Twins

It's been a few weeks since I have made a post here. I have been doing readings that speak to the relationship of old and new, as well as getting into some readings that focus on the relationship of twins and the double.

The interesting thing about this house, and what drew me to it immediately, is its lack of another half. This house had a twin at one point, its 'other half' was the compliment (completion). Since then it has lost its twin, and now it feels as though it is lacking it. Structurally it can exist on its own, but architecturally it feels only half present.

Twins have been portrayed in history as denoting both union and separation, joining and parting. They can be described as having a "tight but troubled alliance." Twins are not perfect balances (i.e. yin and yang), and they are not polar opposites. They are an in-between, a trick of near-symmetrization. They are a "special case of duality in its mode of self contradiction, a non-resolving duad."

These relationships that are brought up begin to play out in my mind as a means to find an architectural end. What should the 'other half' be? How can it be the opposite and the compliment?

I'll end with this image, taken from the 1921 Baist Real Estate Atlas of Washington DC. You can see the house existing with its twin (inside the orange block), but if you look closely, they are not mirror images of each other.

Site.

 I have found a site.

A few blocks south of Howard University, in the heart of Ledroit Park, sits this duplex, or should I say half duplex. From the information I have been able to gather, the sturcture was built in the late 1800's in this late Victorian style neighborhood. The home belonged to Mary Church Terrell, one of the primary figures in the fight for civil rights in DC. She was also the first black woman to be appointed to the school board.

The structure itself also has an interesting history. The homes in the Ledroit Park neighborhood were constructed in the 1880's-90's, with this house constructed in 1894. The home was built as a duplex structure, with the separation coming at the center of the gable roof. In the 1940's, one half was damaged in a fire and had to be removed, thus leaving the other half intact.

The building intrigued me from the moment I saw a picture. The duplex was built to look like a single family home, but it was actually split in the center. This creates a very interesting situation when one half remains. The structure looks incomplete, it lacks the 'other half,' but at the same time it is a complete home.

As I study this project and work on my thesis design, I will have an array of questions to propel me forward into this investigation::

What is the relationship of the part to the whole?
How does the 'other half' become its own element, but still rely on the original structure?
How does old meet new?
What is the role of the joint?