ONE LEVEL ENTRY In a study of an "upside down" complex, ideas of the overlap and separation of visual and physical access are explored. With a single ground story and an elevated mass, the ground floor has the greatest transparency while the higher floors become increasingly opaque. The average user at the ground has limited physical access to the space above. The form has minimal interaction with the ground at the support columns and has one larger "foot" to provide selective access to the space above. The user at the ground level and imagined looking upward. Through a subtractive process, apertures are created in a direction allowing a person below to have visual access to the sky, while having a limited or obstructed view of a large portion of the upper mass. Similarly, a user on an upper level has direct sight lines both downward, upward and across. Desired levels of privacy are inherently addressed in this interaction. The ground level has a transparency both inward and outward while the mass above has a transparency outward, but an opacity inward.
+ UPPER LEVEL ENTRY A second level of entry affords the opportunity for a user without physical access to be on the same plane as someone with access, such as a resident, within the complex. In a single level entry scenario, a guest with limited physical access does not have the opportunity to interact with someone inside the complex. The introduction of this interaction creates a visual and social overlap. In addition to new configurations of explorations of the single level entry, the upper entry is physically separated from the main mass of the building.
48