U Play Column Pavilion
Sound, Space & Body Cecilia Dobos
Introduction 1. Research & conclusion 2. From research to design - investigation - design principles 3. The Column Pavilion 4. Detailing 5. Appendix
From research to design, my graduation project focused on exploring one of the immaterial phenomena of space: sound. In this project I studied and tested how sound challenges the limits of architecture, and how architecture affects the sound of space. During the research and design I was seeking to explore the aesthetic significance of sound in relation to space and body. The project becomes a dynamic pause in the urban dissonance offering an absorbing ‘silence’. It genuinely invites the visitor for interaction, for play, while creating a rich visual and sonic atmosphere.
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The layered diverse columns are the defining elements of solids and voids, creating spaces for gathering and stages for the urban performing arts, while providing a rich visual and sonic play.
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Columns are layered on superimposed grids. Where the absence of columns defines void areas, the grid determines a lighting system that forms a constellation field. Walking through the pavilion is like walking on the milky-way among columns.
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Seating and kinetic columns are an interactive, emotive and performative medium of space
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Light, water and steel columns engage the public to interact with the elements immersing the body in space.
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Introduction 1. Research & conclusion 2. From research to design - investigation - design principles 3. The Column Pavilion 4. Detailing 5. Appendix
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“..it was not the home, but the city, which expressed and symbolized a person’s being and consciousness.” Henry Lefebvre, Writings on Cities
“Wherever we are, what we hear is mostly noise. When we ignore it, it disturbs us. When we listen to it, we find it fascinating.� John Cage. The Future of Music: Credo
Sound inhabits space wherever architecture occurs. Sound is a non-visible, but physically tangible character of space. Albeit in architecture and urbanism much of the discourse focuses on the visual aspects of space, sound is a crucial element of the public space. It has a large impact on the quality and the perception of space and it greatly influences our daily life. There are many aspects to study concerning the relation between sound and space, such as physical acoustics, the psychological aspects and the artistic dimension of sound; however, the focus of my project is to describe a city fragment by the soundscape and investigate its influences on the physical character, and on the perception of the space. The soundscape of the city, which is composed by the various dynamics of the everyday, is influenced by the material character of the built environment, and vice versa: the spatial character of space is influenced by the soundscape of the space. During the research, in addition to exploring approaches to sound from the fields of sound art and acoustics, I selected a fragment of Istanbul for mapping relationships between sound and space. Despite the complexity of the research topic and the difficulty of mapping an immaterial character of space, several principles or phenomena describing the relationship between sound and space emerged. These principles provided departure points for exploring these phenomena on a spatial level, in order to investigate the relationship between sound, space and body.
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Aural Architecture: The Invisible Experience of Space By Barry Blesser and Linda-Ruth Salter
The Sonic environment of cities By Michael Southworth
In this essay Blesser and Salter explore the relation between space, sound and spectator from dimension of aural spatialities: social, navigational, symbolic and aesthetic spatiality. The social spatiality is an acoustic arena defined by size and shape that delimits the listener to an invisible boundary that allows one to be engaged with an aural event. This sonic arena is not limited to physical barrier but rather to an experiential delimiter defined by the person’s perceptibility of the sound event. They emphasize that this invisible acoustic arena is depending on many considerations such as the characteristic of the sound and the space. In this invisible aural arena one can switch from one aural space to an another without bodily changing location. The navigational spatiality relates to the acoustic cues that allows one to move through the space without seeing. They refer here to blind individuals able to navigate through space without any guidance using echolocation. Symbolic spatiality is a sonic space with a special acoustic meanings and recognized as a earcons, which is similar to visual icons. Earcons appears not only in Blesser and Salters works, but also in the works of R. Murrar Schafer and called soundmarks. Blesser and Salter argue that a particular earcon connected to a specific space can “contribute to the creation of a unique sense of place” and produce a memorable acoustic experience. The aesthetic spatiality relates to the auditory texture of the space.
Southworth in his essay, The sonic environment of cities focuses on the significance of the soundscape in the experience of the built environment and the urgency to consider the sonic aspects of the urban spaces beside visual characteristics. His research on the sonic environment of the cities are based on the comparison to visual aspects. He walks along the city with blind and deaf people to study the influence and the relationship between sound and visual appearance. “Imagine a city without sound.” Southworth realizes the significance of sound when he study the perception of space by the deaf. He realized that a world without sound is often meaningless leading to break down social relationships. He argues form his research that without sound, the world lose its time, its dynamics and life seems to freeze and lose its contrast. He also observes that ‘auditory image’ is better remembered than visual image alone. The result of his study is that noise is an unwanted sound because it is not approved culturally, it is uninformative in the spatial setting, it interferes with social activities, attention demanding, or it is too high in frequency or too intense. In his essay Southworth urges to consider stepping forward to a sonic city design, which enhances the social life and overcome the anonymity of the visual aspects in the discourse of architecture and urban design.
Few selected theoretical readings
Fray By Raviv Ganchrow
Other Acoustics By Brandon LaBelle
In the essay Fray, Granchrow introduce the relationship of sound, space and spectator through his site specific intervension in a roadway tunnel. Our everyday environment is truly “wired for sound” and it is a “conduit as well as a soundboard for oscillation” which enrich our experience of space. He says that to experience space is dependent of our listening that transfer vibration from the material world to our inner world and connect us with space. In the auditory situatedness suggests the ambiguity of sound as a medium that seems to situated somewhere, but it seems to come from everywhere. What is important in the examine of sound and space is the understanding that “sound is always in relation to an observer’s vantage point or listening position” and “sound is a spatial ambassadors.” He suggests that auditory spaces are tangible spaces and hearing sound is embody space rather than represent. “ “Urban surroundings manifest dense, overlapping and often contrasting, sonic spatialities that non the less appear audibly coherent.” “The magmatic character of our experience of sonic spaces also renders them [the audible physical surroundings] resilient to deformations.” He suggests that there is friction in between our perception and the real space resulting in a distortion of the reality of space.
In his essay, LaBelle points us to the informative character of sound that describes and carries messages of the space. He sees sound as a significant social material that similar to architecture is based on sharing and making of communities and therefore it is an interactive, performative and emotive medium. Through the dynamic range of sound, the static form of space regain a degrees of performative nuance and materiality and “charging the environment with a sense of relation” as an emotive medium. Based on Paul Carter’s Ambiguous Traces LaBelle suggests that sound transforms the “strictly functional or spatial programme of architecture” into ambiguous spaces. He further links the notion of sound and space with John Cage theory where “music is generated form the integration of everyday life and surrounding space”. According to vibration phenomena, “buildings and environments are tunes and detuned by the interactions, frictions, mechanics and general movements of immediate surroundings which at times far exceed our expectations and which index a general economy of exchanges between subjects and objects.” “What sound may aid in defining are modes of building that remain in tune with the often ambiguous yet concrete material and immaterial exchanges taking place in everyday life.”
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Theoretical Framework - Interpretation
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In the perception of sound in space, the observer is the vantage point, the ‘center’ of space, and based on his position sound is able to deform and distort the perceived space. In the material and im-material matter of space reflective surfaces amplify the percived physical space visually as well as sonically, while absorptive materials have a constraining effect. Based on these two opposing effects, sound is able to deform, distort and reshape the perceived physical world.
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Space distorted by reflection: reflection, whether material or immaterial, is the amplification of space existing in both the visual and the sonic world.
Space distorted by absorption: absorption is layering that consumes all material and immaterial matters of space, creates fading away and isolates elements on a complex structure.
Mappings
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Although I investigated certain aesthetic aspects of sound, relating to the fields of sound art and acoustics, what interested me was to look at the influence of sound on space in the field of architecture. I approached this topic with two methods. One of these was to isolate elements that are ‘constant’ in the production of sound which are visually and sonically dominating the space. The second method was to focus on including the observer in the process, who - from the perspective of sound-space, is the vantage point. The observer is a critical ‘object’ of the immaterial realities of the space, who is an active receptor and at the same time an active producer of aural architecture.
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research site: densely populated urban fabric gives an opportunity to investigate complex relationships in both the visible and the invisible aspects of space.
research site: dominant visual and sonic elements and their territories
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physical character of the site
layering by materials framing the visual and sonic field
encloser and openness
visual discription of the sonic field
source
transmission
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reflection
absorption
Physical matter of space broken down to elements of materiality that influence and contribute to the sonic field
3. intensity of motorized vehicles dominating the space creating a surreal experience
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2. passing by train changes the athmosphere with its dynamic flash
Visual impression of the city fabric as a sonic theater. Stage setting by absorbing (red) and Three stages of sonic impression. reflective (black) materials.
1. powerful point sources of the soundscape
3. sonic volume of space
28 2. momentary dynamic of space: the invisible line blurring into the infinite of the physical space;
1. point as the defined object of the tangible world
Interpretation
Sonic space inwithin the physical world from the point of the observer.
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movie still: expansion and contraction of space as sound interacts with space, it expands or constrains the perceived space through reflection and absorption
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Deformation of space: amplification of space by multiplication of one single element.
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Introduction 1. Research & conclusion 2. From research to design - investigation - design principles 3. The Column Pavilion 4. Detailing 5. Appendix
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Investigation/experimentation
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Having taken from the research the phenomena of absorption and amplification (reflection), I used experimental models to test how these opposing qualities can be spatialized. I concluded that absorption is layering. Layering spatially can be defined by densified elements that determine the solids in the space. These densified architectural elements are the spatial delimiter that creates absorption and fading for both the visible and the invisible character of space. Amplification as a spatial phenomenon was first investigated through the idea of reflection through materiality. As an initial attempt, the use of reflective materials to achieve spatial amplification overly simplified the phenomenon. A further exploration was carried out that lead to the idea of amplification by means of a multiplication or repetition of a single architectural element which visually amplifying (extending) the perceived space. The recurrence of the same spatial element not only amplifies the space, but it also dissolves boundaries, blurs where material and the immaterial begins and ends, binding the invisible and the visible character of space into one notion: space, sound and body.
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Spatial layering by materials: Layering by merely materials dismisses the notion of amplification, fading away, limits absorption to its intimate surrounding and confine the possibility for spatial extension and dynamic movement.
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Two directional layering: Brings forth absorption and fading away but in a very static, linear way, disregarding the notion of spatial amplification.
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Layering by weaving: Achieves the effects of fading, blurring, and absorption by imbuding the object of space, but does not construct spatial amplification.
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Spatial Amplification: The repitition of one single foundamental element amplifies the space.
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Absorption by layering in the amplified space: Varying the density of the fundamental element that amplifies space brings forth the notion of absorption as ‘solids’ and ‘voids’ are created in the space.
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Fading by height variation Fading away softens the amplified space, as when fading sound softens the perceived boundaries of space.
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Design Principles Columns, one of the most basic architectural elements, are arranged in a manner of repetition and densification that creates spatial absorption and amplification.
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The columns are of varying types. Each column type is set on its own grid, but responds to the other grids in the formation of solids and voids, in other words, structuring densification and lightness. These grids, overlaid together, allow the methodical playfulness of the design. The columns are organized and layered on a labyrinth structure, which creates not only absorption but also generates a dynamic space. The structure of the labyrinth suits for constructive organization and structures the creative method of the design while spatially creates a noble dialectic of solids and voids, a constraint or expansion of space allowing solitude and communion.
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Labyrinth structure: - a spatial organization creating the dynamic conception of space; - a structure for mental organisation as well as a creative method for design; - a layering; - a noble dialectic of solids and voids, a constrain or expansion of space
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Column labyrinth: - abrorbing the visible and the invisible of space; - amplification by a single foundamental architectural element - structure for creative play; - blurring through its gentle devision of solids and voids
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Intersecting verticals and horizontals to emphasize the relation of sound and body in space.
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Column types: structural and kinetic columns
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Column types: seating and alternative (water and light) columns
absolute absence of column projected as canopy perforation
white steel columns
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water jet columns light columns concrete seating columns white steel & glass fiber columns drainage absolute absence of column
Composition of the Column Pavilion by the different types of columns enriching the visual and invisible character of space
7. perforation: the absolute absense of columns on the grid system is projected to the canopies to create perforations
6. diversified columns on a grid as the performers of space
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5. absense of columns (negative space) location for water and light 4. grid 3600: structural column diameter 200 3. grid 900: seating column and ‘stage’ for dancing diameter 200 2. grid 600: kinetic, structural & performance stage columns diameter 100 1. grid 300: - kinetic columns diameter 50mm - base for column ‘dislocation’ to create densification
Construction of space by layers: the grids as basis for layering and the foundation for the labyrinth.
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Introduction 1. Research & conclusion 2. From research to design - investigation - design principles 3. The Column Pavilion 4. Detailing 5. Appendix
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Column Pavilion: a dynamic pause in the urban dissonance
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The Column Pavilion
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From the exploration of spatial amplification and absorbtion, the project evolved into a column pavilion with the focus on interaction, emotion and performance, in this way creating a space for the urban performing arts. It is an architectural product that highly engages whoever might encounter the pavilion. It becomes a dynamic momentum in the urban drift, but also a place to rest or to play and explore the possibilities of a column - a single architectural element - that invites the body for interaction while generating a rich visual and sonic atmosphere. The thin structure of the columns blur boundaries and create a sense of disorientation in a similar way to the overlapping of many sounds in space, especially in the case of Istanbul. The project aimed to create a public “building� implanted in a very delicate way into an existing urban situation, that will not only enrich our experience and our relationship with architecture, but also bring forth social awareness to one another.
tram stop tram am sstop
metro bus stop bus stop
underground passage
underpassage
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situation plan: my choice was to intervene in a form of overlaying an architectural project on an existing urban site with minimal destruction to its function in a way that possibly enriches its use. Therefore, I chose to operate on a complex urban square, which is determined by intense pedestrian flow allowing the engagement of body and its dynamics.
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metro station
bus stop
tram stop
underpassage
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site plan
light columns water columns columns: steel, concrete columns dia. 100 columns dia. 200
plan level +0.20 with lighting & water columns
ground plan 0.00
structural intervals
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columns dia. 100 columns dia. 200
plan level +1.20
plan level +1.20
structural intervals
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columns dia. 100 columns dia. 200
plan level +3.60
plan level +3.60
structural intervals
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columns dia. 100 columns dia. 200
plan level +4.80
plan level +4.80
structural intervals
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columns dia. 100 columns dia. 200
plan level +9.00
plan level +9.00
structural intervals
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athmosphere of the pavilion: dance in a ‘column fog’ blurring by layering and by the dynamic movement of columns
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light columns water columns columns: steel, concrete columns dia. 100 columns dia. 200
plan level +0.20 with lighting & water columns
structural intervals
lighting plan (besides pernament lighting, selective lights turn on when nearby columns are moved creating a dynamic field of lighting)
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Kinetic play of the columns creates the dynamic movement of light and sound through interaction with the body. When moved, selected kinetic columns generate light around them, thus engaging the body. Lights or water jets pop up around the body, bringing play to the space.
The blurred athmosphere of the pavilion with the moving columns activated by the movement of body and wind.
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labyrinth structure and layering of different columns
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solids and voids, paths through the pavilion
water dance
water dance water dance
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pole dance
light dance water dance
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indication of performance spaces concentrated with different type of columns
“ “silvery”
“swing”
“whispered”
“birds”
“melodic”
“soft”
“blow”
“mellow” “flute”
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“ticking”
“vibrant” “drizzle”
“bell”
“sonant” “pounding”
“sway”
“knocking”
“masked”
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pairing visual experience with sonic according to intensity of the different column types
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geothermal water pipe heated columns & floor
geothermal air heated columns
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geothermal heated areas through columns
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transformable changing room
access to metro underground passage
transformable changing room
water cistern 3 76 water cistern 5 water cistern 2
water cistern 4
transformable make up room
water cistern 1
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basement plan with water cisterns, changing rooms for the performers
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lit pavilion at night
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79 +7.50
+6.00
+4.50
+3.00
+0.90 +0.60 0
3.60
east elevation
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80
+7.50
+6.00
+4.50
+3.00
+0.90 +0.60 0
3.60
South south elevation elevation
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81 +7.50
+6.00
+4.50
+3.00
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section aa
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+7.50
+6.00
+4.50
+3.00
+0.90 +0.60 0 60 0
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section bb
83 +7.50
+6.00
+4.50
+3.00
perspective section aa
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The pavilion, as a delicate intervention on an existing extensive, concrete square with heavy pedestrian flow, brings attention to the aspects of body and movement. It absorbs both objects and sounds, filtering the surroundings and creating its own dynamics.
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Column pavilion as a theatrical spatial artifact
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Introduction 1. Research & conclusion 2. From research to design - investigation - design principles 3. The Column Pavilion 4. Detailing 5. Appendix
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Detailing
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The kinetic and interactive nature of the project required complex detailing for it to be easily maintained, expanded or shrunken. Paying attention to small details, for example the way in which the “seating column” meets the floor, or the way the columns meet the canopy, or solving the foundation details that allows movement but at the same time a “monolithically” stable was crucial. Keeping flexibility and simplicity as a major consideration was the challenge of the technical design.
5. canopies perforation from negative space of level +0.00
4. columns dia. 200mm on grid 3.6m
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3. columns dia. 100mm on overlapping of grids
2. columns dia. 100mm on grid 600mm
1. seating canopies at +0.60; +0.90
heated and cooled air out through perforation
geotermal heated seating columns
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pump out
air in through vents
water in from cisterns
filteration & pump tank
pump in pump in
air exchnaged in geothermal layer
air exchnaged in geothermal layer
geothermal air heated columns
geothermal water heated concerete seating columns
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columns dia. 100 columns dia. 200
platform structure plan
structural intervals
seating and performing canopies structural plan
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columns dia. 100 columns dia. 200
canopy structure plan
canopies structural plan
structural intervals
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D1: seating canopy plan view detail nts: not to scale, typical note
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D2 seating canopy section detail nts
D5: reveal detail @ seating columns nts
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D4: reveal detail around steel and kinetic columns filled with sand to allow movement nts
D3: structural and seating column footing detail nts
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D6 kinetic column footing detail with in-ground up lights nts
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D7: kinetic column footing detail with water column and water cistern nts
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D8 intersection of canopy with column detail with embeded sound absorbing Helmholtz resonators nts
D9 canopy detail, typ. nts
D10 perforation around columns penetrating canopy, typ. nts 102
D11 seating platform edge detail, typ. nts
D12 canopy edge detail nts
D13 canopy & column connection detail nts
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D14 canopy edge & diagonal structural column penetration detail nts
D15 canopy edge & column penetration detail, typ. nts
D16 ladder detail w/ wood plate nts
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D17 ladder detail w/ wood plate nts
D18 ladder detail nts
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appropriation of space 1: ‘afternoon’ life in the pavilion
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appropriation of space 2: night life in the pavilion
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1. Research & conclusion 2. From research to design - investigation - design principles 3. The Column Pavilion 4. Detailing 5. Appropriation 6. Appendix
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appendix 1: grid 300mm, the grid is an infinite extension of space that indicate possible growth but also at the same time a delineation in the production of space
appendix 2: grid 600mm, defines the steel kinetic columns
appendix 3: grid 900mm, defines the location for the seating columns
appendix 4: grid 3600mm, places for structural columns and labyrinth organization structure
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light columns water columns columns: steel, concrete
plan level +0.20 with lighting & water columns
ground plan with overlapped grids
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Model and therefore on site construction material calculation: column diagram by heights for calculating material need for efficient purchase and construction.
4. columns cut dia.200mm (gray steel for concrete) - 1m long - need 4
3. columns cut dia.100mm - 1m long - total 32 (16 plastic, 16 steel)
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2. columns cut dia.50mm (white steel) - 1m long - total 32
1. columns cut dia.50mm (plastic white) - 360mm long - total 30
Construction material preperation: calculating material need by column heights and diameter for economical and constructive efficiency (cutting for the model).
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artistic impression 1: approching the pavilion from the north
artistic impression of the pavilion with seating columns next to the metro station
In honer to a best friend, for his unfailing love and encouragement during my graduation. I love you and present this work to you, a work that took me through fire and deep waters. It challenged and formed my mind and therefore my life. A project that brought me an ultimate joy through all challenges. Thank for all you have done for me. I will never forget your compassion and encouragment. Thank you to all, friends and colleagues who stood besides me, challenged me with their developing critiques, supportivness and commendation. A deep appreciation to all of you who made it possible to ‘dream’ during my graduation and enjoy developing this joyous project. Special thanks to Oscar Roomens, Marc Schoonderbeek and Pierre Jennen. To the readers: I hope you enjoyed looking through this book with greatness similarly when I was making it. Please feel free to give me your feedback. with a passion for architecture, Cecilia Dobos