boston performing arts center. pa r s a kamali . harvard graduate school of design. third semester core studio. critic: maryann thompson.
boston performing arts center. This project stems from a belief that Boston Government Center’s lack of life is due to the homogeneous nature of the area; covered with monumental concrete buildings, the coarse and grey environment offers nothing of interest to city’s inhabitants. A single ribbon of a building whose immense scale is incapable of being grasped within a single glance, Paul Rudolph’s Government Service Center represents the epitome of a government center building. This project therefore injects the Rudolph building and government center with dissonance by juxtaposing the concepts of the so-called “high” and “low” arts, under the pretense that functioning, harmonious systems are dependent on some sort of antagonist, on disharmony.
PUBLIC PERFORM
BACK OF HOUSE
THEATER
LOBBY
PUBLIC PERFORM
parsa kamali_harvard gsd
boston performing arts center. To create spaces where this dissonant relationship can exist, where low art can take place on top of, next to and around the high, the building is embedded in the ground, inviting people to gather and perform while engulfing the performances inside. The building is dissonantly related to the Rudolph and the rest of government center by dissolving the ideas of monumentally, verticality and homogeneity that exist throughout the site. The building is embedded into the ground in such a way to have the least visual impact on the site. It avoids appearing as a single mass of a building; rather, the constructed landscape appears to have been sheared open to create spaces for spontaneous performance and gathering.
plan 1
office
office black box
artist / staff entrance reception
office
office
costume shop stage auditorium
sound / light lock
offices
restroom
restroom restaurant
kitchen
bar`
parsa kamali_harvard gsd
thermal baths. p a rs a k a m a l i . harvard graduate school of design. second semester core studio. critic: elizabeth whittaker.
thermal baths. in contemplating contemporary architecture as a product of technology, this project takes a stand against the notion that people are no longer willing to engage with architecture on a level beyond the surface, this lack of engagement being a result of the exponentially increasing rate of information and media consumption. this has resulted in an architectural culture where design emphasis has shifted to surface complexity that often serves the purpose of nothing more than to grab attention or make a visual statement, rather than to physically engage the inhabitant. this building takes on the roll of a heideggerian “thing” (those items characterized by our use and interaction with them, our “nearness” to them), rather than “object” (items which are pretentious and separated from the human and have no use). one cannot know the building without physically engaging with it, experiencing it, feeling it, hearing it.
FOURTH
massage baths and rooms
ground. lockers_cafe_yoga lockers_cafe_yoga_sound and sound and outdoor baths outdoor baths
GROUND
FIFTH east facing
section
specatating baths_cafe
second. ice and cold baths ice and cold private vacating baths_private vacating
SECOND
north SIXTH salt bath_steam_cleansing rooms
THIRD
third. flower baths_mud room
flower baths_mud room
f a c i SEVENTH ng section
parsa kamali_harvard gsd hot bath_steam_sauna
thermal baths.
model interior
steel facade detail
hidden room. p a rs a k a m a l i . harvard graduate school of design. first semester core studio. critic: ingeborg rocker.
hidden room. asked to rethink and redefine what it means to create and occupy a “hidden” room, this proposal presents itself as a monolithic cube whose exterior withholds any hint of its interior functionings. upon entrance, one is greeted with a staircase whose purpose is ostensibly to grant access to the building’s spaces. rather, the staircase and stairwell serve one function: to take the unfamiliar observant directly through and out of the building, placing them in an “exit hall” which displays them to those who already know the way the building functions. to circulate through the spaces, one must do what the building tells them not to do: circumvent the entrance.
two systems
ground
second
third
fourth
parsa kamali_harvard gsd
hidden room.
charles
river
lock bldg. boston
harbor
p a rs a k a m a l i . harvard graduate school of design. first semester core studio. critic: ingeborg rocker.
charles
river
lock bldg. boston
harbor
as a study on the kinetics of architecture and geometrical inscriptions of actions and states, the only precedent for this project was one of eleven given mechanisms to be studied and applied to a site located on the locks controlling the water level between the charles river and the boston harbor. choosing the “vane pump” as my mechanism, i began to study the mechanism’s inherently “elastic” qualities. the apparent symmetry in the housing of the pills is constantly altered when the device is in motion; the distance between the pills is changing with each degree of rotation. therefore, rather than manifest the mechanism in my design, i decided to exploit this malleable quality in the mechanism.
charles
state_1 most squished
vane pump
state_1 closed_open
state_2 less squished
state_2 open
state_3 least squished
state_3 closed_open
river
boston
harbor
parsa kamali_harvard gsd
charles
river
lock bldg. boston
parsa kamali_harvard gsd
harbor
upper bar / patio 1
lounge 1.1
open to below
lounge 1.2
open to below
vip entrance / lounge 1
open to below
dj booth
upper bar / patio 2
lounge 2
open to below
vip entrance / lounge 2
shifting nightclub plan
bristol, museum board inset mechanism: plexiglass
contact
parsa kamali 8 1 8 . 8 0 7. 68 70
pkamali@gsd. h arvard. e du kamali. parsa@gmail. co m www. parsakamali. co m