Birdmusing – Diploma
Jimbolia is a settlement in the Banat region, whose town-planning characteristics, still visible today, were established in the 18th century. The Habsburg Empire discovered the rich resources of the area, and radical human intervention in the region began. In order to serve the production, a town was built into the existing natural dimension, with a four-grid structural street system of distinctly human quality. Over time, the human dimension was increasingly expanded by mining and settlement development activities, and later receded for historical and economic reasons.
The abandoned mine beds were filled with ponds, the ponds were surrounded by lush reeds, and birds sang in the branches of the trees. Once industrial buildings have been demolished, and the remains of what were once signs of human intervention have become human imprints that complement and contrast with the landscape. These remains were later covered by vegetation, absorbed by the waters of the lake and surrounded by a multitude of trees.
Over time, the human dimension has been reintroduced into the natural environment: wooden huts rest in the coolness of the trees, children play on climbing frames, and brick hearths crackle with embers. The cyclical shift in the relationship between nature and man is eternal.
In meditation, the senses are heightened, the body slows down, the soul calms down. We are able to perceive each surrounding element individually, one by one, in the same moment. Not only ourselves, but also the relationship between man and time changes. We lose our sense of time, time stands still. Everything that seemed static moves, everything that seemed dynamic stops. The flowing movement of birds in group flight seems to describe this very state. Many tiny lives now condense into a single point, now expand across the sky. Sometimes slowing down, sometimes coming to life. The process causes us to pause and our minds to brood.
The chosen location within the lake complex is the northern expanse of the bowl-shaped lake, which has the peculiarity of having a completely different dimension on its northern and southern sides. The southern side is on a human scale, close to the city and located in the centre of the lake, while the northern side is more natural in scale, far from the centre. The vast longitudinal arrangement of the lake in the form of a bowl has a quasi ‘stage-like’ character, with its vast exposed whole providing an uninterrupted view for the observer. Although we are unable to focus on the details, the wide horizon makes the subtle movements of the wildlife in the landscape dominant. The vast distance of the opposite side to the centre, the shallow waters of the lake and the almost untouched human environment all contribute to the survival of the rich bird population and the peaceful coexistence of the two landscape dimensions.
The processing of the landscape is installation-based. The exploration is a method based on lived experience and intuitive observations. Impressions on the ground and experiments with the matrix of the environment revealed the true characteristics and traits of the chosen lake, which then gave rise to architectural observations and decisions on the table. The transverse banding, the longitudinal undulation, the infinite scale are all attributes that were discovered through practical insights.
The building is located on the southern, busier side of the lake. The building’s reception area is built on the top of the high seawall here, and can be approached from the main road that runs alongside it. The arriving space is a transition between the natural and the built, with a palisaded structure that is a masterpiece of the façade opposite.
The part of the building located at the top of the seawall contains service functions, which by their function require the most free space possible, so that the qualities of space are separated by islands of furniture, which enclose all the functions. Each space is connected by meditation gardens filled with native vegetation. Enclosed spaces that, through the lush vegetation within them, create a new quality of human-nature-immersion relationship.
A rapid drought has created a gap between the abruptly steep bank and the water, carving out a strip of reed-covered land. Its dense fibrous nature makes it an excellent hideaway for nature watchers. Here is the main feature of the complex, the meditation band. Its position and scale is deliberate, a ‘stretched-out spectator’ element of the stage-like pond.
Its structural and massing design is based on the association of a bird’s nest emerging from the reed beds. The fibrous vertical structure, gently “floating” above the reeds, is adapted to the character of the reeds, while the more enclosed world within it is positioned as an observer emerging from the thicket. The more enclosed meditation and the more open, jetty-like spatial quality of the band alternate. The closed meditation boxes are concentrated spaces that aid contemplation, highlighting parts of the landscape, – while the open jetty, a world closer to nature, more tactile and tangible.
Its structural and massing design is based on the association of a bird’s nest emerging from the reed beds. The fibrous vertical structure, gently “floating” above the reeds, is adapted to the character of the reeds, while the more enclosed world within it is positioned as an observer emerging from the thicket. The more enclosed meditation and the more open, jetty-like spatial quality of the band alternate. The closed meditation boxes are concentrated spaces that aid contemplation, highlighting parts of the landscape, – while the open jetty, a world closer to nature, more tactile and tangible.
From a bird’s-eye view, the mass of the building as a whole is deliberately a single movement, responding to the human imprints and memories left in the environment. To the structures left in the landscape that have become features and fragments of the territory. A gesture that continues the cycle of human and natural dimensions and the unique and strange history of the area.
Author: Korhán Marcell – The Department of Architecture Faculty of Engineering University of Debrecen
Source: Építészfórum
