A Secret Annex-263 Prinsengracht

Critic: Philip Parker

The idea of this architectural investigation is base on a written work of Anne Frank. A personal diary that described the events happened between October of 1941 to August 1944. The diary was salvaged by Mr. Gashtichi after the Nazi's had seized the house on 263 Prinsengracht, in which the Frank family had been hiding. Frank family gradually moved and sold their belongings over the period of one year, in preparation for the hide out. It was a systematic way of avoiding the Nazi's during World War II.

I believe the diary is significant and rich in terms of its validity to be realized as an architectural work in the context of our proposed assignment. It is valid because the diary deals with the notion of time, space (relation values), and sight. These are experiences Anne Frank had described explicitly in her diary.

The notion of time for my investigation is framed around the time of their entrance (July 9th 1942) to the time of their departure (August 4th 1944) from the secret annex. It is important in the novel because it deal specifically with the occurrence in relation to the spatial configurations that surrounded her during her stayed at the hiding place. In terms of its significance with what I am proposing, it marks three prominent moments (subjectively) during her experience at the secret annex.

The spatial configuration is important because in the diary Anne Frank described in detail, the purpose and occupant of each room and passage during her first encounter with the house. She also referred to them a number of times as she carried out her narratives. It is important to me because it proposes the possibilities for intervention. The relation value of room to room for me is a way to understand the relationship of how she deals with one room from another.

The line of sight can be understood as Anne Frank's connection to freedom or imprisonment (scenes outside the window). It is unclear how she defines freedom from imprisonment in this context. It can also be understood as her connection to her family, the immediate relation from her room to the others. In her dairy, she described the privacy she reminded herself of while she writes.

The way in which the three drawings presented, follows the typical logic of contemporary representation. They are plans, photos and texts. However, what makes them unique and differ as an intervention is the way in which they reciprocate one from another. Independently, each panel captures the imagery, the spatial qualities of the particular positions in which the house is being described. Collectively, the three panels can be read as a sequential time line indicating how one would travel through the passages, the corridors, doors, staircases. It also describes the overall spatial experience of the house as a whole.

The first panel on the left includes a photograph of the rear facade of 263 Prinsengracht as well as the front portion of the plan that described a long narrow staircase that leads up to the third floor. It also includes the texts which Anne Frank had written describing herself ascending that staircase. A resin rectangular cast is projected from the plan from the very last panel on the right. It attempts to recollect the experience of not being able to see out the window. The resin cast in a way to represent the density between Anne Frank and the outside. It also emphasizes the surface difference between this particular surface to the rest of the surfaces in the drawing. The window for me is one of the prominent architectural moments to be pursuit in this study.

The second panel in the middle includes a photo of Mr. Johnson, who was the savior of the Frank Family who agreed to let them hide there. The photograph captured the image of Mr. Johnson standing next to the bookshelf. Where the Frank family had to go through before entering the secret annex, located in the rear side of the house. The bookshelf is extremely important, because it marked a ceremonial line between freedom and imprisonment. The threshold is very clearly drawn and very distinctly defined between the two spaces. As it is similar to the first panel, the texts are placed in correlation to what they are describing.

The third panel on the right has a photograph of Anne Frank taken when she was fourteen. Around the time in which she was relocated to 263 Prinsengracht. A surface was rendered, to distinguish itself from the rest of the room surfaces, because it is in that very room where Anne Frank had wrote her diary. Incisions were made to allow slits of what is behind the surface to be revealed. It is a way to understand how it was like to have only glimpse of lights entering her room, while she conducted her writing.

The method in which the drawing is constructed works explicitly around the plane of the drawing surface. The plane of the drawing surface was incised, painted, drafted, glued and cast. The intervention is a way to differentiate itself from the blandness of the imageries created by the computers. However, this is not the sole purpose for why I have chose to work with these medias. The above description perhaps can be generalized as a way for conceptualizing an architectural work. However, within the framework of the presentation and representation, I am equally interested in the way in which they are made. This means the construction methods of the drawing itself serving as an important factor in depicting my ideas.

There are three major elements that compose the overall cohesiveness of the drawings.

They are the planes of the drawing surface, where black and red ink were drafted on, as well as texts being paste on. There is also the media of guache. These are graphic representations that were applied to the surface.

The other elements are items that were built on top of the plane of the drawing surface. These are the bass wood, red acrylic, gel medium and resin. This is a positive addition on the process to distinguish the treatment of the drawing surface.

The other elements are the horizontal and vertical incisions that were cut minimally at two very specific locations. This is a negative extraction of the surface to allow literal transparency to occur.

The desire to materialize the drawing in a non-representational way proved to be difficult. Any attempt to convey a narrative without the baggage of "trying" to represent, either the location, item to item relationship (i.e. diagrammatic bookshelf to photograph of a bookshelf) or the idea of in and out (i.e. the red acrylic paint showing the dominance of the Nazi's, its representing color) is extremely difficult.

Overall, this piece of architectural work attempts to depict and present a narrative through a drawing that works in three different levels. First, the conceptual logic of the narrative being depicted. The notions of time, space and sight. Second, the way in which they are organized and placed in reference to the three drawing planes. Third, the methods in which they are constructed. Addition, extraction and right on the surface of the drawing plane. These are the frameworks that structured this piece of an architectural investigation.

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