The lock project is a study of movement in architecture. Not only about bodily passage, formal transformation, or implied structural forces, it also incorporates movement in time and space, actualized mechanically—kinetically redefining the fundamental tenets of stasis and permanence. Linked to the operation of the lock gates, the building enables continuous pedestrian passage across the lock when the gate is shut and nautical passage through the lock when the gate is open. Each threshold, when open and functional, prohibits passage through the other.
The Jansen linkage translates rotational motion into a walking motion. The diagram shows how the different spaces enclosed by the mechanism's pieces expand, contract, or stay the same.
The brief specified no program other than space for private occupation and public passage, so the building became a monastery. As its configuration changes with each opening of the gates, rooms become connected and disconnected. The public passage and the unpredictable rate of change of the building provide counterpoints to the regimented, insular life of the monks.
Jansen linkage with building plan. Yellow volumes hold their shape and become interior spaces. Red and green volumes contract and expand; they constitute the public passageway.
