Design for the World's Stage

Design for the world’s stage Finding meaning in international event venues. Proposal John K Branner Traveling Fellowship Proposal 2014-15 1 2014 Branner Proposal - Designing the World’s Stage BLINK, AND YOU’LL MISS IT. BOBSLED TRACK PHOTOGRAPH BY DADO RUVIC 1984 OLYMPICS REUTERS SARAJEVO, YUGOSLAVIA 563,209,000 YUD ($387 MILLION USD) 2 Sarajevo’s Olympic park is only a recent example of what has become an epidemic in the genre of event venue design. Global tradition continues to correlate short-term international spectacle with architectural monumentality, leaving in its wake an archive of tremendous material resources and embodied energy that fail to serve the lasting needs of the city. These event venues - glistening iconic landmarks celebrating singular moments in time and culture, rapidly lose meaning in the context of ever-transformative architectural and urban design. The curtain falls. The city matures. The “world’s stage” is quickly left behind. Media attention and careful fiscal evaluation on these abandoned architectural graveyards has caused unprecedented international aversion towards hosting global events. Where adaptive re-use has become the aspiration for most event venue design, London’s approach to 2012 Olympic campus changed the game with a media-lauded fleet of temporary architectural pavilions - addressing the white elephant of crumbling architectural ruins.2 Yet what are the limitations of these buildings on the spectator experience? How does such temporal architecture impact the lasting cultural iconicism that benefits urban identity and economy? And what of history’s events - including the 1889 Exposition Universelle (Paris) or the 1992 Summer Olympics (Barcelona) - which introduced permanent architectural and urban gestures that continue to revive the urban fabric and bolster the architectural experience?1 The primary objective of this proposal is to examine these spaces firsthand and rigorously codify both successes and failures in order to craft a design guide that can better serve the longevity, meaning, and ecological responsibility of future built work in the genre. To accomplish this, I propose to take a front-row seat on the “world stage” - the theatrical corners of the world once at the center of the global attention, now largely at the edge of oblivion in the wake of irrelevance and programmatic rigidity. • 1http://www.businessinsider.com/how-the-olympic-games-changed-barcelona-forever-2012-7 3 2 http://mashable.com/2012/07/31/olympic-architecture/ 2014 Branner Proposal - Designing the World’s Stage Defining the World’s Stage 4 “World’s Stage” architecture caught the global The London 2012 Olympic games introduced an eye with the rise of industrialism in the mid to late alternative solution - capitalizing on existing urban 1800s - evidenced by the a surge of nationally- infrastructure to absorb the needs of the event, sponsored exhibitions and international sporting and supplementing with visually-striking temporary events. A beacon of innovation and identity, the pavilions. dramatic scale and cultural pride embedded in these buildings closely matched the spirit of the events themselves, welcomed healthy and lasting Solution 2: Make the World’s economic benefits, and set a gold standard for Stage transformable. spectacle and landmark theatricality in hosted event venues across the globe. This genre of design Adaptive re-use is a natural fit for temporary currently faces a crossroads as global tradition architecture, but introduces questions regarding pressures to expand the bounds of monumentality, the temporal quality of space and contradicts the and economic research struggles to fit the archaic historically substantial phenomenological gravity model into a contemporary, shifting society. This of the world’s stage. How does alteration impact struggle reveals a unique opportunity to reconcile lasting iconography? To what extent can these the endangered architectural typology with the enormous structures be salvaged or repurposed? present and future needs of the city. Is the cannon of architectural design flattened by limiting the influence of world’s stage design to The struggles facing world’s stage architecture, glorified, evanescent huts? for the purposes of this research proposal, can be primarily categorized by two critical and controversial components: Solution 3: Centralize the World’s Stage. 1) Program: World Stage venues are conceived to serve an event both short-term and non- Given the rapid rate of construction occurring in repetitive. These architectural spaces are this building genre, the dwindling need for these catered by necessity to exclusively iconicise the buildings long-term, and a largely common set of objective program of the event, and are thus unyielding design parameters, speculation has resistant to reuse and adaptation. considered bringing the disparate stages of the world together literally under one roof to leverage 2) Scale: With the eyes of the globe on a single shared resources and promote longevity.1 This point in space, there exists a temporary but vital does much to quell contemporary criticism, but need to serve and infrastructure an unnaturally eliminates the opportunity for transformation and high surge in population. After the event, the architectural renaissance available to cities willing vast embodied effort becomes an unnecessary to endure and defray the shock of hosting major excess in the urban fabric and challenges local events. Does value persist in playing the part economic sustainability. of Host City? Does ever-changing geographic location enhance the experience of the program? Solution 1: Eliminate the World’s Alternatively, can a greater architectural schema be Stage Altogether. achieved with a centralized world’s stage? Many are convinced that designer and political ego is the fuel exacerbating the white elephant Precedents offer the key to unlocking lasting of world’s stage architecture. This calls into meaning and future trajectory in this building question the importance of world’s stage events, typology. The ubiquitous program of the world’s and architecture’s present and future role in their stage sets a common factor by which to observe definition. What values and meaning can the these signature venues across the globe. Physical world’s stage bring to a burgeoning city? With the remnants, by decree or by design, reveal the world becoming evermore interconnected via the elements vital to cataloging the successes and web, are grand architectural venues necessary to failures of the this architectural typology throughout identify and bolster the spirit of the event? Can history. Experiencing these ruins firsthand, my future world stages adapt to more consistent needs goal is to apply their lessons towards these three in a city without losing what iconic value it offers? contemporary solutions, exploring, rethinking, and Is there a value in recycling the remnant stages of challenging each in potentially shaping the future of the past to service the needs of the future? the World’s Stage. 1http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2014-02-05/give-the-olympics-a-permanent-home 5 http://www.npr.org/2014/05/14/312142285/the-olympics-a-modern-day-worlds-fair-and-money-magnet 2014 Branner Proposal - Designing the World’s Stage ASIA/PACIFIC PACIFIC NORTHWEST MIDDLE AMERICA NORTHEAST BEIJING, PRC VANCOUVER, CN CHICAGO, US WASHINGTON DC, US 2008 OLYMPIC PARK EXPO 1986 WORLD’S FAIR 1893 AND 1933 PRESIDENTIAL INAUGURATIONS 1892 WORLD’S FAIR PROPOSAL SHANGHAI, PRC SEATTLE, US ST. LOUIS, US EXPO 2010 1962 WORLD’S FAIR 1904 WORLD’S FAIR NEW YORK, NY 1939 AND 1964 WORLD’S FAIR SAN FRANCISCO, US NASHVILLE, US 1915 PANAMA / PACIFIC 1897 WORLD’S FAIR MONTREAL, CN EXHIBITION EXPO 67 6 SOUTH AMERICA MEDITERRANEAN GERMANIC WESTERN EUROPE RIO DE JANEIRO, BR MILAN, IT GENEVA, SW PARIS, FR 2014 FIFA WORLD CUP WORLD’S FAIR 2015 FUTURE HOME OF THE IOC EXPOSITION UNIVERSELLE 2016 OLYMPICS 1855, 1867, 1878, 1889, 2013 WORLD YOUTH DAY ROME, IT MUNICH, GE 1900, AND 1937 STADIO OLIMPICO 1972 OLYMPICS COLISSEUM BARCELONA, SP ROMAN FORUM BERLIN, GE 1929 EXPOSICION UNIVERSAL 1936 OLYMPICS 1992 OLYMPIC PARK VENICE, IT VENICE BIENNALE LONDON, EN 1851 WORLD’S FAIR ATHENS, GR 2012 OLYMPIC PARK OLYMPIC BIRTHPLACE 2004 OLYMPICS 7 2014 Branner Proposal - Designing the World’s Stage J F M A M J J A S O N D J CHICAGO, US WORLD’S FAIR 1893 AND 1933 $274 / $945 / $45 ST. LOUIS, US 1904 WORLD’S FAIR $284 / $385 / $55 NASHVILLE, US 1897 WORLD’S FAIR $309 / $385 / $55 WASHINGTON DC, US PRESIDENTIAL INAUGURATIONS 1892 WORLD’S FAIR PROPOSAL $40 / $560 / $40 NEW YORK, NY 1939 AND 1964 WORLD’S FAIR $172 / $1260 / $60 MONTREAL, CN EXPO 67 $859 / $1050 / $75 RIO DE JANEIRO, BR 2014 FIFA WORLD CUP 2016 OLYMPICS 2013 WORLD YOUTH DAY $1,643 / $2100 / $70 2015 WORLD EXPO MILAN, IT WORLD’S FAIR 2015 $366 / $1120 / $80 ROME, IT STADIO OLIMPICO COLISSEUM ROMAN FORUM $784 / $2100 / $70 PIAZZA SAN PIETRO VENICE, IT VENICE BIENNALE $366 / $1120 / $80 ATHENS, GREECE OLYMPIC BIRTHPLACE 2004 OLYMPIC PARK $366 / $910 / $65 GENEVA, SW FUTURE HOME OF THE IOC $183 / $665 / $95 MUNICH, GE 1972 OLYMPICS $366 / $980 / $70 BERLIN, GE 1936 OLYMPICS $366 / $910 / $65 PARIS FASHION WEEK PARIS, FR EXPOSITION UNIVERSELLE 1855, 1867, 1878, 1889, AUTOMOBILE 1900, AND 1937 $915 / $2800 / $80 PLANE TRAIN BARCELONA, SP 1929 EXPOSICION UNIVERSAL 1992 OLYMPIC PARK $784 / $1950 / $65 LONDON, EN 1851 WORLD’S FAIR WORLD FAIRGROUND 2012 OLYMPIC PARK WORLD EXPO SITE $636 / $1680 / $80 OLYMPIC VENUE BEIJING, PRC 2008 OLYMPIC PARK

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