Performance tower

PERFORMANCE TOWER RISD Design Principle Professor: Hansy Better Barraza Time: 2015 09-12

A special tower designed for shuttle maker to live, work and exhibit her works.

This is a narrow site located in Providence, Rhode Island, USA. It is close to the riverside and connects to the two main roads.

There are three adjacent buildings. The tallest building is 90' heigh while the other two lower builidings is about 32' and 37'.

There is a notable geographic difference from the main road to the riverside. Thus people standing in the side which close to the mainroad could directly see the riverside.

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In a narrow and windy site, an elegant tower stands in the wind and perform the shuttle falling silently.

Inside of the tower, there are various rooms. Each of them has different floor heights. A spiral staircase connects all of them together.

In such a special tower, a shuttle maker lives there for experiencing her shullte movement. When she walks into the tower along the spiral staircase, she becomes a "live" shuttle herself. As she moving from one room to another, she is mimicing the falling track of the shuttle she made. As she staying in the room,which indicates the moment of the direction change of the shuttle falling. She can experiences how the shuttle swings and spins when it falls off as she move inside of tower. She also knows how the shuttle shape is affected by air friction when she stays in different spaces with different heights. In this unique tower, she has everything she needs such as studio, exhibition place, livingroom, kitchen, bedroom, restroom. She can test shuttle she made by drop it from the top floor, and people who walk inside of the spiral staircase could oberve the shuttle falling everywhere.

Only in this unique tower, every character of the falling shuttle transfered as architecture language. The shuttle maker could enjoy the invisible but various spaces inside of the "shuttle".

She is performing the shuttle falling while she lives there.

How to make the shuttle

paper shuttle

section cut of shuttle

top view of shuttle

the falling track

top view of the falling track

Concept model of shuttle falling track in the narrow site

section cut of the falling track

The c onc ept model indic ates the relationship between the narrow site and the shuttle falling track. The wood sticks along the narrow site indicates the column grids of adjacent buildings and how the grids affects the site. The transparent acrylic represents the the ground. The shuttle falling track model is based on the abstract elevation. The wood sticks indicates one edge of the shuttle and the length indicates how large area the falling could occupy, while the other wider wood highlights the space change inside of the shuttle.

Abstract elevation of the falling track

dropping point observation platform

public route city side

private route river side structure B

structure A

South Main Street

1st Floor

2nd Floor B

3rd Floor

2nd Floor A

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4th Floor

5th Floor

Living room

7th Floor

Study room

Observation point

Restroom

Up

down

Observation point

Entrance Exhibition

Studio

Study room

Semiunderground open area

observation platform & dropping point bedroom /restroom Up

study room living room

kitchen obervation point

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obervation point

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6th Floor

Riverside

studio

exhibition Programs

1-1 Section

flying machine courtyard