Emma Papworth
The PDF documents my research into the 'Schwerbelastungskörper' a concrete cylinder built in Tempelhof, Berlin. The Cylinder was erected in 1941-1942 by architect Albert Speer to determine the feasibility of constructing large buildings on the area's marshy, sandy ground, specifically to test the ground in preparation for building a massive triumphal arch on a nearby plot. The concrete block is all that remains of the grand ambition for the monument and represents the failure of what could have been.
The failure of this project is two-fold. On one hand the subject matter in itself is one of failure due to the incompatibility of the weight of the structure with the foundations of the earth. On the other hand the project represents my own failure to bring the idea into fruition. I had the initial idea to use the subject matter of this failed monument within my own work however it has merely remained in the form of a research document; fragments of images and diagrams along with a text outlining the monument. Unfortunately I have been unable to transform it into a complete piece, and have been undecided as to what medium the work would take.
Therefore this document represents the unfinished and unaccomplished material, which exists between a space of coming into being and an idea that was never completed or turned into a finished work.
