The Flux - Adaptive Reuse Final Project

THE FLUX Ruchika Shah

flux /fləks/ noun: flux; plural noun: fluxes - the action or process of flowing or flowing out.

THE FLUX Ruchika Shah

Rome shifts from moment to moment; the streets are extremely narrow and a building towers over you, but in a moment you may be standing in the center of a piazza and the same building looks rather small and distant. This feeling also translates into other aspects of Roman Baroque architecture. In the works of Bernini and Borromini, you see the use of winding paths unravelling the structure part by part, until it finally reveals the central attraction.

Similarly in the Cenci, one encounters a series of gates before finding a way to the Piano Nobile, where the famous painting of Beatrice lives.

The Flux looks at using this notion of Compression and Release, rooted in Baroque Architecture, to cause a user to flow from one space to the next through a series of spatial experiences. This intervention takes into consideration the existing geometry and spatial qualities of the Cenci, enhancing it further via built form.

RISD offers several exhibition spaces for the various disciplines of design to gather, display and critique student work. I believe that the EHP program in Rome lacks one such permanent platform.

Therefore, the intervention creates space for display.

The design creates a subtle yet seamless wayfinding path guiding the user from the entrance at the lower level to the piano nobile, through a series of thresholds and programs and finally places them directly in front of the infamous Beatrice painting. The flooring pattern and the portals act as a marker, to indicate the next space.

Art is used to persuade users to go from one space to the next.

The project unveils itself gradually. The alternating compression and release spaces are created by dramatically altering enclosed height and by the use of material, from opaque metal to a shear fabric alluding to the feeling of release. This gradation of material use, light and the sequence of spatial experiences heighten the user’s experience of compression and release. The use of this notion keeps the journey fresh and exciting, making the visitor feel a sense of arrival at the Beatrice painting.