SPATIAL COMPOSITION & PROGRAM The distinction in design philosophy could be considered as an indication of each architect’s cultural and architectural background, or what SANAA’s Ryue Nishizawa describes as “dynamism”3. Nishizawa states that he is interested in a “landscape-like architecture”, where “architectural concept transcends, in scale, the size of the building to produce a large, landscape-like world”. He considers this integration of architecture and nature to be a distinctly Asian dynamism, which “is not the additive dynamism or sculptural dynamism of European buildings and cities but rather a fluid, organic dynamism”4.
Figure 8 - Rolex Center main entry
Figure 9 - Internal zones
Figure 10 - Views
SANAA’s emphasis on a “landscape-like” fluidity of space is demonstrated in the plan diagrams for the Rolex Learning Center (Figs. 8-10, 13-14), which illustrate a building largely devoid of walls and spatial divisions. For example, figure 13 shows the relationship between open and quiet spaces through a notional separation of spatial types, as opposed to a physical intervention. This is also reflected in the plan drawing (Fig. 14), which despite being a technical drawing borders on diagrammatic. It is reminiscent of a bubble diagram, where separated walled ‘bubbles’ define the private spaces around the edges of the building, and the public spaces towards the middle are less defined.
Figure 11 - Vanke Center interior circulation strategy
Figure 12 - Interior circulation strategy plan
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