Unconnotated Riddles

Intriguring, indirect but accessible objects

Written by Yang Lan

Supervised by Bru Bistuer Eduardo

Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya BarcelonaTech

L’Escola Tècnica Superior d’Arquitectura de Barcelona
MBarch MaterThesis 2020
 Abstract

Confusion was the familiar feeling, unstable was the sur-

rounding situation, misunderstanding was the constant
issue.

The personal experience first lead to the introduction of

a world lacking experience, a world without reference, a
world could not fully appreciate. To seek a suitable archi-
tectural approach to this situation, the observation of ar-
chitectures without architects from the past and current
was made, aiming to find the limit and border of the gen-
eral appreciatable elements at the time of unconnotation.
The theoretical part ended with the employment of uncon-
notated riddle as the approach. It explained the mechanics
of riddle, and analyzed layers of the unconnotated riddles
in architecture with cases, including previous personal
practice.

The project was the practice with the riddling elements

from previous research. It would act as an unconnotated
riddle in reaction to this unconnotated context.

Keywords: Riddle, Unconnotation, Appreciation.

 Contents

1. Unconnotated world 7
1.1 Losing the ability to appreciate 8
1.2 The poverty of experience 12
1.3 The non-referential world 13

2. Unconnotated riddle 15
2.1 Architecture without architects in history 16
2.2 Architecture without architects in unconnotated context 20
2.3 Intriguing, indirect but accessible 24

3. The working riddles 27

3.1 Riddling elements 28
3.2 Riddling fragments 30
3.3 Riddling composition 40
3.4 Riddling force 52
3.5 Personal intepretations 60

4. Create a riddle 69
4.1 Site 70
4.2 Sensing 76
4.3 Imagining 78
4.4 Understanding 82
4.5 Blueprints 86

5. Appendix 95
5.1 Conclusion 96
5.2 Bibliography 98
5.3 Figure credits 99
 1. Unconnotated world

1.1 Losing the ability to appreciate 7

1.2 The poverty of experience 11
1.3 The non-referential world 12
1. Unconnotated world

1.1 Lossing the ability to appreciate

As almost the complete basis of all my ways of feeling and

interpreting the outer world, including architectural study
and practice, my personal experience and relative think-
ings is what I would like to introduce first.

I was born right before the 21st century in a small village

in Southeast China, I am among the generation to enjoy
but also suffer from the “rising period” of China. Villages
changed so fast, it only took less than twenty years to com-
pletely wrap my old quiet hometown and its earth hous-
es and wooden huts in concrete, steel, and glass. The wide
straight asphalt roads replaced the narrow curving stone
pavings alongside hill foot, splitting the fields; heavy con- Fig.1
crete steps took the place of piled flat stones in moss by the
river; only the elders now know how to sow and when to
harvest, younger generations left the village and came back
with products from towns and cities in their cars.

Before I became a student of architecture, I do have a cer-

tain image of what a traditional Chinese building is like,
but in my hometown, that southern village, all the knowl-
edge and information came through television and the in-
ternet. What I knew about certain tradition was all taught
and told, it felt so fictional and unreal. Even when I became Fig.2 Fig.3
a master student of architecture, when I equipped myself
with the knowledge of traditional Chinese house, the histo-
ry, the form, layout, details, and joints, I asked myself, were
they beautiful? Were they touching? I could not come up
with a certain answer. I was not convinced that I have the
ability to appreciate traditional Chinese houses. I would Fig1. A image with names of
say the original and local earth houses were closer to me, components of an ancient Chi-
I lived inside and touched the surface, I slept inside the nese house, a typical “taught”
rooms with wooden partitions and paper windows, I have traditional Chinese architecture.
memories of them, they are true and beautiful to me.
Fig2. A typical type of rammed
And I took a look back my old town, the children sit in the earth house in Southern China,
concrete foreyard playing online games on smartphones in which I spent my childhood.
with their friends, they did not even have the chance to see
what the village looked like twenty years ago, how a village Fig3. A concrete plastered brick
operated twenty years ago, what people ate on the table house located in concrete sur-
and what they talked about by the river twenty years ago. roundings of a current village in
The fact is, my next generation, the younger ones would Shaoxing, Zhejiang, China.
Fig.4 Fig.5

grow in cozy and warm concrete rooms. These feelings and Fig4. An image of Paris with
memories mean nothing to them, the old houses could “pilled up traces of time”. The
soon become like the traditional houses to me, a fictional history of the city is overlaying
image. on a whole.

Interestingly enough, from the semi-research semi-mem- Fig5. An image of Sao Paulo
oir book Tristes Tropiques, Claude Levi Strauss introduced showing a direct switch of build-
a similar experience of his Brazilian student. This Brazil- ing types with no intermediary
ian girl lived in the native colonized area and later moved stages.
to the city of new world. The new city grew fast from its
birth to decrepitude, people living inside did not have the
opportunity to experience the intermediary stages, they
could not appreciate the sighs and hints of flushed time in
a city, “whiteness and cleanness were the criteria by which
she judged a city”. When the girl eventually arrived in Par-
is, all the blackened buildings meant only filth and repug- [1]Levi Strauss, C. (2012). Tristes
nance to her, she returned with tears from her first visit to Tropiques. New York: Penguin,
Paris.[1] p. 100.
1.2 The poverty of experience
“With this tremendous development of technology, a com-
pletely new poverty has descended on mankind.” Walter
Benjamin pointed out in his essay Experience and Poverty.
“Nobody tells a story... this much is clear: experience has
fallen in value” Benjamin started his essay with this quote.
He believed the first great war convinced people that the age
to rely on static experience was gone: “strategic experience
has been contravened by positional warfare; economic ex-
perience, by the inflation; physical experience, by hunger;
moral experiences, by the ruling powers. A generation that
had gone to school in horse-drawn streetcars now stood in
the open air, amid a landscape in which nothing was the
same except the clouds and, at its center, in a force field
of destructive torrents and explosions, the tiny, fragile hu-
man body.”[2] It reminds us of the magnificent drawings
by James Ensor, in which ghosts with distorted masks and
cardboard crowns on their heads fill the streets of great cit-
ies rolling endless circuits.
Thus it is easy to accept that the world is experiencing a
new kind of “barbarism”, a time that encouraging the orig-
inal approach and individual belief, as when all the pre-
Fig.6
vious experience becomes relatively meaningless, people
are forced to to “start from scratch; to make a new start;
to make a little go a long way; to begin with a little and
build up further, looking neither left nor right.” Like Ein-
stein, showed only interests in Newton’s equations and the
observations of astronomy regardless of the wide world of
physics. Like a constructor of his own philosophy, he ques-
[3] Benjamin,W. (1933). Experi- tioned the reality and developed his truth. [3] Like Paul
ence and poverty. Prague Klee, who aimed to invent, to create, to “create an order
from feeling and, going still further, from motion.” Like
Adolf Loos, who “write only for people who possess a mod-
ern sensibility… do not write for the people consumed by
nostalgia for the Renaissance or the Rococo.”
1.3 The non-referential world
Fig6. The Entry of Christ into Similar to the facts described by Benjamin before mid
Brussels by James Ensor, 1898. 20th, Valerio Olgiati and Markus Breischmid believed the
The painting illustrated groups world now is even becoming “Non-referential”. The world
of figures wearing distorted now is like “a thoroughly heterogeneous, polyvalent, plu-
masks and cardboard crowns in ral, decentralized, non-referential” one.
the streets of ancient cities, like
ghost wondering without con- The most obvious and recognizable difference is the bene-
sciousness. fits of the technology, it resulted in a significant change of
the mobility, the way we communicate, the way we inform
each other. The philosophers are discussing the “disen-
chanted world” and critics are searching for new principles
of aesthetics, regional and political themes are replaced by
sociological and ecological ones, “Individuals and groups
with completely different interests that make coalescence
all but impossible. The image of the sociological popula-
tion structure does not exist, because even the notion of
a more or less coherent “people” no longer exists.” We are
living in a world in which so many values co-exist but no
powerful and important values to give structure and order.
It is a world in which that everything is possible anytime
anywhere. It is not possible for us to naively believe any-
thing from anointed authorities anymore. But the same
time Valerio positively mentioned: despite the world be-
come enigmatic and untrustable, the single and sole truth
still exists, it is attainable in plural form. The world is not
disenchanted but the concepts and the ways to observe
[4] Olgiati, V. and Breitschmid, change. [4]
M. (2019). Non-Referential Ar-
chitecture. Zürich: Park Books, The experience is fractured and scattered, people are isolat-
PP. 32-41. ed and overwhelmed. The world becomes unconnotated.
 2. Unconnotated riddle

2.1 Architecture without architects in history 15

2.2 Architecture without architects in unconnotated context 19
2.3 Intriguing, indirect but accessible 23
2. Riddle as a stance

2.1 Architecture without architects in history

Rudofsky Bernard introduced the Architecture without

architects. This vernacular architecture could from the
ancient time of industrialized countries, but could also be
located in developing countries, but all in common, their
shared common characters of “vernacular, anonymous,
spontaneous, indigenous, rural”.

It is obvious that architecture appeared before architects,

even before humans. It has been said that a beaver was not
possible to learn to build a dam from human, neither an
ape would learn from human to make his or her own airy
scaffolding. In that case, it could be right the opposite. it
might be the human to learn from their ancient relatives in
the natural world to build a shelter.

When we tried to understand the spirits of vernacular ar-

chitecture, it always comes with an almost instinctual and
powerful force inside. In the time of survival and produc-
tion, most of these projects, designed by ones with no “for- Fig.7
mal” architectural education, would be tied tightly to real-
ity, the crucial needs to survive, to produce, and to make Fig7. North American tree
a living with others as a member of human community. dwellers, the natives that still
The works of anonymous builders, as described by Pietro followed the instinctual way of
Belluschi, “are not produced by a few intellectuals or spe- living method.
cialties, but by the spontaneous activity of a whole people
with a common heritage, acting under a community of ex-
perience.” It was through the polish of a long time of local
realities, and with human basic but extraordinary intellects
came the shape, the material, the proportion, the scale, the
composition, the construction method of vernacular ar-
chitecture.

But this was quite suggesting and inspiring when we real-

ized we were already experiencing the “poverty of experi-
ence”. The surviving issue is no more, the producing meth-
od has been changing dramatically over all these decades,
the living community is also in a completely different scale,
these certain experience of the past, and with the origi-
nal context that gave birth to it might no longer existing,
but the architectural issue is similar, to build and to keep
on living, It is still the intellectual reactions that guide the
needs of current livings.
 Fig.9

Fig.8

Fig8. The Berber granaries in

Morocco. We could imagine the
trace of the movement of hu-
man’s body on these non-stair-
like non-ladderlike platforms.
Fig.10
Fig9. A movable hut in Vietnam.
A blurred tent, an umbrella, the
same time a roof, with bodies as
moving columns.

Fig10. A fishing station in Stan-

leyville, Congo, as an example of
the pile house. A primitive ges-
ture of construction for safety,
and a complex relationship with
human’s body.
2.2 Architecture without architects
in unconnotated context

Again, through observation, it is not difficult to see archi-

tecture without architects built in our current world, the
close and dear unconnotated world.

In my personal experience in Chinese rural areas, we could

still see a range of vernacular and spontaneous buildings
and objects. All, from a perspective of a “formal” architec-
tural student, very inspiring and intriguing.

The first image from the top was an exterior staircase lo-
cated in a village of Zhejiang province in China. The first
run was built in stone masonry with raw casted concrete
steps, the continuing stair was on the contrary of the pre-
vious one’s stance of heaviness and painted in white, it was
built with an almost “incorrect” thickness and with no un- Fig.11
derstanding of structure, even without handrails. but the
next run of this stair presents an extraordinary “incorrect”
lightness. And when we try to interpret the reason be-
hind this gesture is only in some degree mysterious, as we
could always guess probably the owners wanted to save the
money on materials so they kept minimum thickness of
the stairs and skip the handrails, and of course, they might
have a sense of lightness and heaviness of materials and
shapes, but not with this expressing purpose as a starting
point of this object.

Similar situations could be found in another two cases of

stairs. The image at the bottom left was like a high heel,
but the proportion seemed to be wired, the heel under the
platform was a direct extrusion from the platform. Again
we could imagine when the anonymous builder use their
primitive intelligence to deal with the problem: how could
we put an in-situ stair by the surface of stone masonry?
Still, maybe with very limited understanding of structure,
they made this direct extrusion of the platform to help Fig11. A staircase of contra-
place the whole staircase on a completed surface. dicting lightness and heaviness,
from an anonymous builder.
The image at the bottom right had an even more unusual
proportion and the scale was not even suitable for regular Fig12. A “high heel” in unusual
climbing. But the situation seemed quite clear, the house proportion.
stood too close to the street and the door was too high
without some steps. To avoid occupying too much space Fig13. Stairs near a street in Fig.12 Fig.13
of the street, a wired tiny staircase was put at the door- wired proportion.
Fig.14 Fig.15 Fig.16

way. The interesting thing was the relation of this objects, a Fig14. Wild application of mate-
component to climb up, with human body, we could even rials in stairs in Terrassa, Spain.
instantly imagine how a man would climb these steps up
to the house, how he holds one hand at the wall and twist Fig15. An even more tiny stair-
his waist to balance the body and make space for the next case near the Bunkers del Carm-
move. All the imagination with tension was triggered by el in Barcelona.
the “spontaneous” form under the conduct of primitive in-
telligence. Fig16. A random application of
different kinds of bricks on a
Not even surprised, I have seen similar cases in Spain, in wall in Barcelona.
Metropolitan Barcelona as well as surrounding towns. We
could clearly see the active reactions to deal with reality,
a free or even wild application of materials to adapt the
relationship of street and basement, or to save the space at
the doorway, or to pile up or patch up a piece of wall. The
architecture without architects adapts the industrial and
the modern context.

And it is even more touching and moving that all these

creative and inspiring gestures and methods have little to
do with formal architectural education, they are from a
commonly shared intelligence and active understanding of
primitive architecture.
2.3 Intriguing, indirect but accessible

Look back to the process of observation of that architec-

ture without architects in the time of survival, and of our
unconnotated industrialized current, we would be fasci-
nated, intrigued by the creativity and freedom to use “what
we got” to practice, but the same time we could see the
limit of the spontaneous building, and in this case, we have
to exclude the lost civilizations like the ancient Egypt or
Babylon, and also certain empire scale force in history, like
ancient Rome or China. It is now not possible for an in-
dividual, or an amateur group to fully understand how to
build a skyscraper or a long-span bridge without any sys-
tematical study and training, or without any kind of tech-
nical support. The accessible portion of projects of archi-
tecture for general individuals is limited.

Also, we could see no tendency of reference from the or-

dinary objects of the vernacular and spontaneous practice.
The columns do not refer to beautiful women’s bodies, the
facade does not apply the scale and proportions of god, the
decoration or paintings is merely a layer of protection, or
just fancy and lively pattern or color to the owners. The Fig.17
building methods or intentions are long non-referential.

To actively reacts to this limitation of general awareness

and attention, and with respect and obsession of intellec-
tually active interpretation, I seek the method of unconno-
tated riddle.

Imagine interpreting a project of architecture, like encoun-

tering a stranger in the street or a bar. One to observe would
have imaginations from the appearance, but this imagina-
tion and guessings were all not convincing and confirmed;
luckily enough, two strangers could become friends, they
got to know a little about each other, they would be sur-
prised to have similar interest or habits, And possibly two Fig.17 The pyramid from an-
could become even closer, they shared a lot and understood cient Egypt, a lost civilization. A
very much of each other, people would share the same lan- mysterious way to pile up stones,
guage and interests. Still, a person may not understand an- and with religious reference, an
other completely, as ordinary individuals are with a com- object that is nearly impossible
plex personality, experience, and thoughts. But the process to access.
like unveiling the answers of a series of riddles, which is
intriguing, mysterious but accessible, was beautiful. Fig.18 Art of stone balance, a
play of gravity, an accessible but
indirect riddle. Fig.18
 3. The working riddles

3.1 Riddling elements 27

3.2 Riddling fragments 29
3.3 Riddling composition 39
3.4 Riddling force 51
3.5 Personal intepretations 59
3. The working riddles
3.1 Riddling elements
What is Intriguing, mysterious but accessible? - A riddle.
To be simple, a traditional riddle “has only two parts, one
functioning as a question, the other as its answer.”[5] To an-
alyze the structure of the working riddle, Robert A. Georg-
es and Alan Dundes separate it into two general categorize
according to whether the riddle contains the oppositional
elements. Thus in terms of structure, a riddle could be both
contradictory, or not.[6] Also from Roger D. Abrahams,
when he explained how to achieve “implicit patterns” in
terms of gestalt, there are four main techniques, which pre-
sented in the riddle question are impaired. They are:
1. Opposition – Gestalt is impaired because the com-
ponent parts of the presented image do not harmon-
ise (“What has eyes but cannot see? – A potato.” ER 277)
2. Incomplete detail – not enough information is given for
proper – Gestalt to be made (i.e., for the parts to fit together;
“What is white, then green, then red? – A berry growing.”)
3. Too much detail – the important traits are buried in the
midst of inconsequential detail, thus “scrambling” Gestalt
(“As I was crossing London Bridge I met a man who tipped
his hat and drew his cane, and now I gave you his name.
What is it? – Andrew Cane.”)
4. A false Gestalt – details are provided that lead to an ability
to discern a referent, and thus call for an answer, but the an-
swer is wrong. This answer is often an embarrassing, obscene
reference. This technique is most common in catch riddles.
(“What goes in hard and smooth and comes out soft and
gooey? – A piece of chewing gum.”)[7]
But the unconnoted riddle is then unconnoted. It does
not employed the metaphoric mechanics of certain rid-
dles, nor any reference to historic and regional elements.
It could not fully employ the functioning techniques used
in Gestalt. But similar to these, a unconnated riddle could
rely on mechanics like incompletion or contradiction.
Look back to what an architect could do, as previously
[5] Annikki Kaivola-Bregenhøj.
(2001). Riddles. Helsinki: Finn-
ish Literature Society, P. 38.
[6] Robert A. Georges and Alan
Dundes. (2001). towards a struc-
trual definition of the riddle.
[7] Annikki Kaivola-Bregenhøj.
(2001). Riddles. Helsinki: Finn-
ish Literature Society, PP. 42-43.
through the observation of architecture without architects,
we acknowledge the border and limit of general accessible
parts of architecture to people. To offer a working uncon-
noted riddle, we could first look into these elements that
are relatively “universally appreciated and understood”, to
offer the necessary “answer” of a riddle.
Light travels fastest, the first encounter would always be
the direct visual experience. A project of architecture is in
most cases an object in reality. It is an occupation of space
with materials but at the same time, it creates the space for
people to use. The first sensation of a project is the appear-
ance, or the space we see, and use.
The compositional components, as well as the ways they
were put together and operate, are the next step of the di-
rect visual experience. As to build a house, the space to live
in, we need to shelter ourselves, by walls and roofs. From
architecture without architects we could see, walls, roofs,
stairs, openings, even components like streets and drain-
ing systems of a village or a small city fall to the general-
ly understandable category. They came before architects.
One that takes the form of the unseen, but expressed and
presented by form, is the force. Architecture is always fight-
ing with gravity. Together with concept of components,
to create the space, the sheltered places, ones, no matter
anonymous builder or formally trained architects, even a
child with only hands and his tiny head, should have a con-
cept of force.
As for the “questioning” effects of these three layers of the
“universal appreciated elements”, I continue the observa-
tion, but of architecture with architects, to seek the clues
and evidence of unconnotated riddle in “formal” architec-
ture practice.
3.2 Riddling fragments

How could direct visual experience become riddling? The

techniques mentioned before took the reference from Ge-
stalt, and we could still come back to the field which shares
a lot with riddle analysis.

One of the most important properties of reification. Rei-

fication is related to the constructive or generative aspect.
The experience percept consists of two kinds of spatial
stimulus but the imagination is more of the explicit one,
which is based on the more obvious and direct one.

The effect of reification is supported by the study of illuso-

ry contour or subjective contour. The examples of Kanizsa’s
triangle or subjective cubes suggest the fragments could
form the image of the whole, even the fragments are only
contributed by the reversed patterns. Fig.19

If we perceive the visual space, or a visually sensed object

a fragment, the project, through the effect of reification,
would then acts as a whole collection of these fragments.
One of the most primitive sensible fragments of space, or
incomplete space, is the corridor without end. We would
surely be attracted and start wondering where is the end.
The curving corridor is mysterious and accessible, archi-
tects like Sou Fujimoto and Valerio Olgiati use these me-
chanics as a basis of further experiments in architecture
but the ridding effect is still the first encounter.
Fragments of columns would also do the work in terms
of fragments of objects. Complete columns in a complete
space could do no triggering trick, but what if a house with
a pitched roof but have a flat ceiling to cut the only column
in the main room? House in white of Kazuo Shinohara is
exactly the case. The explicit column results in the inter-
pretation of the sensable space of this house, not only the
flat roof that hides the end of the column but also when
we understand the column is actually at the center of the
whole wooden structure, we got to know the partitions in
this house blur the true position of this column. Another
case could be the Auditorium room in a school in Land-
quart, Switzerland. A leaning column here, of the auditori-
um room, was cut at the doorway, hiding its end inside the
tall and flat front facade. We could certainly not assume it
Fig.19 Kanizsa triangle, showing
a “subjective” trangle though
broken fragments of circles.
a useless object to support a straight wall and end at the
hight of human eyesight. And once we enter the room we
would see the complete structure of the house, the leaning
column is supporting the pitched roof of the other side. the
riddling structure is answered inside the house.
Fragments of reachable possession is a more difficult sens-
ing situation, but if the triggering element is strong enough
to emphasize the presence of the hidden parts, like the sharp
indication of the triangle in Kanizsa’s triangle, the frag-
ments of reachable space could still serve as the working
riddling element. A conceptual project by Christian Kerez
took the method to merge three separated apartments into
a regular shaped building. every apartment occupied all
three levels and shares no same direction of sight. The in-
tersecting parts were kept aggressive and strong, present-
ing repression of a complete sensible space, which is the
explicit part of the other two. Also in another project by
the same architect, House with one wall, the twisting wall
at the center of the regular shaped house presents a strong
presence of the missing part from one perception of an
owner. The hidden space comes to the conceptualization
by the presented explicit fragments.
Fig.20

Fig.20 Corrior in White U House

by Toyo Ito, showing indirect
but connected interior space.

Fig.21 Plan of White U House.

Fig.22

Fig.22 Corridor in Villa Alem, a

mysterious entrance to private
part of the house.

Fig.23 Plan of Villa Alem.

Fig.21 Fig.23
Fig.24 Fig.26

Fig.24 House in White with

pitched roof.

Fig.25 Fig.25 Section of House in

White, with explicit column
showing no clue of the structure
of the roof.

Fig.26 Column in side the main

room.

Fig.27 Plan of House in White, Fig.27

showing the column “not at the
center”.
Fig.28 Fig.30

Fig.28 Facade of Auditorium

Room with an explicit column.

Fig.29 Section of Auditorium

Room, showing the structure
Fig.29
inside.

Fig.30 Interior of Auditorium

Room, an answer to the riddle
of “incompletion”.
Fig.31 Fig.34 Fig.35

Fig.31 Model of the project,

House in Zug of every levels.

Fig.32
Fig.32 Medel of House in Zug
with complete sensible space of
every apartment.

Fig,33 The intersecting part of

House in Zug.

Fig.34 Plans of House with a

Wall, with the perception of sen-
sible space from one apartment.

Fig.35 Model of House with a

Fig.33 Wall.
3.3 Riddling composition
Architectural components are the next step from the direct
visual riddle.
Unlike the direct visual mechanics, riddling composition
requires onlookers have an understanding of architectural
components to appreciate. Doors are used to enter a build-
ing, stairs are used to climb up levels, columns are needed
to support the ceiling... those objects are components that
could be directly seen, but their characters are conceptual-
ized in onlookers’ minds.
Riddling composition is an unusual, odd, and wired but
sense arranging architectural components.
One of the popular plays of components is the staircase.
A staircase acts as a connecting circulation of a lower lev-
el to a higher one, usually, it is all the necessary needed
component from one level to another, but some times ar-
chitects would put more than one staircases at the same
location, a staircase could overlay onto another, splitting
the circulation of different kinds. One of the ancient but
most beautiful cases would be found in Aizuwakamatsu
City, Japan, the Aizu Sazaedo. The temple or a tower was
mainly a structure with a pair of separated spiral staircases
overlaying on each other, from each route up to the top
was a continuing experience with no presence of the hid-
den staircase.
Newer projects could be found in some Swiss architectural
practice and projects. The Secchi House in Ftan, Switzer-
land, by Meili & Peter Architekten, employed the strategy
to a plain house with two apartments. the large, unheated
entrance halls that are never really cold and never really
warm, around which the layout of old Engadine houses
are organized. For the two apartments, they built a shared
entrance hall with an in-between atmosphere on the low-
er floor of the former stables. To avoid two separate stair-
ways, they developed a system of intertwined single flight
stairs that arrive at the two apartments on the same level,
but separately, like ladders.
A similar strategy was applied to one of Pascal Flammer’s
office projects. The office piled three staircases at the cen-
tral structure tube of the office, the employees would come
into the upper floor through the entrance at the long face
of the structure tube, but the chief could sneak through
another staircase whose opening was placed at the shorter
side. The circulation for the chief is short and direct lead to
his private room, but the employees would roam around to
find the way up.
The splitting circulation could also be achieved by isolated
circulations. In the Office house of Valerio Olgiati in Flims,
a huge and heavy concrete “column”, together with four
other slim ones, supports a floating office, the one at the
center is a private spiral staircase, from which, the architect
of this office could sneak from basement to his room at the
top level of the house without being noticed.
Two similar staircases could even be put right next to each
other. This riddling composition could be found in the proj-
ect National Park Centre on Zernez. Visitors would encoun-
ter a pair of mirrored staircases when they make their at-
tempt to reach the upper levels, the situation was abnormal
and odd as usually, one staircase would be enough, with the
confusing question in visitors’ mind, they might still pick
one to continue their sightseeing. It was only when they fol-
lowed any of the staircases and finished their journey they
would understand either route was the same, but with this
arrangement of circulation, there was no repetitive walking.
A more fascinating way of this riddling composition is a
combination of columns and staircases. The blue Pavilion
in London by Pezo Von Ellrichshausen was like a flat box
on four fat columns, the exterior suggested very limited
information of what object it was, why all the components
were on this scale and proportion. On when onlookers
stepped closer they would realize columns were the same
time spiral staircase to climb up, the box up was a platform
for an unusual dialogue with exhibitions in the hall.
Riddling composition plays with the characters of archi-
tectural components, and at the same time, they refer to no
other things but pure mechanics.
Fig.36

Fig.38

Fig.36 Appearance of Aizu Sa-

zaedo.
Fig.37
Fig.37 The overlaying spiral
staircases in Aizu Sazaedo.

Fig.38 Staircase inside Aizu Sa-

zaedo.
Fig.39
Fig.40
Fig.39 Section of House Secchi,
showing a shared structure but
separated staircases.
Fig.40 First floor of House Sec-
Fig.41 chi, with one apartment occupy-
ing the west and the other enjoys
the east
Fig.41 Second floor of House
Secchi.
Fig.42
Fig.43
Fig.39 Section of Office House
with two stairs.
Fig.40 Plan of the first floor,
showing the sneaky passage of
Fig.44 the chief.
Fig.41 Plan of the second floor,
showing the end of both stair-
cases, and the layout of different
level of privacy.
 Fig.47

Fig.45

Fig.45 Atelier Olgiat supported

by one huge fat “column” and
Fig.46
four slim ones.

Fig.46 Fat “column” inside office.

Fig47 Section of Atelier Olgiati

with the old house.
Fig.48

Fig.48 A pair of mirrored stair-

cases in National Park Centre in
Zernez, a confusing “question”.

Fig.49 The complete circulation

of the house, the “answer” of the
question. Fig.49
 Fig.51 Fig.53

Fig.50 Fig.52 Fig.54

Fig.50 Blue Pavilion in the hall.

Fig.51 Plan of Blue Pavilion.

Fig.52 Section of Blue Pavilion.

Fig.53 The platform up pavilion.

Fig.54 Staircases hidden inside

columns.
3.4 Riddling force
The even more difficult kind riddle to solve is beyond the
direct vision but tightly related with vision. It triggers the
imagination of effects and rules under the obvious appear-
ance.
Peter Markli once compared the statue of Polymedes of
Argos in Delphi with another of a young man from Ath-
ens. The figures appear to be very similar in style, but if one
adds the weight of observation, the statue from Delphi is
in tension and about to move forward, while the Athenian
figure, seems static, a figure frozen in time. “The fists of
Polymedes are clenched and his elbows slightly bent. His
muscular thighs support an equally athletic upper body.
The statue is a perfect example of arrest and movement.” In
this comparison of two statues, the onlookers relied more
than on mere visual appearance, they could image the mo-
tion and force.[8]
Fig.55
[8] Mostafavi, M., Brändle, E.
and Märkli, P. (2005). Approxi-
mation the Architecture of Peter
Markli. Cambridge, Mass: MIT
Press, P. 11.
Fig.55 Statue of Polymedes of
Argos in Delphi on the left and
state form Athens on the right.
Architecture, with its primitive purpose to provide space
to shelter people, the very initial problem it encountered
is gravity. There will be no lack of cases to express force to
fight against gravity, but the ones that with riddling force
also exist. These projects, with the spirit of the statue of
Polymedes of Argos in Delphi, employ a subtle gesture
which makes the force inside difficult to inspect, or create
a disguised, fake force. This lures the onlookers into the in-
terpreting of the force inside, the force inside the projects
will be constructed or re-constructed in viewers’ minds.
The more obvious one would the one with disguised force.
Like the sculptures expressing and worshipping force and
motion. The fake force always expose the strong presence
of unstable and motion, the tension from this gesture grab
the attention. But unlike the sculpture and statues, the rid-
dle of fake force would eventually lead to the true and real
force in the end. As a project of architecture, the structure
is in the end need to be reliable and solid, all the gestures of
pretending and disguising serve a truth and reality.
The other “difficult” , or in another word “ambiguous” force
would require higher level of intellects and related knowl-
edge to figure it out clearly. The appearance and layout of
the strucuture would be silightly odd and unusual, and
with certain complexity. But again, the complete process of
intrigued, interprete and appreciate is the pure precess of
solving a riddle of structure and force.
Either riddling force could be sensed and appreciated, they
are only like plays of basic phsical rules, like a lying bot-
tle near the edge of a table, or a glued up building blocks
instead of pilled up. They are unconnotated riddles with
tension.
Fig.56 Fig.57

Fig.56 Parliament’s entrance

Canton Grisons.

Fig.57 Intention of rolling.

Fig.58 True structure of the en-

trance.
Fig.58
Fig.59 Fig.61

Fig.60 Fig.62

Fig.59 Column with a partially

missing podium in the project
Funeral Chapel in Steinhausen,
a tension of unstable.

Fig.60 The actual working col-

umn.

Fig.61 A piece of floating brick

wall, a conflict with the usual
building method of brick, which
is being piled up.

Fig.62 The hanging force inside.

the floating wall.
Fig.63

Fig.64

Fig.63 Model of Office with two

stairs, with certain degree of
odness.

Fig.64 A comparison of “ord-

ianry” Domino system with the
actual office, to visualizing the
sight oddness of the appearance.
Fig.65 Fig.65 Acrtual force inside the
riddling columns, to explain the
oddness of structural force.
3.5 Personal interpretations

The idea of unconnotated riddle did not come into its shape
all from a sudden. The attempts and practice started from
the very early period of my personal architectural study.

The previous practice was based specifically on one or

two accessible elements mentioned before. These projects
would serve as a prelude to the thesis project.

A tower, a riddle of fragments

This office tower was mainly about a trick of columns, a

riddle of fragmented columns.

The leaning gesture of columns brought subtle changes

to the positions of every column on each floor, creating a
unique character of the space in each level. A series of lev-
els, featuring from scattered space to unified one, adapted
different functions of an office.

The main tower acted like a slim box slightly floating above
the ground, sharing a similar shape and proportion with
nearby apartments. The lower part of the columns was
exposed, suggesting the trend of the structure above. The
podium was like a satellite of the tower. It was kept a sym-
metric form for an independent stance as if resisting the
gravity of the floating box. The exposed columns between
the podium and the box were thus on a dramatic stage
opened to the city.
Fig.66
The complete structure was hidden but could be imagined
with all the hints both on the body scale and city scale.
Fig.66 Model of the tower, ex-
posing a series of leaning col-
umns.

Fig.67 Typical plan of the tower,

showing the different layout of
the columns and the characters
of the space.

Fig.67
An exhibition box, a cafe, with a pair of riddling stairs

This office tower was mainly about a trick of columns, a

riddle of fragmented columns.

The site was a quiet corner of Nanjing University. I was

impressed by the strong presence of the surroundings, so
I decided to make the memorial house a passive object, a
sensitive but natural attachment of the original site.

The house itself would serve as a wall to complete the en-

closure. A frame-like pavilion covered the original pav-
ing, connecting all the trees around, to create a foyer for
the house. The old paving of the original site became a
Fig.68 Fig.69
semi-sheltered and semi-underground square.

Inside the house, the exhibition box was hidden above a Fig.68 Master plan, a strong en-
cafe. Following the trend of the old routes, two stairs stuck closure.
to the house with an angle. The stairs were only exposed
to the outside. The intersecting part of the stair could be Fig.69 Staircase with no access.
seen inside the building, creating an indirect connection
between the cafe and the exhibition box. Fig.70 Splitting entrance.

All the gestures were to dig out the potentials of the orig- Fig.71 Elevations and sections.
inal site, with ambiguous relationships of different spaces.

Fig.70

Fig.71
Three prototypes, one composition

This project was another attempt of riddling composition.

The house consisting three prototypes on three levels:

courtyard, corridor, and cave, whose characters ranging
from open to intimacy. They were arranged from lower
ground to upper.

When visitors came, they would enter a hall of courtyard,

with no partitions and columns, only the fully open hall.
Skylight came form upside and lit the hall.

Though the spiral stairs to the next floor, people would see
a circular corridor with shimmering light at the unseen
end of this circle.

Deeper to the most private level, where located two bed-

rooms, the skylight was right above the entrance and the
deep end of the bedroom was buried in darkness. It is the
cave where the owners rested.

In this project, partitions contribute to both space and

light qualities. Through partitions, the cave and corridor
were established. And also restrained by the partitions, the
skylight travel through different distance to the destinated
floor with different divergence.

Here in this project, the partitions contribute to the myste-

rious light effects and also the spatial characters, through
understanding the partitions visitors could, in the end, un-
derstand this house.

Fig.72
 Fig.74

Fig.73

A resort house, a riddle of force and composition

Fig.75
This personal project was an attempt to make a building
dynamic, with some hints of force.

Outside the house, only simple yard walls and a curve of

something big could be seen.

In the yard, a thick round concrete slab was inserted

above the yard. Like a coin held by two fingers, the slab
host a trend of rolling. A huge column supported the slab,
presenting a strong existence of force.

Down to the main room, a leaning column, as a contin-

uation of the column above, was floating at the center,
bathed in skylight coming from nowhere. When inter-
preting this abnormal scene, all the meanings of force
were redefined, as if the force flow inside the structure Fig.76
was alive.

The image of the house transferred when approached

from public to intimacy.
 4. Create a riddle

4.1 Site 70
4.2 Sensing 76
4.3 Imagining 78
4.4 Understanding 82
4.5 Blueprints 86
4. Create a riddle

4.1 Site

The site was located near the east end of avenue Diagonal,
surrounded mainly by residential houses and offices. To
the south was the Parc Diagonal Mar by Enric Miralles, to
the north across the street locates a public paly ground for
citizens. The site has a wall splitting it into two, the eastern
part was used as a parking lot, and the southern part was
not occupied.
Fig.77
The original plan and conceptual sketches of Parc diagonal
has an intention to connect the sea to the avenue and fur- Fig.77 Intention of connection
ther into the city, but the current parking lot did limited of Parc Diagonal Mar. Fig.78
contribution to the space quality of this part, together with
the unsued part of this site, a more proper proposal should
be made.

According to the original splitting wall, as well as the scale

of the Cerda’s block, I proposed an opportunity for an en-
closed building at the southern part, and the north part, as
the foyer of Parc Diagonal Mar, a project of unconnotated
riddle would be proposed.

Fig.79
Fig.78 Site down Avenue Diag-
onal.

Fig.79 Site splitted into two.

Fig.80 Master plan
Fig.81 Street view
Fig.82 Fig.83

4.2 Sensing

The riddling object first appears with only its gound part, a
odd pavilion. The pavilion consist columns with unnecce-
sary fatness and a extra thin roof. Columns are seemed to
be arranged randomly, thus the pavilion could not be seen
through but could be freely passed through.
The riddling force lead to the questionning about the col-
umns, and the incomplete form lead to the interpretation
of omething hidden.

Fat columns employ the spindled shape, as if they are strug-

gling surpporting the thin roof. Take a closer look, visitors
would also notice columns are not the same, some are like
halfly exposed but some are complete exposed.
Fig.84

4.2 Imagining

Down to the lower level, some of the fat columns disappear,

and some mysterious skylights come inside. The visitors
would start the active imagination of the unusual scene.
They could easily get the idea of the fat columns could be
tubes to let in the sunlight, but there are still columns re-
Fig.85

main at this level, what on earth are they? will they be the
same as the other tubes?

This level is the stage for active intellectual interpretations,

it lures the visitors into the riddle.
Fig.86
4.2 Understanding

Down to the deepest level, all the fat columns are gone,
only slim columns remain. Take a closer look, some slim
ones take a complete shape of a spindle, but some are not,
similar to the previous level, an incomplete form, visitors
would surely understand that all the fat columns are actu-
ally light tubes, and the shape of the slim columns are the
Fig.87
continuation of the upper ones. Also, the regular layout of
the slim columns here suggests the slightly random and
chaos fat columns are a result of a regular trick.

Now the riddle ends here, all the incomplete forms end at
this level, the true structure is also unveiled.
Fig.88 Ground Floor
Fig.88 B1 Floor
Fig.88 B2 Floor
Fig.88 Elevations and sections
 5. Appendix

5.1 Conclusion 96
5.2 Bibliography 98
5.3 Figure credits 99
5.1 Conlusion

The thesis project is at first not a single academic project,

it is more of a rewind, review, and reconstruction of my
personal architectural approach.

As an empiricist, I truly and constantly felt confused and

untrusted, just like introduced in the first chapter of the
thesis. The idea of unconnotated riddle was a projectile in
my study area. It started from early time of study and I ac-
tively experimented with the indirect but superficial expe-
rience, hoping to reach certain self-consistency of calmness
and satisfaction. This thesis project offered me a chance to
look border, and think more systematically, the concept of
unconotated riddle was then come into its shape and got
its first periodical development.

To face the “losing the ability to appreciate” situation, the

thesis took limited direct theoretical reference, but focused
more on general and basic sensings, for instance, Archi-
tecture without architects, which represented general and
spontaneous understanding of architecture, and employed
the method of observation, with which to grab the instance
of direct sensing.

The method of observation was greatly inspired by Rob-

ert Venturi and his book Contradiction and Complexity
in Architecture. Venturi observed and reviewed a series of
works of his own collection regardless of history and re-
gional elements. To achieve the experience of direct sens-
ing, observation is a practical and convincing method.

The action of observation is also limited, we could only

“see” from history, the past, and now, the current, we could
not observe from the future.

The intention of the idea unconnotated riddle is to reach

certain commonly shared appreciation, to reach the stat-
ic, the calm, the reliable in the “thoroughly heterogeneous,
polyvalent, plural, decentralized, non-referential” world,
but with the most intense, aggressive, and extreme gesture.
This thesis project might lack the possible strategy for the
future, but the attempt itself is satisfyingly stimulation and
intriguing to the author already, or maybe in other words,
no answer is another answer.
5.2 Bibiograph
Books
Annikki Kaivola-Bregenhøj. (2001). Riddles. Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society.
Levi Strauss, C. (2012). Tristes Tropiques. New York: Penguin.
Mostafavi, M., Brändle, E. and Märkli, P. (2005). Approximation the Architecture of Peter Mark-
li. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.
Olgiati, V. and Breitschmid, M. (2019). Non-Referential Architecture. Zürich: Park Books.
Venturi, R. (1977). Complexity And Contradiction In Architecture. New York: Museum of Mod-
ern Art.
Rudofsky, B.(2009). Architecture Without Architects. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico
Press.
Ssu-Ch’eng, L. and Fairbank, W. (2005). Chinese Architecture. New York: Dover Publications.
Essays
Benjamin,W. (1933). Experience and Poverty. Prague
Elli Köngäs Maranda. (2001). Riddles and Riddling.
Robert A. Georges and Alan Dundes. (2001). Towards a Structrual Definition of the Riddle.
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Fig.58-59 By author

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