Scope | Issue 135

Prism House, Coinguillio, Chile

智利孔吉利奧國家公園 稜鏡屋

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A sloped terrain passes freely underneath the terrace from where you can see the dead river of lava, a ghost recalling the last eruption of the Llaima Volcano. The Prism House by Kazuo Shinohara from 1974 stands on this platform, or what is left of it, along with the Room built by Smiljan Radic which is in Chiloe in 1997, or what is left of that.

Smiljan Radic have attempted to replicate the air of the Prism House based on its geometrical structure. Its famous lateral façade, a right-angled isosceles triangle laid on the floor, and its exquisite interior diagonal wooden post, which, like many other supports in the houses by this Japanese architect, orders the space by interrupting in a position that seems out of place, are signs of its uncomfortable geometry. The exclusion of photographs of the longitudinal façade and of the bedrooms from publications leads Smiljan Radic to believe that for the architect, the 45° cross-section of the volume and the post were the essence of the Prism House. Smiljan Radic copied the 7.2 m structural cross-section of the original house, but Smiljan Radic reduced its length from 10.8 m to 7.2 m. Thus, the Prism House facing the Llaima Volcano that Smiljan Radic Architects are building is effectively a section of a cube, approximating the ideal of Shinohara, assumed to be expressed in his photographs, and moving away from the reality of the Prism House in Japan, as it is simply a construction of a photographic piece of the original.

From the Room, Smiljan Radic replicated the last extension done to it. A galvanised steel structure supporting a red tent in the Chiloe forest. Smiljan Radic Architects applied a cross-section of a 7.2 m isosceles triangle to correctly accompany the size of its neighbour. We replicated its informal air and idea of creating only a large dormitory. To interpret is to pretend to do something else with the same, and that is of no interest to Smiljan Radic. Thus, these two prefabricated prisms did not constitute an exercise in interpretation. In truth, this house is an exercise in repetition and replication, it is doing something again, though the gods may anger and the attempt always fails.

在一片不規則蔓延的坡地上方橫陳著一片露台。站在露台上可見到乾涸的熔岩河谷，飄盪著萊馬火山（Llaima Volcano）上一次噴發後殘留的幽影。在這片平台上，座落著1974年由篠原一男（Kazuo Shinohara）建造的「稜鏡屋」（Prism House），或者說是殘跡，以及斯米達．拉迪克（Smiljan Radic）1997年在奇洛埃島（Chiloe）建造的「房間」（Room），也可說是殘存的輪廓。

斯米達．拉迪克試著根據棱鏡屋的幾何結構複製原有的氛圍。它知名的側立面、矗立在地板上的等腰三角形以及精緻的室內對角木柱，形成一種不安的幾何形狀。其中後者和這位日本建築師在其餘建築作品常出現的支柱一樣，佇立在看似格格不入的位置，藉此決定了空間的分布。由於缺乏原屋縱向立面和臥室的照片，斯米達．拉迪克個人認為，對於這位建築師而言，空間的 45° 橫斷面和柱子是稜鏡屋的核心所在。斯米達．拉迪克複製了原屋的 7.2 公尺結構斷面，但將其長度從 10.8 公尺縮小到 7.2 公尺。因此，斯米達．拉迪克建築師事務所（Smiljan Radic Architects）所建造的面萊馬火山棱鏡屋，實際上是一個立方體的斷面，接近篠原的理想，但偏離日本棱鏡屋實際的樣貌，因為這只是一棟就原屋的攝影作品延伸的建築。

至於「房間」，斯米達．拉迪克複製了它最後擴建的部分──也就是奇洛埃森林中以鍍鋅鋼結構支撐的紅色帳篷。斯米達．拉迪克建築師事務所建構了一個 7.2 公尺的等腰三角形橫斷面，以和相鄰的稜鏡屋形成正確比例。此外，也複製了它非比尋常的氛圍和概念，創構出一個打通的大臥室。所謂詮釋是以同樣的東西假裝做出其他東西，但斯米達．拉迪克並沒有興趣這麼做。因此，這兩棟預製三角屋並沒有包含試著詮釋的成分。實際上，這棟房屋是一道重複和複製的練習題，是重做一件事，縱使可能會觸怒眾神，導致一再失敗。