Saturday, January 29, 2011

Destination : Unknown

In taking a few steps back, I am trying to really understand what makes emotive spaces, and why I think some sticks and bricks can actually become emotional catalysts for a social group.

I began by doing a massing study with some different spaces/shapes, and began to picture myself in these spaces. Each space is interesting in itself, but how do you know if it is an interesting space without moving through un-interesting spaces along the way?
In an urban landscape (Dallas, for example), often times, buildings are placed in a block, without much consideration of the surroundings. Once the boundary lines of a site are drawn, the landscape outside of these lines disappears.



What if you had a multi-block site, where there were multiple paths that could be experienced, in between buildings? The goal would be to have different architects design their own buildings, but to always bear in mind how these buildings would be affecting/connecting to the others?
I considered middle eastern bazaars, but these are still separated, even though they are connected under one roof. This would need to be an more of an experience:
You go to the coffee shop building,
grab a coffee, (decide if you want to get a sandwich or a pastry)
follow a pathway into the pastry shop,
grab a puff pastry, (decide if you want to sit or keep walking)
walk to the outdoor seating space and meet your friend, (decide if you want to hit the bank or check out a book)
walk down the stairs into a library,
etc

Almost like the "Choose Your Own Adventure" books that we used to read as kids.

What type of spaces could use this type of experiential organization?
This happens all the time in a Facilities Business Plan at the scale of a building. Does this happen at a urban scale?


These are a couple things I am contemplating. I hope to do an "Exquisite Corpse" study, where I provide a realistic block, create a space, and pass the site to different architect friends and see what they can add with the one rule that each building must connect in some way.

2 comments:

  1. You are thinking along interesting lines with the everyday narrative and thinking of the spaces inbetween buildings! One of the things that is a disconnect for me here is the massing study. To understand the inhabitation between destinations and public streets, the exploration needs to be in vignettes - or perspectives. One way that you can get at this is to use your sketch up model and make a series of perspectives from then and then overlay and collage on top the spatial qualities that you feel create qualities like "connection" or "emotive".....Exquisite corpse could also be simply a way for you to express and explore your concept of "emotive." If done well, exquisite corpse could reveal disconnections under connection or connection despite disconnect.

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  2. i'm also curious as to how the massing study relates to the series of connections and "stops" you discuss in your post. It would be interesting to see what each store or stop along the path looks like and what is the mode for transitioning or traveling from one t othe next...

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