本音 no_facade
sp'20
critic: Chi-fan Wong
Selected for Pratt UA archives
Distinguished Project Review 200
using Hayao Miyazaki's "Spirited Away 千と千尋の神隠し," I derived characters and used them as metaphors // operations for this project. [using movies to influence architecture]
NO_FACE // カオナシ
The character no_face is a spirit characterized by how he is hyper-influenced by his environment.
After being exposed to the corrupt thoughts and greed of the workers, he quickly grew to encompass their personalities, hoping that his endeavor to be like those around Chihiro would eventually garner her affection for him. no_face can ingest creatures and thus doing so, gains their personality traits, voice, and attributes.
RIVER_SPIRIT // 岐の神
Enters the bathhouse as a stink_spirit but after cleaning is revealed to be a river spirit. He shoots out of the bathhouse shimmering and clean in contrast to how he slowly trudges in contaminated with human-made pollution.
KAMAJI // 釜爺
Boiler room operator. His boiler room is the heart of the bathhouse where all internal operation takes place. COMMAND CENTRAL
so therefore ...
NO_FACE // カオナシ
Visualized the creatures ingested by no_face floating around in a translucent spirit
Thought of the massing in section as a giant black poche where voids would be carved out from it.
In section, poche_play to determine void and assigning program. The buffer spaces in between are used for structure // machinery // ventilation // 間
RIVER_SPIRIT // 岐の神
Metaphor for atrium
The existing atrium of the japan society is so deprived of light because of the buildings surrounding it. It’s trying to find light.
Atrium is pristine, pure translucent structure that shoots out of the building. Massing slightly sloped to expose the atrium.
Own separate structure, but is a complimentary spirit to the no_face application
KAMAJI // 釜爺
The drafting room is the main source of output
The centerpiece of the project // this space was crafted to be the first thing people see from the entrance. (( Chihiro entered the bathhouse through Kamaji’s boiler room. That’s where it all starts. )) Desks and drafting tables are situated to face a giant monitor where employees can cast their screens for better teamwork. NASA control room-like spectacle
.................
間
“Ma (pronounced "maah") is a celebration of not things, but the space between them. It is about negative space, voids, emptiness”
Spirited Away and Miyazaki films alike have their magical, defining, face-value scenes that take up the majority of the movie, but then they have their small breaks where nothing happens. Chihiro takes her time walking down the stairs/stares outside while eating a red bean bun / sits in a garden. This is ma.
The non-face value spaces that are created in the lack of volume are selected to be the ma. The main programmatic spaces act as the face-value scenes while the in-between uncontained spaces are ma where people can sit and stare at the blank, soft light of the atrium, direct hallways, clearances of air space where it’s just occupants and the structural elements. Spaces for nothing.
Spirited Away is nothing without the main, exciting, magical scenes, but is made into something great because of its counters
.......//
>voids floating in spirit body // poche play serial_section [gif] fps : 5 fps
> voids floating in spirit body section001 // east - 1/16'
> pocheplay close_up001 // 1/4'
> voids floating in spirit body section002 // north // 1/16'
>千と千尋の神隠し day + nite [gif]
> voids floating in spirit body elevation_001 [day]
> voids floating in spirit body elevation_002 [night]
you walk past the UN and approach the japan society...
the tall buildings tower the japan society, overwhelming it...
but nestled in between, a stoic monolith sits on top of the japan society
as the night falls, the structure emits a soft glow and the innards are revealed
from the back, a pristine beam shoots out, as if its trying to find light
this ghost that sits on top of the japan society
> voids floating in spirit body street_perspective //
