ARCHITECTURE Lookbook
01. ELECTIVES Identity and Intervention The TU Delft minor Identity and Intervention was a first introduction to the practice of transformation in architecture. It regarded the transformation of a former church into a youth hostel. In this project, the focus was on balancing past and present. The essential qualities of the existing building had to be preserved, while the needs for its new public function had to be provided for in the new design. This lead to the formation of three themes for the new design: context, contact and comfort. The first theme, context, was introduced to secure the essential qualities of the exisiting, The second theme, contact, was introduced to evoke the open character of the new public function. The third theme, comfort, was introduced in order to improve the poor indoor climates that both the existing function and the future function often possess.
In the design, the most eminent transformation is the opening of the plynth, in order to make visual contact on street level possible and hereby evoke the public character of the new function. For the interior, the aim was to emphasize the exisiting woodstructure and ceilings, and maintain the open space of the church hall. Therefore, a platform was created, containing all necessary installations to keep the ceilings completely free. Then, cubicles designed as individual translucent tubes were placed on top of the platform, each one connected to their own air inlet and exhaust. in doing so, the comfort of the visitors is improved in both privacy and indoor climate.Furthermore, by placing the tubes randomly in the former church hall, the essential qualities of the existing building are optimally perceivable.
CONTEXT
! CONTACT
COMFORT
+02
+01
+00
left page: PLANS, 1:250 right page: SECTIONS, 1:250 FACADES, 1:250
02. ORIENTATION Heritage and Architecture When working on the transformation of the former Spinx factory complex in Maastricht, first, analysis was performed on the character of the site itself and its link to the city. Allthough the site has an introvert character, the monumental facade formes a majestic entrance to the city centre, where extention of public plynth was desirable. The building itself has an ambiguous character, its monumental frontside is juxtaposed to the industrial backside. For the new programme, mixed use was suggested, introducing the combination of a public plynth with start-up offices on the higher levels of the building. In order to make the building suitable for its new functions, while enhancing the essential qualities of the existing, four transformation principles were used as guiding themes for the transformation.
The differentiation of the existing building determines the interventions, so the first guiding theme was emphasis on the monumental character, by the preservation of the monumental facade. The second theme was the introduction of a covered walkway for the extention of the public plynth. The third one was opening of the middle building part for vertical circulation and the fourth was emphasizing the industrial character of the building by exposing the construction grid system. Based on these themes, the ambiguous character of the building becomes highlighted. In the design, the office spaces are situated alongside monumental frontside of the building. The backside was opened up over two stories to expose the grid, which was then filled out with individual boxes, highlighting the modulrity of the system. These those boxes contain sustaining fuinction for the start-up offixes which are shared between them.
emphasis of the introvert character by preserving the monumental facade and opening towards the inside.
extention of the city center’s monumental public plynth by the introduction of a covered walkway.
opening the building towards the indise by using the connecting building part for vertical circulation.
emphasis of the industrial character by opening the gridstructure and highlight it with the new intervention.
+04
+03
+02 left page: PLANS, 1:600 right page: SECTION, 1:600 FRONT FACADE, 1:600 BACK FACADE, 1:600
SECTION, 1:50
03. DIDACTICS Education in Design In order to get involved in design education, gaining more understanding of the design process is important. Therefore, a series of small design exercises were performed, focussing on making the design process explicit. In doing so, designer skills such as conceptualisation, abstraction and reduction were further explored. One of the exercises was to explore the use of a concept. For this exercise, the concept of ‘view’ was chosen and different interpretations of this concept were explored. Based on this analysis, was chosen to work with the concept of ‘channeling the view’, directing the view in different angles to the surroundings.
The concept of view was to be articulated in a design for an artist’s home, composed of a living area, sleeping area and atelier. In de design, the programme was split into three volumes, each with their own function. the volumes were then orientated in different directions according to the differentiation of the view, so each function has its own function-fitting view. The design of the volumes is subordiate to the experience of the view. Accordingly, the volumes were designed as monolithic blocks, with their sustaining functions situated in the back, so an empty open dwelling space is created with maximum focus on the view.
left page: conceptialisation of the aspect of ‘view’ PLAN, 1:200 right page: SECTIONS, 1:200
03. DIDACTICS Education in Design Another exercise in the series of short design assignments was concerning abstraction and reduction. The assignment was the transformation of a story into a spatial design. For this exercise, the book ‘De Kleine Johannes’ by Van Eeden was chosen to work with. The story is about little Johannes’ journey to adulthood and sheds light on themes like the innocence of childhood, the struggle of growing-up, the conformity of society and reflection, understanding and acceptance of the past. For the design, the different themes of the story were reduced to sets of spatial elements, of which the design was to be composed. Using these sets of elements, connected to different parts of the story, in the order of the following themes, a sequence of spaces was created, evoking the same experiences as the Johannes had during his journey to adulthood.
Since there was no specific function set for the spatial design, it was chosen to design a pavilion for remembrance, embedded somewhere in the dune landscape, since it ties in well with the theme of reflection. The first part of the pavilion conveys the experience of childhood, consisting of open space to play and free routing between the small round shaped elements. The second part was designed to convey the struggle of growing up. In this part, the volumes gradually become bigger and transform from round into square shapes. An angle in the spatial organisation exposes the grid and fixed routing, symbolizing the conformity of society. The third part was designed for reflection on the journey. In this part, the visitor ascends to the viewpoint on top of the dunes, where one can literally reflect upon the path that was taken, and finally gain understanding of his journey.
ROUND SHAPES
SQUARE SHAPES
LOW INTENSITY
HIGH INTENSITY
FREE ROUTING
LINEAR ROUTING
ELEVATION
OVERVIEW
abstraction of the story: ‘de Kleine Johannes’ DOCUMENTATION, 1:300
04. GRADUATION Heritage and Architecture The graduation assignment was connected to the 14th DOCOMOMO conference in Lisbon, concerning the Manutencao Militar Complex, a factory complex which was used for the production of goods for the army. When analysing the history of the complex, it became apparent that the site has always been the heart of the community of its surrounding neighbourhood Beato, and that, apart from its economical and social function, it used to have a spiritual function as well. For the design, reintroduction of the spiritual function on site was proposed in the form of a retreat, community centre and bath house, embodying the more contemporary aspects of the bodily experience of spirituality. To start the design process, a value assessment of the existing building was made to establish its essential qualities, which were to be preserved or enhanced in the new design. Therefore, one of the essential qualities, the old base versus a new infill, was chosen as the general concept for the new design.
For the new intervention, first the old, decayed infill was removed, exposing the existing base of the building. New volumes were then placed, according to spatial organisation of the existing building, resulting in two larger volumes in the front of the building and to smaller volumes in the back. The programme was placed accordingly, resulting in a privacy range from public to private. The level of intimacy of the different function was then further enhanced by the differentiation of the form of the volumes, resulting in closed, introvert volumes for the retreat and the bath house and an open and extravert public volume for the community centre. In the design, the gradient in level of privacy and intimacy is exended in the spatial composition of the volumes itself as a sequence of spaces ranging from publicly accessible spaces, via shared communal spaces to closed private rooms. This enables the practice of both communal and individual spirituality simultaneously, according to the visitor’s personal preference.
BAY STRUCTURE
PRODUCTION PROCESS
PRAGMATISM
SPATIAL ORGANISATION
BASE VS INFILL
UNIFYING INFILL
LAYERING
HEAVY VS LIGHT
Placement of the volumes according to the spatial experience of the existing.
Differentiation in shape and orientation to emphasize the difference in level of intimacy between the pulbic and private functions.
Organisation of the programme according to the range in privacy in existing spaces.
Differentiation in shape and orientation to emphasize the difference in level of intimacy between the pulbic and private functions.
Differentiation of the volumes according to the level of intimacy of the programme.
Differentiation in the orientation of spaces to maximise the potential for sightlines while maintaining the desired level of privacy.
left page: spatial organisation right page: DOCUMENTATION, 1:400
IMPRESSIONS, 1:200
SOPHIE LOK Schoonderloostraat 155E, 3024TT ROTTERDAM +31 6 46 25 56 66 sophie.lok@hotmail.com