The quality of the now overgrown fort Tilden is in the beauty of its desolation. The emptiness, and references to the past, ensure a sense of distance to the city. Fort Tilden belongs both to the past and to the current city. In psychology this notion of defamilarization is named Verfremdungseffekt. This experience as a quality is a starting point in the design for a park and sports facility. The typology of the fort has not been copied literally but the effect it conveys, the Verfremdungseffekt, is used as a methodological approach to the design.

An other quality of the context is its history. The military structures are slowly eroding and taken back by nature. The vegetation overgrows the batteries, bunkers and barracks, showing a decay in time. To preserve these layers the architectural program had to be put below ground level, preserving the panoramic views and enhancing the old buildings, showing their long history of neglect. The new layer underground is entwined with the existing context and creates the Verfremdungseffekt.

The old buildings are kept as light shafts for the program underneath. This transprogramming of the volumes on top of the spaces of the new Field House estranges the past. A modern architectural space receiving light filtered by neglected structures.

The complex is organized in nodes where the Field House is the central node with the restaurant, fitness and lobby. Every different sport has its own locker and dressing rooms and showers. The nodes are connected by lanes. They have lowered like the defenses of old forts and function as wide trenches. The structure of the lanes enables expansion of the sport complex in the future. The lowered lanes keep most of the facilitating program out of view, maintaining the panoramic view on ground level. The lowered point of view gives the observer an estrangement effect, lacking orientation and overview.

Therefore we recognize three modes of experience. First traveling from the city to Fort Tilden: the bridge as a distinctive border between the orthogonal structure of the Brooklyn housing and the desolated landscape of Fort Tilden. Second, when playing on the fi elds one enjoys the panoramic view over that landscape and the distant sea. At last, descending into the lanes: the Verfremdungseffekt.

The Verfremdungseffekt as found in Fort Tilden is embraced as a concept for the sports complex.

projectgevens:
ontwerpwedstrijd - Fort Tilden
opdrachtgever - Sucker Punch
in samenwerking met – Atelier Klasien Visser, studio denk.ruimte, Studio Middelkoop en Studio Wasch
meer informatie - wedstrijd panelen Fort Tilden – Field of Forts