Showing posts with label study project. Show all posts
Showing posts with label study project. Show all posts

Friday, 27 May 2016

Heterotopic grid. Summary


This collage concludes my thesis work. I have reflected on my year long journey and have summarised the most important guidelines which have framed this project. Behind this is a theoretical background containing authors: Michel Foucault, David Graeme Shane, Rem Koolhaas, DOGMA, Superstudio and many others. 

Tuesday, 24 May 2016

Heterotopic grid. The other dwelling in the Green Belt.

The thesis investigates the potential of using the heterotopic (other, different) grid as a conceptual and formal framework for a utopian vision - accommodating increasing growth of Scotland’s population in a concentrated and equal manner within a highly infrastructural Green Belt on the city edge of Edinburgh. ‘City edge’ is one of the designated sectors within the Glasburgh corridor – a speculative research area between Edinburgh and Glasgow, defined by the infrastructure of the motorway M8 and the Shotts Line railway.
The competition project ‘Exodus or the Voluntary Prisoners of Architecture’ and several works by Superstudio and DOGMA inhere heterotopic qualities by being able to create utopian visions and simultaneously reflect and redefine conditions of a real, existing society.
The thesis draws parallels between the cultural, social and political issues of the others on one side and the accompanying urban processes and the role of Architecture within them on the other. It also highlights a set of questions which interrelate with each other on the basis of the concept of heterotopia and the heterotopic grid.
How could the heterotopic grid intensify, diversify and in the same time preserve the Green Belt?
How could the heterotopic grid be able to accept and embrace different social groups within a homogeneity of housing context and create an egalitarian community?
How could the heterotopic grid operate as the catalyst of utopian visions?

The result is a formation which defines a clear edge to the city by framing the Green Belt around it. At the same time, it preserves what it frames and by being porous, it allows nature, infrastructure, and people to flow through. The singular unit of the heterotopic grid is a social condenser – a micro-city where the main urban components – enclave, armature, and heterotopia are condensed and manifested into one entity.




Full thesis text:
https://issuu.com/ivarskalvans/docs/book_issu

Thesis drawings:
https://issuu.com/ivarskalvans/docs/drawings_issu


Thursday, 10 December 2015

Ivan Léonidov, Competition entry for the socialist city of Magnitogorsk


‘A socialist settlement is a properly thought out organisation of industry and agriculture, culture and leisure:  of everything that informs human consciousness and life. It is a settlement constructed on the basis of the foremost socialist technology.’

Ivan Leonidov, Explanatory notes on the OSA team’s project

Leonidov like many of his contemporaries of Modernism had a social vision apart from a purely architectural drive. In the competition entry for the socialist settlement at Magnitogorsk, he tests new social patterns of living within strictly organised functional zoning.


REGION.
Magnitogorsk is an industrial city located in Russia on the eastern side of the
Ural Mountains and surrounded by many lakes

The design comprises a linear development located between chemical and metallurgical combine and a giant collective farm. The city starts from an industrial node and its development is possible in two or four orthogonal directions. The Linear City consists of a strip of residential complexes and two strips of ancillary functions on both sides of the housing zone.




A part of the Linear City

Each housing complex is intended for 250 people living in eight separate housing units, each for 32 people. Units could be allocated both individually and stacked in towers. The children’s sector is located in the green zone between two residential complexes. Ancillary functions are represented by public buildings and places such as the community hall, sports facilities, parks, zoological and botanical gardens. The highway on one side is for transport and also serves as border and stimulus for further development. 


Hierarchy of rooms

The housing unit is the main component in this scheme which is repeated throughout the city on a chequerboard pattern in order to create each separate complex. Each unit is intended as a small community. It consists of sixteen small private rooms located in the corners of the units on two levels with communal space in the centre of the unit. Leonidov and his group propose an idea of dis-urbanisation where living and social activities take place in proximity to nature. Linear city is ‘a new form of human settlement which eliminates rural backwardness and isolation from the world, and the anti- human concentration of vast masses of people into large cities.’ It embodies many ‘ideals’ of modern living – spaciousness, unobscured views and green surroundings where labour, leisure and socialisation could occur.



Thursday, 24 April 2014

Inner freedom. Space and façade for mass housing


ABSTRACT

Face often is described as the mirror of our inner world. Similarly, façade ideally could be a representation of building’s content. What are the face and the space of today’s mass housing?
This essay examines the role of façade and space in mass housing. It assumes that façade and space as main components of dwelling are able to express humanity, identity, freedom and well-being.
Maison Dom-ino by Le Corbusier was a basic building prototype which embodied design ideas about liberation. Its author’s aspirations were as much social and urban as structural and spatial.
Prototype’s legacy today is multi-storey mass housing around the world. The result is dual. On the one hand, there is an efficiency of the building process, a flexibility of variation through standardisation and unification. On another hand – it is alienation, lack of humanity and personality.
The field of interest of design research unit is construction. My interest lays in the intersection between structural technology and social issues. 
At first, the research examines the Maison Dom-ino, its space and structure, relationship with an external world and finally, its legacy - mass produced housing. 
Next, the research looks at the free façade in the context of Le Corbusier’s ideas and its meaning in the wider context. Research inspects liberation and identification of the façade of the mass housing through architectural expressions supported by structural transformations.
Finally, it looks at progress and failure of mass housing. Research examines more than 30 precedents of mass housing and tries to summarise the methods of liberation in mass housing. In these precedents and case studies, it tries to find out the factors responsible for successful communication between content and skin, between ideas and their representation.  
The research uses a reading, writing and making to investigate methods of liberation that tackle issues of human scale, individuality and freedom in mass housing and its external appearance.
Object engages in this discourse with speculation about possible solutions to these problems. It looks at Maison Dom-ino as an experimental platform for architectural ideas.

In conclusion, research summarises the methods of liberation in mass housing as follows: internal flexibility, vertical dimension, separate units, hybrid, parasite and special facade. These methods overlap in their expressions and technical solutions and with a common aim to create a liberating living environment. 

METHODS OF LIBERATION 

1. FLEXIBLE HOUSING

The researchers Jeremy Till & Sarah Wigglesworth, and Tatjana Schneider in their project define meaning of the flexible housing and arguments for it. Socially, it provides control to inhabitants over their own dwelling. Demographically, it offers a possibility to transform dwelling accordingly to the current situation. Economically, it slows down the functional, physical and moral ageing of a building and reduces resulting expenses related with its transformation. Technically, it provides effective servicing (Schneider, 2007).



2. HYBRID

The hybrid nature of the contemporary project alludes to the current simultaneity of realities and categories, relating no longer to harmonious and coherent bodies, but rather to mongrel scenarios made up of structures and identities in parasitic coexistence.’ - by this Manuel Gausa (2000:293) describes formations not only in architecture which become one of the characteristics of Postmodernity. These formations are feeding each other and creating new environments around themselves. In mass housing, it means adding different functions to housing function.
MVRDV is an architecture practice, one of “second modernity” architects whose “anti-dogmatic” approach is resulted in many innovative housing designs which address a wide spectrum of issues.
Berlin Voids is a significant combination of new concepts which challenges Modernist clichés of mass housing for example – standardisation. This competition work is a synthesis of antipodal aspects – concentration of living spaces in one volume like typical urban block and differentiation of these spaces through their spatial typology Constanzo, 2006). Typology, in turn, plays on house concept – spatially unique yet interconnected it also reflects on ‘... the inner dynamism of contemporary society...’(Constanzo, 2006:17). This is also a typical example of another liberating concept – special façade.

3. SPECIAL FAÇADE

Wozoco’s apartments and The Housing Silo both in Amsterdam are other contemporary examples of advanced housing by MVRDV. Here, in both projects, facade plays a significant role by successfully expressing its inner content and also by liberating their inhabitants. Thus Wozoco’s apartments are an impressive modernist concept of liberating man from ground. It is achieved by large cantilevered volumes – living units. 
Whereas Silodam is liberating example by using ‘... a multiplicity of closely interrelated functions inside the building...’ (Constanzo, 2006:112). It also plays with city’s housing typology – row houses within one large volume. This creates mini neighbourhoods which are enriched with different ancillary functions. It also respects future inhabitants’ individual wishes by creating variety – each flat is unique. This building also is a bright reminiscence of Le Corbusier’s Unité d’Habitation. The main similarity here is a vertical dimension.

4. VERTICAL DIMENSION



5. SEPARATE UNITS


6. PARASITE















Thursday, 3 April 2014

Social Space. Adaptive cultural & educational centre for a town



INTRO

‘Emerging regions. This is a moment of transformation characterized by the bipolar opposition between techno-economic globalization and socio-cultural identity.’
Viny Maas. KM3 :excursions on capacities. 2005.

The project explores the role of a public building in the regeneration of the former market town. 
How could social space be a platform for a ‘civic renaissance’ in a modern society? 

The current trend shows the weakening of the town centre on behalf of the outskirts. Towns are expanding, thanks, to new housing areas. In such former market towns as Blairgowrie/Rattray and Kirriemuir, many of community centres and activities related to them are located out of the town centre. High street typically serving trading and shopping activities has been weakened by such contemporary retail development’s trend as shopping in shopping malls out of the town centre and online shopping. 
As a result town centres have experienced decline and weakening. 

My intent is to test some urban theories and to create a design for educational and cultural centre rooted in the community which could have a positive influence on the development of the whole town. 

This project is grounded in urban study and strategy which was implemented by the group. 
The Urban study looked at social, historical and other aspects which have formed and still forming two former market towns Blairgowrie/Rattray and Kirriemuir. Then it looked closer to the character and identities of both towns. Based on urban analysis urban strategy was implemented with the aim to define methods - potential solutions. 

In the end of the group work, decisions were made by choosing a town for the location of two objects - library and childcare centre - either separately or together.
These two public facilities are important urban anchors and attractors which have both social and cultural significance within any city or town.

The contemporary library is able to accommodate and provide a wide range of services which can coexist and feed each other. They are sources of information and knowledge as well as places for socialising and interaction.  
Childcare centre plays important role in children development, it is a place for joy, learning and socialising.
Group’s investigation and further strategy initiated me to look deeper into urban concepts and implement them in my design. 


REGIONAL CONTEXT

“The city is unique, formed as it is by the forces of nature and manufacturer, by topography and climate, and by ownership and law. It shows resistance to the impositions of a structural order influenced by urban thinking which is abstract and ideological. Whether such impositions occur through political, economic or social motivation, they are almost always absorbed or modified by the cultural character and temperament of the city, making them specific and of their place.” 


Stephen Bates. The city of things. 

The Urban study looked at social, historical and other factors which have formed and still forming two former market towns Blairgowrie/Rattray and Kirriemuir.
Then it looked closer to the character and identities of both towns.

Further, it leads to the decisions about eventual town and influences the whole design process. 



Tayplan strategic Development Plan 2012 - 2032 in Policy 1 has defined location priorities where principal settlements are ranked by its strategical importance and their contribution to the region's economy.
Blairgowrie/Rattray - settlement has “...the potential to make a major contribution to the regional economy but will accommodate a smaller share of the region’s additional development.” (p.9)
Kirriemuir - settlement has “...the potential to play an important but more modest role in the regional economy and will accommodate a small share of the region’s additional development which is more about sustaining them.” (p.9)
TAYplan: Scotland’s SusTAYnable RegionStrategic Development Plan 2012 - 2032


HISTORY. POPULATION AND TERRITORY

       
Blairgowrie/Rattray   Kirriemuir 

The scheme shows how significantly both towns have expanded their territory during the last 50 years on behalf of residential areas. New primary schools and hospitals have been built in order to serve these new parts of the towns.        

INFRASTRUCTURE



OPEN PUBLIC SPACES

‘They are singular, they create an identity, and they must be able to stimulate the evolution of all kinds of part of a society.’
CHORA / Raoul Bunschoten. Public Spaces. 2002

Full project could be seen here:






Friday, 27 December 2013

Minimalist hut

“The minimum could be defined as the perfection that an artifact achieves when it is no longer possible to improve it by subtraction... This is the quality that an object has when every component, every detail and every junction has been reduced or condensed to the essentials. It is the result of the omission of the inessentials.” 
John Pawson, Minimum

    The primitive hut by Charles Eisen for Frontispiece of Marc-Antoine Laugier: Essai sur l’architecture represents not only ideal self-sufficient structure at the time but also shows universality of timber use in building structure.



In a primitive hut all its elements: columns, beams and rafters are made entirely of fresh cut wood and work as a whole superstructure. Structure is assembled without any additional bonding elements and therefore seems suspicious. 


In my opinion this drawing is an allegory about universality of vernacular principles and their connection with nature. It also represents idea about simplicity as human quality against complexity of nature.



Wood is simple and sophisticated at the same time. It is the only one building material which is a living organism. None of building materials is so diverse, complex and inconstant as wood.
Complexity of wood is not only in its physical properties but also in structural principles used in timber structures through the centuries. Timber works best in structural system where each element is assisted, compensated by another. Joints are crucial in these systems and they must be precise and effective to achieve strength and toughness of the whole structure. 

The minimalist hut represents basic, essential structure accomplished in such a way to achieve simplicity and clarity of building language. The aim is to use joints without fasteners, bindings or adhesive. Structural elements are interconnected together only by interlocking and fixed with hardwood plugs.
The minimalist hut uses limited size of standard timber: beam 75x150 or 75x100mm. 

Axsonometric view

Ridge and cornice detail drawings

Process of making.


Component parts 




Sequence

Cornice detail - complete structure

Ridge detail - complete structure



Friday, 11 October 2013

Space shaped by the light out of windows

The city is shaped not only by its objects and voids between but also by external factors which allow city to be perceived. The light either natural daylight or artificial one makes the perception of physical city possible. In daylight a wide range of variable components shape our perception – glare and shadows, air perspective and cloudiness.
After dusk man-made light is almost single player in the city. It suppresses light from the stars and the moon, thus city becomes totally separated from nature. It changes our perception thoroughly because rules of perception become different. We start to see in more selective and focused manner because of darkness. Space becomes enclosed and object-like more than ever.
Artificial light is a guide through the city and it also defines the character of the city.
Norberg-Schulz points the window as especially important in defining the spirit of place:
‘It does not only express the spatial structure of the building, but also how it is related to light. And, through its proportions and detailing, it participates in the functions of standing and rising. In the window, thus, the genius loci is focused and ‘explained’.
Edward Hopper’s famous paintings Night Windows (1928) and Nighthawks (1942) illustrates two levels of the city – one which is private, domestic and usually hidden, and another which is public, commercial such as cafe or shop.


Night Windows (1928)

Nighthawks (1942)

Aim. This mapping exercise tries to reveal the character of two former market towns – Blairgowrie and Kirriemuir which now experiences economic and social decline. I am interested in artificial light as the indicator of the level of diversity and vitality of these towns.

Method. I used two types of artificial light out of windows commercial and domestic) as a code which holds different information about spaces shaped by it three-dimensionally –
both in plan and in street views.

Result. Final maps show areas of commercial and social activity, difference between centre, residential and industry areas and density of towns.
Research also revealed different features of built environment such as: typology, orientation and rhythm of windows, character of narrow streets and blank gables, aspects of overlooking
and imaginary situation of spaces shaped only by light out of windows.


urban analysis / mapping / aero view / Kirriemuir

urban analysis / mapping / aero view / Blairgowrie and Rattray

urban analysis / mapping / street view / Blairgowrie and Rattray

urban analysis / mapping / street view / Kirriemuir


Sunday, 12 May 2013

Demarco photographic gallery and archive. Process


I choose option where 2 Demarco programmes are physically separated because of distinct functions these programmes serve - one is about creating and another is about storing. I decided to place these programs in different environments and Roseangle area is good in providing diverse urban characters. Consequently, I put gallery and residences in more residential area whereas archive sits within more urban environment on Perth Road which joins with many cultural institutions of Dundee.


In spite of their physical separation, I see both programs as a whole body  where lanes work as arteries which joins inseparable parts of the body.  I see this as Art complex within unique district.


My approach was to effectively use existing grid of streets and volumes and presume the district as a solid mass from which to carve spaces of. The main idea therefore is to create a dialogue between old existing and new one.
 

This somehow relates to my understanding about Demarco's contribution in process of breaking walls and making links between worlds - creating a dialogue within tight limitations.





Both programmes together are a whole body where lanes work as arteries which joins inseparable parts of the body.  Art complex within unique district.
Open public spaces as connective tissues within a body.
Open spaces enrich this complex and a whole district as well as invole the local community.  
_________________________________________________________________

Demarco gallery and residence

In case of Demarco gallery and residence I was using existing buildings with uncovered gables as matrices for new extensions. 


 Carving voids and spaces
Spatial relationship between programmes and functions  - physical and visual connections.  Demarco archive - gallery - studious-Demarco residence - artists’ flats.
Creating spatial relationship between residence and gallery.
Accenting entrance and setting volumes parallel.

Creating paths
Articulation of open public and private spaces. Making enclosure and continuing the street.

Serial vision sketch shows approaching and passing gallery and urban realm created by narrow lanes and liberating extensions of the space.

If wall is public then windows are expression of privacy and vice versa.
Windows as expression of content and personality. 





Conventional and contemporary forms of windows.


As a case study I chose Pier Arts Centre in Stromness, Orkney by REIACH AND HALL ARCHITECTS.


 Photo: http://www.reiachandhall.co.uk/project/arts_cultural/pier_01.htm

Seamless volumes - new and old linked together with translucent threshold.
 



   "The charming harbour town of Norwegian origin called
Stromness is the result of two dominant building types
huddled together into a weather worn hand. The ends of
long chimneyless pitched roof sheds made of different
materials upon dry stone bases like stubby fingers in
the water and, by road, two storey houses placed
either parallel or perpendicular, their chimneys flush to
windowless gable ends.
This is an insistent and dogged morphology, a huddled
together architecture that reminds me both of the
position espoused in the built work and writings of
Aldo Rossi and the responsively loose and nuanced
buildings of the Portuguese architect Alvaro Siza whose
work transformed these typologies into more expressive
and freely open compositions. One might characterise
the exterior expression of the project by Edinburgh
practice Reiach and Hall - to extend the Pier Arts Centre
with a refurbished building on the street and a new one
facing the sea - as located somewhere between these
two canons and, as such, offering a powerful regional
exemplar." 

   "I wouldn’t like to refer to my halls as architecture at all. I’d
rather talk about structures. To me, architecture sounds
too demanding and, on the other hand, it always makes
me think of too much contrasting, artificial, unnecessary
form. A structure is historically and locally oriented, built
with the simplest, reliable materials and constructions
that local craftsmen can master. A structure is so to
speak, cleansed with architecture, I find that pleasant,
in principle, for artistic room though it is the only attitude
that I can accept."

Quotes from:
http://www.reiachandhall.co.uk/project/arts_cultural/pier_01.htm



Initial structural scheme for lower volume. Massive loadbearing masonry walls supports upper structure and do bracing.


 
Upper volume's structure - lightweight frame using 2x18mm structural plywood. Ribs in both directions (vertical and horizontal) are 300mm deep.

_________________________________________________________________



Demarco archive

Existing building (not listed by Historic Scotland) is significant witness of industrial past and
interesting by its typology and sitting in the
surrounding landscape and urban fabric.

Adding intervention within the plot boundaries and keeping existing brick shell. Cornice aligned with surrounding four-storey tenements across the Perth Road.

New volume is pushed towards the street creating covered open space and pulled from another side to provide light for galleries deep inside.

Stretching front side of the volume up to allow
extra floors accommodate and stretching back side to form inner courtyard for getting more light in one corner.

Braking scale by splitting up into four volumes each with double pitched roof which corresponds to surrounding roofscape and scale. Ridge is aligned with surrounding four-storey tenements across the Perth Road.

Shadow analysis shows existing and designed situations with overshadowing adjacent buildings.
Time of analysis 21st March/September,
9:00AM, 12PM, 3PM.


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