taking off from the HILLSmasterplan, the next design brief called for the design of a museum of the Tiber River, to be located on the edge of the tiber at somewhere along the masterplan site, and accommodating the existing ruins of the Arsenale.

in some of the early sketches, i began to use the Arsenale as a generation point for the hills, a reference to the Seven Hills of Rome. the ruins creates a disturbance – a rippling of the landscape.

the undulating form buries the building into the slope, revealing the museum only at points where it tears away from the landscape to create apertures: entrances and light wells.

the roofscape takes advantage of the terrain created below. pockets of plateaus in the centre of the site house nodes of activity – gardened pockets on the west and hardscaped (yellow) pockets on the east – as well as nestles an open air amphitheatre between two hills along the water’s edge. the majority of the landscaping will be used to reintroduce the rugged plantlife found in the area, rather than create a completely grass-covered roof park.

the mesh of park paths, highlighted here in red, creates a network from node to node, revealing areas of activity and porosity from the city fabric to the river.

working with the Baroque concept of folds, monads, and an inner energy of the Earth, the HILLSmuseum mutates the landscape in its vicinity. starting from sketches and working with physical study models, the form, the plan, and the landscape inform one another stongly, as one volume directly influences the other.

the monad, a concept proposed by Leibniz, is a self-contained and finite world – a fragment of a larger, potentially infinite cosmos. there is a pure interiority, whereby an explosion of activity creates an internal pressure exuding potential energy. this concept, along with numerous Baroque thinkers, questions the meaning of surface, and depicts the exterior as a subtle reaction to the power of the interior.

a study of a small section of the roof highlights the structural elements that bind the two organic elements of interior and exterior.

the plan of the interior is completely fluid, weaving the user through the museum; it is not generated by an external grid or structural system, but by a study of the experiences.

00. lobby, 01. iconography, 02. ecological timeline, 03. the city, 04. the future

a palette of exhibition types was developed to accommodate the programs while assimilating the aesthetics and forms of the HILLS and the context: dissected hillscapes, weaving paths, the sections of the Arsenale, and the datum of the city.

[galleria gid="vlow"]

01 approach. 02 hub. 03 entrance. 04 lobby. 05 to hall01. 06 hall01. 07 hall02. 08 to hall04.
09 hall03. 10 hall04. 11 hall04 to hall01.

through articulation of the folded section and exhibition displays, the museum is derived from perspectives and interior experiential qualities rather than a strong exterior form or plan. this creates a rather subtle landscape structure, but a compelling and meandering procession.

a compelling view of the museum in section depicts the halls as they expand and compress while weaving through, above, and beside each other, affecting each adjacent form. this creates interesting spatial qualities between exhibition halls, which are not separated by partitions, but by levels and compression.

looking down the lobby to the museum…

posting up a few more renders as the model gets more and more developed

looking across hall01, you can see hall04 overlooking it (menacingly)

looking up hall01 to hall 02 (creating moments of articulation)

the tunnel of hall02
pure. white.

the archives, from hall03
a lil gloomy

articulating the edge to create a boundary…railings!

i haven’t really described anything on this project, but as it comes together, i think the ideas will come together for both you and me. studying some of the moments and tweaking the forms (aka, adjusting those pesky curvy slopes…everything is slopes…hence the Hills.

unfortunately, this makes modelling take forever…but it’s looking pretty cool.

a first look from hall01 looking up at the lobby (glowing) and hall02 (dark)
that rectangular prism is a scale figure…(gimme a break!)

back to modelling…here’s the serpentine floorplates

and a quick shot of modelling in action!

working on the displays in the museum.
landscaping the partitions.

landscaped partitions creating a secondary core within the Hall.

built another diesel ad model just to light up the entrance…
i do have a computer model…so…

so i built a model…this is looking at hall03 and all the connections from the other halls.
using paper to test the aesthetics of folding and warping…
i seem to use a lot of diesel books for models this term.

looking inside the halls 01, 02, and 04.

a view from the street….glowing at night!

and glowing from the sea!

how fitting…monica bellucci…eating grapes…in my museum
kinda lonely, though.
(a view from hall03)

not that descriptive, but i thought some travelling section slices would be neat-o…

and a longitudinal cut!

i scanned the sketch of the plan (the beginnings of which showed up in the last update), and began rhinoing the program volumes into existence. (mind you, this is a first try at Tsplines)

the underground voids look like a…positive-ized sculpture.

cut it open and peer inside the weaving volumes…

here’s looking in from Hall01 to the connecting arteries…kinda looks a lot like branching blood vessels!

one step further into the beast..

on to the drawings!
interim crit tomorrow…

the peripheral programs siphons in visitors.
joon’s working on his chunk. i attached it virtually in photoshop.

circulation flowing in and out…over a landscaped roof

i don’t know why, but i did a bunch of paths in photoshop…then mosaic-ed them to make them pixelly. i guess pixelled roofs are in.

a view from the sea…missing some roofs? T_T

temporary and external exhibits pushing circulation towards the entrance…

a diagram of the circulation flow overlaid on a clay sketch model….
windy…and twisty…and loopy…

[galleria gid="muse" thumbnail="none" size="600"]
^ click through my sketchbook

working on a museum along the tiber, tying in with the previous project, the HILLS masterplan. inspired by the baroque concepts of monads and folds (the divine relationship between the infinite and the finite, the concept revolves around the continuous surface. at this stage, i’m working out the forms and how the folding and creasing of the hills informs both the interior and exterior ‘scapes.

this project is in the works, and will be updated as i go!

In Rome at the moment and finished working on a masterplan project with a few classmates. This is a revisioning of Porta Portuense, a site just outside the old Roman city gates…packed with shanties, dumps, and abandoned scooter parts: the home of the unwanted.

oh, and the infamous flea market…

Analyzing the site and the surrounding neighbourhoods, we found that the existing road (via Portuense), along with the walls that surround it, cuts the access to the Tiber from the city. The longitudinal flow across the site prevents residents from the northwest from filtering through…but without program, the wastelands proves lacking of any desirable destination.

The vision, in short, is to draw from the dynamic and spontaneous nature of the flea market. the urban fabric into a porous network of paths: the urban fingers of the roads intersecting with the green roots of the river. In addition to breaking up some of the more solid built masses into finer grained residential blocks, the traffic on the road is reduced into a serviceable boulevard, transforming the disused corridor into a river-side park.

The major intervention along the river is the redevelopment of the river wall into a meshwork of hills. This varying array allows for the creation of a multitude of conditions: explicit and implied paths, gentle slopes for walking, paths cut through the earth, large plateaus for informal gathering or exhibitions, and more.

The multiplicity of paths and informal functions accommodates the ever-changing Tiber: the rising level of the river does not shut down the path system, but allows for new paths and experiences.

Instead of creating a spectacle by manipulating an Antique piece in a contemporary manner, an art piece has been chosen to be used at the Mausoleo di S Costanza in a contemporary approach utilizing Antique methods. The contemporary art piece, titled “Equilibrium” by Gino de Dominicis, was chosen because it represents a precise balance: a summation of the complex mathematical and visually rational perfection that Antique artists sought in their work. The intervention, thus, acts to create equilibrium with the above architecture; if the dome and ambulatory spaces form hierarchies of light, then the reflected ‘pit’ utilizes the same principles to create hierarchies of dark. The art and the intervention subtly tie in the delicate balance between life and death found within the mausoleum.

worked on some vignettes for a modular living concept design. comprised of thirds that form a complete hexagon, this prefabricated unit can provide quick and relatively sleek temporary housing for emergency relief situations.

this dionified version of the vignette is a little grimmer than the original vignette, because reality isn’t so cheery. However, it’s not overwhelming dark..just a hint of creepiness…which i like!

after watching the trailer for the new ALICE: MADNESS RETURNS, a very dark video game based on the quite pleasant Alice in Wonderland, i knew i needed to…well. you know.
thanks to tae for taking the photo.

for the GREEN360 competition by arquitectum, PHOAM developed some high end lofts overlooking golf courses (fancy enough)?

here, i worked out the exterior facades, with the signature and namesake of the design: vertical green.

i populated the interior of the unit, and – even despite not having my standard kim kardashian cutouts – i managed to create a convincingly comfy bachelor pad.

The A3 Salerno Highway, stretching between Scilla and Bagnara, provides an incredible opportunity for a ribbon of green parkland to crown the coast; a tourist site and a wildlife sanctuary.

Capitalizing on the rough coastal topography for solar and wind energy, Solar Park South will showcase future sustainable technologies.

Initially, 5 nodes along the path will be developed to implement renewable energies within the infrastructures: wind power in the canyons – integrated under the Favazzina bridge and in a new hotel structure on Sfalassa bridge; solar energy at the two highest points – a chapel incorporating a heliostat tower and an elaborate PV canopy; and at the lowest point (near Scilla), a geothermal campsite. The nodes will be paired with research facilities, housed in adjacent tunnels. These 5 nodes spawn a pragmatic and performative strategy whereby different users engage on different levels, while acting as foci from which the park will expand and evolve.

Additional programme will spread from the nodes, creating flexible public spaces: educational facilities, exhibitions, and public amenities. Between the nodes, canopies and rib structures from reused local materials, along with vegetation path structures will be installed in phases, generating experimental zones for researchers to test and develop sustaianable technologies and materials.

Akin to growing organisms, the path will overtake the existing road over time, gathering and housing new technologies as it expands and reintegrates the natural landscape; the ”degredation” of the highway. Vegetation will overtake structure, and the return of wildlife will be promoted. Subsequently, public use will flourish; amenities promoting hiking, cycling, and camping will further garner tourism and highlight the potence of sustainability.

for a quick design brief (one evening) detailing a monument design for the mississauga city hall. the monument aims to honor the war veterans of Canada.

the concept embraced was one that did not just highlight the individual heroes, but celebrated the collective of canadians, their sacrifices, and the nation they fought for.

the design of the monument revolves around the metaphor of the fallen leaves, to poetically symbolize the war heroes with a simple maple leaf, a strong canadian symbol.

each leaf is etched or marked with a message from a loving family member or well-wisher.

the fallen leaf is then attached to the monument wall: a flowing array of pegs holds a flowing tapestry of messages.

the exterior of the monument remains nondescript. nestled into a set of stairs, the bending walls cut into the existing hardscaping, creating a sculptural piece: strong, silent, and monumental.

the walls enwrap an ovular space, a private space for contemplation and reflection. working with the existing stairs, the monument creates a place for seating, and frames a slice of the sky with the mosaic of leaves.

finding childrens’ old halloween costumes at value village spawned a series of fun and random photoshoots by me and stephanie the.

part two. tiger + lion = liger.

part three. and then food!