Boundaries, Transitions at Convalescent Spaces

BOUNDARIES, TRANSITION AT THE CONVALESCENT SPACE: What the architectural boundaries and transition’s physical and psychological effects on human’s convalescence or assisted living processes?

ADE 622 Final Independent Project ASU M.Arch 2021 Advisor: Professor Claudio Vekstein Candidate: Chi-Lun Lee

WORKING INDEX

1. Boundaries in Casa Luis Barragan -Why Casa Luis Barragan?

-Decomposition & Recomposition

-Architectural boundaries & color

transitions in Casa Luis Barragan

-Boundaries reconsidered -Exercises on Casa Luis Barragan

-Prototypes for future

development in terms of

Architectural Boundary

2. Boundary’s Definition

3. Convalescent Space

4. Design

-Definition -Physically -Phenomenally

-Definition

-Why convalescent space?

-Connection/Transition/Boundary

-Metaphorically (between life & death)

-Spatially (effects on peoples’ convalescence)

(how the convalescent spaces serve as

transitions between people’s daily and next

life?)

-Idea Development

-Transitional Spaces -Conceptual drawing

-Compound site plan

-Attributes

-Of Scale

-Of Intimacy

-Delimma

-dilemma of convalescent facilities in Taipei City?

-Site Analysis - Taipei City

-Design Development

-Exercise 01

-Unit Study from Barragan

House

-Programming process

-Axonmetric perspective

-Site plan

-Floor plans -Sections

-Perspective section

-Perspective renderings

ADE 622 Final Independent Project ASU M.Arch 2021 Advisor: Professor Claudio Vekstein Candidate: Chi-Lun Lee

Why Casa Luis Barragan

Luis Barragan created the unique boundaries encapsulating his house into his own world in the center of Mexico City’s urban fabric, and also masterfully combined the intangible essences—intimate spaces, mystical light, sensuous materials, and arresting color—to create the tranquil, religious, solitary, and poetic architecture.

People all have to face death alone at the last moment. Instead of making people feel afraid and alone, how can the convalescent institutions serve as transitional spaces which bring people peace? How can the architectural boundaries and transitional spaces create such a space within Taipei City’s busy urban context?

Figure 1

Casa Luis Barragan, Luis Barragan

DECOMPOSITION & RECOMPOSITION OF CASA LUIS BARRAGAN

Josef Alber’s Homage to Square as a metaphor is transitioned to Casa Luis Barragan, forming spatial boundaries, transitions, and relationships such as color adjacency, contrast, and complementarity.

In the process of decomposing and recomposing Casa Luis Barragan, boundaries and transitions were rearranged, vanished, or intersected in the initial context, and new prototypes emerged as the potential for convalescent spaces.

Figure 2 Homage to Square, Josef Albers

Decomposition

Recomposition

EXERCISES ON CASA LUIS BARRAGAN

A series of exercises on the prototyping of the Casa Luis Barragan, and the reconsidering of possible developments either vertically or horizontally.

This series focuses more on addressing the relationship between public and private spaces, and between architecture and landscape.

Prototyping Process

EXERCISES ON CASA LUIS BARRAGAN (PROTOTYPES FOR FUTURE DEVELOPMENT?)

Transitional Spaces?

The garden (landscape) creates a visual center for the building elements surrounding (either the public spaces, circulations, or the private units).

The boundaries of architecture and landscape extend to intersect with each other, and form a transitional spaces which blur people’s perception as they transit within and without.

How to create the phenomenally effects on people by transitions and boundaries?

Compound Axonometric Drawing

WORKING INDEX

1. Boundaries in Casa Luis Barragan -Why Casa Luis Barragan?

-Decomposition & Recomposition

-Architectural boundaries & color

transitions in Casa Luis Barragan

-Boundaries reconsidered -Exercises on Casa Luis Barragan

-Prototypes for future

development in terms of

Architectural Boundary

2. Boundary’s Definition

3. Convalescent Space

4. Design

-Definition -Physically -Phenomenally

-Definition

-Why convalescent space?

-Connection/Transition/Boundary

-Metaphorically (between life & death)

-Spatially (effects on peoples’ convalescence)

(how the convalescent spaces serve as

transitions between people’s daily and next

life?)

-Idea Development

-Transitional Spaces -Conceptual drawing

-Compound site plan

-Attributes

-Of Scale

-Of Intimacy

-Delimma

-dilemma of convalescent facilities in Taipei City?

-Site Analysis - Taipei City

-Design Development

-Exercise 01

-Unit Study from Barragan

House

-Programming process

-Axonmetric perspective

-Site plan

-Floor plans -Sections

-Perspective section

-Perspective renderings

ADE 622 Final Independent Project ASU M.Arch 2021 Advisor: Professor Claudio Vekstein Candidate: Chi-Lun Lee

DEFINITION OF BOUNDARY

Space, experientially and phenomenologically, is the complex where we move in and move out of a wide spectrum of spaces, and each space is designed for a distinct purpose.

The distinction then, between spaces, is created by boundaries that surround them. The essence of a space can be derived from its boundary. Simply put, boundaries define space.

Figure 3.2

The cabin in the mountain and the apartment in the city

Figure 3.1

The boundary is the physical, and also the psychological locus of the space it defines. Boundaries limits the physical definition of space, and it also encloses our experiences within the confines of the space. The boundary also creates a focal point for our gaze and experiences within the space.

ATTRIBUTE OF BOUNDARY

OF SCALE Physically, the construction of a boundary serves as a delimiter, encapsulating spaces within spaces (like a canvas), and come from the dynamic and ever-growing fractal with the world. When we transit in and out through these boundaries, we transit through changes in physical scale. And we can describe the physical scale as an axis which radiating from the center of our human bodies, toward to fill the world.

Psychologically, the experience of the scale of spaces is much more complicated than its physical meaning. The cabin on a mountainsiad dwarfed by the vastness of its location, might seem much smaller than an apartment in the center of a city, which maybe spacious in the crowded urban condition. This illustrates the experience of the scale of boundaries nott through geometrical quantities, but through the difference between within and without.

Figure 4.1 Figure 4.2

Axis of Scale, radiating from the Self.

Axis of Scale, radiating into the Self

OF INTIMACY When deconstructing boundaries, a more precise axis probably would be the axis of intimacy. This scale of intimacy is insightful in its subjectiveness, allowing us to explore phenomenological and psychological aspects of boundaries beyond their physical limits.

The intimacy of boundaries can be imaged as a degree to which our being fills the space. On the opposite, unfamiliar space (boundary) suppress our urge to fill in it. Within the confined and foreign boundary, the individual protectively pulls his or her being inward; what fills the space instead might be an obvious sense of awkwardness or strangeness.

The scale of intimacy can be perceived by people through different media or relationships such as public and private, architecture and landscape, visible and invisible, light and shadow, or circulation and movement. Most importantly, the scale of intimacy affects people with their perceptions not only physically (in space), but also psychologically (in emotion).

Figure 4.3

Scale of intimcay across different boundaries

WORKING INDEX

1. Boundaries in Casa Luis Barragan -Why Casa Luis Barragan?

-Decomposition & Recomposition

-Architectural boundaries & color

transitions in Casa Luis Barragan

-Boundaries reconsidered -Exercises on Casa Luis Barragan

-Prototypes for future

development in terms of

Architectural Boundary

2. Boundary’s Definition

3. Convalescent Space

4. Design

-Definition -Physically -Phenomenally

-Definition

-Why convalescent space?

-Connection/Transition/Boundary

-Metaphorically (between life & death)

-Spatially (effects on peoples’ convalescence)

(how the convalescent spaces serve as

transitions between people’s daily and next

life?)

-Idea Development

-Transitional Spaces -Conceptual drawing

-Compound site plan

-Attributes

-Of Scale

-Of Intimacy

-Delimma

-dilemma of convalescent facilities in Taipei City?

-Site Analysis - Taipei City

-Design Development

-Exercise 01

-Unit Study from Barragan

House

-Programming process

-Axonmetric perspective

-Site plan

-Floor plans -Sections

-Perspective section

-Perspective renderings

ADE 622 Final Independent Project ASU M.Arch 2021 Advisor: Professor Claudio Vekstein Candidate: Chi-Lun Lee

DEFINITION OF CONVALESCENT SPACE

Convalescent space/intitution, is defined as a place providing support and service to help people recover health gradually after sickness or weakness. It’s also defined a public or private residential facility providing a high level of long-term personal or nursing care for persons (such as the aged or the chronically ill) who are unable to care for themselves properly.

Places like nursing home, inpatient rehabilitation facilities (IRF), assisted living home, could be all included in convalescent intitution.

Figure 5

Elderly House in Rikuzentakata city “Hokkori-ya”

METAPHOR OF CONVALESCENCE BOUNDARIES

The boundary between life and death, metaphorically, is a curtain that prevents humans from seeing through, provoking people’s curiosity to discover the reality on the other side.

The hazy transition between life and death is the only blurred image we can see; it has also influenced myth, religion, philosophy, literature, and civilization, as well as great human works of art, music, and architecture.

The convalescent spaces/institutions, most of which serve as the final station for people, are also like the transitional spaces between life and death.

Figure 6

Tomba Brion, Carlo Scarpa

CONVALESCENE DILEMMA IN TAIPEI CITY

Figure 7.1

Boundaries, initially serving as the delimiter of space, forming the distinction of each space by human activity and demand, and by people’s intimacy of space, could also transform into limits, restrictions, and confinement. The stairs, for example, are the transitional space/boundary where people transit in and out from the public or the private, while could also be the restriction preventing people from accessing their physical or mental demand.

In the fabric of Taipei City, the attributes of architectural boundary (the scale & intimacy) are always transforming by time, users, and spaces, the convalescent spaces for example, the boundaries (either visible and invisible) make significant effects on human’s convalescence, recovery, healing, and assisted living process.

Figure 7.2

TAIPEI CITY’S CONVALESCENCE MAPPING

Mapping of the distribution of convalescent spaces, including nursing homes, assisted living homes, and hospitals.

Hospitals are densely distributed, while there are only 6 official long-term care facilities in the Taipei metro area, which has a population of 2,64 million, with elders accounting for up to 15% of the total population. Older people’s demand for medical resources is largely based on densely-spread hospitals and the convenience of transportation.

What if those who have difficulty accessing these resources?

Metro Lines Highway

Site Nursing home, Assisted Living Large Hospitals Small Hospitals

SITE MAPPINGS - URBAN FABRIC AROUND THE SITE

The site is located in an abandoned barracks next to a hill on the “boundary” of the urban fabric and the natural landscape.

It is located in a complex residential and commercial area, to the north is the economic center of Taipei City, and to the east is a densely residential area on the mountainside.

Hospital and university complex east to the surrounding area (Taipei Medical University Hospital) 0.4 mile, providing diverse environments and sufficient medical resources for users. As it is near the economic center and close to the residential area, traffic is busy at peak times, while also providing convenience.

Area Distribution

Settlement & Topography

Transportation

SITE MAPPINGS

WORKING INDEX

1. Boundaries in Casa Luis Barragan -Why Casa Luis Barragan?

-Decomposition & Recomposition

-Architectural boundaries & color

transitions in Casa Luis Barragan

-Boundaries reconsidered -Exercises on Casa Luis Barragan

-Prototypes for future

development in terms of

Architectural Boundary

2. Boundary’s Definition

3. Convalescent Space

4. Design

-Definition -Physically -Phenomenally

-Definition

-Why convalescent space?

-Connection/Transition/Boundary

-Metaphorically (between life & death)

-Spatially (effects on peoples’ convalescence)

(how the convalescent spaces serve as

transitions between people’s daily and next

life?)

-Idea Development

-Transitional Spaces -Conceptual drawing

-Compound site plan

-Attributes

-Of Scale

-Of Intimacy

-Delimma

-dilemma of convalescent facilities in Taipei City?

-Site Analysis - Taipei City

-Design Development

-Exercise 01

-Unit Study from Barragan

House

-Programming process

-Axonmetric perspective

-Site plan

-Floor plans -Sections

-Perspective section

-Perspective renderings

ADE 622 Final Independent Project ASU M.Arch 2021 Advisor: Professor Claudio Vekstein Candidate: Chi-Lun Lee

TRANSITIONAL SPACES

TRANSITIONAL SPACES - COMPOUND SITE PLAN

Spatial pieces from Casa Luis Barragan are rearranged and reshaped into different definition in a convalescent space. They are connected to each other by the ambiguous transitions that are created by their boundaries, or by the changing relationships between each space.

And the negative spaces (the blank area, might be the courtyard, garden, landscape, or circulation?) also play an important rule of connecting the entire project.

Scale: 1/64” = 1’-0”

DESIGN DEVELOPMENT_EXERCISE 01

Scale: 1:500

DESIGN DEVELOPMENT - ROOM UNITS

Although most of the room units below serve the same function—serving as a bedroom or afternoon room (for resting and meditating in Casa Luis Barragan), each unit has its own uniqueness. The intention of placing these units in a convalescent institution is to preserve (or create) the elder’s (users’) personality and characteristics.

DESIGN DEVELOPMENT_PROGRAMMING PROCESS

The programming process of the prototype of the convalescent space. By surrounding the corridor and the courtyard (like the garden in Casa Luis Barragan), the room units (private spaces) and the administration office and lobby (public space) shape hazy transitions between programs and inspire people’s movement and exploration.

DESIGN DEVELOPMENT

In the whole building, there are 6 entrances inside the building, and more than 5 ways to get to the second floor from the first floor. Those circulations not only blur the boundaries between the private units and the public administration offices, but also the boundaries between the architecture and landscape. People can experience nature either they are inside or outside the building.

The courtyard in the center and the roof garden, combined with the circulation, encourage people’s diverse movements through the building.

With different ceiling or ground panels, multiple kinds of facade materials interlocking with each other vertically or horizontally, unregular gaps are created to introduce more sunlight into the building, but also increase more vision interaction from different spaces.

Axonometric Perspective Drawing

DESIGN DEVELOPMENT_SITE PLAN

Scale: 1”=1/64’

DESIGN DEVELOPMENT_FLOOR PLAN

First floor plan

Second floor plan

Scale: 1”=1/32’

Scale: 1”=1/32’

DESIGN DEVELOPMENT_SECTION

Longitudinal Section Scale: 1”=1/32’

Transverse Section Scale: 1”=1/32’

DESIGN DEVELOPMENT_PERSPECTIVE SECTION

Perspective Section

DESIGN DEVELOPMENT_PERSPECTIVE RENDERINGS

THANK YOU

ADE 622 Final Independent Project ASU M.Arch 2021 Advisor: Professor Claudio Vekstein Candidate: Chi-Lun Lee