2 minute read
Evolving Envelope | Spring 2021
EVOLVING ENVELOPE
Design IV - Spring 2021
Advertisement
–Alain de Botton, The Architecture of Happiness
strawberry Mansion and AlleghenyWest have been blighted by news reports of violence and drug abuse for years. What many may assume are dangerous areas in North Philadelphia are in reality unique subdivisions with their own rich history, from the Revolutionary War period to the modern era. These neighborhoods hold secrets to the past that enrich these communities’ present and future.
Designed in 1905 by Horace Trumbauer, the Strawberry Mansion Music Pavilion was constructed on the site of a simple band platform. The Park’s elaborate trolley system and the opening of the Strawberry Mansion Bridge in 1897 boosted the popularity of many park sites—including this former Music Pavilion. The intent of Evolving Envelope is to create a building envelope that encourages user engagement with the Strawberry Mansion Music Pavilion. The design is comprised of a skeletal envelope that is fl exible in usage over time while facilitating a variety of diff erent programming. In this way, users dictate how the space is used over its lifetime.
One example of how the envelope could facilitate the existing architecture and user engagement is by being used as a green space for the surrounding community. Another, as an art installation with colored light streaming through the envelope openings creating a new experience within the pavilion. The architecture creates an opportunity for fl exible design and allows temporal spaces to be created at any time that would encourage users to experience the pavilion and continue to come back.
The North façade remains untouched as to honor the existing historic structure as well as create a dramatic shift as user’s perspectives change while circulating the exterior. The envelope contours to the existing architecture and responds to what is occurring within. There are cutouts and voids in the envelope that provide unique natural daylighting inside and transform the space throughout the day.
RIGHT TOP Interior Perspective I | Community Green Space RIGHT BOTTOM Interior Perspective II | Art Installation
