Architecture Degree Thematic Portfolio

Connections

in different architectural scales

POLITECNICO DI MILANO School of Architecture Urban Planning Construction Engineering Architectural Design A.A. 2020|2021 September Graduation Session THEMATIC PORTFOLIO JULIA FERREIRA DUARTE 901253

Abstract Connection is a vital architectural element. Architecture itself is connection. Connections are sought after and realized in all scales, and we, inserted in the world in a physical, emotional and sensorial manner, perceive and live them daily.

Specially at the post-industrial period, going against the rigidity and mechanics of the modern movement, the strengthening of phenomenological theories changed the understanding of architecture in order to be studied in a more fluid and sensorial way.

C o n t e n t

LIVING CONNECTION

3 - 6

Gestual & Symbolic Connection Atmosphere and gestural experience of a minimal living space, through volumetry, materiality, lighting and boundaries. The tension between the interior and exterior and between the built-furniture and the user culminates into an intense sensorial experience.

From the tactility of a small object to the urban movement of a metropolis, the world around us, its signals and atmospheres affect how we live, our sense of space, our identity and our relationships. It is important to understand how an architectural work affects its users, not only in terms of functionality and usability, but also in a more sensible and sensorial manner.

This study focuses on three different typologies and scales of architecture in order to investigate how each one connects to people and its own surroundings, and the spatial and sensorial experiences related to each one.

GEOMARKET

7 - 10

Mechanical connection Structural lifting of the covering and development of specific connection pieces and use of flexible urban furniture in order to enhance continuity and flexibility and allows maximum connection with surroundings in a dynamic and lively environment.

COMMUNITY FACTORY Urban connection

Fluid and open urban environment enhances the area as a gathering point for the local community, connecting the surroundings in a democratic manner while fostering human connection through nature and materiality.

11 - 15

LIVING CONNECTION GESTUAL & SYMBOLIC CONNECTION Artist’s temporary residence | Villa Panza, Varese Italy Critics: Professors: Antonella Y. Mastromattei, Cristina F. Colombo Tutors: Francesco D’Aloisio, Valentina Voltolin Collaborators: Francesca Bianchi, Gabriela Bacchi 3

LIVING CONNECTION

A glimpse of art

Villa Menafoglio Litta Panza, in Varese, is the site in which this project is developed. The historical private villa, that is now a museum open to the public, hosted the private art colletion of Giuseppe Panza di Biumo (1923-2010), one of the most important collectors of post-war American art, who renovated the existing stables into galleries for larger sculptures. The project developed consisted in the creation of a minimalist temporary artist’s dwelling and an atelier, located at the office wing courtyard and at the Scuderia Grande, respectively.

The intervention moved from the idea of emphasizing the relationship between the atelier, that is the space devoted to create and exhibit art, the temporary dwelling and the city of Varese. A strong diagonal conects two edges of the site: one opening on the boundary Villa wall, targeting the landscape of the Sacro Monte, as a reference to Le Corbusier’s Villa Le Lac (Corseaux, 1922-24), and a blind window on the stables, where the atelier is located.

The diagonal directs the view towards the two doors of the pod, and divides its interior in order to provide privacy even inside its connection context.

Inside, the bleached oak finishing guarantees its continuity and draws the attention to the built in furniture, designed to provide flexibility in its uses. The presence of two fixed windows on two sides and the doors on the others allow a certain level of external communication, while it offers to the museum visitors a glimpse of what happens inside the volume.

The built furniture positioning instigates and promotes a space for gestures, as in the dwelling, by reading in the guest bed, where the window frames the surrounding nature, or reading near the diagonal table, suggesting the sense of privacy in a connected space. At the atelier, the same logic reinforces the idea of a continuous canvas, where the artist can produce and express according to his needs.

Connecting to the context

Visual connection

Diagonal connects two edges of the site while crossing the two entrances of the pod,highlighting the boundary between the private and the public

When positioning the main openings on the four sides of the pod we create two main axis of connection with the surrounding. The two entrances are aligned with the context diagonal and the two fixed windows allow different experiences when seen from the inside or outside

Experience through materiality

Use of built in furniture allows flexibility in the use inside the dwelling, designed according to the diagonal idea promoting continuity. The same logic is followed at the atelier

The materials and finishings chosen create uniformity and draws attention to the continuity of built furniture, blending with the surroundings 4

GESTUAL & SYMBOLIC CONNECTION

LIVING CONNECTION

Flexibility of gestures

The two areas of the pod created through the diagonal are screens for different experiences inside the same minimal space. When entering, the wardrobe and shelves geometry directs the view towards the opposite opening. With a difference of height, when turning right, the artist will have access to his more secluded area, the bedroom and his office space. On the left, there is the access of the guest bed and private bathroom. The positioning of both fixed windows frames the outside landscape as being one of the artist’s own work.

A

A’

B

B’

C

C’

Built furniture with same bleached oak finishing of the dwelling interiors creates continuity and draws attention to its flexibility. Its positioning emphasizes the diagonal presence and the openings create focal points of connection with the exterior.

FLOOR PLAN

SLEEPING

GUEST SLEEPING

READING

GUEST READING

SECTION AA’

EATING

ORGANIZING

ORGANIZING

ORGANIZING

SECTION BB’

The diagonal surpasses the visual connection and its continued on the artist’s atelier inside the building

Aligned windows on both edges creates a screen, a limit between the private and the public SECTION CC’

GESTUAL & SYMBOLIC CONNECTION

5

LIVING CONNECTION

Maintaining the connection The same diagonal continues at the atelier. A soft diferentiation of heights allows a gestual transition to a more private area, as the artist’s elevates towards his work. The same spatial logic from the residence allows the creation of different environments and atmospheres inside the workspace.

THE POD

Sink, storage and drying area

0.24 m

Wet area, paint working

0.12 m 0.00 m

Dry area THE ATELIER

Sink, storage and drying area

6

GESTUAL & SYMBOLIC CONNECTION

GEOMARKET MECHANICAL CONNECTION Market and coworking pavillion | Piazza Sant’ Agostino, Milan - Italy Critics: Professors: Andrea Rebecchi, Ingrid Paoletti Tutors: Erica Isa Mosca, Maria Anishchenko, Marta D’Alessandro, Roberto Postorino, Samir Al-Azri, Valeria Marsaglia Collaborators: Francesca Bianchi, Gabriela Bacchi 7

GEOMARKET

Addapt to connect

GeoMarket is a pavillion located at Piazza Sant’Agostino, in Milan, designed to host a weekly market and a coworking space under the idea of “Welcome City: Designing for Inclusion and Resilience”. The longitudinal light ETFE covering hosts the functions and allows free movement and connection within the square space, connected also to the adjacent street and contributing to the strengthening of the neighborhood identity, since according to the “Nuclei di Identità Locale”, the weekly market is an important activity for the region.

After analysing the site and its strengths and weaknesses, it was possible to understand beside having a positive impact on the area, the market ordinary activities generate a considerable amount of waste, which makes the square almost unaccessible during the following cleaning operations.

Therefore, it was proposed a pavilion following the “Sustainable, Replicable and Enjoyable” moto, which consisted of a ETFE covering sustained by steel profiles and pillars, with its urban furniture flexible to host the market functions on Tuesday and Saturdays, and an enclosed coworking area, whose use can be extended through the urban furniture during the time the market does not happen. In addition, a waste collecting system was integrated to the steel pillars, at the underground level, in an unused adjacent metro space, so the square can keep operating and welcoming users during the times it would be used only for collecting the market waste.

The ETFE covering is generated from a hexagonal grid, divided into smaller units inclined towards the steel pillars, creating a dynamic covering, whose movement gradually transits from exterior to interior. The users can freely move under the covering, and the translucency level of the ETFE cushions allow a visual continuity even in the enclosed coworking space. The flexible urban furniture is attached to the structural system, following a fluid movement in its design and placement. The pavement, used not only for connecting the square to the adjacent street, helps specifying the market areas, while directing the visitors in a longitudinal way following the direction of the site.

Connecting to the context

Structural overview

Current situation

ETFE cushion covering

Proposal

ETFE cushion + polycarbonate covering

Residential Mixed use Services Integration proposal

Current market space 40% (about 36 market stands) relocated to Viale Papiniano

Coworking

Steel profiles / pillars

Module for the grid Market area Coworking area Grid rise creates covering

Lifting of the grid allows free flow of people under the covering

GROUND FLOOR Coworking space Weekly market area

UNDERGROUND Waste collecting area Rainwater pipes system

8

MECHANICAL CONNECTION

Connecting to the street The leveling of the pavement with the street ensures free circulation both within the square and with the context

GEOMARKET

Urban furniture A telescoping mechanism allows flexibility of the urban furniture, both in its height and its uses

Following the base hexagonal grid and the main structural unit, the pavimentation was designed in order to guide the urban furniture and organize the space without losing its permeability

Each one of the ETFE cushions was shifted towards a specific column

The flexibility of the structure allows the creation of the underground trash disposal and rainwater collecting system

MECHANICAL CONNECTION

9

GEOMARKET

Designing the connection The main structural unit consists of a tree made of steel profiles, pillars and ETFE cushions. Due to the specific inclination of each cushion towards a specific pillar, a series of connection pieces was designed in order to ensure maximum flexibility and movement and still maintain the replicability of the whole pavilion, which can be assembled in several new sites.

Structural connection Detail on the top of the column and its connection with the supporting branches and the steel profiles (these ones that will be connected to the ETFE system)

Plate connection Steel profile

Web opening

Steel pillar

Connection piece designed for joining the steel pillar and the inclined profiles at the top of the tree unit

Steel branch Rainwater collecting pipe

Connection piece designed to join the profiles of the coworking space to the ground

Connection between the columns and the ground

Steel plate Steel base anchor

Connection between the columns with rainwater collector and trash disposal system

Connection piece welded to the column Trash disposal drum

10

MECHANICAL CONNECTION

COMMUNITY FACTORY URBAN CONNECTION Cultural and Leisure Center | Bovisa, Milan - Italy Critics: Professors: Emilio Faroldi, Maria P. Vettori, Paolo Scrivano Tutors: Andrea Govi, Antonio La Marca, Elisa Gazzola, Francesca DaprĂ , Marta Cognigni.

11

COMMUNITY FACTORY

Site existing conditions Initial analysis carried out to understand the accesses, limits and site boundaries, in order to propose a system of paths and connections and place the building to maximize the access to the site functions IMMEDIATE BOUNDARIES

ND AR IE

S

AREA 1B

EB OU

AREA 1A

ED IAT

The intention of creating a space to gather the local Bovisa community was one of the most important ideas when designing Community Factory. Located in a past industrial area, near Politecnico’s La Masa Campus, the main intention was to not only create a cultural and leisure center, but a focal point for the community, still respecting the identity of the site and with the aim of regenerating an underused area.

The volumetric approach is solid and regular, and a void in between the two volumes follows the alignment of the main path, connecting the university campus and the future La Goccia area. The building placement follows a grid that guarantees a democratic access to the building and to the outdoor functions from all points of the site and its adjacencies, as an immediate response to the site needs, addressing the character of the building as a gathering point.

The solid concrete structure relates to the industrial character of the area, but in order to not completely close its internal cultural and leisure functions to the outside context and to maximize the connection with the context, a light wooden slats and polycarbonate facade system surrounds the building facades, allowing not only fluidity and maximization of lighting, but also suggests the idea of a focal and strong building to still be able to gently welcome the area users, to be used as a stage for the diverse community activities. Inside, the two volumes host leisure and cultural functions, and outside, the sport activities are located in relationship with the two gasometers, which will host similar functions in the future.

Connecting to the context

IMM

Fluidity

urban square landscape Urban square landscape transition designed landscapelandscape Transition designed

IMMEDIATE BOUNDARIES

forest typelandscape Forest

Main proposed axes After analysing the site, the final outcome of main paths was defined in order to guarantee a democratic access through all points of site

LIT

EC

NI

CO

CA M

PU

S

AXIS PARALLEL TO THE STREET

PO TO N TIO EC NN ,C O IS AX N AI M

EC

TIO

N

W

ITH

ST R

EE

T

SIT

stage for small performances Stage for small performances

NN

MIT

sports fields Sport fields

CO

E LI

playground Playground

BOUNDARY BETWEEN AREA 1A AND 1B

CONNECTION WITH AREA 1A

Final path system The final outcome is given by the overlapping of main paths and their corresponding parallels, creating the final landscape pattern

main access crossing the building Main access crossing theconnection building connection building alignment with urban square Building alignment with urban square

12

URBAN CONNECTION

COMMUNITY FACTORY

COMMUNITY FACTORY

Volume development

13 m

8m

Single volume to be divided in two: one side hosts the cultural functions and the other, the leisure activities

Lifting one side of the volume in order to create the block which hosts the leisure functions

The volume is cut in the middle, aligned with the main landscape axis, creating a direct connection with the context

Covering of the passage with the wooden slats and polycarbonate system used as a shading system at the facade, with presence of urban furniture continuation

Outdoor spaces are accesible from all points of the site and its surroundings

CULTURE BLOCK

LEISURE BLOCK

URBAN CONNECTION

13

COMMUNITY FACTORY

Connecting through the envelope At the southeast facade, an urban square welcomes the visitors coming from the Campus and directs them towards the central lantern building, whose bridge connects to the open air activities location and the future La Goccia Park. All facades receive the same rhythmic and material treatment, strengthening the building’s centrality character, as a point accessible from all the site and its surroundings

Northeast facade

Southeast facade

14

URBAN CONNECTION

Northwest facade

COMMUNITY FACTORY

Fluidity, horizontality and diversity

Material permeability

The urban landscape dialogues with the building. The polycarbonate facade and the wooden slats shading system ensures rhythm, and the continuity of the materiality on the interior foster diversity and flexibility in its uses: the building, even massive in its concrete structure and size, is inserted in a soft way and the maximization of light invites the users to the building - both during day and night - as a stage for their activities.

Wooden slat

Concrete column

Polycarbonate sheet

Connection profile for polycarbonate sheets

Connection profile for polycarbonate sheets

Wooden slats

URBAN CONNECTION

15

Epilogue

The 21st century brough significant changes in society, through new means of production, mass entrepreneurship and a new logic of economy. The old rationalist model of modernity and the urban landscape were not corresponding anymore to the new activities, and “the close relationship between form and function has dissolved” (1). The post-industrial society was marked by intense transformation, with the intensification of a more fluid logic and the closer relationship between architecture and the human energy.

The search for new models of urbanization, more fluid, reversible and adaptable was emerging, and in this context, radical groups such as Archizoom, Superstudio and Archigram, even though through different approaches, were intensively aiming to represent this new city, which would better represent the current and evolving society.

The weak and diffuse urbanization model proposed with the No-Stop City, by Archizoom, reinforced also the intense and intrinsic relationship of man with the surrounding environment, and the intensification of phenomenological architecture studies further deepened this relationship, advancing the physical barrier and approaching the design of experiences, with an architecture that merges with and advances the human senses. The barrier between the human and the architectural envelope merges, and understanding the role of the human senses increased, guaranteeing a more sensible and diverse design in comparison with the previous rational tendency.

It is important, however, to understand the sensorial approach as a whole, not by overlapping the importance of one sense in relation to another, as in the case of ocularcentrism criticized by Juhani Pallasmaa (2). One of the architecture roles is to mediate the relationship between the human body and the world, which complement and define each other – the interaction of the human and architectural envelopes then takes place in a dynamic and fluid way, not even limited to time and space.

The contemporary city is, therefore, a perfect canvas for these interactions – “what attracts people most, it would appear, is other people” (3). It is necessary, therefore, to design spaces that, from interior to exterior, and from a smaller to a bigger scale, dialogue with people and, consequently, attract them. Architecture can create identification and intimacy, and all the types of connections inside the 16

city, material or immaterial, strengthens architecture, beyond time and space as an existential experience.

Living connection: gestual and symbolic connection

For Peter Zumthor, “we perceive atmosphere though our emotional sensibility” (4). Both intangible and tangible boundaries between our bodies and what he calls the body of architecture are in constant exchange in his architectural works. The cities dialogue constantly with the surroundings and the materials, sounds and lights send us messages, captured and associated within our minds, unconsciously creating association with our own and collective experiences, surpassing the past, present and future.

The Thermal Baths Vals, from Peter Zumthor can be considered as a complete sensorial experience. By combining light and shadow, openings and closures, materials and sounds, the user embarks on a journey of discovery in an architectural work that, despite having a very specific and defined functional program, gives the users the freedom to explore the place according to their senses and emotions.

The possibility of wandering inside the building makes it not only used as a passage, nor having the function as its sole and final objective. The corners seduce the user to a “voyage of discovery” (4). The gaps that allow light to enter, the lightness of the material, the sound of the water and the openings overlooking the surrounding landscape, all culminates in an experience that goes beyond the mere use of the place.

Living connection in this sense attempts to provide a sensorial experience in a smaller and intimate scale. Its openings located in specific aligned points allows different levels of intimacy in the boundary between interior and exterior, with the inside being a homogeneous canvas of built in furniture, so the user can ensure the maximum freedom even inside a minimal space. The diagonal invites outside visitors of the Villa Panza Museum for a glimpse of what is happening inside the volume, while the artist will have the sense of privacy in a public space while still being connected and harmonically inserted into the context.

1.Andrea Branzi - Residential Park, No-Stop City project (plan) - 1969

2.Herbert Bayer - Lonely Metropolitan - 1932

3.Thermal Baths Vals, Peter Zumthor - Vals, Graubünden - 1996

GeoMarket: mechanical connection

Public urban spaces are vital part of a city and its inhabitants life quality. From the rigidity and formality of the Modern movement to the fluidity and plurality of the Postmodernism, the socio-economic changes of society needed to be reflected on the city and its urban spaces. At the era of the city composed by signals, contemporary cities can also be considered by some critics as a “non-place”, where the urban environment surpassed the architectural language.

4.Masterplan for Eindhoven, Andrea Branzi, Ernesto Bartolini, Lapo Lani - 2000

5.Bernard Tschumi’s Le Fresnoy, National Studio for Contemporary Arts, Tourcoing, France, Cinematic beams elevation - 1992

With the shift of new urban spaces located outside the historical city, the rising of the visual and technological culture and an aim to conceive spaces as connecting experiences, individual and collective interests started to blend, and the urban experience goes beyond the physical limits of architecture.

At Bernard Tschumi’s Le Fresnoy project, the idea of fluidity and transit is realized in a dynamic way through the superposition of spaces and activities. The new covering allows a poetic encounter between the old and the new, a lifted structure which allow coexistence of distinct activities.

GeoMarket, in this context, aims to connect diverse activities under one common transitional space. The structural tree unit, each one being similar but singular, is connected through specific designed pieces, creating a semi-open space whose rhythm culminates in a covered coworking space. The structure, flexible, temporary and adaptable to many other sites, allow the local identity to continue to perform its own activities but also stimulates diverse ones to happen: coexistence of different cultures and realities.

space becomes a scenario upon which autonomous layers act, without contradicting each other.

The prevalence of horizontal growing and the materiality freedom allows for more poetical experiences, being the spaces suitable for any diverse use. In this context, old factories were being reused for design and office activities, and the new territory became a diverse network of merged virtual and physical realities.

The attempt to reconnect the city and attract this new innovative generation was a key point for the design Lina Bo Bardi’s Sesc Pompeia, an old factory complex transformed into a place in which the architect aimed the conviviality as a moto for culture. The freeing of space opened new opportunities for the community, connecting a city still very fragmented.

Also located in a former industrial area, Community Factory acts as a focal point to connect not only the habitants of Bovisa neighborhood but also other visitors, by providing both flexible outdoors and indoors that merge through the materiality. The architecture here is a stage for diverse activities, a place for the community to produce culture and leisure in an area lacking these functions.

Through the polycarbonate facade, the building blends with the surrounding during the day and is transformed into a lantern during the night. Community factory is then, a highly adaptable canvas for a range of simultaneous activities and liveliness.

Community factory: urban connection

6.Sesc Pompeia, Lina Bo Bardi - São Paulo, Brazil inaugurated in 1982

With the dispersion of modern period industrial concentrations, new forms of economy were driven and decentralized. The emergence of new industrial districts and new virtual relations fostered research and innovation. Under the logic discussed previously, the search for new forms of urban spaces who fostered this new relational economy increased, in order to provide space for the coexistence of several activities and to reactivate connections between the other parts of the city in a reversible and diffuse manner. The urban

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Bibliography 1. Branzi, Andrea. Weak and Diffuse Modernity: The World of Projects at the Beginning of the 21st Century. 2006. Skira, 21 Nov. 2006.

2. Pallasmaa, Juhani. The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the Senses. 3rd ed., Wiley, 14 May 2012.

3. H. Whyte, William. The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces. 2001.

Project for Public Spaces, 1 Mar. 2001.

4. Zumthor, Peter. Atmospheres: Architectural Environments. Surrounding Objects. 2006. 5th Printing ed., Birkhauser, 1 May 2006.

Images sources 1. Image retrieved works/794

from

https://www.moma.org/collection/

2. Image retrieved from https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/ search/302020 3. Image retrieved from https://divisare.com/projects/388269-peter-zumthor-morphosis-architects-thom-mayne-fabrice-fouillet-thermes-vals-at-7132-hotel 4. Image retrieved from Branzi, Andrea. Weak and Diffuse Modernity: The World of Projects at the beginning of the 21st Century. 2006. Skira, 21 Nov. 2006. - page 41 5. Image works/476

retrieved

from

https://www.moma.org/collection/

6. Image retrieved from https://www.archdaily.com.br/br/01153205/classicos-da-arquitetura-sesc-pompeia-slash-lina-bo-bardi 18