WEAVING CONTINUITY

STUDY ABROAD (BAC) | SPRING 2022 (3rd year)

Role: Design | Drawings | Respresentation

Software: Rhino, Illustrator, Houdini, Keyshot

The project is an archive building, which we designed as a hub of connections that bridges the defragmentation present around Ciutadella Park and Parc de Charles. While addressing the necessity of enclosed archive space, we wanted to encourage interaction among the public through our circulation, not only physically bridging the neighborhood together, but also socio-culturally. The nature of the program demands a particular system of classification and weaving of public and private functions as we wanted to create a space for interaction while maintaining a level of security as opposed to isolating the artifacts. On the exterior, the facade displays an aggregation of various diverse elements. It is meant to echo the convergence of different artifacts and identities on the building’s interior and invert that organizational system to the building exterior.

The form is organized by two datums that converge in the atrium. Objects and people enter through different points of the building, but moments of interaction are woven together at the intersection of these axes. The public entrance goes through the lobby and then encourages circulation along the horizontal axis to view exhibition spaces. Artifacts enter along the diagonal axis and are distributed through the vertical cores after they pass through a series of preparation rooms. The 3 main materials are steel, concrete, and tinted glass; the combination of these materials represents the interconnection of diverse artifacts and their organizational system. It visually represents the act of flipping the interior steel frame to the exterior, changing its function from container to contained.

Weaving of building elements

The building encourages public interaction within the interior where curiosities unravel as one traverses from space to space; just as it bridges the urban scale defragmentation on the exterior.