JGCH 2016

JAVIER GALINDO

JGCH.ORG

CONTENTS 1 - FRESNEL RESORT 11 - RELIQUARY 19 - TWO, THREE AND FOUR : A COURTYARD HOUSE 27 - COLOR-BLOCK CAPRICCIO 31 - THE PACKARD BELT 41 - THE TWELVE APOSTLES 51 - THE INCOMPLETE GRAND TOUR 61 - THE OFFICE OF THE CITY HISTORIAN 71 - MOTORINO CHECKPOINT 77 - THE GROUNDLESS : A CARMELITE CONVENT 89 - HARAJUKU MUSIC CENTRE

I MODI A CAPRICIOUS FRAGMENT 2016 American Academy in Rome Open Studios Show

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weathered and the non-coherent are perceived as temporary and vanishing. But the state of wholeness only exists in its entirety immediately after completion. At that precise moment, it is transformed by nature or artifice causing the fragment, however infinitesimal, to emerge. It is then the fragment that is the permanent constitution in the lifespan of all objects, while the whole is utterly ephemeral and fleeting .

The following drawings are about the possible reactions to the familiar, yet unrecognized aesthetic of the fragment. Inspired by Francesco Colonna’s Hypnerotomachia Poliphili published in 1499, our protagonist wonders through a strange landscape as he encounters a collection of follies. From bewilderment to alienation, through vindictiveness, recognition, exploration, transformation, action and projection; the reactions to these encounters reflect not only the experience of confronting the object’s incomplete physicality, but also the beholder’s psychological interior projected to them.

ne of the foundation myths of architecture has been the faith its practitioners invest in its implied state of permanence. Through its imposing materiality, the finished building has often stood for wholeness, completion and perpetuity.

This perceived sense of totality which accompanies the completed architectural act is, in some ways, contrary to its eventual afterlife. Exemplified in the frail relationship between the part and whole, or fragment versus entirety, the corporeal constitution of architecture resides more in the realm of transience and fragmentation, rather than in our conventional view of permanence.

The fragment is the truth about our physicality. It is the inevitable and primary state in the mortality of all objects, and yet it fails to be positioned as a positive element or conscious response in architectural expression. Its absence is based on misconceptions of completion and finality, in which the whole, the new and the orderly are considered what is normative and enduring; while the incomplete, the

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FRESNEL RESORT A HORIZONTAL LIGHTHOUSE COMPETITION. 2016 Syracuse, Italy Resort Hotel

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Their pointed roof-lines channel light into the interior spaces and their textured glass corrugated walls reflecting it to the beyond.

his project for a resort hotel in the coast of Sicily is conceived as a horizontal lighthouse.

It takes inspiration from the prismatic exterior and interior effect produced by the glass lens of the existing abandoned lighthouse on site (Fresnel lens).

The main hotel component is envisioned as a horizontal counterpart to the existing vertical lighthouse, a conversation rather than a one-way forceful addition. The rooms are a series of small-scale faceted volumes of undulating channel glass. When lit from within, they reflect and emit a warm glow to the surrounding landscape and transform interior views into painterly blurred and private vistas.

Thirty six rooms are symmetrically aligned along the water at each side of the lighthouse to maximize sun exposure and desired ocean views. This orthogonal arrangement results in a long, yet porous, inhabited wall that mediated between a rocky and spare seaside on one side, and a lush landscape design on the other.

Beyond this “fresnel wall�, a restaurant and a spa buildings are surrounded by varying scales of gardens that accommodate different activities.

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CONCEPT The design takes inspiration from the faceted triangulation found in lighthouse lenses which are called Fresnel lenses.

FRESNEL WALL Each room is located side by side to maximize views of the water.

The used A-Frame is inspired by the glass profiles of a Fresnel lens.

POROUS WALL Arranged volumes to maximize porosite to each side.

ROTATED

DOUBLED The volumes are doubled in order to accomodate for a large room.

2 Units, 50 Square Meters

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1. HOTEL ROOMS (FRESNEL WALL) 33 Double Rooms (50 Square Meters Each) Total Area: 1650 Square Meters

4. LIGHTHOUSE Hotel Welcome Center. Reception

2. RESTAURANT 700 Square Meters

6. GARDENS: 6A. Palm Garden 6B. Orange Trees Garden 6C. Chess Set Garden

3. SPA 300 Square Meters

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5. POOL AREA

7. PARKING

6D. Baci Courts 6F. Lawn Garden

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POOL AREA In this view we can see that the placement of the rooms offers the best views of the seafront.

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RELIQUARY A PERVERSE PERFORMANCE Installation, Performance Cinque Mostre Exhibition. American Academy in Rome Polished gold steel, plaster, wood and acrylic sheet

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he reliquary, a tailored and specifically designed container holding the fragments of relics, has been at the center of Western devotional practice for the last 2000 years. It is the most powerful and intense example of the “created” fragment; the type of fragment which is intentionally designed.

After breaking the plaster bodies to a desired state of incompleteness, it is suggested to admire the vulnerable and poignant beauty of the created fragments, and possibly ponder on our very own transience and ephemerality. Lastly, the dismembered casts are placed for viewing inside the reliquary frame.

This performance re-purposes and orchestrates the ritual and procession associated with reliquary making. The participant is asked to design its own fragment/ relic and display it as a collective object within the large reliquary frame. Initially, we are asked to choose one plaster casts and a fragmentation strategy from the multi-headed gilded hammer (There are 4: Stamping / Incusion, The Double Cut, The Concave Punch, or The Serrated Edge).

While the piece is suggestive of iconoclasm in its aggressiveness of execution and perversity of intent in relishing the act of dismemberment, its aim is not to generate wanton ruin or destruction, but rather to build a new sensitivity to design and creation through fragmentation…to be confronted by the beauty and intensity of the fragment…to make through unmaking.

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FOUR HEADED HAMMER 3D Printed Polished Gold Stainless Steel

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TWO, THREE AND FOUR : A COURTYARD HOUSE Location: Greenport, Long Island Program: Residential 5000 sqft Status: Proposed Concept

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he Two, Three and Four courtyard house is a proposal for a vacation home for a painter and his family located in Greenport, Long Island. The project attempts to create a strong relationship between form (static), light (dynamic) and privacy (subjective) within the confinements of the courtyard typology. By dematerializing the courtyard typology, a series of unique spaces are centripetally arranged to maximize daylight and privacy requirements during the course of the day.

The studio space, used primarily during the mornings and requiring less family privacy, more public presence and greater direct light is placed at the south east corner of the plot to take in the morning sun. This work space is given a 2-sided courtyard or L shape, which increases views, public/neighborhood transparency and daylight during the morning hours. Subsequently, the kitchen and dining areas are located to the south-west to maximize the afternoon light. To this function, which has 2 programs requirements (a kitchen between two dining areas, a formal and informal one) is given a 3-sided courtyard or C shape.

The programmatic requirements are arranged clockwise beginning with a studio area which are used primarily during the mornings, transitioning to afternoon functions such as dining and cooking, and ending with private family living spaces which are active at night. Each of these programs is given a courtyard type which through its specific form maximizes light and privacy demands.

This creates a semi private environment and increases connectivity of its interior spaces. Lastly, the 4-sided classic courtyard or O shape is reserved for late afternoon family functions where a high degree of privacy is needed. Its closed shape allows private gatherings to be intimate without any public interference as well as bringing the maximum amount of light on all sides of the central glazed volume at this stage of the day.

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DAYLIGHT Programs are centripetally arranged based on diurnal use and privacy requirements

COURTYARD TYPES 2 Sided: Morning -Work - Public 3 Sided: Afternoon - Dinning - Semi Private 4 Sided: Night - Living - Private

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AMBULATORY The pinwheel circulation ambulatory is at the same time joined and separated from the program spaces

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PLANS / SECTION 1. Entrance 2. Studio 3. Dining 4. Kitchen 5. Living 6. Library 7.Rooms

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WORK 2 SIDED COURTYARD The studio space, used primarily during the mornings and requiring less family privacy, more public presence and greater direct light is placed at the south-east corner of the plot to maximize the morning sun. This work space is given a 2 sided courtyard, which increases views, public transparency and daylight during the morning hours.

DINNING / KITCHEN 3 SIDED COURTYARD The kitchen and dining area are located in the south-west side to maximize the afternoon light. This area which has 2 programs (kitchen in the middle of 2 dining areas, a formal and informal one) is given a 3 sided courtyard, creating a semi private environment while having the maximum interaction in regards to the interior spaces.

LIVING 4 SIDED COURTYARD The 4 sided classic courtyard, is reserved for late afternoon family functions where a high degree of privacy is needed. Its closed shape allows private gatherings to be intimate without any public interference as well as bringing the maximum amount of light at this stage of the day.

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“MEASURE” COLOR-BLOCK CAPRICCIO MEASURE drawing exhibition.

Storefront for Art and Architecture, NYC Drawing 18” x 24” (unsubmitted)

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This drawing is about a time when the simple act of measuring was considered a radical and avant-garde architectural act. Recalling the iconic one-point perspectives employing in treatises during the Renaissance, the drawing aims at overtly depicting and describing the inherent proportional systems of the individual pieces through the use of a single abstract and scalar device, the color-bar.

nd thus, having given orders to measure the cornices and to draw the plans of those buildings, he and Donatello carried on continually, heedless of time and cost. Nor were there places in or near Rome which they did not study and there was nothing good of which they did not, if possible, take measurements.

He cared nothing about eating or sleeping. His sole interest was discovering the architecture of the past.”

Giorgio Vasari, Life of Filippo Brunelleschi

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THE PACKARD BELT REANIMATE THE RUINS COMPETITION 2014 Location: Detroit, Michigan Progran: Mixed Use 4,000,000 sqft Status: 2nd Prize Winner. International Competition

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system. The Packard Factory seemed the perfect opportunity to reignite this lost dialogue.

he Packard Plant in Detroit was completed in 1911 and closed its doors in 1958 subsequently falling into ruin and becoming a symbol of the city’s downfall and financial crisis. The call for an international competition titled Reanimate the Ruins aimed to find novel ways in which to masterplan and update the complex. I was instantly interested and moved by this story of regeneration since I was born in Havana, a city that has also become synonymous with destructions and ruin.

Despite the car’s role in creating sprawl and destroying the city center, it was impossible to treat the car as an irrelevant part of the architecture in this specific case. At 3000 feet long, the building does not relate to the existing fabric of the surrounding city blocks and will always be presented as a barrier. By dividing the larger volume of the plant into smaller buildings, we not only reduce the scale to a contextually sensitive one but also enable porosity across the buildings and the possibility of cross-programmatic interaction.

The Packard Factory ruins were once buildings in which cars were born. By thinking of the original purpose of the now dilapidated structure, the history of the relationship between the car and the building become central to the project narrative. The relationship between the first generation of cars and the buildings with which they coexisted in the city was, from the very beginning, radically autonomous. The car belonged to the street while the building was the realm of the people, and they rarely crisscross programmatically. Only until the opening of the Lingotto Building in Turin and others like it, the car became a significant part of building design but this progressive relationship was not carried on in future integrations. This condition of segregation and detachment between car and building needs reevaluation in favor of a more inclusive and integrated

The created serpentine belt promenade that folds and meanders through the existing structures is seen as a way to stitch all those different smaller scale buildings together. It maintains the grander gesture needed for a cohesive masterplan. This move was inspired by the regenerative power of the serpentine belt found in car engines, which provides power and unifies different components into a holistic functioning system. The cultural belt in the project unites the many disparate programmatic elements as well as it generates the high social and cultural voltage needed for community development.

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1894 : THE CAR AND THE BUILDING AS AUTONOMOUS CITY PARTS

1916 : THE CAR INVADES THE BUILDING With the opening of the Fiat Lingotto Factory Building in Turin, the mature integration of building and car was established. It was a functional and precariously inclussive one.

Future generations would come to disregard this unity.

The relationship between the first generation of automobiles and the existing city buildings was autonomous. A clear divison between the real of the people (city block) and that of the machine (street) was quickly established.

INTEGRATED

ISOLATED

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SERPENTINE BELT , CAR ENGINE A single, continuos belt used to drive multiple peripheral devices in an automotive engine.

The organizational strategy of the project is derived from its connective and unifyinf possibilities.

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3500 FEET IN LENGTH

ENTRY / EXIT 400’ 600’ 650’

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400’

350’

450’

1. BREAKING THE SCALE The existing factory buildings are enormous in length and do not adhere to the gridded city fabric surrounding them.

By dividing the plant complex into smaller parcels/buildings we not only reduce the scale to an urban sensitive one, but further create porosity across the site and the possibility of cross-programmatic interaction

ENTRY / EXIT

2. THE CULTURAL BELT The gesture used to unify the divided smaller scale parcels and buildings is inspired by the regenerative power of the serpentine or poly-v belt found in car engines. This belt provides power and unifies different components on an engine into a holistic functioning system. The cultural belt in the project unites the many disparate programmatic elements as well as it generates the high social and cultural voltage needed for a succesful development.

The main program of the Belt is a linear museum and cultural complex showcasing the automotive history of the city and the Packard Plant. The primary circulation method is the car. Driving through the serpentine promenade one bisects the main complex buildings passing through public spaces, galleries, studios and exhibition areas. A secondary pedestrian alternative for visitors strolling throught the complex is inserted in between the two lanes at either side of the Belt.

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ADDED VOLUMES TO CREATE ENCLOSE COURTYARDS

3. CREATING INTERIOR SPACE The existing plant buildings have the perfect width dimmensions for office program refurbishment. The adaptive reuse of the existing structures aims to transform the plant complex into an elite office campus with varying types of spaces from headquarter sections to communal office rental areas.

Public space is created by strategically adding volumes to turn the isolated bar buildings into interior courtyards full of activity and interaction.

4. URBAN AGRICULTURAL FARMS AND GARDENS The terraced landscape areas surrounding the complex are preserved for a communical agricultural park. The inbetween sections become gardens for the use of the tenants and the neighboring community.

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THE CULTURAL BELT The existing factory buildings are enormous in length and do not adhere to the gridded city fabric surrounding them.

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Bartholomew James the Less Andrew

Judas Peter John

Thomas James the Great Phillip

Matthew Jude Thaddeus Simon

THE TWELVE APOSTLES A HI-JACKING 2015 - Ongoing Location: Victoria Coast, Australia Program: Pilgrimage Chapel Status: Concept

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Forward in time, the year 2005 witnessed the collapse of one of the Apostles.

One of tallest limestone stacks submitted to erosion from the waves and crumbled to the beach side below. Now, only 8 remained. At the current rate of erosion, by the year 4505 AD there will not be a single original apostle in site.

With this fateful prediction, the religiosity, which was once pressured into the location, will also then become extinguished after 2500 years of being present.

n the summer of 1922, the name of a group of only nine 50-meter high limestone stacks located off the Australian Coast of Victoria, which up to that point were previously known as the Sow and Piglets, was changed to that of The Twelve Apostles. The geological beauty and raw vulnerability of this location is so intense, than it seems rather a diminutive and uninspiring judgment than the name and the site’s identity had to be coerced in the name of spirituality to increase tourism traffic. A hijacking of sorts had occurred.

If we had the choice to intercede on how to continue the chronology of the site, would we severe the connections to the extraneous and imposed associations that had originally prompted our inquiry and gave us cause for concern? Or would we strive to create continuity within the already imposed boundaries, something that did not occur before and which equally caused our concern?

For whatever reasons prompted that decision, the new name-givers seemed to neglect or be rather clueless of the temporality of the place which they had newly christened, and how that ephemerality will in the future come to vanquish their delicate creation.

The following scenario concerns itself with the later option.

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A SITE CHRONOLOGY

1922 AD Renamed as Twelve Apostles from the Sow and Piglets Only 9 stacks are present.

2005 AD First stack collapse. Only 8 remain.

4 chapel markers rise.

3255 AD All first generations stacks have collapsed due to erosion (2cm a year) The 12 chapel markers are in place.

3955 AD The 12 chapels colapse due to erosion.

A newer generation of stacks are visible.

To establish continuity between the disappearing limestone stacks due to erosion and the presence of The Twelve Apostles name that has branded tourism to the site, a series of chapels relating to the traditional Twelve Apostles of the Church are introduced as soon as one of the geological Apostle formations disappear. The progressive replacement of a created religious name by a real religious program aims to sediment the continuity of the site as its narrative moves from the fabricated to the tactile, from opportunism to determinism.

Each of the marker chapels is unique. They are portraits of the Apostles based on their iconographic symbols and stories, which are then formally manipulated by referring to the axial reference of their specific martyrdom (downward for crucifixion, diagonal for decapitation). One example of this strategy is the James the Great Chapel in which a seashell like vault is displaced diagonally since he was martyred by decapitation with a sword.

The objective is to create a subtractive process similar to erosion, in which a series of formal extrusions could be made from one outline and in one direction.

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Symbol

Symbol

Symbol

Symbol

Symbol

Symbol

Martyrdom

Martyrdom

Martyrdom

Martyrdom

Martyrdom

Martyrdom

Jude Thaddeus

James the Less

Symbol

Martyrdom

Thomas

Symbol

Martyrdom

Judas

Symbol Death

John

Symbol

Martyrdom

James the Great

Symbol

Martyrdom

Peter

Symbol

Martyrdom

Simon

Matthew

Bartholomew

Phillip

Andrew

THE TWELVE APOSTLE CHAPELS Each chapel is based on the particular Apostle iconographic symbols and stories which are in turn formally manipulated by referring to the axial reference of their martyrdom.

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SIMON

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BARTHOLOMEW

The Body

Symbol Carries his own skin

Martyrdom Flaying of Skin.

Horizontal Displacement

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JUDAS Symbol The Betrayal Kiss

Martyrdom Hanging.

Downward Vertical Movement

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THE INCOMPLETE GRAND TOUR READYMADE MEMENTOS 2013 Mixed media

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The Grand Tourists were feverishly attracted to the merciless passing of time.

The prestige of the old cities, the raw vulnerability of ruins, and the incomplete theatrics of antique sculpture were things they valued because as esoteric and assosiative reminders of their own worth. So much was their reverence that they carried great efforts to include all of these in the portraits they commission during their stay.

rom the early 18th century onwards, the youthful upper class would carry an educational trip across continental Europe as a rite of passage. It was called The Grand Tour, and its purpose was to expose the traveler to the cultural legacy of classical antiquity and the sediments of Western civilization.

During the course of the journey, in the absence of proper and efficient ways of recording the places visited, the traveler became a collector. The objects that they brought back to their homes as mementos were in contrast to the places, and ideals which they marbled during their trip. The keepsakes were new and whole reminders of their own world, trinkets shrouded in an antique disquise.

The following collection of constructs repurposes the tropes associated with Grand Tour mementos and rearranges their narrative to reveal and amplify traces of the incomplete within them.

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SUBSTITUTION OF MANMADE Digital Collage Canvas Print on Gilded Frame 14” x 11”

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REVEALING Found Ceramic Set Into Cast Resin. Painted.

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Clockwise from Top Left: INTRUSSION, EXTENSION, FOGGINESS, DISPLACEMENT Digital collage

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VICTORIAN SILHOUTTE PORTRAIT PAIR Digital Collage in Found Frames 11” x 9”

DIVISIVENESS Digital Collage 11” x 9” 57

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THE PLASTER CASTS Cast Statuary Resin 18” x 4” x 4” 59

18th C. GRAND TOUR INTAGLIO CAMEO Carved inner plaster silhoutte 2” x 1.75” x 0.25”

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CROSSING POLARITIES or THE OFFICE OF THE CITY HISTORIAN Location: Havana, Cuba Progran: Offices for the Historian of the City

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purposely excludes the institutions of communist Centro Havana (although it should represent the whole city) because they are seen as uncontrollable and possible instigators of confrontation to the Historian’s purpose.

The objective of the project is to integrate and equalize the civil society of the Communist City and the cultural and tourist institutions of the Capitalist one through the vehicle of the Office of the City Historian. These programs cross their native city border and migrate towards the city in which they are absent.

Travelling through symbolic borders, they change programmatically and formally creating mutations of their pure systems.

n 1989, the collapse of the Communist Bloc in Eastern Europe stopped all financial support to Cuba and the country entered a period of economic severity.

The resulting political and economic reforms that followed shifted into focus the forgotten capital of Havana (neglected for 30 years by the government who favored rural development), and classified tourism as the main economic model.

An increase in foreign investment in the following years caused the surfacing of two cities next to each other, Old Havana with its capitalist tourism gospel and Centro Havana with its countrywide communist rhetoric. The space in between them is the clashing point of ideologies, insecure to which side it belongs and lacking definition. It is a metaphor to the complex tectonic political shifts between communist and capitalism that Cuba is experiencing.

The project takes form as the headquarters of Offices of the City Historian of Havana, a place that maximizes the creation of confrontation between these two joined yet divided cities, their programs, politics and urban realities. It creates spaces where the dramatization of impurity, of this mixture of pure capitalism and pure communism that the City Historian aims to narrate is made visible.

Only one institution is able to cross the contrasting modes of communism and capitalism in the two cities. The Office of the City Historian is a mega-corporation that has turned Old Havana into a capitalist microcosm for tourism. It

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CENTRO HAVANA COMMUNISM

OLD HAVANA CAPITALISM

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Havana is a divided city, a dual place suffering from contrasting modes of urban reality, polarities of physical, social, economical and ideological magnitudes. It is a city where oppositions meet and confrontations are formed.

This division has a physical marker, a ground zero where the contrast is experienced at its maximum: the Esplanade. This area is where the old colonial city walls once stood, separating Old Havana, the historic center of the city, from Centro Havana, its modern counterpart. The walls were used as a container of a lifestyle and a separator from unruly outside forces. This purposeful division and alienation (although the wall has long been demolished) has carried out to the current situation, where another reality is being safeguarded from possible agents of confrontation.

This in between land is a contested and uncertain space. It lacks the sureness of belonging to either of the two cities and can therefore be connected with or separated from any of them. It is much more than a mere single divisory line, since it contains the line of the old wall but also the esplanade (the moat or grass field on the outside of the wall that was used brake a direct approach and prevent a forceful attack). It encompasses two borders, each with its different associations related to the current perception of the current residents, one informal because it is not officially sanctioned but recognized by all, and one formal which is part of the governmental district boundary.

EQUALIZATION Bring the Historian’s office into Centro Havana

CONSOLIDATION A strategy of consolidation of all the offices programs into a single metropolitan surface/site will create the maximum amount of confrontation between its branches.

FORMAL STRATEGIES. CROSSING THE BORDERS

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INITIAL CONFRONTATION 1. Historian’s institutions 2. Civil Society

OLD HAVANA HISTORIAN’S PROGRAMS The programs move across the borders to the other city

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CENTRO HAVANA CIVIL SOCIETY PROGRAM This introduced programs to the Historians narrative in order to maximize the confrontation between the two sides

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As the programs cross their respective city borders and move to the places in which they are absent, they change in terms of their programmatic configurations as well as in formal expression. The Old Havana programs are first confronted with the Informal border in between the two cities. The crossing of the informal border implies a change from a formal typology to an informal one, from the Slab to the Barbacoa. Afterwards, as the programs cross the formal border, the Barbacoa then turns into the Slab, informal becomes formal again.

The Barbacoa is the informal housing typology of Havana. Its name implies “stacking�, and is simply the new layering and arrangement of several floor levels within the confinements of a larger room (the typical Slab construction), allowing for more surface of habitation. It is the informal way in which residents have recently dealt with the housing shortage in Havana. The change from a formal system in an established part of the city (Old Havana) to an informal one as the programs cross to the Esplanade (an area insecure to which city it belongs), is analogous to the transformation of pure systems into complex hybrids which Historian represents.

FORMAL BORDER INFORMAL BORDER

SEC 1 SEC 2 SEC 3 SEC 4

SEC 1

SEC 2

THE SLAB Formal construction

THE BARBACOA Informal construction

SEC 3

SEC 4

THE BARBACOA Informal construction

THE SLAB Formal construction

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MOTORINO CHECKPOINT COMPETITION PLAY AND DISPLAY Location: Rome, Italy Progran: Parking Garage Status: Competition, ArchMedium

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Four strategies were part of the design. First, the choosing of the grid which is related to the Baths of Diocletian and the ancient city, with the hope to tie the project to this part of the neighborhood which was the source of strategies for the design. Secondly, the organizational scheme used references strategies found in the roman bath typology.The third strategy involved maximum efficiency, using the 45 degree parking layout due to its unsurpassed competence and because of its conceptual resemblance to the roman herringbone brick pattern used in the baths (Opus Spicatum). Lastly it was desired to embed the project with the playfulness connected with riding a motorino and also to display them to the passing city. By producing a sweeping, if somewhat precarious, arrival spiral promenade an urban performance stage is created which capitalizes on the speed and excitement of the motorino. The wall design maximizes the display of the motorinos to the city and becomes a live mosaic of this icon of roman life.

he Motorino Checkpoint proposal is efficiently rigorous as well as conceptually poetic and playful. It not only reflects the demands of the program but it is also engages in a dialogue with its context and hopes to convey how fun it is to ride a motorino in Rome.

Situated next to Termini Station, adjacent to the great imperial Baths of Diocletian, and caught in between modern and ancient Rome, this small site becomes an opportunity to re-brand the contemporary program of a parking garage with the strategies and effects of antiquity. The contrasting spatial transitions which create a rhythm of different planar configurations aligned on a straight axis present in the Roman Bath typology served as the main organization scheme for the project. This allowed the autonomous pairing of the different programmatic parts with the most effective forms for their functions and produced a sequence of highly efficient volumes: the circular ramp, the parking box and the triangular pavilion.

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CHOOSING A GRID Choosing the grid of the Baths of Diocletian and the ancient city as opposed to the grid of Termini Station to link the project to this urban fabric.

Termini Grid Ancient Grid / Baths of Diocletian

SPATIAL TRANSITION The contrasting spatial transitions present in the Roman Bath typology, which create a rhythm of different planar configurations aligned on a straight axis served as the main organizational scheme for the project. This allowed the autonomous pairing of the programs with the most functional spaces for their use and produced a sequence of highly efficient forms: the circular ramp, the parking box and the triangular pavillion.

TRIANGULAR FORM ANNEX PROGRAMS DIAGONAL MOVEMENT

SQUARE FORM PARKING PROGRAM LATERAL MOVEMENT

CIRCULAR FORM CIRCULATION PROGRAM PERIPTERAL MOVEMENT

BATHS OF DIOCLETIAN SPATIAL TRANSITION

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MOTORINO CHECKPOINT

SPHERE FOR CIRCULATION BOX FOR PARKING TRIANGLE FOR PAVILLIONS

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PLAY + DISPLAY It was desired to embed the project with the playfulness connected with riding a motorino and also to display them to the passing city, By producing a sweeping, if somewhat precarious, arrival spiral-promenade an urban perrformance stage is created that capitalizes on the speed and excitement of the motorino. The wall design maximizes the display and presentation of the motorinos to the city.

LESS WIDTH

EFFICIENT LAYOUT The most efficient parking layout is the 45 degrees inclined type since it reduces the width of the lanes and maximizes traffic flow.

This effective layout brings to mind the Opus Spicatum herringbone brick pattern used by the Romans which becomes the planning concept as well as the facade motif.

45 DEGREE PARKING

OPUS SPICATUM

PLAY : AN URBAN PERFORMANCE OUT OF RIDING A MOTORINO

PLAY : AN URBAN PERFORMANCE OUT OF RIDING A MOTORINO

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1, 2 6 5 4 3 2 LEVEL 1 GROUND LEVEL PROGRAM 1. Entrances 2. Exits 3. Motorino Parking (1000 Spaces) 6 Levels_ B1, L1-L5 4. Bicycle Parking (250 Spaces) 5. Reception / Admon 6. Washing Service 7. Workshop Classrooms (3) 8. Repair Shop 9. Public Bathrooms

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THE GROUNDLESS A CARMELITE CONVENT Location: Tres Pueblos Sinkhole, Puerto Rico Progran: Eclessiastical, Geological Tourism

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ried out throughout the work. First, the addition of a secondary function in the form of a Geological Hiking Trail complements the convents single program type. Secondly, the multiplicity of buildings within the convent complex and their multiple sectional locations within the edge of the sinkhole contribute to the intention that the convent would not be recognized in a single entity therefore making it impossible to say where the project is exactly located. It becomes groundless.

convent must be a sanctuary. It must be a refuge for those seeking a way to God in a path that can sometimes be unstable and uncertain. This spiritual trajectory through an unsteady surface can be equivalent to the site inside a Karst region sinkhole in Puerto Rico, where the ground is not where, what and when it seems.

The Groundless is a Carmelite Order convent and geological hiking trail located inside the Tres Pueblos sinkhole in the rainforest of Puerto Rico. Its name is both a reference to the founder of the Carmelites, Saint Teresa of Avila’s ruptured levitations. More specifically, it describes the situation of the site, a karts region volatile terrain in which the phyisical character if the ground is nebulous and unsteady. Groundless refers to as the presence of multiple grounds lacking a unifying character, rather than the absence of one.

The convents organization is arranged from the top to the bottom of the sinkhole in order of importance and spiritual relevance. At the top are visiting facilities and work areas while at the bottom, as the sinkhole becomes more lush, tropical and exuberant, are located the dormitory cells and chapel.

The introduced hiking trail crisscrossed and descends, meandering in between the convent buildings in the form geological stations, in which the stratification of sediment and floral of the place is highlighted.

This concept of multiple parts as a metaphor for the site and program is car

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SAINT TERESA OF AVILA FOUNDER OF THE CARMELITES The turbulent folds in the nun’s habit becomes a metaphor for the passions within her as she levitates and consummates her union with God.

KARST LANDSCAPE The ground folds and creases to reveal a volatile geological terrain, signifying an unstable and shifting landscape.

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1. KARST SINKHOLE Multiple layers and levels of geological ground.

2. MULTIPLE BUILDINGS By separating the buildings, a unified characterization of the convent’s location becomes impossible.

The multiple parts as a metaphor for the site and program is carried out throughout the work. The multiplicity of buildings within the convent complex and their multiple sectional locations within the edge of the sinkhole contribute to the intention that the convent would not be recognized in a single entity therefore making it impossible to say where the project is exactly located. It becomes groundless.

3. DOWN = LUSH = SACRED Rather than upwards symbolizing holiness, the descent into the sinkhole where a rive flows at its base creates a lusher and more sacred environment.

Sacramental and more important programs are then located below at lusher layers.

The convent’s organization is arranged from the top to the bottom of the sinkhole in order of importance and spiritual relevance. At the top are visiting facilities and work areas while at the bottom, as the sinkhole becomes more lush, tropical and exuberant, are located the dormitory cells and chapel.

4. MULTIPLE PROGRAMS Superimposition of convent complex and geological trail.

Convent Route taken by the Nuns Geological Hiking Trail The introduced hiking trail crisscrossed and descends, meandering in between the convent buildings in the form geological stations, in which the stratification of sediment and floral of the place is highlighted.

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TWO BEGINNINGS When first confronted with the sinkhole the visitor has two choices: 1. To continue to the chapel following the geological trail.

2. Follow the nuns route to go into the separate buildings that compose the convent complex.

VISITOR ROOM / EXAMINATION ROOM Once a nun enters the Carmelite order, there cannot be any visual contact with anyone outside the convent. This part of the complex is the entrance to the nun’s world and access is selective.

The visitor room features a wall of translucent material through which filtered contact can be achieved.

The examination room is used for medical visits since doctors are not allowed past this “check point”. The nun is brought through a door and the doctor through another.

LIVING QUARTERS / CELLS There are 12 small solitary cells + common spaces. A system of operable louvers is designed to keep hikers/tourist gazes away from the nuns private quarters.

CHAPEL The nuns cannot be seen by the visitors inside the chapel, not even during Mass hours. They witness the rituals suspended over the congregation in enclosed slanted confines. These are the only interior spaces, just like the many catwalks in the exterior that are inclined, subjecting the nuns to inbalance when they are “outside” of their daily confines.

WORK Where the nuns work and the community’s livelihood is made creating artisanal and church products.

PRAYER / CONTEMPLATION 6 solitary praying units, separated far from the other areas of the convent, provide privacy for the nuns during their daily personal contemplation prayers.

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PLANS (SUPERIMPOSED) 1. Two beginnings/ Convent route and Geological Trail 2. Visitor and Medical Room 3. Work

4. Prayer Units 5. Dining Hall 6. Living Cells 7. Chapel 8. Priest Quarters

The addition of a secondary program, a geological trail where visitors can experience the site’s unique topography, turns the convent’s formal organization into a palimpsest of its own.

The two separate programs intertwine and mix, never allowing for a clear definition of what the convent complex is: the home of a religious order or a tropical geological trail.

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CHAPEL INTERIOR The nuns cannot be seen by the visitors inside the chapel, not even during Mass hours. They witness the rituals suspended over the congregation in enclosed slanted confines.

BALANCED SPACE Nuns inside of their environment

UNSTABLE SPACE Nuns outside of their environment

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SECTIONAL RELATIONSHIPS Each component of the convent has a unique sectional relationship with the sinkhole surface.

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SECTION 1. Two beginnings/Convent route and Geological Trail 2. Visitor and Medical Room 3. Work 4. Prayer Units 5. Dinning Hall 6. Living Cells 7. Chapel 8. Priest Quarters 9. Elevated walkways over the chapel 10. Exterior preaching platform Used with a larger congregation outside

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HARAJUKU MUSIC CENTRE THE URBAN AND THE PASTORAL Location: Harajuku district. Tokyo, Japan.

Program: Music Hall, 5000 sqft Status: Honorable Mention. AC-CA Competition 2015.

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The project tries to harness the urban and seasonal energy of the context and externalizes it for all to enjoy and use. One way in which this is done is by creating a faรงade that is multifunctional and unique, which performs by changing colors relating to external forces (groups of Harajuku characters and the seasonal weather) and that above all, mediates between the city (flat faรงade facing the street) and the pastoral (sculptural concave roof / faรงade facing the park that is behind the site)

he Harajuku Music Centre is a playful answer to the program of designing a music hall in one of the busiest and most dynamic areas of Tokyo, the fun and young neighborhood of Harajuku. Yet, even though it might seem overtly expressive, it is programmatically rigorous, conceptually powerful, and contextually responsive, bridging and uniting the urban with the pastoral through the experiential.

The site for the concert hall finds itself at the intersection of the exciting and hyper-urban lifestyle of Harajuku and the pastoral quietness of the Togo Shrine garden just behind the property line. A direct connection and path is established between these two areas that intercepts the building, with the desire to unite these opposing worlds in order to increase porosity, experiences and interaction.

Internally, a suspended and acoustically efficient shoe-box style concert hall is the setting for music events crowned with the Harajuku in the background, seen through a framed glass wall. As the audience listens and dance to the music, the ceiling over their heads bows and billows, suggesting an energy that will escape the interior space and spread to the outside streets.

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URBAN FACADE = CITY The facades facing the surrounding streets are flat and colorful to relate the existing context.

CAMOUFLAGE ROOF = GARDEN The concanve shapes of the roof are meant to create a camouflage effect with the trees when one is in the garden looking at the building. This allows the building to attain a seamless presence in this peaceful side of context.

TOGO SHRINE

CONNECTION TO THE TOGO SHRINE GARDEN

HARAJUKU TYPES ELEGANT GOTHIC

FAIRY KEI

SPRING

LOLITA DECORA

CYBER PUNK

SUMMER

KOGAL

FALL

VISUAL KEI

CONNECTING CITY AND GARDEN The site is positioned between the hyper-urban and the pastoral. By creating a clear connection between the street and the garden through the building we are maximizing porosity, flow and interaction.

SHOE-BOX CONCERT HALL

URBAN ELEVATION HARAJUKU COLOR BLOCK Harajuku is a colorful place with various character types with their distinctive fashion and color themes.

The exterior facades of the building, made of translucent material with built in LED lighting will change color based on the quantity of people associated with a particular Harajuku type that around that portion of the facade.

The building becomes a colorful map of the people surrounding it.

The concert hall interior proportions are of a typical shoe box style for optimal acoustical performance.

25M Width / 50M Length / 25M Height

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WINTER

GARDEN ELEVATION SEASONAL CAMOUFLAGE On the garden side of the building the concanve roof is meant to camouflage with the tops of the trees. During the high points of the seasons, the facade changes depending on the seasonal color that is prevalent.

Standing in the park, the building becomes just another part of the landscape, an unobstrussive and contextual landmark.

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L1. GROUND LEVEL PLAN

1. TUNNEL CONNECTION TO GARDEN 2. ENTRANCE HALL 3. TICKET DESK 4. CLOAK ROOM 5. EXHIBITION SPACE 6. GIFT SHOP 7. CAFE - BAR 8. PUBLIC RESTROOMS 9. DROP OFF / LOADING AREA

L2. CONCERT HALL PLAN

10. CONCERT HALL 11. TERRACE BAR 12. AUDITORIUM ASSOCIATED SPACES 13. PERFORMERS ASSOCIATED SPACES 14. VIP PERFORMERS ROOM 15. PERFORMERS GENERAL CHANGING ROOMS 16. STORAGE SPACES (B1) 17. ADMINISTRATION (L3) 18. AUDITIONS ROOMS (L3)

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2016