Leon Vöckler investigated the ‘Readymades’ concept by French artist Marcel Duchamp as an approach to reuse industrial architecture. With the artworks being mundane, ordinary objects that were only slightly modified, their placements in unusual contexts like art galleries manages to create new associations in an exciting contrast to what the objects originally were. At the core of this graduation project stands the question of how this approach to art can be transferred to an architectural scale, giving the opportunity to revive leftover structures without disguising their history.
The silos receive a new context in form of an amphitheatre, which uses them as a backdrop, as well as them being the base for a new theatre on top. The cranes up front will be used for the entrance to the new addition. Around the ground floor, the large-scale ‘Readymade’ elements keep a connection to the site and its past, while allowing a new use to flourish.
Can you (briefly) explain your choice of subject?
Facing a decline in industrial production and vacancy in the north of Maastricht, the ‘Readymades’ by French artist Marcel Duchamp were investigated as an approach to reuse of industrial architecture. Large-scale, leftover structures in a complex urban environment asked for an unconventional mode of thinking to find an appropriate reuse strategy.
What or who are your sources of inspiration and can you briefly explain this?
Marcel Duchamp’s “Readymades” were mundane objects such as a bicycle wheel or a urinal which he only slightly modified and placed in unusual contexts like art galleries. A urinal flipped on its side, placed in such a gallery space and entitled “Fountain” was not only provocative in the 1910s, it also created a new connotation, while the object’s origin was still more than obvious. This ambiguity then sparked the idea to try and transfer this concept to the large, dilapidating structures in Maastricht, reviving them without having to change much.
Main stage: Parts of the lattice trusses, which carried the roof with the concrete slabs, are cut up, repositioned and painted to form the new proscenium arch.
State and (briefly) describe the key moment in your graduation project
The difference in scale between the art world and architecture required the “Readymade”-concept to be adjusted. During the project, more than a month of design work and research on structural- and fire protection topics went into the idea of moving the existing metal cranes on top of the concrete silos, so that they could hold up the roof of the new theatre. However, I had to realise that with these particular objects, the effort would stand in no relation anymore to the ease with which Duchamp moved his “Readymades” to another place.
Silo stage: The western silo gets its four compartments connected. The newly created space can be used for alternative performances and events, benefiting from the almost sublime atmosphere.
Can you (briefly) explain what design(ing) means to you?
To me, designing is thinking of all the site conditions, regulations and restrictions, while at the same time trying to not think of them to avoid being too restrained. Complex conditions ask for methods to handle every individual one, while at the same time methods of setting the mind free from too many individual restrictions help to see the bigger picture.
What hope / do you want to achieve as a designer in the near and / or the distant future?
I want to improve on ways of reusing architecture that seems hard-to-reuse, as well as develop ways to make new-built structures easy-to-reuse in the future.
Overview of the design with the escalators up to the cranes as the entrance to the upper volume. In the upper volume are the main stage in the center, foyer to the west and backstage spaces in the east. At the bottom are the two silos, used as a stage and for storage.
projecttext
Facing a decline in industrial production and potential vacancy in the north of Maastricht, the ‘Readymades’ by French artist Marcel Duchamp were investigated as an approach to reuse of industrial architecture. At the core of the project stood the appropriation of large concrete silos, metal cranes, and a urinal.
In 1917, French artist Marcel Duchamp was testing the art world with a urinal labelled the “Fountain”. Not only did he have the audacity to place it in an art gallery, he also used a found object as a vessel for an artistic concept, instead of relying on impressive craftsmanship.
To create a “Readymade”, a careful selection of the object is followed by disconnecting it from its previous utility by changing its position, orientation and/or context.
On the northern outskirts of Maastricht’s inner city, the factory complex of the SAPPI paper factory is expected to turn vacant soon, while neighbouring industrial buildings are already reused or vacant like the “Landbouwbelang” complex. At the threshold between this industrial site and the inner city lies the ‘Bassin’, a former freight terminal, physically disconnecting the site from the city. This poses a challenging urban condition for a successful, future conversion.
If the Readymades can be seen as a reaction to a rise in mass production one century ago, how can they help in finding an answer to industrial decline today?
To transfer the concept to architecture and in search for potential Readymades, the site was carefully investigated on different scales and through different lenses in an adhocist fashion to ultimately find an empty clay storage with concrete silos and metal cranes. Located in a strategic position between Maas and Bassin as well as SAPPI and inner city, these large-scale, ‘found objects’ have the potential to activate the ‘Bassin’ as a connecting void between the dense surrounding districts.
In the design process, collages allowed for an experimental change of contexts of the silos, leading to the idea of the silos as the base, backdrop and spatial structure for three drastically different theatre stages, forming a new cultural centre from the large-scale industrial remains.
Name:
Leon Vöckler
E-mail
Start graduation
September 2020
Graduated
June 2022
University
TU Delft
