Wind Into Manayunk

from Architecture Portfolio 2020

Theatrical Revival

WINDING INTO MANAYUNK

A Market for Manayunk

Manayunk | Philadelphia, USA Spring 2019 Project Type: Academic Work, PennDesign Critic: Brian DeLuna Individual Work

Throughout the history, Manayunk has always been a community with close connection to the transportation systems. While the town being recently gentrified, the transportation systems has connected the community to the great Philadelphia and other regions in Northeast America. Transportation systems in Manayunk, including but not limited to the canal, buses, pedestrian bridge, and the train, has greatly shaped the town today.

Labyrinth, on the other hand, is a pattern with a long history dating back to the Cretan mythologies. With a single, undivided path winding through the site, traveler meander through the journey while taking in and absorbing the surrounding atmosphere. As transportation system is such an important feature to Manayunk, travel to/in this newly popular attraction town should be a pleasurable journey.

The site in Manayunk is designed to be a labyrinth where visitors wander in the designed routes and visit certain sculptural-like follies with the implied representational meanings of center transportation hubs in Manayunk. The winding paths are to contemplate, to enjoy, and to under stand the town. Inspired by Neil Denari and Preston Scott Cohen, the market itself is an elevated long span structure with conic supports. The conic structure adds on to both function - bike storage system, and aesthetic. The labyrinth pattern winds up throughout the site and the market building, merging the figure ground and produce ambiguity.

As Aldo Rossi said, ‘‘ One cannot make architecture without studying the condition of life in the city.’’By studying the conditions of transportation system as ‘‘artifacts’’, visitors are able to experience the town to the full.

01.Render

02. Figure Ground Studies 03. Site Transportation Analysis 04. Labyrinth Mapping

05. Figure Studies and Chunk Model

Figural studies start from combining two simple cubes and understanding how textures and labyrinth pattern flows through figure and ground to create ambiguity and linking between the two.

Then chunk studies were done with the same idea of unifying site and market with pattern wrapping. Site was first mapped with labyrinth pattern, then the market took the form of a rectangular box supported by cones. The labyrinth pattern then flows through figure and ground.

The rectangular body is the main market, and cones either act as elevators for visitors, or housing for machineries for bicycle storage.