A Auditorium for the Hill
A Commentary on Landscape Transformation
M. Schlesinger (TU Delft - Architecture and the Built Environment)
M.G.H. Schoonderbeek – Mentor (TU Delft - Architecture and the Built Environment)
O.R.G. Rommens – Mentor (TU Delft - Architecture and the Built Environment)
P.H.M. Jennen – Mentor (TU Delft - Architecture and the Built Environment)
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Abstract
This thesis investigates landscape transformation at Tbilisi's urban edges, where geological erosion, ecological degradation, and socio-political fragmentation converge. Focusing on the Lake Lisi area, the research examines how post-Soviet investor urbanism has accelerated instability through speculative development that destabilizes slopes and fragments communities. The study asks: How can architecture make visible and mediate the systemic relationship between these forces at landscape edges?
The methodology combines field documentation, satellite data analysis, and design speculation. Satellite imagery spanning twenty years maps vegetation cover and subsurface moisture levels, revealing three stages of transformation. The analysis identifies two critical parameters: a vegetation axis stabilizing soil through water absorption, and an erosion channel where destabilized soil accelerates downward movement. Findings demonstrate that surface sealing from development concentrates water in vulnerable zones, creating feedback loops where equilibrium between vegetation and water flow collapses into collision. Geological profiling establishes stable bedrock at 2.5 meters depth, defining the threshold between permanent and transforming strata.
The research reveals that landscape erosion is socially produced through zoning changes and development practices. Comparative analysis of maps from 1987 and 2016 documents the reclassification of green zones as development sites, demonstrating how investor urbanism seeks edges, creates edges through fragmentation, and accelerates physical transformation.
The design proposal, "Auditorium for the Hill," responds through architectural commentary positioned at the junction where stability meets erosion. The intervention employs three structural strategies: a retention wall following a continuous horizon to frame transformation; post-tensioned anchoring in stable bedrock establishing permanent foundation; and a cantilevered steel structure suspended over eroding ground dramatizing the tension between stability and collapse. Rather than technical stabilization, the project creates collective public space for observation and reflection, proposing architecture as instrument that witnesses transformation and creates grounds for communities to engage with forces shaping their terrain.