View of the cafe overlooking the courtyard and the river
In designing my building, I have incorporated many of Alvaro Siza’s design elements, -taking into account his design philosophy of architecture as “a response to a concrete problem, a situation in transformation in which I participate “ In other words, I tried fitting my building into its site context and within the boundaries of its briefjust like how Siza would. I started by playing with the existing of contours of my site, to allow for a naturallyfacilitated ramp that goes all the way throughout the building, (thus making my building a huge ramp in itself). I wanted to use this great experiential quality of ramps to create a strong feeling for my visitors. This can be seen in the entrance ramp that eventually transforms into the roof of my building. When entering, visitors would have to go through a ramp which passes in-between two small waterfalls, thus giving a strong impact to visitors once they enter the inner courtyard space. Furthermore, Siza is all about giving an experience to people, and I loved this about his architecture. I have incorporated his use of courtyards into my design too, with the existence of a small courtyard in between the café and the restaurant.
[F ur t he ri n g A rc h itectu ral Di s cou rs e ] I think my building furthered the architectural discourse by reinterpreting the old through the new. In my design i tried to be as modern as possible, whilst trying to incorporate the essence of 20th cenury architecture. I believe this assignment further questions the current relevence of the modern period - as we might have more to learn from these masters of 20th century architecture rather than our current, contemporary buildings. The design principles, ideas, and attention to spatial quality in 20th century arhitecture created a discourse which made architecture livable, affordable, and most important of all human. The use of technology here was also relevant as a tool in helping us to convey spatial expriences and moods - especially through the rendering of interior voulmes using sketchup and V-ray.
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