ARCHITECTURE Portfolio
Sophie Lok Schoonderloostraat 155E, 3024TT ROTTERDAM +31 6 46 25 56 66 sophie.lok@hotmail.com
02. ORIENTATION Heritage and Architecture
CONTEXT
CONTEXT the Sphinx Factories Since the Spinx ceramics factories in Maastricht closed its doors, the municipality has taken an interest in the transformation of the complex because of its potential to function as a new entrance to the city and extention of the center’s public plynth as well as the potential to create a new neigbourhood well suited for dwelling because of the introvert character of the site. The ambition for the transformation was thus to provide for a mixed-use programme that balances opening up the complex to the pulbic with the preservation of the existing value of the introvert character of the Spinx site.
CULTURAL VALUE Essential Qualities The complex can be understood as a city within a city, its introvert character enhances the lement of suprise when discovering its hidden gems. The mirroring facades of the buildings on the edges of the site function as a monumental entrance, well suited for the extention of the city center’s public plynth. The factory buildings itself have an industrial character, constituted by aspects like structural visibility, repetition and perspective. The building that was chosen for the design consists of three separate building parts, unified by its monumental front facade. The building has an ambiguous character, being monumental on the one hand and industrial on the other. Furthermore, the building shows horizintal versus vertical differentiation, making the perception of change an important characteristic element of the building.
INTROVERT CHARACTER
PUBLIC PLYNTH
MIRRORING FACADES
UNIFYING WALL
DIFFERENTIATION
AMBIGUOUS CHARACTER
STRUCTURAL VISIBILITY
CHANGE
emphasis of the introvert character by preserving the monumental facade and opening towards the inside.
extention of the city centre’s monumental public plynth by the introduction of a covered walkway.
opening the building towards the inside 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.
INTERVENTIONS Enhancing Ambiguity The interventions made in the design were determined by the differentiation in the existing building. Hereby, the ambiguous character of the building was used as guiding theme. To highlight the monumental character, the monumental facade was preserved and further enhanced by the introduction of covered walkway to make place for the extention of the public plynth. To preserve the introvert character of the building, the building opens up towards the inside of the complex, revealing its industrial character by stripping the building down to its gridstructure and highlighting it with the new intervention.
DESIGN Start-up Offices For the design was focussed on the design of the start-up offices, situated on the upper levels of the largest building part. The articulation of the ambiguous character is visible in spatial organisation design. The workspaces are situated on the monumental side of the building. Their design is minimalistic to maintain focus on the big monumental space of factory halls. On the industrial side of the building, the building was stripped back its repetitive structure. Within this structure boxes were placed, containing the shared sustaining function functions for the start-up offices. This generic design intervention further enhances the industrial character of the building.
monumental versus industrial
space versus structure
office space versus sustaining functions
PLANS 1:400 1. office spaces 2. reception 3. seating area 4. meeting rooms
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Opening the building vertically with a three story high vide enhances the perception of the industrial character by increasing the visibility of the building’s repetitive grid and structure. Furthermore, it enables the vertical differentiation of the structure to be perceived. The standard sized boxes further highlight this perception of change. For the exterior, the intervention of the ‘function wall’ further enhances ambiguous character of the building by strengthening the juxtaposition between the exterior versus the interior facade. Also, the difference in the programme that is percieved from the exterior, leisure versus workspace, adds to this juxtaposition.
CROSS SECTION 1:400
LONGITUDINAL SECTION 1:400
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DETAILING FACADE 1:50 1. concrete structure existing building 2. steel windowframes existing building 3. internal insulation 4. wooden prefab facade elements 5. insulated suspended ceilings 6. wooden flooring with floorheating
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ARTICULATION Detailing The existing building posed difficulties regarding the technical design and climate design. To make the building suitable for future use was decided to work with a combination of both external and internal insulation in order to be able to preserve the monumental front facade and the visibility of the industrial gridstructure, while providing a comfortable indoor climate at the same time. In order to minimise thermal bridges, working with wooden boxes for the intervention provided an outcome. Hereby, installations like drainage, airvents, floorheating and lighting could be incorporated in the construction of the boxes relatively easily. Furthermore the juxtaposition of materials further enhances the industrial character of the robust concrete structure.
SOPHIE LOK Schoonderloostraat 155E, 3024TT ROTTERDAM +31 6 46 25 56 66 sophie.lok@hotmail.com