THE RECONSIDERED CEMETERY: AN ARCHITECTURAL SEAM By KELLY JEAN ARD A THESIS PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF SCIENCE IN ARCHITECTURAL STUDIES UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2008 1 © 2008 Kelly Jean Ard 2 To L.B.B., M.A.B., and J.L.H., who have shown me the presence of friendship beyond death. And to my Granny, who will not fear it for a single moment. 3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I first want to thank my parents and family, who have instilled in me the beauty of smallness and value of returning. This has impacted me as a person and a designer, and I am increasingly encouraged by them every single day. I also want to thank the professors who have inspired me over the years, specifically Professor Gundersen, Professor Hofer, and Professor Bitz. They have significantly influenced my design, my teaching, and my architectural comprehension. I would also like to thank those who indulged my fascination for the cemetery: my students for their constant enthusiasm, those who spoke with me about death, and those who walked the cemeteries alongside me. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...............................................................................................................4 LIST OF FIGURES .........................................................................................................................7 ABSTRACT.....................................................................................................................................9 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................11 Cemetery as Architecture .......................................................................................................11 Cemetery as Dwelling.............................................................................................................12 2 SPATIAL TOPOI AND PRECEDENTS ...............................................................................16 The Relationships Defined .....................................................................................................17 Dead to Ground ...............................................................................................................18 Living to Dead.................................................................................................................19 The Constructed Cemetery .....................................................................................................22 The Construction and the Monument ..............................................................................22 Cemetery Precedent: Brion-Vega Cemetery ...................................................................23 The Celebrated Detail......................................................................................................23 The Reoccurring Perspective...........................................................................................24 Dead Beside............................................................................................................................25 Memorial Precedent: Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial .......................................................25 Evidence through the Artifact .........................................................................................26 The Cemetery Plane................................................................................................................28 Various Manifestations of the Plane................................................................................29 Cemetery Precedent: Arlington National Cemetery........................................................29 Dead Below ............................................................................................................................30 Memorial Precedent: Jewish Museum in Berlin .............................................................31 Phenomenological Intersection: Sound and Image .........................................................32 The Urban Cemetery...............................................................................................................34 Cemetery Precedent: Mount Auburn Cemetery ..............................................................34 Juxtaposed Integration.....................................................................................................35 Dead Around...........................................................................................................................36 Ritual Extension of Dead Around ...................................................................................37 Memorial Precedent: New England Holocaust Memorial...............................................38 Below, Beside, Within, and Onto....................................................................................38 The Distant Memorial......................................................................................................39 The Invisible Cemetery...........................................................................................................40 Methods of Invisibility ....................................................................................................40 Cemetery Precedent: Washington Square Park...............................................................41 5 Dead Remembered..................................................................................................................43 Memorial Precedent: Shanksville, PA....................................................................................43 3 PROGRAMMING PEDAGOGIES........................................................................................47 Place within the Formless Territory .......................................................................................48 Crossroads Narrative ..............................................................................................................50 Mapping the Narrative............................................................................................................55 Focusing Design Issues: Seeking Vernacular Cues................................................................58 Bachelard as Model for Investigation..............................................................................59 Design Issues Focused.....................................................................................................59 Spatial Issues ..........................................................................................................................61 Boundary and Edge .........................................................................................................61 Living and Dead ..............................................................................................................62 Temporal Issues......................................................................................................................63 Planned and Emergent.....................................................................................................64 Ageing and Wearing........................................................................................................65 Pedagogical Translation..........................................................................................................65 Situating Program and Itinerary..............................................................................................67 Living, Dead, and Phenomenological Light...........................................................................68 Light as Marker and Indicator .........................................................................................68 The Layered Ground........................................................................................................69 Ground Articulation: Seaming Two Worlds...........................................................................70 The Thick Plane...............................................................................................................70 Perspective Proposals ......................................................................................................71 Pedagogical Product ...............................................................................................................72 Reconsidered Spatial Topoi.............................................................................................72 Student Work: Aniel Martinez ........................................................................................74 Student Work: Chris Chappell.........................................................................................75 Student Work: Carolina Valladares.................................................................................76 4 CONCLUSION.......................................................................................................................85 LIST OF REFERENCES...............................................................................................................88 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH .........................................................................................................91 6 LIST OF FIGURES Figure page 2-1 A series of diagrams that express the spatial topoi............................................................44 2-2 The dead to ground series. .................................................................................................45