ARCHITECTURAL CONDITION:
The global acceleration of the urbanization process has led
to densification of the built-areas that is resulting in squeezing out
traditional open spaces of the public realm out of the cityscape and injecting
them into sections of commercial buildings. Although this metamorphosed city
space attempts to incorporated essential functions (retail shops, cafes, comfortable
environment), this privatization of the public domain falls short of achieving
most of the qualities of the “third space”- the informal space for social
interaction.
PROBLEM:
The contemporary architectural practice of implanting these
outdoor public spaces indoors tends to ignore how its containment and
transformation of architectural expression leads to it being a separate entity
from the cityscape resulting in being less accessible as the enclosure by a
threshold defines a gradient of public to private space that impacts the users
of the city.
POSITION:
As the city undergoes this transformation in societal and spatial
identity of public spaces, it needs to find a language to re-signify its presence
through means of making indoor-outdoor spaces communicate and taking in
qualities of the outdoor inside if it aims to be used in the same way; its
architecture should be defined by an interplay between the inside-out and
outside in eliminating scope for the indoor public spaces to becoming static.
HYPOTHESIS:
ARCHITECTURAL
INTERVENTION ACCOMMODATING PUBLIC FUNCTION
Where focus is not the iconic-ness of the form but it
integrates the spaces it houses inside to the outside and how these designed
public spaces bleed out into the streetscape and city scape. The interplay of
the notion an expression of contained and open-spaces. This would allow the
building becoming an active participant within the city than being self-contained
in itself. People don’t have to leave the city to be in a box but the building
becomes an extension of the city. The building becomes a space to experience
the city.
·
Tactics: Creating visual thoroughfares, allowing
streetscape to flow through the building, articulating innovative means of
designing indoor-semi-out door-outdoor spaces that can alter. Explore the right
scale and proportion of spaces that facilitate the human dimension and
experience best, Ease of visibility of access points (Still working of defining
the tactics )
CONTINUATION OF
IDENTITY AND EXPERIENCE
Most public spaces in commercial buildings are marked by a stark
transition as one moves from outside to inside through threshold. There is a
instant disassociation from the city as the space through it material choices
tends to become formalized and sterile. The articulation of details, choice of
materials, texture color and light that promotes a smoother transition. The
quality of materials embody relate to a collective way of feeling, perceiving
and responding and therefore effect out experience of the space. They
invigorate our senses (tactility, vision)
·
Tactic: Material exploration, materials that are
reminiscent of the the exterior cityscape either through their origin or
appearance could be used.
ADAPTIVE TRANFORMATIVE
PUBLIC SPACE TRANSITION
Use of outdoor and semi-outdoor public spaces vary across
different regions where in tropical regions an outdoor space is utilized nearly
all year round, the outdoor spaces in colder regions remain devoid of public
participation for a greater part of the year. In such occasions exploring
interactive building skin treatment and retractable enclosures that capsule the
semi outdoor spaces allowing social interactive to thrive in them can be
explored.
·
Tactic: Explore mechanical, tensile structure possibilities.
HOUSE:
A house that incorporated spaced and elements that lets it’s
inhabit become part of the city in a bubble of interior space. Communal and
outdoor spaces embrace the space principle as mentioned above.(Still working on
it)
For the purpose of adding a public component to the house
which is primarily private, I am considering designing a painter’s house to add
the component of exhibition area that allows the house to become part of the
public realm at decided intervals
Site: Clueless. Still a little unfamiliar with space around.
If anyone has any suggestion, will be great.
Defining Inside and outside:
“Inside” refers to a physical location that is somehow
separated, physically or symbolically, from another physical location which is
exterior to it.The location of the inside and outside generate different
spatial experiences and, by association, suggest different mental orientations
towards the world.
Exploring a few Examples:
Storefront for art and Architecture:New York (Steven Holl with Vito Acconci
An example of an inside out space where the section of the wall facade becomes an active part of the city space.Comprises of different sizes and shapes of wall elements that pivot on hinges and can be opened certain interior surfaces to the outdoor and some exterior surfaces indoors.
Two examples of Street scape flows between and withing buildings .Chepstow, Monmouthshire (restored 1524) and Philips High Tech Campus, Eindhoven (c.2000)
You may have to take a look into what was recommended to Shannon regarding architecture, semiotics, and meaning as related to Rossi and Jencks. This stream of discourse has great potential in serving as a strong starting point for your problem statement which is inherently tied to the cityscape and architectural “language” of expression/meaning.
ReplyDeleteThat your position effectively advocates architecture to serve as a transition between public and private spaces in an overt gradient makes sense, your strategies need to be more than generic one-liners that do not explicitly outline what you believe architects should do. Ask yourself whether or not your strategies address the position by stating:
IN ORDER TO ADDRESS THIS PROBLEM, ARCHITECTS SHOULD… (STRATEGY 1, STRATEGY2, ETC)
In your case, you will quickly realize that your strategies are less about actions (your first and third) and more about objects as opposed to actions (the second strategy).
The Holl project is a bit limited in its ability to address what I believe you are communicating in your writing. That continuity that you describe is not inherently found in the Storefront project as the flexibility and intermediate spaces created are neither inherently tied to use and engagement by the general public. The visual connection is there however the notion of a gradient mediating the private and public spaces is not inherently tied to what you have put forth. One hopes your ideas go beyond the visual and go into the the design/movement/occupation/connection to physical space.