FA21 - ARCH 515 - Graduate Architectural Design Studio - Hypogeans

ARCH 515 GRADUATE ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN STUDIO FALL 2021 Hypogeans Rubén Alcolea, Associate Professor of Architecture

Mitchell DaSilva

Fall 2021 | Arch.515.01 Grad Arch Design Studio | Hypogeans Instructor Rubén Alcolea

SAAHP Art, Architecture and Historic Presercation Roger Williams University

Hypogeans d’Invenzione Part One: Form Research Mitchell DaSilva

Chand Boari is located in North India and serves as one of the largest, most beautiful ancient step wells in the world.

The project is accessed through one entry and the rest of the well is bordered by four retaining walls where circulation occurs along the inner perimeter. This typology of well is unique to this nation because it has steps that are built into three sides which leads downwards 20 meters to the water.

Not only was this used to harvest water but the nature of this region is arid so the public would use this space as a place to cool off. The precise geometrical pattern of the stairs design interacts with light and shadow to create a captivating visual effect. The design relationship between the building portion and stairs work well together; there is a nice dialogue between these two features, making the design feel coordinated and married.

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Chand Boari served as a great precedent in terms of playing with twilight and mass. The project roots itself deeply into the ground and even though there is no roofing system; the well still manage to interact with light in a successful fashion.

The design characteristics of this project were powerful and intentional so it was important to carry these qualities to my design. The concept behind my foam model was to have a dome and remove the ‘weight’ or heavy feelings that are typically associated with this architectural element. The way this was achieved was through two ribbon light wells that would separate the connection between the domes edge and wall. When light channels through the dome appears to float because the light blurs and removes the visual connection.

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Chand Boari, North India

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A Quarry. A Site. A Memory Part Two: Rock of Ages, Barre, VT Mitchell DaSilva

The extraction of raw materials is what sustains our society.

Day to day life moves so fast that we hardly ever pause and take a moment to think about the materials which are used to construct the built environment. As populations and cities continue to grow, the flourishing landscapes which harvest and feed cities, become more deprived. The endless demand for raw materials have taken a toll on the natural environment. The mountain face has been scarred in the sake of global economics. The time has come for these wounded environments to heal.

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Artifacts

Located in an environment which has previously been modified human action; the idea is to utilize what is left of the landscape. This proposal utilizes architectural operation to enhance this abandoned environment, adjusting it for a new use; the intervention will humanize an out of scale place and provide a new method of experiencing the quarry.

This new landscape will promote the user to reflect on the punishing extraction process and it’s impact on the natural environment. This will be accomplished by situating the user within the material itself so they can begin to understand the scale between human and monument.

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THE EXTRACTION OF RAW MATERIAL IS WHAT SUSTAINS OUR SOCIETY. DAY TO DAY LIFE MOVES SO FAST THAT WE HARDLY EVER PAUSE AND TAKE A MOMENT TO THINK ABOUT THE MATERIALS WHICH ARE USED TO CONSTRUCT THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT. AS POPULATIONS AND CITIES CONTINUE TO GROW, THE FLOURISHING LANDSCAPES THAT HARVEST THESE RAW MATERIALS AND FEED OUR CITIES BECOME MORE DEPRIVED. THE ENDLESS DEMAND FOR RAW MATERIALS HAVE TAKEN A TOLL ON THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT. THE MOUNTAIN FACE HAS BEEN SCARRED BY MAN FOR THE SAKE OF GLOBAL ECONOMICS & HUMAN NEED. THE TIME HAS COME FOR THESE WOUNDED ENVIRONMENTS TO HEAL. THIS PROJECT PROPOSES AN INTERPRETATION CENTER WITHIN AN ABANDONED-GRANITE QUARRY SITE. LOCATED IN AN ENVIRONMENT WHICH HAS PREVIOUSLY BEEN MODIFIED BY HUMAN ACTION; THE IDEA IS TO UTILIZE WHATS LEFT OF THE LANDSCAPE. ARCHITECTURAL OPERATION WILL BE USED TO ENHANCE THIS ENVIRONMENT, ADJUSTING IT FOR A NEW USE; THE INTERVENTION WILL HUMANIZE AN OUT OF SCALE PLACE AND PROVIDE A NEW METHOD OF EXPERIENCING THE QUARRY. THE NEW ENVIRONMENT PROMOTES THE USER TO REFLECT ON THE PUNISHING EXTRACTION PROCESS AND ITS IMPACT ON THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT. THIS WILL BE ACCOMPLISHED BY SITUATING THE USER WITHIN THE MATERIAL ITSELF SO THEY CAN BEGIN TO UNDERSTAND THE SCALE BETWEEN HUMAN AND MONUMENT.

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MOUNTAIN ELEV: 160'-0"

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ELEV: 87'-6"

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ELEV: 75'-0"

LVL 02

ELEV: 62'-6"

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Interpretation Center

Mitchell DaSilva

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Lauren Scheid

Fall 2020 | Arch.515.01 Grad Arch Design Studio | Hypogeans Instructor Rubén Alcolea

SAAHP Art, Architecture and Historic Preservation Roger Williams University

Hypogeans d’Invenzione Part One: Form Research Lauren Scheid

The proposal is a cave space with four light wells in the top of the original cube that tunnel down to create the main void in the center of the original cube of foam.

Depending on the time of day and the weather the sun can be shining directly creating defined shaped in the space or it can be foggy creating ambient light in the space. To make the space almost feel like it is floating and to add extra light in light wells line two sides of the space allowing light to feel like it is coming from the ground. To come to this idea, I was examining the Holy Kipina Monastery located in Greece.

This monastery is located on the side of a cliff withing an already existing cavern that was carved out by a stream of water that goes back 800 feet. The 4 main light wells in the original proposal are like that of the water that carved into the space. Adding light to the space with sun and candles to spaces so deep into the caves.

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The Holy Kipina monastery was created in the 13th century, underneath the monastery flows the Kalarrytikos river. The cavernous embedded in the stone where the monastery was built was used by the Greeks when the Turkish occupied the area. The building used materials from around the area and harmonized with the landscape around. To get to the building the monks carved a stone path leading up to a 15-foot-long bridge that connects you to the building that could be lifted during attacks on the monetary. Housing monks up until the 1920 it still stands today as a museum to show a great feat of carving.

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Holy Kipina Monastery, Greece

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A Quarry. A Site. A Memory Part Two: Rock of Ages, Barre, VT Lauren Scheid

The site is located on the edge of what used to be an active granite quarry. The site has now been retaken over by trees, vegetation and animals have begun to make their homes here again. The holes in which the people quarried down are now filled with water, grout piles all around. This site shows off all these elements of the processes that the area went through. On the site there will now be a retreat hotel for approximately ten guests with amenities such as sauna, exercise room, full group kitchen and laundry and hiking paths located around the area. On your way down the granite path, showing off the different finishes granite can take, you will pass the interpretation center which consist of a lecture hall, gallery space and offices. This space is to encourage the public to come listen to artists and showcase some of the amazing things done in the area.

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This building can also be booked by the guests staying at the hotel to use for their own events.

These buildings were design with a clear path between the two connecting them to each other and the main road of the community and to the surroundings.

Creating a linear void through the trees. Each of the buildings have similarities in facade of vertical wood cladding that creates a wooded texture on the buildings but also creating moments were scaffolding is created to reintroduce plants and vegetation back into the retouched site. In the interpretation center the lecture hall has two light wells that create the second floor of scaffoldings of plants they are in closing in on the building. While the main hotel building has the scaffolding extending out from the inner walls of the building out into the area around.

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Site Plans

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Site Materials Study

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Sectional and plan precession to buildings

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Retreat Hotel Plan and Section

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Interpretation Center Plan and Section

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Interpretation Center Render

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Jessica Raccio

Fall 2020 | Arch.515.01 Grad Arch Design Studio | Hypogeans Instructor Rubén Alcolea

SAAHP Art, Architecture and Historic Presercation Roger Williams University

Hypogeans d’Invenzione Part One: Form Research Jessica Raccio

Predjama Castle is a 13th century medieval castle built into a 123m-high limestone cliff face in the historic region of Inner Carniola in Postojna, Slovenia. Beneath the castle, Lovka Stream runs into another cave. For more than 800 years, this castle sits nestled into a cliff side making a visual connection between man made and nature. The close proximity of the limestone to the also natural but human designed construction of the stone castle creates a visualization of the immaterial relationships between nature and architecture.

Closer examination of the forms created by the excavation of the cliff and the construction of the castle reveals unique geometric relationships. Following the profile of the cliff face, the rooms of the castle are sunken into the rock on one

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side, while openings on the opposite side give opportunity for light. An abstract study of these forms dictates the negative volume carved out of the foam model to create images as a representation of the physical elements of the castle.

Abstract studies of the physical forms that make up Predjama Castle produced intriguing drawings and photographs. Design strategies developed during this phase of the semester will inform future project decisoins regarding form and immaterial relationships.

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Monastery of Punjab, India

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A Quarry. A Site. A Memory Part Two: Rock of Ages, Barre, VT First Name Last Name

A visit to Rock of Ages Quarry in Barre, VT, provides physical evidence of the effects of quarrying on the landscape. Throughout the landscape surrounding the quarries are piles of large gray rock, scrap material from excavating otherwise referred to as grout.

The initial goal after the first impression of the site was to bring people up close to the grout. The piles of wasted material have an aggressive impact on the landscape where they are placed. Large, jagged, 1-2 ton gray rocks overwhelm the landscape surrounding both active and abandoned quarries. Where the piles of grout have been for a while, trees and greenery start to push its way back through the wasted material.

Through tests of piling and removing modular pieces of acrylic, voids are developed. At full scale, people can

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occupy the space where grout was removed, forcing a close interaction with the monstrous piles of grout.

By creating an interpretation center that is a void in the grout pile, it will force people to be face to face with the mess humans have created in digging into the Earth and discarding piles of “scrap.”

The pieces that were removed can be used to develop a retreat center. In the same formation as the void in the pile of grout, the building is enveloped by the rock. Close connections to the grout such as rooms with glass walls, balconies throughout the building, and a lower level with light wells and a pool are developed in order to create a serene, earthy environment where people can escape the chaotic tone of reality; a reality where people discard unwanted things in large, never to be touched again, piles.

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Lisett Ronchi

Fall 2020 | Arch.515.01 Grad Arch Design Studio | Hypogeans Instructor Rubén Alcolea

SAAHP Art, Architecture and Historic Presercation Roger Williams University

Hypogeans d’Invenzione Part One: Form Research Lisett Ronchi

The premise of the project on the Rock of Ages site was to create both an interpretation center and a small retreat hotel that respond with poetics of pure form, twilight, mass and even the immaterial relationships which magically defined space that provide richness beyond pragmatic functionality.

The Bamiyan Buddha in Afghanistan gave insight to “The Igneous Fragment” about carving and the importance of nature’s relationship. Like the Bamiyan precedent, “The Igneous Fragment” takes the same approche on the first floor of the hotel to create a small pathway with the cliff as circulation, while also carving out geometric shapes for different functionalities such as circulation, and work spaces instead of worship space as the Bamiyan did.

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The connection between these two projects are also evident in the respectful relationship between manmad and nature, through the rigidness of the stone and the linear walls that are created by man. The Bamiyan Buddha also takes importance of site location and takes the beautiful valley as a key element to bring value to the journey to the project. “The Igneous Fragment” also takes an important approach to the path up to the site as one wonders into the woods.

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Bamiyam, Afghanistan

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A Quarry. A Site. A Memory Part Two: Rock of Ages, Barre, VT Lisett Ronchi

The intervention of “The Igneous Fragment” is to highlight and simplify the formation of granite in an elegant, geometric way. Rooted greatly to the site and rock inspiration the form is created directly from lines and diagonals that are directly from the cliff sides and its ledge. The form was created with the idea of how rocks form together to create a continuous structure while taking in mind the simplicity and elegance of its natural form. “The Igneous Fragment” takes inspiration from connecting two entities such as granite fragments or the interpretation center and a small retreat hotel and having them kiss one another to create a whole new cohesive structure. The action of the kissing roofs and the inverting of walls then created a beautiful open pathway to shared space between the entries of both buildings. In order to keep a sense of clean lines and organisation a grid system was created to organize the structure and create the interior of both forms. The exposed beams in poth spaces were also

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inspired by the woodsy area of the Rock of Ages quarry site and are formed directly from the grids created. Both buildings take approaches to highlight the beautiful formation of the quarry granite. The interpretation center allows for the rock to enter the space and create a divot to see the site’s formation down to the quarry wall edges. This space then also mimics the slope of the adjacent rocks and merros is in the increasing 13’ to 43’roof slope. While the small retreat space highlights the contrast of natural vs man made in the enclosed second level corridor between the linear interior walls and the rigid natural form of the cliff side. This building roof slope also mimics the slopes that are found on the site, to greatly mimic the elegance of a simplified form. The importance of water and the connection of the quarries function plays a large role in the creation of 2 large swimming pools that visitors can use both as a focal point and function.

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SITE PLAN OF SURROUNDING QUARRIES

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FORM AND MASSING DIAGRAM

SECTION SCALE 1/16= 1’

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INTERIOR RENDER OF LEARNING CENTER

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EXTERIOR RENDER

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INTERIOR RENDER OF CORRIDOR

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SITE PLAN OF SURROUNDING QUARRIES

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MASSING ELEVATION SCALE: 1/16”=1’

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