+massu
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Emanuel Admassu
Master of Science in Advanced Architectural Design
Gathered here are a series of arguments for a diaphanous spatial condition where concepts of super-use, post-production and spatial appropriation are instrumental to the production of indeterminate architectural conditions. This is an architecture that hopes to facilitate the user’s potential to continue the process of creation. All three projects are designed to seamlessly unfold over time, reacting to the ever-changing political and cultural context. In the first project, existing architectural clichés are sampled, misused and outwitted to rethink the role of a cultural institution within the city. The second project samples a pair of contemporary urban conditions to activate the crumbling highway infrastructure of one of the fastest growing cities on the planet. And finally, the third project creates a scenario where both the user and architect act as DJs and producers, sampling, remixing and recombining a series spatial options. Whether it’s sampling clichés or cities, buildings or beats, sound-bites or images—this work takes great pleasure in taking items from the existing cultural market, abbreviating them, and using them to generate new spaces that others can build upon.
Contents 02 Excess VS. XS Enrique Walker , critic
36 Supermodel City III Keith Kaseman , critic
44 Hyper-Funerary Infrastructure Karla Rothstein , critic
EXcess vs. XS spring 2012 Utilizing a site in midtown manhattan two clichés or ‘received ideas’ were employed to generate a series of questions addressing the role of a contemporary cultural institution and its relationship to the city. Each member of the studio coined a clichés and generated a manual—how to make a cliché— that would be utilized as scaffolding for a series of design operations. The first project utilizes the received idea of ‘The Porcupine’ to generate an excessive container that will house a variety of organizations suspended from the spikes of a hairy envelope. While the second project inherits the received idea of ‘The Outerwear’ and develops a series of slot buildings, where the program is atomized and distributed in order to be re-linked through a bridging strategy. In both cases, the cultural institution was designed to simultaneously house a Museum, Library and Artist Residence. The Porcupine inserts a massive infrastructure that utilizes a post-tensed cable system to give maximum organizational flexibility for the three different programs that will be hosted within the cultural institution, this design operation transforms the decorative spikes into a structural system. The second project transforms the received idea of an ornamental
Enrique Walker, Critic Spring 2012
envelope into an operative structural system for the ‘next’ building—thus the notion of conceiving every Outerwear as another building. Both projects were designed to seamlessly allow the public to flow into the building from the street. In the case of The Outerwear, we carved out the site to provide a continuous, oblique, public space, while The Porcupine provides a continuous public plaza that plugs directly to a subway station below by floating the envelope and liberating the ground plane. Each one of these projects were generated in accordance to the constraints that were established by their respective manuals, making the point of transgression where we as designers outwit the manual, a crucial moment within the design process. In collaboration with: Lluis Casanovas, Idan Naor, and Eduardo Rega
Porcupine As a Structural System
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Excess Narrative We start the narrative of ‘The Porcupine’ by maximizing the available square footage. The whole site perimeter is extruded and punctured with spikes in order to receive a variety of cuturallyoriented programs. By lifting the large infrastructure completely off the ground, we are able to achieve a continuous public space, ready for spontaneous appropriation and provide direct access to the building.
01. Site
Spring 2012
02. Maximum Envelope
EXcess
03. Porcupine as a structural system
PORCUPINE
The first cliché we received is a building covered with ornamental spikes (UK Pavilion—Heatherwick Studio). We transgress the cliché by taking a modernist position—making every decorative element, somewhat functional. The spikes of the porcupine are therefore reinterpreted as a post-tensed structural system that suspends a series of volumes within.
RECEIVED
a user’s manual
Design Manual provided by another team
04. Suspended Program
05. Structural Articulation
06. Flexible organization
Porcupine As a Structural System
5
Flexible Structure The infrastructure is composed of a reinforced concrete container with a waffle structure, suspending a series of cables for different organizational types. The moment where the cables are post-tensed at the intersection of the waffle is the most curcial detail of the project—this detail allows for the maximum flexibility achieved through suspension. The outside face is flush with the spikes sticking out from the waffle. Within the 1m thickness
Tension Cables
Spring 2012
Slabs
of the wall, the circles go from small to large—exterior to interior—to maximize light without compromising the structural integrity of the exoskeleton. This range also allows us to have a series of carefully calibrated variations in the amount of light that penetrates different zones of the envelope, later determining the programs that will be floating within that zone.
Compression Bridges
Elevation
Exterior View
Interior View
Maximize Flexibility
Porcupine As a Structural System
7
Construction Timeline The infrastructure would be built in phases. The reinforced concrete waffle container along with its perimeter circulation will be built first, then the post-tensed cables will be installed. Finally, a series of slabs along with their stabilizers are suspended. Each organization will serve as scaffolding for the following series of organizations that will be built above.
Phase 1 Shell
Spring 2012
Phase 2 Cables
Phase 3 Slabs and Stabilizers
Phase 4 Maximize Flexibility
Porcupine As a Structural System
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Ribbon Circulation A continuous public ribbon connects the various programmatic organizations with the pulic plaza on the ground floor. Invading and interrupting the different organizations, the path winds in and out creating an ambiguous relationship between the different boundaries that exist within the building. This blurs the programmatic specificity of each of the slabs by allowing the different programs to migrate into one another.
Bridging / Compression
Spring 2012
Exposed Circulation
The ribbon path connects with the transportaiton infrastructure of New York by plugging directly to the MTA subway station underneath.
Circulation Ribbon
Combined Paths
Porcupine As a Structural System
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Perimeter Circulation The project is articulated around two types of circulation that interact between each other. The perimeter circulation—attached to the wall structure—provides a faster path. It is comprised of four pairs of elevators and a spiral staircase. This circulation provides additional structural support to the waffle container without blocking the circular apertures on the facade. A series of bridges connect the perimeter circulation to the individual organizations.
Elevator Cores
Spring 2012
Perimeter Circulation
Possible Routes
Combined Paths
Porcupine As a Structural System
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Organizational Catalog Once the infrastructure is set up, we suggest a catalogue of possible organizations for suspension. We have a series of 6 organizational types de-constructed into platforms and stabilizers. The diversity of these organization types allows for an amorphous void space in-between the individual organization types and the infrastructural enclosure. This creates certain zones of overlap and ambiguity. For example, the roof-scape of the Performance
1. Library
2. Administration
3. Museum
4. Performance Space
5. Archive
6. Artist Residence
Ephemeral Cable Programs
Spring 2012
Space can be utilized to project information for the Archive and the Arist Residence. The cable space that suspends these organizations from the enclosure is also utilized to house more ephemeral programs that compliment or negate the neighboring programs.
Suspended Organizational types
Porcupine As a Structural System
15
Expansive Envelope Each architectural organization is enclosed by a flexible envelope that can be adjusted according to the needs of the users. This can relate to the events that are held inside the volume or the ephemeral events suspended in the interstitial space between the waffle container and the slab. The expansive envelope marks a negotiable boundary between the organization and the cable space, offering all the variations betwen the ‘shrink wrap’
Slab & Stabilizers
Spring 2012
Steel tension & Cables
and the ‘sag’ conditions—responding to a diverse set of performative requirements.
Fabric Envelope
Flexible Enclosure
Section—expansion, contraction
Plan of expansive envelope
Porcupine As a Structural System
17
Architectural Findings The continuous interior public space connects a series of diverse spatial and programmatic conditions, blurring the boundary between the city and the cultural institution. By providing access directly from the public plaza and the subway station underneath, the building is able to directly engage the physical context of midtown Manhattan. The stairs and ramps that connect the slabs act as structural stabilizers, allowing each organization to achieve
Suspended slabs & stabilizers
Spring 2012
Programmatic Volumes
structural autonomy. Suspension opens up the possibility of an uninterrupted space in-between specialized organizations, while simultaneously allowing for maximum tranformability through the expansion and contraction of the envelope. The juxtaposition of heterogenous volumes allows for an architecture that is non-panoptical.
Inter-Volume Spaces
Porcupine As a Structural System
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XS Narrative We start the narrative by conceptualizing the facade of the adjacent building as our first outer wear, then we fabricate a series of similar relationships across the site until we reach a critical of approximately 3m to access the public space below. We carved out an oblique space that allows the city to directly tuck into our building. It is a ramp that leads to nowhere.
Conceptualizing Conceptualizing adjacent adjacent building as anbuilding as an outerwear outerwear
01. Conceptualizing adjacent building as Outerwear
Spring 2012
Carving Carving for Public access site for Publicsite access
02. Carving site for public access
XS
Spanning across the void to add a building for each outerwear
03. Spanning accross the void to add a building to each Outerwear
OUTERWEAR
The second cliché we received is a building wrapped by a seemingly structural but largely ornamental envelope (Birdsnest— H&deM). Continuing with our modernist obsession, we found another way to turn ornament into structure. We were able to misread the cliché by making each outer wear the structrual support for the adjacent building.
RECEIVED
a user’s manual
Design Manual provided by another team
Linking
Atomizing
program by multiplying through bridging outerwear strategy
04. Atomizing program by multiplying Outerwear
Replicating Replicating blocking systemsystem withoutwithout blocking public access public access
05. Replicating system without blocking pulic access
Linking
through bridging strategy
06. Linking through bridging strategy
Outerwear As Another Building
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STRUCTURALLY INDEPENDANT BUILDING
STRUCTURALLY EXPRESSIVE ENVELOPE
+
OUTERWEAR
Outerwear
received idea
RECEIVED IDEA
Rules 1. The thickness of the facade cannot be less than 1/4 inches or greater than 36 inches. 1. Outerwear Structure can not be occupied 2. opaqueness can not less than 5% or greater 50% 2.Outerwear The space between thebeouterwear and thethan performing structure cannot be occupied. 3. No openings on the Outerwear can be greater than 5 times the smallest one 4. The Outerwear can cover maxiumum 95% and minimum 45% of the facade 3. The opaqueness of the facade cannot be less than 5% or greater than 50% 5. The Performing structural system should not be the same as the Outerwear’s structural system 6. between Performing Outerwear can notthan be less5than 12 inches or greater than 10 feet 4.Space No openings on thestructure facadeand can be greater times the smallest one. 5. The outerwear should cover maximum 95% to minimum 45% of the building. Rules:
Spring 2012
INSTEAD OF ADDING AN EMPTY OUTERWEAR TO EVERY BUILDING...
Outerwear
WHAT IF EVERY OUTERWEAR COMES WITH A BUILDING?
TRANSGRESSION transgression
We converted the ornamental envelope into a performative structure by treating every outerwear as another building.
Initial Move: Instead of accepting the premise of the manual which suggest that the outerwear is added as a decorative envelope to a building we decided to make each Outerwear operative. Each Outerwear comes complete with a series of slabs or buildings. This is a strictly Modernist approach that forces each outerwear to perform structurally
Outerwear As Another Building
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THE OUTERWEAR OF ONE BUILDING IS THE PERFORMATIVE STRUCTURE OF THE NEXT BUILDING...
A SERIES OF OUTERWEARS AS BUILDINGS OR BUILDINGS AS OUTERWEARS
E
UR
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Strategy
STRATEGY
Once we devised a system that allowed us to utilize the outerwear of one building as the structural system of the next building, we multiplied a series of slot buildings horizontally accross the site
Rules:
1. Outerwear Structure can not be occupied 2. Outerwear opaqueness can not be less than 5% or greater than 50% 3. No openings on the Outerwear can be greater than 5 times the smallest one 4. The Outerwear can cover maxiumum 95% and minimum 45% of the facade 5. The Performing structural system should not be the same as the Outerwear’s structural system 6. Space between Performing structure and Outerwear can not be less than 12 inches or greater than 10 feet
Spring 2012
Outerwear As Another Building
THE PROGRAMS ARE ABBREVIATED TO A SERIES OF FURNITURE PIECES THAT ARE HUNG FROM EACH ONE OF THE OUTERWEARS
MS
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Atomizaton
ATOMIZATION
We abbreviated each programmatic element all the way down to the furniture and the minimum amount of space required to circulate.
Project Name
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Flexible Structure A series of trusses that span the full length of the site do two things simultaneously—they liberate a column-less oblique space underneath and they provide the structure upon which each one of the outer-wears will land. The furnitures and slabs are cantilevered off the façades.
A series of bridges provide circulation paths between buildings and function as double agents by rigidizing the towers laterally. The butterfly axon illustrates the condition on the ground and the underside view of the buildings from the public plaza.
Façades
Bridges
Trusses
Spring 2012
Butterfly Axon
Outerwear As Another Building
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Performative Truss The actual truss package negotiates the dichotomy between two conditions. Above, there is a plaza space that is perforated and augmented by a series of balconies, ramps and light wells— providing visual access and light to the space below. The actual truss is also used to house the utilities—bathrooms, mechanical space and ventialtion—for the obliques space. A series of programmatic elements housed within the truss package can be pulled down and utilized by the oblique space.
Plaza space
Truss with programs suspended
Oblique space
Spring 2012
The apertures on the facades are calibrated according to the programmatic element suspended behind. Program is reduced to its simplest constituents—furniture and associated volume— to achieve the maximum amount of buildings, and therefore outer wears. Buildings are multiplied until we achieved the critical dimension of 3m at the entrance of the oblique space.
Facades
Outerwear As Another Building
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Cantilevered Furniture Each program is reduced into an assortment of furnitures and cantilevered from the structural walls. In addition to the catalog of furnitures we have also provided a series of generic spaces that will be utilized for dwelling or the production and display of artwork. The auditorium spaces provide areas for gathering. Each one of the towers operate as a programmatic SIM cards that will respond to the specificities of the cultural institution
Facade & Furniture
Spring 2012
through their placement and accessibility from the different parts of the site. The different heights of the towers are determined in response to lighting and privacy requirements of each programmatic zone.
Cantilevered furniture
Outerwear As Another Building
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Foldable Circulation The vertical circulation elements that touch the ground are foldable and retractable, allowing for a complete separation between the events that take place above and below the truss. The oblique column-less space accomodates various scales of public events.
Circulation Diagram
Spring 2012
Atomized Plan Each organization is formed by the links of multiple bridges. This maximizes the potential changeability of the cultural institution throughout time. This condition frames an ideal zone for collaboration and interaction between artists and patrons.
Outerwear As Another Building
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Coexisting Museums This organizational system could provide interesting leasing options for multiple cultural institutions. Each institution can choose to operate independantly or coexist with another institution by sharing spaces such as bathrooms, offices and even galleries.
Spring 2012
Institution A
Institution B
Furniture
Volume
Circulation
Outerwear As Another Building
35
Coexisting Libraries The same organizational logic can be applied to a pair of libraries. Each library can choose to operate independantly or coexist with another library by sharing spaces such as bathrooms, offices and bookshelves.
Spring 2012
Institution A
Institution B
Furniture
Volume
Circulation
Outerwear As Another Building
37
Spring 2012
The flexibility of this cultural institution is achieved by designing a series of highly specific spaces that can be combined or isolated easily. The structural system allows for a complete separation between what happens above and below the public plaza. The specificity of the towers is balanced out by the open-endedness of the oblique public plaza below.
Project Name
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Supermodel City III summer 2011 In order to strategically engage the gaps generated by the crumbling highway system in Mumbai, 1km2 chunks of two inherently different urban prototypes—a large market in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and a major highway intersection in Atlanta, Georgia are sampled and utilized as spatial agitators. The fluid informality of Merkato—the largest open-air market in Africa—is strategically mixed with the rigidityof Atlanta’s complex highway infrastructure. The highway bordering the Dhobi Ghat community of Mumbai provides all the necessary ingredients to deploy the mash-up, ranging from a sprawling unplanned community to an under-utilized mass transit system. The supermodel city is built around three polemical statements that were derived from the urban samples; the city has no walls, the city hides its parts; and the city lives in the sensible horizon. The pedestrian movement paths within the open-air market place of Addis Ababa are loosely defined by the temporary installations used to display the goods, while the dashed white lines create provisional borders for the high-speed automobiles zipping through the highways of Atlanta. In addition, Merkato serves a hyper-active urban landscape negotiating various face-to-face interactions between
Keith Kaseman, Critic Summer 2011
merchants and consumers, while the highway experience while the highway system isolates each driver within a hermetically sealed transportation device. The opportunities gained and lost within these two urban environments are utilized to raise new questions and develop spontaneous methodologies to deal with rapid urban growth within the developing world.
Zone 1 Density Consumption Zone 2 Peripheral Rigidity Zone 2 Speed Fluidity
Supermodel City III
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Mapping Visibility A Parametric model superimposes the movement patterns that were analyzed in marketplace with the ones from the interstates system of Atlanta. In both cases, movement is mapped in correlation to visibility. Various actors are mapped throughout each one of these networks in order to understand the consequence of mobility within each one of these urban conditions. P1 P1
P2
P2
P2
P1 Vortex P2 P1 P2 P1
P1
Vortex
P1 P2
Summer 2011
P1
P1
P1
P1
P2
P2
P2
P2
P1
Vortex
P1
P2
Vortex
P2
P2 P1
P1
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20 Supermodel City III
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The city hides its parts Fall 2011
The city lives in the sensible horizon. Supermodel City III
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Spring 2012
The city has the potential to grow as a palimpsest, witout erasing it past, and incrementally improving its existing built infrastructure. By layering and dispersing the programmatic elements above the highway we are albe to reconnect the two seggregated neighborhoods of Mumbai. The small scale economic dynamism of the city is nurtured and allowed to grow according to its own parameters. Instead of providing rigid topdown planning strategies, this scheme allows the resident and the user to fill in the gaps. The spaces are designed to maximize the potetial for future appropriation.
Supermodel City III
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Hyper-Funerary Infrastructure fall 2011 The Hyper-Funerary Infrastructure infiltrates the static networks and dynamic agents of the city. Resolved by a series of components that can easily respond to a set of funerary and non-funerary functions, the project allows the users to customize their experience. It offers the samples and the mixing protocols for the users to become architectural DJs. The system responds to extreme ranges of dynamism, from the appropriation of transport media, such as buses and train cars, to parking garages and abandoned subway stations. Within the dynamic agents, the system inserts itself into buses and trains, utilizing their dimensional constraints as a primary point of departure for the design. This allows the heterogeneous experiences to take place in movement, or in a location far from the city. We identify three conditions within the static Networks: parking garages (exogenous), abandoned subway stations one level underground (ex-endogenous), and abandoned subway platforms completely underground (endogenous). These sites offer an expanded version of the programs for the dynamic networks to plug into.
Karla Rothstein, Critic Fall 2011
By oscillating between hyper-public and hyper-private spaces, mixing funerary programs with a multitude of non-funerary activities—the project injects under-utilized urban zones with a hyperactive series of public spaces. In collaboration with: Eduardo Rega
Sampling Prototypes
Isozaki Inflatable Robot
OMA Tres Grande Bibliotheque
Coop Himmelblau Villa Rosa
Peter Colomb & John Frazer Unfolding Caravan
Takis Zenetos Electronic Urbanism
Kenyi Ekuan Wohngerust
Isozaki Computerized Warehouse
Constant New Babylon
OMA Tres Grande Bibliotheque
Constant New Babylon
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Remix 01
Spring 2012
Project Name
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Remix 02
Spring 2012
Project Name
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Remix 03
Spring 2012
Project Name
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Funerary Network We identified a network of abandoned subway stations as under-utilized zones within New York that can be activated through the insertion of a public program. Once these abandoned stations were identified, we decided to have a complimentary network of above-ground parking structures located within walking distance from each one of the abandoned stations. This would allow the Funerary infrastructure to plug directly into the two
most prominent networks of transport in New York City—the train and the automobile.
Sedgewick abandoned subway station
Parking garage within walking distance
91st street abandoned subway station
Parking garage within walking distance
42nd street abandoned subway station
City Hall abandoned subway station
Fall 2011
Parking garage within walking distance
Parking garage within walking distance
Funerary Options Users are given the option of three possible site (types)—Exogenous, Ex-endogenous and Endogenous—for commemoration linked with two possible means of procession—network of trains or network of buses.
exogenous > parking garages
Exogenous
Parking structures above ground exogenous > parkingexogenous garages > parking garages
parking garage facades and roofs can receive program
exendogenous > stations under parks
endogenous > platforms various levels underground
Ex-endogenous
Endogenous
Abandoned station below parks exendogenous > stations under parks exendogenous > stations under parks
Abandoned platforms under active stations endogenous > platforms various levels underground endogenous > platforms various levels underground
park space above and the ligh-wells can receive program
vertical circulation and the abandoned platform can receive program
Hyper-Funerary Infrastructure
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Section Sampling 01
Exogenous
Parking structures above ground
Ex-endogenous
Fall 2011
Abandoned station below parks
Endogenous
Abandoned platforms under active stations
Hyper-Funerary Infrastructure
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Section Sampling 02
Exogenous
Parking structures above ground
Ex-endogenous
Fall 2011
Abandoned station below parks
Endogenous
Abandoned platforms under active stations
Hyper-Funerary Infrastructure
61
Section Sampling 03
Exogenous
Parking structures above ground
Ex-endogenous
Fall 2011
Abandoned station below parks
Endogenous
Abandoned platforms under active stations
Hyper-Funerary Infrastructure
63
Procession Option 01 (MTA bus) The body gets picked up from the hospital or house. The interior of an existing MTA bus is completely refurbished according to the needs of the mourners. By adding light-wells and removing all commercial signage from the side of the bus, we are able to subtly integrate the mourning procession within the existing dynamic networks of the city.
Mourning Bus interior perspective
Existing MTA Bus
Proposed Mourning Bus
Fall 2011
MTA Bus Plan
Mourning Bus plan perspective 01
Mourning Bus plan perspective 02
Hyper-Funerary Infrastructure
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Burial Site Option 01 (Existing Parking Deck) A direct connection with the network of cars and buses in the city is established by hacking into existing parking structures. The processing stations are house above the parking structure with a series of vertical circulation paths leading to Funerary and Non-Funerary modules. The buses are lifted directly to the roof of the parking structure where the commemoration ceremonies will be held.
PODS PODS PODS
Vertical Circulation
Truss TRUSS TRUSS TRUSS
VERTICAL CIRCULATION VERTICAL CIRCULATION VERTICAL CIRCULATION
Add Platforms
Buses
PLATFORMS PLATFORMS PLATFORMS
BUSES BUSES
Fall 2011
Modules
PODS PODS PODS
Buses BUSES
BUSES BUSES
BUSES
PLATFORM PLATFOR PL
Hyper-Funerary Infrastructure
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Modules Mourning modules allow mourners to interact with other family members while providing space for different levels of seclusion in the sancturaries and gradens. The body will be housed in these modules before it is sent to the processing pods.
Structure
Panels
Users are given six programmatic modules to combine according to their needs: Spa, Mourn-Hotel, Generic space, Mourning Room, Sanctuary, and Kiosk. Metallic structures are assembled, slid-in and bolted on to the train, bus or parking garage.
Shrink Wrap
Spa / Bath
Hotel Room
Generic
Mourning
Sanctuary
Kiosk
Fall 2011
Mourning Module
Mourning Module Roof Off
Hyper-Funerary Infrastructure
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Non-Funerary Modules A series of Non-Funerary functions allow the Hyper-Funerary infrastructure to simultaneously provide space for mourners and visitors.
Mourn Hotel Module
Mourn Hotel Module Roof Off
Fall 2011
Spa Module
Spa Module Roof Off
Hyper-Funerary Infrastructure
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Procession Option 02 (MTA train)
Burial Site Option 02 (abandoned subway station)
The body gets carried from the house or hospital to the closest subway station where it will be loaded onto the Mourning Train. The interior of an existing MTA train is completely refurbished according to the needs of the mourners. The mourning trian subtly integrates the mourning process into the existing dynamic networks of the city.
The body gets dropped off at the chosen abandoned subway station. A series of elevators will lift th body up to the processing spaces which will be hovering over the park. Mourners and citizens can experience this process directly from the abandoned subway platform or the public park above.
Existing MTA Train Plan Perspective
Proposed Mourning Train Plan Perspective
Propose Mourning Train Elevation
Fall 2011
Project Name
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thank you.