#01 Promo of a Port(o Flavia)

Reading Time: 14 minutes

A whole new direction for thesis! My living thesis podcast was launched on 10.04.2021-by like 10 minutes after midnight, so happy birthday Tiffany! (My Sister)

As promised, welcome to my new thesis! I will include a whole copy of the transcript at the bottom, as I work through the kinks of learning a whole new media, I know that there will be some growing pains. But I am excited to see how this new media allows me to explore with a new audience, and a new group of individuals and research.

TRANSCRIPT:

From classroom to your room, this is Architecture, Coffee, & Ink. Welcome to the show.

30 seconds wait

“Hello, this is Hollywood C. and you’re listening to Architecture, Coffee, & Ink. A podcast dedicated to introducing concepts, detailing out designs, and tackling the architecture you might not realize the meaning behind. I’m your hostess and I am here today to start introducing you to the designs that make you wonder why.”

tag line:  So I ask you to brew your coffee, grab your sketch book and pen, and let’s begin.

Welcome to my “living” Thesis, quote unquote- a media driven thesis production. Instead of just focusing on the traditional methods of thesis-spending quality time in the library and the smallest bookshops I can find-which I am totally still going to be doing, but let’s pretend for a second. Within this project or this podcast I am going to be discussing and consulting case studies, reviews, holding conversations, and interviews with the overarching theme of being driven by my thesis studies as an addition to my research. As a disclaimer, I currently am unaware of another thesis being conducted like this, and if there is, no copyright is intended. That being said, given the nature of the information, I hope that I am not your primary source of information-check sources, check your facts, and check me.  I do want to say that Everything will be approached with the upmost respect and professional courtesy. No jokes are on the cultures and topics that I will be discussing. As this is my first ever episode, thank you for sticking around through the growing pains. All sources will be listed in both the show notes, and on the blog: Architecture, Coffee, & Ink at https://architectureink.design.blog/. Now onto the show.

 So I wanted to take this first episode and focus first on explaining what I am doing, as well as setting up a plead for information and audience participation. As a DUAL student, meaning I am getting one masters in Architecture and one in Landscape Architecture for a total of two, I am compelled to study the interior, exterior, and the human element-TM, A quick tagline for my thesis. 

But when I was trying to narrow down exactly what it is that draws me into both fields, I couldn’t help but think about the advice someone gave me, “What pisses me off?” 

And honestly, that was so much easier to answer.

And to me, it’s the lack of conversations. Or more, the lack of results from conversations between all disciplines. Straddling the two fields has allowed me to hear and be receptive to the challenges and criticisms within the big three of the architecture disciplines: Interior Architecture, Architecture, and Landscape Architecture. Now doesn’t that sound like a throwback to Greece Gods. The BIG three. Now, I am not trying to criticize a whole industry, or get my name added to a AVOID at all costs list-still hoping to be hired at the end of my thesis, fingers crossed. Instead I am trying to use this media and my thesis as a way of striking conversations, making connections, and finally combining everything I learn together into a single project/design that will hopefully showcase all of the research I gathered during this podcast. To me architecture is art that we live in, and like I told my class, its driven by the people, so I need to go to the people to conduct my research. I am pretty sure that the Librarians TV show is where I got that quote from so, all credit to the writers. But all that aside, unfortunately the more traditional methods of consulting the masses would still leave me with a pretty small population size. Limited to my university or email list, and while I may have been a social butterfly in my not so distant youth, even I would wouldn’t be able to find enough people and interactions to justify an unbiased base. So what am I looking for? I am looking to share, and I am looking to hear from you, your stories of architecture, the landscapes that amazed you, suggestions for research and discussion, whatever and whomever you feel like sharing each week. But that should about cover the boring particulars of the podcast, let’s get onto the real conversation and today’s topic. 

From my first post on my blog, explaining the name,  this really is the musings of an Architecture Enthusiast, Coffee Snob, and Ink Splattered Designer. But more than that, these are the three elements that have gotten me to where I am now. While my undergrad was in a completely different field, after three years of graduate school, I can safely say that Architecture, Coffee, and Ink are the three most important element to any design for me thus far, everything else can be securely placed under ‘adaptable just leave wiggle room’.

But, straddling both fields has also taught me, that understanding your values: or where you place your emphasis in design is key.

As an aside for  the non-designers out there, by emphasis I mean, the place in a conversation or a drawing, that you can’t help but detail out or draw out, whether literally or figurately. Whether that’s the seating arrangement, or the parking details. It’s the area in the design that you as the designer feel like makes or breaks your emotional connection to the project. To be clear students, this will often not be the same detail the public focuses on,  and while you are obsessed with the location of that exact plant in that exact spot, doesn’t mean that anyone else is going grab the construction documents and a ruler and triple check.  But an ‘architects emphasis’, my new coined phrase, really show the priorities for the designer. And it is through this thought experiment, I wanted to truly understand mine.  And I kept coming back to this chasm, or boundary, or metaphorical divide. I want to understand Architecture, I want to understand Landscape, but I also want to understand how we use and study. And maybe it’s my personal bias showing, but I want to hear from not only the professional but also from the teachers, and carpenters, and mechanics. And the engineers-even though no design survives the engineer unscathed. I joke, but I seriously have nothing but respect for the engineers of the world. Which is actually how I found my first case study. A little port, on an Island, just off Italy-Porto Flavia, I would like to apologize for my collegiant Italian coming through, please let me know if I am wrong, I think that saying someone’s name correctly is the most basic form of respect you can offer someone.

But before we get out to the port itself, and describing in detail what I hope to take away from this case study, we need to discuss the history. Now with this being the first episode, and so much time dedicated to the necessary introductions, etc. I won’t go into as much detail as I normally will, but, this was actually a mine originally. Now if you get the chance to google the building, it is an absolutely breathtaking cliff side building. There are photos on the blog so take a peek, that I purchased from istock, with the accompanying authors credit listed-so, you know, I have receipts on demand. As I am sure you can tell, I am a super fierce person, who talks herself up in the mirror and then is vaguely terrified to ask for extra ketchup. Not really, but I’m sure you can understand the sentiments.

Now when I was researching this, I was focusing my search on ‘non-architect architecture’. Which was super confusing for both me and the search engine I was using. We had taken a class trip to Marfa, Texas, which many of you know is the home of Donald Judd, who was not an official architect, and I am hoping to have a future episode on him, so look forward to that, but I wanted to explore and find someone else who also was not directly part of the design track, but still created something meaningful to the field. Which lead me to this project.  And when researching the quote “most beautiful mine” came up- I saw this phrase on several websites, one I think was called “weird Italy”? Something like that, but it showed up on multitude of media and immediately caught my attention. So this port is located on the South Sardinian Province of Italy. So if you look at the Tyrrhenian Sea off the coast of Italy, and start from the boat tip of the mainland it is the second island up going clockwise. And if you didn’t follow all of those names, look at Italy on a map, and then move left.

This mine started production in the 1600s, but was super quiet until there was an economic boom. The final structure, and the one I am so obsessed with, wasn’t built until the 1920s by Cesare Vecelli, who was an Italian engineer, and named it after his daughter. Which, admittedly, is pretty easy to get brownie points with me by naming something after your family. It seems like some sources state construction started in 1922, while others range from 1922-1924, so, it seems like there is a touch of grey area here. For the non-designers, this can sometimes be because the original authors changed the dates on forms, or because some people include the starting consultations and years of site study, while others only count when the ground breaking happens. But all sources agree that the Belgian Vieille Montagne Company, was the ones to kick off the renovations, when they obtained ownership. Now, they specialized in zinc, which became a high demand item after the first world war. So, this was an active mine, with active problems-one of which was moving the product safely. Even with today’s technology, we still have miners fighting Coal workers’ pneumoconiosis or as you have probably heard it called, black lung disease. In addition to the issues of the mine itself, there was an added challenge of the cliffs and cliff faces. While they were doing their best, efforts needed to be taken to find a safer way to load the cargo up into the ships for transport out from the island. Now I could spend hours discussing his research, and how he chose the exact location, but after narrowing his search down, he chose the spot he did, as the cliff on the opposite side would break the winds, creating a harbor in essence. He designed two parallel galleries, with rooms for storage and conveyor belts, and things that now seem run of the mill, but was practically unheard of. In addition, he designed this arm to reach down into the boats. Unfortunately, I was not able to get ahold of anyone to receive permission to post any of the pictures and drawings, but I was able to see them, and if you have a moment to use a famous search engine of your choice on the innerwebs, I would highly encourage it.

The mines did eventually close down  after the second World War when it finally ran out of things to mine and the surrounding area was listed as abandoned. Now, it is considered a UNESCO Site, and stands as a beautiful remain of the ingenuity of man.  A few details stuck out on me, with this, one, was the human ability to craft their own landscape. They had a need, they fixed it, and they essentially reshaped the world to how they needed it. Moreover, they created a space that was physically beautiful, and maintained the integrity of the beautiful landscape. In class, we had to blog about seeking nature, and of course, my immediate response was about forest baths, and day tripping on hikes, and your standard answer. But after thinking about it now, could I actually say, that I wasn’t in nature standing on the cliffs of this port? Perhaps, seeking nature, doesn’t mean that we exclude the human element.

Again, this episode is slightly shorter as I Figure out and explore this new media, so thank you for tuning in and trying out my little thesis experiment, you can contact me or read the sources and the accompanying blog post to each episode, at Architecture, Coffee, & Ink the website is: https://architectureink.design.blog/ .

If you want to reach out to me directly, my twitter is @hollywoodconrad,  which currently has like two reposted articles from ArchDaily and three followers-can’t miss it. Everything will be linked in the show notes, including my incredibly long URL. Hopefully by next Monday when the next episode comes out, I will have finished all website changes-but, there is a contact form currently at the bottom of the website. You can also email me at architecturecoffeeandink@gmail.com all spelt out without the ampersands. The theme song, is by me in Garageband, so thank you for getting through it, I am open for submissions after using all of my music lessons at once. The other music is from Pixaby, and is credited along with the sources-please support your local artists, and try something new.  And as always,

May your coffee mugs be full, and your ink wells never run dry.

30secs end song re-looped.

Songs by:

Chill Groove By CoryBaumgardner on Pixaby

Coffee Brake – Chill Out Music by JuliusH from Pixaby

Chill Vibra Jazzy (thème) Music by danydory from Pixabay

SOURCES:

About the Editorial StaffEditorial Staff at WPBeginner is a team of WordPress experts led by Syed Balkhi. Trusted by over 1.3 million readers worldwide. “How to ‘Easily’ Add Anchor Links in WordPress (Step by Step).” WPBeginner, February 9, 2021. https://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/how-to-easily-add-anchor-links-in-wordpress-step-by-step/.

Arcais, Sandro. Miniere di Sardegna – Archeologia Mineraria e turismo minerario in Sardegna. Accessed October 4, 2021. http://www.minieredisardegna.it/LeMiniere.php?IdM=51&IdCM=&SID=.

Google maps. Google. Accessed October 4, 2021. https://www.google.com/maps/place/Sardinia/@39.9420025,8.9503455,6z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x12ddc48d448d3591:0x339674b6e4ab6631!8m2!3d40.1208752!4d9.0128926.

“Porto Flavia, an Ingenious Work with a Breathtaking View.” MyBestPlace. Accessed October 4, 2021. https://mybestplace.com/en/article/porto-flavia-an-ingenious-work-with-a-breathtaking-view.

“Porto Flavia.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, September 25, 2021. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porto_Flavia.

“Pronouncekiwi – How to Pronounce Porto Flavia.” How To Pronounce Porto Flavia: Porto Flavia pronunciation. Accessed October 4, 2021. https://www.pronouncekiwi.com/Porto%20Flavia.

Team, Posted By: ONE, Bio  Social By: ONE TeamONE is a nonprofit magazine founded in 2014, Bio  Social, and By: ONE TeamONE is a nonprofit magazine founded in 2014. “Porto Flavia: Where Wilderness Meets Design.” ONE Only Natural Energy, January 11, 2019. https://www.onlynaturalenergy.com/porto-flavia-where-wilderness-meets-design/.

Ugc. “This Cliffside Port Is a Masterpiece of Mining Engineering.” Atlas Obscura. Atlas Obscura, June 17, 2019. https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/porto-flavia.

“Vieille Montagne.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, May 15, 2021. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vieille_Montagne.

WeirdItaly, and WeirdItalyLifestyle weblog about everything that happens in Italy: photography. “Porto Flavia, the Most Beautiful Mine in the World.” Weird Italy, May 1, 2021. https://weirditaly.com/2014/03/15/porto-flavia-the-most-beautiful-mine-in-the-world/.