Municipal Library, Rome. Year 2, Semester 2

ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN ANYPLACE Adam McFall

Overture Reading The Written Word

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Reception

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Codified Language

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Architectural Dialect

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Schematics

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Writing

CONTENTS

Site

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Origins

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Character

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Intricacies

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Proposal

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Mechanism

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Appendix Drawing with Satellites

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Pecha Kucha

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To understand this project one must appreciate that I have made a number of connections which, if are not perspicuously addressed, will throw the proposal into the realm of the arbitrary. The first and most salient fact is that, throughout the development of my design, I am posing a simple question: ‘Can a building be designed in the same way a book can be written?’. This musing suggests many related questions and criticisms - books and architecture are very different things, but I seek to deconstruct these two forms of expression to their basal elements.

OVERTURE

Throughout the investigative stage I considered the written word on a number of scales, looking at words and letters as a visual phenomenon; as shapes without connotation - how they are arranged and how the eye perceives them. From this study I moved on to consider language and perception in a broader scope, not only in terms of these two discrete media, but as an exercise in human experience - what happens to us when we encounter something which has been manipulated and weighted with meaning; something which has been scripted?

I began to consider the acts of reading a book and traversing a building simultaneously and what happens in each case. In both situations a set of elements is used

Eagleton, T., ‘Literary Theory: an Introduction’, 1996

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to construct a setting in which we are to perceive what is happening in a certain way. I redefined the term space to broaden the field in which it could be used: if a space is somewhere we observe a spectacle or phenomenon, then there are profound spaces in literature and by extension all expressive arts. In literature we are lead through the text in a linear procession: although the content may be dynamic, we are always pulled through in a certain direction.

What happens inside the body of text, the intricacies, are only ever truly understood by the author. It is said that ‘the authors feeling is his own, and should not be stolen or trespassed upon by the reader1’. This is due to the internalised, personal nature of sentient thought. Therefore there should be space in writing which can be accessible on every strata of understanding. In architecture too, a building may have been designed with regards to a grand ideal; to line up with great monuments and to have exactingly proportioned spaces, but if it is not spatially pleasant on the most basal level of perception, then it has failed.

In the following chapters, ‘Reading’ and ‘Writing’, I will illustrate in greater detail the progression of my proposal from formative development to actuality

READING

READING

Exploration The Written Word

These preliminary models explore ‘the written word’ at its most basic, optical level: as a series of shapes with weighted meanings which shift depending on their order and juxtaposition. The following models show a whole, which can be split into a series of parts. As a whole the model has quite a different presence than when it is exploded.

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READING

Exploration Reception

This exploration attempts to explain the intricacies concealed in a written work, embedded by the author. The form of a whole remains, which splits apart to show the details within. From the outside nothing is revealed; an observer is blind to the coves within. When one begins to deconstruct the model, the observer first sees the scars which line the core - but unless the model is disassembled in its entirety; details are still unknown.

In literature there is quite a poignant relation: the true meaning of the text can only be known, in the greatest clarity, by the author. Observers may formulate their own opinions, however these will only ever be imperfect versions of the intent of the author.

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READING

Exploration Codified Language

The widest scope of the written word, a language, is the subject of this experiment. I devised a simple codified language as a series of eight characters, each of which have a form and a glyph to represent them. Similar to the first experiment, the characters can interact with one another, creating different spaces. I asked onlookers to try and break the code, using visual clues to match the abstracted glyphs to their corresponding

character. Considering each one separately and then comparing them, the observer would generally spot the pattern of recurring shapes and identify the condition they represented.

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READING

Exploration Architectural Dialect

For my final experiment I used the same methods I employed in my preceding models, but I operated for the first time specifically within the scope of architecture. I took elements from the language I had previously created and formed a set of details with intentionally ambiguous scale.

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READING

Exploration Schematics

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WRITING

WRITING

Proposal The Site

Set within the rione of Trastevere, south of the Tiber, the Piazza di San Cosmiato is the square in which my building is sited. The triangular piazza, which comprises a market and playground is a breathing space in the otherwise densely arranged locale.

Suffocated, or caressed - depending on your frame of mind, by the buildings lining the narrow lanes leading from the bank of the Tiber, the square exudes a raw sense of emptiness, but without a connotation of ‘lacking’, the square suggests possibilities, social, civic and, amply, architectural.

The richness of the site comes not from the fine, albeit archetypal Italian apartment buildings which surround the square, but by the urban phenomena which occur throughout the day: the intensity of the market juxtaposed with the laid-back cafe culture - the square is alive.

This small patch of the city is charged with a meaning - it will always be read as ‘the square in a dense urban centre’, but what if one was to re-write the typology of the square? It would impact not only the immediate vista, but the fabric of the city which surrounds it.

1:2500 . 50M

1:2500

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WRITING

Proposal The Site

The piazza was recorded as a series of snapshots, each encapsulating a different condition.

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WRITING

Proposal Origins

I considered how these conclusions could imply an architectural form. Looking at this architectural project through the lens of an author, I began to chose qualities to play on: a grand open space at the front of the building, with the building tapering out into the volume of the site.

A set of carved voids within the mass of the building without their presence being known. Thick exterior walls with oblique openings, allowing light in, but not the gaze of the public.

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WRITING

Proposal Origins

I began to think about procession and circulation through a potential building with relation to the piazza - Imagining entrances as diodes, with a strict entrance and exit, much like the mechanism of a book. I wanted the user to pass through a number of spaces and then exit

through the busy market. Moving throughout the day from the civic square at the front to the vibrant market at the back, the library could act as a filter between these two worlds.

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WRITING

Proposal Origins

With an intent for a scheme, but no formal arrangement I began to consider the elements in which I would ‘script’ the spaces concealed inside the envelope.

I set up a basic component of a strip of books with a double height lightwell at each end, acting as a conditioning space.

The spaces act as the chapters; they can be traversed or bypassed by the user.

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WRITING

Proposal Origins

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WRITING

Proposal Character

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WRITING

Proposal Character

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Public exhibition space

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Main atrium

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Magazines and periodicals

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Private study area

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General collection

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Rare books quadra

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General reading space

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Roof terrace

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WRITING

Proposal Character

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WRITING

Proposal Character

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WRITING

Proposal Intricacies

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WRITING

Proposal Intricacies

Each seat engages with the phenomena of the daily cycle. The way the light passes through a narrow slot in the early morning or the warm glow radiating from the roof-light, just obscured from view, the seating allows for users to find their own spaces.

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WRITING

Proposal Intricacies

Once inside, the building surrenders its richness.

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WRITING

Proposal Intricacies

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WRITING

Proposal Intricacies

There are two elements to the building; the enclosure and the core. The enclosure conceals the core entirely from the external; only surrendering details as the observer approaches the entrance. The density of the building varies greatly, as can be seen at various sections.

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WRITING

Proposal Intricacies

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WRITING

Proposal Ground and First floor plans

1:400

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WRITING

Proposal Second floor and Roof plans

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WRITING

1:200

Proposal Long Section

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WRITING

1:200

Proposal Short Section

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WRITING

Proposal Mechanism

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100mm thermal insulation

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200mm Cast in-situ, self compacting pigmented waterproof concrete outer leaf

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250mm Cast in-situ concrete pad foundation

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3mm Zinc flashing

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75mm Subteranian thermal insulation

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12mm Plasterboard

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Breather membrane

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Glazing

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Weep hole

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Cast-in steel wall pins

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Rooflight support bracket

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WRITING

Proposal Mechanism

Model exploring the subtractive landscape strategy, leveling the piazza.

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APPENDIX

APPENDIX

Drawing with Satellites Perfect geometry, Imperfect city

To the designers of Edinburgh’s new town, the square and the circle were the purest of forms, however the way the inhabitant experiences and traverses these circuses and squares is less than perfect.

In this exercise we took a circle and a square and walked them repeatedly to create a layered drawing: one made up of minor variations, but inevitability defining the geometry of the space.

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APPENDIX

Pecha Kucha University of Utrecht Library

I chose to study the Utrecht University Library by Wiel Arets as part of a precedent study project.

the change in condition of the interior spaces. It is also interesting to explore the use of colour - the scheme uses red, black and white almost exclusively.

What struck me as interesting was the massing of the building is very defensive - the use and scale of the concrete panels evokes a sense of authority, however the building has an architectural translucence to it as the arrangement of the external envelope suggests the layout of the interior: homogeneous glass and concrete panels are set in clusters to mark

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APPENDIX

Pecha Kucha Nembro Municipal Library

This small local branch library in rural Italy is a fine example of ‘talking’ architecture. The facade design, which uses dynamic terracotta ‘books’ to shade the interior spaces suggests to an onlooker what the building is for. Elegantly implemented, the lets in enough light for reading whilst shading from the sun, casting rich shadows in its doing.

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