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MICHIGAN ARCHITECTURE PAPERS 4 site/architecture THOMPSON AND ROSE ARCHITECTS University of Michigan College of Architecture + Urban Planning © 1998 r• 'U•u•E•srt,' :llv\retllgon C cqc ol Arch :ecJre + Llrboo Plo•1mng f, TIH"llnp• r•j w J R. s" Arco:·ec, Combrrdqe lv\A E'lJ lf br or LqJ'r'r + ,·'rJ' o <.\'\ d"lrnth Boe.: Dt "''' (o•C'r '"ior· <..lo•J~~-1 Tyrx '' ' F 'J"1 P•rr '· ~ J' c: t Jr :J ~~the .. rt!~:l Slott l>'y C.. .f:'l' r(J'! Pr1r 'dS lt1< Ann A·r r 'I 8()# I .r~non b'" •'omc•:® T ,, Ar 110~ r rrl ; Jr 1= 1'' • ., put 0 ' 1( ,r, rr:1y Le ref..rCduc•"X1 n any monr~,."'r \-..ro·.,ucver \\ ltrOI•' ,-.rr':e.-, perrY~rSrtnr' =·om thE. p 1bli ;ncr ( Jl q·: Gl Arcc· '"C'Jre + u•f:.:JO pi Jnrtng T''O l.r 1vc r li{ • t,.-\;cn qo'"' 21)('0 Br n· '•. £ Br,_l '' o:d Anr A·hor ,'v\ 'ltp'ln 48 'lQ 2• l(•i L.,S;. ISBN ' 80' IY7 C'? 9 site/architecture THOMPSON AND ROSE ARCHITECTS FOREWORD CONVERSATIONS AT MICHIGAN SIX PROJECTS APPENDICES The academic setting is a privileged lookout from which it 1s possible to view !he world For the discipline of orch1tecture 1 i~e the other professional disciplines housed within that settmg it provides on nvoluoble opportumty to observe the field of proct1ce. It is however a place which IS also of he world and consequently con enable faculty and studenls to not only view rhot field of practice but to participate oct1vely in its cultivation. RoTo BOOK MAP ONE FOREWORD The practice of architecture is changing It was for these reasons that the College rapidly in response to an increasingly of Architecture + Urban Planning at globalized culture and, as a the University of Michigan sought out consequence, the procurement and Thompson and Rose. During the 1 998 design of buildings is becoming Winter Semester they served as increasingly generalized. As architecture distinguished visiting critics at the is commodified in this way so its College. As a part of this collaboration connections with a particular place, to a they helped to make an exhibition of moment in time, and with the interests of work, met with students, gave a lecture a specific client or building user tend to and, in collaboration with Michael be made all the more tenuous. Grant, directed a graduate architecture design studio. Michigan Architecture In this context, the work of Thompson Papers Four documents a series of and Rose is a significant exception in the projects designed by Thompson and field of practice in the United States of Rose and records aspects of that America. The work of this small, relatively collaboration in an effort to make new yet already accomplished practice, some of the ideas, work and debate is directed by two young designers. that it prompted more accessible to a Combining the skills of architect and wider audience. landscape architect, they are developing an approach which integrates concerns The Michigan Architecture Papers seek to of architecture and the detail of present architecture of the highest quality construction with preoccupations for the and provide a basis for the continuing characteristics of a particular place. critical review of the discipline. They are Inevitably their portfolio of work is designed by students of architecture for modest, but as the few built projects students of architecture. They seek to clearly show, this is work which record presentations and debates which demonstrates a passionate and frequently take place at the College, yet impressive commitment to an architecture are often lost in the hectic bustle of the that is specific and not general. academic year. 5 Collaborative studios that bring together educators and practitioners are at the foundation of architectural education. The program at the University of Michigan, first established by William Le Baron Jenney, subsequently developed by outstanding architects which have included Eliel Saarinen, Emil Lorch , and Robert Metcalf, and more recently advanced though collaborative studios with significant architects from practice including Clark Stevens and Michael Rotondi, has continued to foster that tradition. This publication records one such collaboration which took place during the 1997/98 academic year. It is made in an effort to assist in the careful mapping of a territory of education and to help to define a field of practice in architecture. Bnon Corter Professor and Choir of Architecture University of Michigan 6 CONVERSATIONS AT MICHIGAN Based on a series of discussions at the You hove worked extensively on the design College of Architecture + Urban of buildings and landscapes Does the Planning at the University of Michigan consideration of 'site' toke on particular between Maryann Thompson and significance in your work2 Charles Rose, Visiting Assistant Professor Michael Grant and architecture students CR: We are interested in creating an Joseph Berlinghieri, Christopher architecture that 'sees' its site- an Lanzisera, Carla Swickerath, Margaret architecture that stands in relationship to Tomas and Kristina Winegar. its surroundings, heightens the experience and effect of the natural conditions that are at work on the site and focuses, orients or reorients one's perception of the site. We are exploring an idea of site that is broad and inclusive. MT: We take time to understand a site and seek to develop a poetic, even spiritual, reading of the site. By analyzing the specific conditions of a place - the apparent movement of the sun, the topography, geological conditions, water and wind, flora, fauna, natural phenomena and species diversity - we attempt to develop a poetic understanding, which in turn helps to shape our intuitive responses to the site. Such concerns tune the design process to inform the concepts we generate to create an architecture of the place. 7 How did the landscape affect your design for the Atlantic Center for the Arts2 MT: The Atlantic Center for the Arts is within CR: The idea of weaving together landscape the Florida jungle. We were inspired by and architecture was intriguing to us. A the spatial qualities of this jungle -the boardwalk threaded through the jungle labyrinthine experience, the sense of links a series of clearings, creating veiled layering both horizontally and places of public gathering. The vertically, and the dappling of light relationship to the immediate landscape through the canopy. We were interested inspired the schematic design: we did in creating an architecture that would not think of the buildings as objects. By heighten the sensory effects of this. working simultaneously with the actual We created a passage through the site conditions of the landscape and the which emphasized a sense of layering, experience of the site, a labyrinthine recalling the peripatetic nature of the plan developed. The moments of place. Throughout the design process clearing which occur on the boardwalk there was a constant dialogue between between the buildings are the objects; the ideas of layering and revealing. the buildings recede. The project is a collection of fragmentary views and experiences, of concealed objects, themselves whole but understood primarily in moments of selected recombination and integration. The scheme is only fully understood through movement and memory. 8 Ccufd >,'u d,,~, r•bE. the? relorionshtp b£'1\V't'n tt <' bwiding.' and rhf' londsLopt'2 MT: There are shifts between subjective and CR: The buildings only reveal themselves objective perceptual bias at the Atlantic as objects at close range, not at a Center for the Arts. The client had distance. Close examination exposes precise area requirements and the details that differentiate each pavilion - artists needed rectangular spaces. We tectonic and material changes that could not vary from that. Because of the respond to the specific program within . nature of the site plan and because the The articulation of construction at each pavilions are set within and partially pavilion, with respect to scale, hidden by the surrounding vegetation, materiality and detailing, varies in they are not presented as objects. The response to program. Our intention was volumes and planes contribute to forming to make each piece of the project exterior spaces rather than asserting particular to the activity it was designed themselves as objects. There is a sense to serve. of revelation upon entering each building, as the interior space is suddenly understood as a discrete volume. The interiors act as clearings within the omnipresent jungle. They become a peaceful light-filled domain within the thick landscape. There is an enigmatic tension between the perceptual experience from within the site as fragments along a promenade and the conceptual reading from without as sculptural objects. Q Could you elaborate on the way the designs for each of the studios were develaped2 CR: Our client was interested in making MT: These two glazing conditions define a each building specific to its function, space between the earth and the sky rather than creating multi-purpose which the dancer occupies. The spaces. Thi s provided an opportunity development of the interior spaces at to design a series of rooms which were the Atlantic Center for the Arts are specific, both spatially and tectonically. inspired by what we interpret as the For instance, the client asked that the 'mytho-poetic' quality of early dance space be "light and airy" - modernism . We believe that arch itecture suggesting that the spatiality of dance can communicate viscerally and can be be characterized by floating and filled with meaning, not necessarily in hovering . We interpreted this reading terms of symbol-making, but rather, in by creating a strip of sandblasted glass terms of direct emotional experience. at the ceiling that encircles the room, allowing for a diffused, gentle light, and placing a band of clear glass at the finish floor, under the mirror, which offers an immediate view of the tactile, lush jungle.

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