utilitarian poetry
utilitarian poetry
//aka ’(s)porto vivo -fragments of freedom’ -a collaborative effort Le Idiot Savant Lise Bækgaard Kasper Danielsen Arkitekter
SUMMARY
PREFACE:
adjacent programs? Collectively the sites constitute a kind of constellation, or trail of bread crumbs, delineating a field of eventS that provide a new kind of map, a map within a map (within a city). This we believe is responsible planning, as has been proven time and time again by many an architect, planned cities are often aesthetic exercises without any vested interest in the physicality (and reality) of the city. We’d like to think this is different.
FRAGMENTS OF FREEDOM(?):
DICHOTOMY:
How does one engage with a city like Porto? How to establish a continuity that is at once both geographically and typologically disparate? As a city, Porto is a vital conglomerat, there’s a very clear sense of layering and erasure is never total. a city like this trancends logic, places like these can never be understood in intellectual terms (allthough we try), but rather through a a sense of wonder.
A laughable proposition. Of course the title is so outlandish, how can they be serious!? We know this, but in a small way, this is what we’re attempting to provide. Not in a heroic manner, but in an everyday kind of way. We attempt to provide fragments that can meld with a city in a very discrete way, while retaining a sense of that ’je ne sais quoi’. Perhaps a kind of unlikely encounter, a hidden pocket, a fissur in the fabric of the city, that contains something shifts the perception of that place. Utilitarian poetry. The fragments link up to provide a series of spaces that facilitate flows between the riverfront and the city center, while providing places for human activity and interaction. Every insertion attempts to utlize the site and it’s specificity as the primary driving force in its conceptual inception, in which way is it connected to the rest of the city? How can the way the site works in a myopic way be reconciled with the needs the city (as an organism)? What distinct typological traits does it posess? what are the
Programmatic and architectural interventions. We divide the the overall scheme into two categories, programmatic and architectural. While these categories do not necessarily express a division in hierachy or conception, it makes sence to distinguish between the two, one deals in the strategic implementing of specific programmatic content, and the other deals in establishing contextual interventions and insertions, one has the capacity to reinvent an area within a set frame, the other circumvents, reassembles and redefines patches within the city, providing new connectivities, places that at once function as infrastructural space as well as a place unto itself. The paradox of providing an object and it’s disapperance.
URBAN SCALE EXECUTION:
From the outset, the intention has been to produce a robust way of engaging with the city. To this end we have sought to adopt a strategy of autonomy, so that each parts can be executed and function on its own, while the accumulation produces a project that engages with the city on a larger scale. This affords the city and its collaborators a greater flexibility in terms of budget and scheduling.
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SITE PLAN 1:4000
IMMERSION
What no city should be without! We are not breaking new ground here, but despite their best efforts of pretending to, architects seldom do. THis is the selfless offering to the gods of common sense and general well being. A place for gathering, looking, exercising and just splashing about. Sometimes strategizing is easy.
IMMERSION_VIEW FROM CAIS DE ISTIVA
CULTURE BOX
What is the alchemy of love and youth? In a fit of wild abandon we decide to surrender to the young and the restless. Let them eat cake, let them have a small enclave perched on a rock, let them look down upon the riverbank, and imagine what a city could be.
CULTURE BOX_VIEW FROM ESCADAS DO BOREDO
WISHBONE_VIEW FROM PONTE DE D. LOUIS
WISHBONE
An architectural triple threat; part urban park, part infrastructural node, part sports facility. Utilizing a derelict site below the Ponte Luis, the fragment acts as a figure linking the bridge with the city below it
WISHBONE_VIEW FROM ESCADAS DAS VERDADES
VERTICALITY
ON DISPLAY: People as obstacles. As a counter intuitive measure we propose to exhibit athletes in a pit placed in the least likely place. The players are offered a magnificent view of the river while putting their antics on display, other users have to traverse the pit on a ’bridge’. Forced exposure. meetings by default.
How else could we react? Despite the initial attraction, we were apprehensive, how can we engage with this? How can we celebrate the violent beauty of this place? We test it! To view it as a sacred place, a place to be revered in classical terms, would be to confine it to times past. We believe in the site and in its robustness, we celebrate it by examining it, by taking it into possession in the most direct ways. As a displaycase of found objects the park is a vital collection of programs that find their way there by any means possible, each corner finds a different way to accomodate program.
CLIFFHANGER_VIEW FROM DOURO
ALLEY OOP: Classic urban typology meets classic urban topology. The perfect place for casual pickup games or a full on street ball tournament.
CLIFFHANGER: Sometimes the obvious choice works. If there was ever a no-brainer in choosing a program for a vertical park with a partially exposed rock face, this is it. convenience and drama melded.
CLIFFHANGER_VIEW FROM DOURO
URBAN PARK GUINDAIS:
If the pared down rustic nature of the verticality park and its focus on activity is tearing on the system, the gentler sibling is no more than a short dash away.The giundais slope houses traditional park activities, with different amenities for picnics and other family relatede activities.
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SITE PLAN 1:2000
PROGRAMMATIC INTERVENTIONS
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AVAILABLE CONTAINERS_FUNCTIONS
AVAILABLE CONTAINERS_FUNCTIONS #01� Community center� � � � � #05� Port wine tasting #02�
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Portuguese craftsman museum� �
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Rowing club
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Fishing equipment rental
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Port wine tasting
Portuguese craftsman museum� �
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Rowing club
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Fishing equipment rental
Community center� � � �
Jodo doPau Club�
Entrance to public parc� �
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Jodo doPau Club�
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Entrance to public parc� �
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PROGRAMMATIC INTERVENTIONS:
The available containers provide a series of programs that cater to both locals and tourists, providing folk culture experiences. Experiences that integrate seamlessly as leisure activities for the people who live in the city, while also appealing to visitors. The community center is is the largest program and is envisioned as a place that offer up interesting movies, exhibitions, poetry readings, restaurant etc. A place where local people and culture can meet on their own terms.
COMMUNITY CENTER_CAIS DE RIBEIRA
utilitarian poetry
http://idiotsavant.dk le@idiotsavant.dk (+45) 26365355