February 27, 2006 - Subject
Outline
A. Subject Title:
Applying Principles of Reconstructive Surgery to the Process
of Architectural Rehabilitation
B. Subject Proposal:
The patient of reconstructive surgery and the building undergoing rehabilitation share several commonalities. Both have an existing form that has been subjected to a degree of disfigurement and have the potential to reemerge with a more socially palatable image that can alter their identity. Using the site of the former Seville Theatre on Ste. Catherine Street between Lambert-Closse and Chomedy, this project will test the extent to which the application of principles of reconstructive surgery can be used to inform an architectural rehabilitation intervention.
The questions of what traces of a site's history should be preserved and what should be transformed are akin to the questions posed by patients and professionals involved in facial reconstructive surgery. The issues raised by both procedures must be addressed on a case-by-case basis. They are both subject to a large degree of subjectivity concerning the appropriateness of the extent of their application. Because of the lack of universal solutions, there is a need for developing different methods of determining suitable interventions. Using clues from a discipline that shares common aspects with another is a potential approach to the problem-solving process.
Various aspects of reconstructive surgery, such as technical solutions, social and ethical issues, will be investigated. The correlating architectural application will then be identified and discussed. The new building's form and programme will be informed by the outcome of this discussion.
C. Subject Content-method of research:
i) Technical Procedures
One
of the first decisions involved in reconstructive surgery is determining the
extent of material to be excised, which is typically limited to non-viable
tissue (McGregor 5). Another is the placement of scars to provide minimum
visibility (4). Different techniques are used in closing wounds, depending
on the extent and location of damaged tissue. The Z-plasty, for example, is
used to correct initial closures whose location has subjected them to excessive
contracture (21). Depending on the extent of damage, the replacement of tissue
might consist of a thin, split-skin graft (42) to a fascio-cutaneous flap,
which contains a deep network of blood vessels and several tissue types (61).
An architectural rehabilitation project that alludes to the technical procedures of reconstructive surgery might befairly conservative in removing parts of the existing structure, focusing on the unsound. Special attention might be paid to the techniques used to join old and new and the locations where different materials come together. Procedures used in reconstructive surgery, such as the Z-plasty, which involves the transposition of two interdigitating triangular flaps (21) might be used to inform the formal characteristics of the building.
Formal Example: With Surgery House, Atelier Cinquième Architects and Katsuhiro Miyamoto transform an earthquake-stricken house into a workshop using structural techniques inspired by surgical procedures. The building's lightweight wooden structure has been dismembered and dissected in damaged areas and reinforced by a splint-like, white, metal structure (Hladik 84). The apparent reference to surgery, visible evidence of the intervention, and interconnection between old and new are primary aspects of the reading of the building.
ii) Identity and "the morph"
In their article Until They Have Faces: the Ethics of Facial Allograft Transplantation, Maria Siemionow and G.J. Agich discuss the negative portrayal of facial allograft transplantation (FAT) in the media and the ethical and surgical justifications for its use. The authors address the subject of social identity and the human face and the psychological impact of severe facial deformity.
The authors claim that the allusion in the media to FAT patients being subject to a facial identity swap, such as in science-fiction movies, is misleading (Agich 708). They argue that the face is not a static mask but an organ of expressivity that relies on a person's underlying structure and own personality to convey emotion (707). The authors argue that living with an identity based on deformity and the social stigma attached to it, has a far more detrimental effect than receiving a transplant from a separate donor (708).
The performance artist Orlan raises questions about the creation of an image through morphing in her work The Reincarnation of Saint Orlan, or Images-New Images. Through a series of operations since 1990, Orlan has remodeled her face after a computer-generated morph of facial characteristics from Renaissance paintings of idealized beauty (Duckett 209). The elements in Orlan's reconstruction, each "geometrically normalized" to reflect the Renaissance ideal of symmetry, purposefully ignore a grid of measurements in their placement, creating a skewed geometry that critiques the mathematizing of the human form (218).
The
question of morphing is significant to the process of adaptive reuse in architecture.
One might consider the case of theSnowdon Theatre on Decarie Boulevard. In
the late 1980s, the abandoned art-deco theatre was transformed into a retail/office
complex. Elements that emphasize the language of theatre, such as the marquis,
were refurbished, while elements relating to the language of retail and office
space, such as plate-glass windows, shop signs and standard punched windows,
were used to dissect the once grand, windowless façade of the theatre
space. The result is a somewhat uncomfortable superposition of languages that,
one might argue, destroys the potency of each.
The tension between the languages of former and new building typologies on a site and the points where they might co-exist is a potential area of exploration. Another investigation might be the transposition of fragments of existing buildings onto another. In response to the issues raised by FAT surgery, one might also investigate the extent to which a new skin on an existing structure transforms the reading of a building.
iii) Revealing process
An
important aspect to Orlan's performance work is that she reveals a process
that is typically private. The "special effect" of the computer-generated
morph or the "before and after" photographs of reconstructive surgery
is that it hides all notions of labour and pain associated with the transformation
and healing process (Duckett 210). Orlan's transformation, during which she
remains conscious, is undertaken in front of a live audience, and in some
cases, broadcast via satellite around the world. As a viewer of one performance
describes: "The surgical moment arrived… but this is no simulacrum
of an operation, it's the real thing. Soon, the surgeon is sawing away, methodically
scraping out flesh from below the hairline. The gallery empties of a third
of its audience"(211).
In architecture,
process can be revealed through evidence of construction procedures in the
finished form. It might also reveal traces of building or user functions typically
hidden. For example, Lapointe, Magne et Associés's Ecole nationale
de cirque uses translucent wall panels to reveal to the outside the silhouettes
of performers practicing their craft. Traditionally, practice, which involves
imperfection and evolution, is a hidden process and a seemingly effortless
routine is revealed to audiences during formal performances.
iv) Notions of performance and narrative.
The term "operating theatre" alludes to the relationship surgery has to performance. While the typical surgery performance is hidden, its transformations are inherently connected to the notion of spectacle. Orlan emphasizes the theatrical aspects of surgery by incorporating lavish costumes, performers dancing, reciting poetry, and acting, in the operating theatre during her surgical procedures (213).
It is interesting to note that each of Orlan's surgeries is not seen as a step towards the completion of a product but as one moment in a perpetually unfolding narrative (215). Thus, Orlan's identity can never be fully attached to her physical form.
The site, being that of a former theatre, implies a history of performance. A question that might be raised related to Orlan's ongoing narrative of transformation is can a building perpetually reinvent itself, either functionally or physically? How can a rehabilitated building fend off obsolescence and the dereliction that it emerged from?
v) Social issues
Interplast is a humanitarian organization whose goal is to provide free reconstructive surgery and educational training in developing countries. A primary goal of the organization is to facilitate sustainable models for health care around the world. The organization has established a web-based medical interchange network that allows doctors to share advice about case studies in a "virtual teaching hospital" (Interplast web site).
An architectural intervention inspired by these principles might strive to extend its presence beyond its physical site. It might contain elements in its programme and/or form that use technology to communicate information and provide learning at a distance.
Bibliography
Agich, G.J. and Siemionow, M. "Until They Have Faces: The Ethics of Facial Allograft Transplantation". Journal of Medical Ethics. 2005;31: 707-709.
Duckett, Victoria.
"Beyond the Body: Orlan and the Material Morph". Meta morphing:
Visual Transformation and the Culture of Quick-change. Sobchack, V., ed. Minneapolis:
University of Minnesota Press, 2000.
Hladik, Murielle.
"Surgery House (Zenkai House), Takarazuka, Hyogo"
L'Architecture d'Aujourd'hui. vol. 338. janvier-février 2002.
Interplast Official Website. Available online at: http://www.interplast.org
McGregor, A.D
and McGregor I.A. Fundamental Techniques of Plastic Surgery and Their Surgical
Applications, Tenth Edition. London: Churchill Livingstone, 2000.