(14/07/2019 -08:00)
Bernard Tschumi’s The Manhattan Transcripts break the barriers and claims that architecture is more than spaces and forms! Demonstrating that architecture is a sensual movement of events and episodes that take place in spaces. The Manhattan Transcripts dangle midway between actuality and fantasy, as it’s composed of images of theoretical happenings in existing spaces. Made somewhere in the range of 1976 and 1981 for back to back presentations, the four scenes interpret envisioned occasions in genuine New York regions. The transcripts rationalize 8 standards.
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Understandably, as an architecture student, we create a story line for our client while designing. We vision their movement inside the space, the events that could occur, and consider the possible changes of function that might take place. The transcripts harmonize the contradictions between the client, their journey and items in the area.
On a recent site visit to Surau Al Islah, in Kajang, we were required to go to several bus stops and analyse the area for the possible construction of new bus stops. In a way our aim is following a few of the highlighted standards in the transcripts, which are Deconstruction and Transformation, to break down an existence and revamp it into something contemporary, to change the existing bus stops and transform them into modern ones.
‘Conventional components of architecture are broken down and rebuilt along a different axes’ [1] 📷
Image shows people getting off the bus and others getting on.
At the site, I noticed that there was a certain sequence of events related to the bus stop. The bus would pass by the stop at equal intervals of time, picking up some people and dropping off others. The people had to wait for the bus to arrive at a certain spot, and the bus would come at a certain time. This sequence displays Articulation. The Manhattan transcripts draw light to the relationship between events, space and movement. Taking the bus stop as a reference, the space (the bus stop itself) should accommodate the people waiting for the bus, the act of waiting is the event happening, and their actions while waiting or getting ready to get on or leave the bus is the movement. Fusing these 3 together shows Relation. As we went by several bus stops, I observed that they didn’t all look the same, they all had the same sign and served the same purpose but their design was different from one another, showing that each bus stop is conclusively independent, yet related to each other, identifying Classification. 📷
Images display different designs of bus stops.Also displaying people's activities while waiting.
Furthermore, Sensation could be explored on the site through noises heard, cars honking on the road, motorbikes zooming past us, people talking together, the smell of food from local restaurants, unpleasant smells from the drainage, and watching people doing their daily chores, all these things run emotions through us.
The bus stop could be used as more than just a space for waiting for the bus, it could also be a resting place for pedestrians, and it could serve more than one function, depending on the design. This describes Combination andNotation, through redefining space functions.
In conclusion, The Manhattan Transcripts validates how architecture is much more than just tangible matter, it’s spiritual, dynamic and evolving day by day. Architecture breaks boundaries while building bridges.
[1] Bernard Tschumi, The Manhattan Transcipts, Academy Editions, 1994
Elshimaa Essam 1001747838
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