of the exhibition.
Notes:
- exhibition showcases architectural drawings that are allegorical in nature from 12 recent post-graduate architecture students
- 2 fundamental questions:
- how can the history and decayed state of scarred sites be proactively used in their rejuvenation?
- how can their tragic stories be remembered as lessons for future generations?
- two types of drawings in architecture: presentation (used to convey ideas to clients) and construction (used to convey ideas to builders, suppliers, engineers, etc.)
- both freeze ideas in place as a photograph or painting may, but speculative drawings use hybrid tools to display ideas while they're still forming
- the exhibition is made up of generative drawings meant to represent dynamic sets of continuing and evolving ideas that an architect can draw on for architectural designs
- these speculative drawings provide architect with method of generative representation, merging social, contextual, cultural and mythological references with personal experiences and intuition; they seek to blur the boundary between fine art and architecture
- architectural notation devices - some from traditional architecture, others from the realm of speculative drawings; use of symbols allow the embedding of narrative frameworks in the drawings; each drawing represents an allegorical story that an architect can be expected to solve
- James Joyce: "places remember events"; the natural environment has its own form of storytelling
- fragments of events are visible in nature; for this reason, speculative architectural drawings also convey meaning via fragments; paper represents the site
- storytelling through fragments is akin to curating a museum display; a museum curator decides how to arrange and sequence the fragments so a story can emerge; arrangement affects the story's telling; the allegorical framework is determined by the arrangement fragments, codes, symbols, notations, etc.
- speculative architectural drawing captures, curates and represents architectural and contextual elements in order to generate a narrative representation of architectural ideas situated in a place and time
- speculative architectural drawings rarely represent things we would recognize as a building, but often utilize a specific language of architectural notation devices that can be understood by the architect; designed to be critically discussed and exhibited in public settings; primary intention - to challenge traditional architectural representations of time, scale, place and orientation, to convey architectural expression as generative rather than static, and in these ways to contribute to idea building for theorists as well as architects and architectural practices
- these drawings are not intended to lead to a singular buildable outcome but to open possibilities
- all drawings in this exhibition are generated from literature that present analogous tales
- the exhibition title, The Machine Stops, is named after Ian Forester's 1909 short story of the same name which tells of a society that relies on technology to fulfil its needs, which then collapses when the machine stops working; this theme is reflected in the exhibition
Interview with William du Toit, speculative architectural designer:
- in creating his series, started with 7 analogue drawings that made up it; individual explorations that were quite simple but also planned, explorations of spatial arrangements between elements of the site investigated
- layered these works in Photoshop to create different compositions; common compositional element of a rectangle allowed for easy alignment and comparison etc. (unifying motif throughout); when those environments overlap, something interesting happens
- in order to draw identity out of the chaos of the multilayered drawings, a shadow render of the drawing that represented that particular part of the narrative that Toi wanted to tell was isolated and made prominent in a developed composition; this allowed for a readable focal point; elements were extended or combined (adjusting to allow feelings of gravity, perspective, scale, etc.) to form speculative drawings
- symbols and language: level markers in particular were used often (from architectural construction design motif), but in a way that showed them gradually shifting, implying movement over time and development (a sinking into the ground in one drawing's case); focus on shadow - identity displacement, spatial displacement, temporal displacement
- "hand drawing personalizes everything, because my drawings are completely different to someone else's and therefore can only be mine"; combined hand-drawn elements into the digital renders via scanning; populated the speculative drawings with hand-drawn elements to bring an organic, human element to the drawing
- merging of build and natural contexts, being one and the same; theme of time and decay, environmental systems that were impossible to be distinguished between narrative voice of the landscape from the narrative voice of the systems that had impeded the landscape
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