Introduction
Ramps change political systems, trigger revolution...ramps announce a new age, a new art, a new lifestyle, even a new relationship between humans and animals... ramps liberate architecture and people.
2560 BC Tool for pyramidal construction
It starts with the tool for pyramidal construction. Speculation about the type of ramps used to build the pyramids is based on limited historical accounts and sparse archaeological evidence. According to historical and current building codes: ramps require less and less steepness, and therefore much more space through the ages in order to elevate to the same height.
1900 BC Knossos: first residential ramp
The Knossos Palace of King Minos.
archaeologist J. Walter Graham in 1979 presents a hypothesis based on archeological evidence, he suggests that a reconstructed grand staircase, located close to the palace´s main access route, was, in fact, an early service ramp.
ca. 250 BC the ramp meets God´s wrath (anger)
The ascent to the top is on the outside, by a path which winds round all the towers. When one is about half-way up, one finds a resting-place and seats where persons can sit for some time on their way up the summit.
The Greek historian´s description of a tower with a spiraling ramp would later inspire the most iconic depictions by Brueghel and others. The only known ramped tower is the Assyrian Ziggurat of Dur-Sharrukin (707 BC) - a structure which somewhat matches the description by Herodotus….
1663-1568 Imminent destruction / utopian ramp
The two versions of the Tower of Babel by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1525-1569) show the duality (an instance of opposition or contrast between two concepts or two aspects of something; a dualism.) embedded in the allegory (a story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one.) of the ramp.
The Viennese: The tower itself is in a chaotic state, with unfinished parts already in ruins, other parts under eternal construction, and still other parts under determined reconstruction.
The Rotterdam version: Is most likely painted shortly after completion of the Viennese version. Shows a single tower under construction, but progressing well and apparently completable. Each level is finished before the next one is started.
1692 Turning the triumphant ramp
Rome wants to welcome the Emperor, who was returning from the successful capturing of Tunis and Halq al-Wádi in Africa- The ascension of the hill would be a crucial part of the procession. Michelangelo was commissioned to redesign the hill. He initiates a revolutionary transformation of the site by reversing the entrance to the Capitoline Hill: Turning its back on the Forum and embracing the visually distant Vatican with a grand 65-meter stepped ramp which would approach the newly redesigned facade of the Palazzo Senatorio and other state buildings on the hill.
It's unclear when the coordinate - the ramp - is completed or to what extent it follows Michelangelo´s design. We know that due to difficulties of driving the processional carriages up the steep ramp, an unheroic side road is constructed in 1692, as also depicted by Piranesi in 1761.
1870 Death ramp
In the industrial revolution, the ramp takes on particular importance because of its efficiency in moving things around. In Chicago Union Stockyards of the early 1880s, the largest cattle market in the world, animals are brought into open pens from which they are led up gateway ramps to the packing houses, consisting of a labyrinth of wooden sheds and halls. Also tunnels under the city - a ramped underworld designed specifically for cows to the slaughterhouse. Another cattle ramp by Temple Grandin, he specifies designs for ramps which funnel cattle calmly to their deaths by reducing stress. Wide curves, tall walls and through the ramp´s inclination their future executioners are hidden from sight.
1918 - 22 Car park ramp
After the first World War, the initial discussion about the storage of cars divides into two camps.
The first seeing the car as an object to be stored as if in a warehouse. Using a mechanical elevator-based hoist, operated by assistants, to be store cars for their owners.
The second line of thinking connects storage to the vehicle´s mobility, giving drivers the freedom to park wherever they want. The ramp is the perfect ally of the wheel. In 1918 Fernand d´Humy patents the first parking ramp system, with a system of gently inclined split-level ramps. The system becomes the model imitated throughout the 200th century.
1920 The proletariat unites
Tatlin's design for a gigantic sturcture to be built as a monument to the Russian revolution, in St. Petersburg. It is 140 meters height and these structures would rotate at different speeds. The ramped structure, necessary for construction, according to some reports would be open for motorcycles which could drive up and down the immense tower.
1930 Sleeping masses
Melnikov designs his second sleeping ramp: the Sonata of Sleep, which is to increase worker efficiency. Through scientific analysis and control, sleeping will be optimized. Melnikov alleges that ramps eliminate the need for pillows. Beds are to be built into the ramp "like laboratory tables".
1924-1959 Prelude to the Guggenheim
Frank Lloyd Wright is the first modern architect with a preoccupation with a spiral ramp. Early plans - made two years after the first realization of the fully ramped parking structure in Detroit by Khan - reveal Wright's problems with the design. After a decade of design, and made possible by an enthusiastic contractor using Gunite.
Tim Nugent, born January 10, 1923, declared the universal necessity of the ramp to facilitate access for every type of human body. Nugent saw the ramp as a bridge to society with equal opportunities for all. He worked for more than 40 years on projects: a life's work for the establishment of architectural design guideline dedicated to the physically disabled, which has impacted architecture everywhere.
Q: What are the most important points about accessibility ramps? A: Firstly: try to avoid building a ramp. But, when it is not possible to avoid, then the emphasis is on proper safety guides.
Claude Parent is a French architect who is known for his buildings featuring sloped floors, declared the surprising possibility of adapting the human body to live on evermore extreme ramps.
Q: I would like to show you a diagram which seems to me extremely important. It shows the maximum of different inclinations. Do you remember it? A: Yes, I drew this diagram. And I think I made a mistake...30 percent inclination is fine but not 50 percent!
He invented to use special materials to conquer the steep slope, like using rubber or wearing special shoes. He thinks feet are the most important element.
In one of his projects, he made a huge ramp for painting and sculpture in Tate museum in Liverpool. In diagram shows blue lines are represented steep ramps and red lines are represented accessible ramps.
The Neuilly house which is his own experimental house to test out ramps. The house is divided into two parts, one is for living, the other one is for dining function. In the living area, he created some ramps which are less inclined for resting. In the dining part, people would sit on more inclined slopes on double-level tables. One day, some students visited his house to investigate how did he decide the degree of ramps. Then he answered it was decided by intuitive. He explained that when people stand on the flat floor, they don't feel anything, but ramps make people feel a force when climbing and happiness during descent. He also said living oblique is one of the most natural and intelligent ways of living. It makes you complicit in the architecture in which you live, makes you rethink your way of life.
Civilization (Paul Virilio)
There is no civil architecture only religious and defensive architecture have really been practiced, developed, and perhaps brought to the end.
How with circulation getting dense to the point of blocking the processes of our cities, can we not understand the future characteristic of civil architecture not as an envelope but as support?
Drives, Destruction
The relations of mankind and architecture are situated simultaneously on two plans.
Habitable circulation
Furniture will be closely incorporated into the surface and will share in the role of human dynamic by becoming the means of diversification of the ground.