The Enclave Sanctuary

Program Function: the Intent for modern Babylon:

This thesis proposes to investigate on the very site where the first civilization of man began. Babylon is 50 miles south of modern day Baghdad, unoccupied, uninhabited yet its remains have been tampered by its own tension of warfare and layers of conquest. To this day Babylon is a site for all origins to unite. According to the ancient scriptures, it was in Babylon where we all began. It is as of now a useless void but a sacred one to occupy. Dominated by tales that speaks of the tension between man and God, the intensity. That broke us into fragments, from a unified language to diverse confusion; what we call as the birth of nation.


The program will rest on this very foundation. An enclave that activates through the experience of history and the modern interaction of its inhabitants. A place for contemplation and reverence, learning and discovery. It will be a place of release , a refuge sanctuary from what is happening beyond its existing boundaries. A city within a city that speaks of both worlds. A form that ties its origins with its future.
















[image above: an abstraction of the site in tension (refering to the shift and reconfiguration of the actual elements in the site)

From Babylon to Baghdad: Analysis of Past and Present

The Tension between the Past and Present:

[image: figure ground analysis of historic Babylon done ink on mylar]

Babylon, once the first and still is the greatest empire to ever have emerged during its time,
now struggles to remain intact as many outside invaders try to build over and interrogate
the sacred site. The reconstructed area conflicts with the detail and magnitude of the original.
It seems, we can never reconstruct babylon back to its magnificence. Saddam hussein had tried
building his own empire, in an attempt to revitalize the most powerful empire, but it wasn’t meant
to be. The U.S. Military took over and set up base camp here, destroying the surviving foundation.


What can be done to release this tension in this very important and historic void?
















[ image: I made this collage to represent the clash between past and present. It is through fragmentations that history continues its mark to this day. These strips illustrate how both modern events and historical remains counter each other into existance. ]

Thesis: Releasing the Tension within the Void - (edited)

There lies tension between two extreme opposites; history and its counterpart- the present. It is through the fragmentsof the past that enables mankind to trace back its early beginnings. The remains are what we hold to this day as the survivors of time. It marks our origins, a reminder of who we are as a society, as acivilization. Yet at the same time, the struggle to preserve contradicts with the will to build over and therefore erase what has been already marked.. Overtime we forget where we come from and the future marks its way to lost identities. A new society clouded by many layers of influences that has no linkage and connection. All that remains is emptiness. A region with no occupancy and importance; a solid void - a white space in a figure ground map dominated by the modern structures all hatched in deep black.

The key is to release this tension within. It was this energy that provoked certain events that marks its place for history to name. It was tension that gave it form, the development of the first
civilizations established after many years of warfare and corruption. Tension caused the birth of man, and it was also tension that provokes them to destroy. It is this struggle to link the two extremes that hinders us from progression. It paralyzes the mind from mediation. Instead we accumulate components. Layers and layers of multiple identities to spaces we find empty. We become stuck in a realm we cannot comprehend, trapped in a congested haven that no longer has function.

According to robert venturi "an architecture of complexity and contradiction has a special obligation towards the whole - its truth must be in its totality or implications of totality. It must embody the difficult unity of inclusion rather than the easy unity of exclusion." Therefore the key is to extract this void into importance and find the link that ties its extremities. The question now is, can we as a society accept that and exist within this "emptiness"? By extracting the space that links these two extreme opposites, we not only redefine what has been released, but we have also given life to a new form. This new kind of tension becomes a new derivation, a new definition...a new freedom. The next "tabula rasa" to build upon for mankind.

This thesis proposes to investigate on the very site where the first civilization of man began. Babylon is 50 miles south of modern day Baghdad, unoccupied, uninhabited yet its remains have been tampered by its own tension of warfare and layers of conquest. To this day Babylon is a site for all origins to unite. According to the ancient scriptures, it was in Babylon where we all began. It is as of now a useless void but a sacred one to occupy. Dominated by stories that speaks of the tension between man and God, the intensity. That broke us into fragments, from a unified language to diverse confusion; what we call as the birth of nations.

The program will rest on this very foundation. An enclave that activates through the experience of history and the modern interaction of its inhabitants. A place for contemplation and reverence, learning and discovery. It will be a place of release , a refuge sanctuary from what is happening beyond its existing boundaries. A city within a city that speaks of both worlds. A form that ties its origins with its future.

[view actual page construction]

Extracting the Figure Within the Solid Void

November 4, 2008: Thesis Studio Midterm Presentation/Layout board

Babylon today: The Analysis

I will update this further with text, for now this is the analysis that I have been working on. I hope the drawings can speak for itself in the meantime, until I get a chance to put them into words...

Aerial Image:

Parameter study
(Similar to the field that I derived from the Piano analysis excercise (See excercise 1, frame 4)

Excercise 2: Nodal hingepoints within Field (As derived from excercise 1, frame 3 with piano study

There is much more to investigate as this site seems to fulfill a lot of conditions that relates to my thesis..will explain further later on as the study becomes more and more concrete.

"Extracting the Figure within the Void": ...The Experience within the solid void..

Perhaps the key to life is to release this tension inside all of us. It was tension that provoked certain events. It was tension that gave it form. It made a relationship as well as break it. The harmony of opposites attracting and finding the link between its extremes. Tension causes the birth of man, and it was also tension that provokes them to destroy. It is this struggle to link the two extremes together that hinders its progression. It paralyzes the mind to progress whether it needs to go backwards or forward. We accumulate components, layers and layers of multiplicity to spaces we find empty to the point where the mind becomes stuck in a realm that no longer wants to function. A congested haven no longer desiring anything new.

By extracting the space that links the two extremes (The old void), we not only redefine what has been released, but we have now given life to a new form. This new kind of Tension becomes a solid form (a positive space) a new definition, a new freedom. The next “tabula rasa” to build upon in life and in Architecture. This is the new type of Void.

Site proposal:

The Tension between Man and God.

Genesis 11: 1 – 9

And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.
And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.
And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter.
And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.
And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.
And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.
So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.
Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.

This is a short excerpt from the Bible. According to this passage, it was the tension between man and God that created the first of "many" languages. This passage tells the story of a tower that was in the process of creation to celebrate the pride of man and the rise of human technology of their time. The tower was to rise so high it is meant to touch the heavens. This idea that Man can reach God, and pretty much symbolize that Man can be as powerful as God, made God angry. He made each person speak a different language, so that they would not be able to unify and communicate the building of this "evil" structure.

This story reveals that tension gave birth to its fragments, from a unified language to diverse confusion between societies. It is according to Christian belief, is the birth of the nations. The idea that the history is still dominant within the walls of the site tells me that the negative space within it evokes another story. A story only the walls can speak of, and the language that derived the form. Therefore I have chosen Babylon as my site of exploration.

Precis (Abstract)

There lies a battle between two extremes; black v. white. Two visual elements that relies deeply on each other, yet exists as separate entities. White is a color, but it is defined as the “absence of color” and therefore it has no form because one cannot see its boundary. Something with no boundary is known to be infinite. Black is the extreme opposite. It is the “blend of all colors” and because the human eye can absorb its form visually, there lies a boundary. In Architecture, something represented in white is termed as “negative space” where there is no information on its own to convey, and black is considered a “positive space” where the information is deciphered through its boundary and form. However both have something in common, and that is absence.

White is the absence of color, and black is the absence of light. Two extreme opposites, both interlinked yet wants to exist independently. There is a tension between these two elements, a battle between its own hierarchies, or is there such a hierarchy?

In a piano for example, one cannot hear a combination of effervescence without hitting the black and the white keys combined. It is a flat melody if alone played with white, and if alone played with black. In this instrument, both can harmonize in balance. In a Nolli plan, where the white represents circulation and black represents only the form of the buildings around its surrounding site, again white is just as dominant as the black but it cannot exist on Its own, it needs that solid outline to relate the space to. My project is a series of investigations through tectonics to discover this tension between the two extremes, for it is within this space that unlocks and releases a new form. It is this emptiness that contains the key to unlock the tension within its depth of field.

Perhaps the key to life is to release this tension within. It was tension that provoked certain events. It was tension that gave it form. It made a relationship as well as break it. The harmony of opposites attracting and finding the link between its extremes. Tension causes the birth of man, and it was also tension that provokes them to destroy. It is this struggle to link the two extremes together that hinders its progression. It paralyzes the mind to progress whether it needs to go backwards or forward. We accumulate components, layers and layers of multiplicity to spaces we find empty to the point where the mind becomes stuck in a realm that no longer wants to function. Trapped in a congested haven no longer desiring anything new.

By extracting the space that links the two extremes (The old void), we not only redefine what has been released, but we have now given life to a new form. This new kind of Tension becomes a solid form (a positive space) a new definition, a new freedom. The next “tabula rasa” to build upon in life and in Architecture. This is the new type of Void.