Portfolio
Susanna D. Scholten
Allurement
04
Contemplation
10
Permeability
Adaptation
Synethesia
Embellishment Elevation
Exorbitance
06 12 14 16 18 20
Allurement
Amsterdam is flooded by tourism that only stay in the city. Not knowing there are lots of recreational opportunities outside the hassle and the buzzle of Amsterdam. The idea has come to provide villages in the outskirt of Amsterdam with ’Buitenpoorten’, gateways to nature. Excisting stations will be redesigned to provide a better access, especially for tourism, from the station towards nature. One of these stations is Bussum-Zuid, situated close to the heath. Bussum-Zuid originated as the first parking station in the Netherlands. Due to its good location between the cities of Utrecht and Amsterdam, this station is very well-suited for residential traffic. Surrounding villages use this station as a starting point towards the big city. We can call Bussum-Zuid Station, in its current situation, a ‘Gateway to the City’. But how transform a gateway to the city to a gateway to nature?
Setup of the design concept
Because Bussum-Zuid is completely adapted to the use of the car, the distances for pedestrians seem very long. To walk from the station to the heath you have to cross a large parking lot or follow a empty route along the busy road. Both routes do not function as wished by the pedestrians which creates the desire lines. These undeveloped paths that arise through the flexibility of cutting off the route and the sight of nature in the distance.
Sketches of starting point of the promenade
In this design I create a route for the pedestrian based on sight. A meandering route between two walls will lead the visitor from the station towards the heath. This route will be fully covered in vegetation so the pedestrian is flexible to create its own path. The side of the parking lot will be closed. In between this meandering path there is are open spaces which will function as a garden. Acker points like tables and benches will attract the visitor into the garden but will give the flexibility to let the pedestrian create its own paths. The confluence of the artificial and the natural surrounding in this design creates a promenade of desire that will lead the visitor towards nature. This design is selected to be presented for the Province of Noord-Holland in response to the Buitenpoorten project.
Permeability
This project is all about human behaviour and especially the behaviour when I, as an architect, create a discommode. In my design I created this uncomfortable feeling by adding a public courtyard in the middle of a glass canal house. This courtyard gives the tourist a sneak peek into a real Amsterdam household situated on the Canal ring. Of course this courtyard will have an impact on the household. It makes the inhabitants more aware of there lifestyle especially because all the routing in the house will pass this public space. My design shows the fragility of a household and questions the importance of privacy.
Materiology + inspiration
During the project I worked a lot with models. Because of the short amound of time we had to work on the concept of our first sketch model. The three models on the picuteres show the impact of the public space in the middel of the house.
Floorplan groundfloor
Contemplation
With the gradual disappearance of churches in their function, also the Military Hospital loses a place for contemplation. My design, a concept store of Issey Miyakes clothing, is part of the way to reflection. In my design, I try to stay true to the original function of the chapel and the origin of the fashion of Issey Miyake, Shintoism. Through simplicity and repetition the chapel will again be a place where people can wander through themselves. This project is my graduation project for the School of Arts, Ghent. I gratuated with 17 points out of 20.
Sketch of Meditation Chapel, UNESCO Paris
“Ooit en waarschijnlijk binnenkort, zal er een behoefte zijn aan wat vooral onze grote steden ontbreekt: stille en ruime uitgestrekte plaatsen om na te denken, plaatsen met hoge zuilengangen voor slecht of al te zonnig weer, waar geen gedruis der omroepers doordringt. [...] Nieuwe bouwwerken en plantsoenen, die als geheel de verhevenheid van de bezinning en (het terzijde zijn) uitdrukken.[...] Wij willen ons in steen en plant vertaald zien, wij willen in onszelf gaan wandelen, wanneer wij in deze tuinen en hallen wandelen.�
- Friedrich Nietzsche (1882)
Section of the historical chapel and the architectural addition.
Adaptation
This pavilion is a reflective forest in which one can wander, like the virtual reality movie they will see in this theatre pavilion. “How can I create a personal space within a public site?� Was the question I asked in response to this design project. In the research I have done, I did some important findings that were crucial value for the final design. Most findings I did were about columns. Therefor I compared the thoughts of Ching with the Holocaust pavilion of Liebeskind and Il Danteum. By comparing their thoughts I succeeded to answer my research question. I created a pavilion for a plurality of people that all have an individual experience because they can create their own private space in this public theatre pavilion.
Floorplan of the pavilion
Inspiration of Sou Fujimoto
Rhythm of the layers
Axonometry of the contruction
Synesthesia
After visiting the Rietveld Schroder House during my period at the KABK, I started to experiment with colour in architecture, especially in the interiors. The colour study I did was based on the studies of Joseph Albers in which four colours are placed in different compositions. By composing the colours differently, a new relationship appears. In these tiny models I worked with the four leading colours of Le Corbusiers Villa Savoye, which I visited early that year. The use of colour in architecture commingle the senses you use to understand a building. It can manipulate the immage that will remain in your memory.
Colour study by Joseph Albers
Colour study Villa Sovoye, Le Corbusier
Embellishment
This photography series was made in the Haagse Gemeente Museum, a museum building designed by the architect H. P. Berlage. In this series I started with photographing brick facades. The rhytms and patterns that are made in old brickwork facades intreaded me. I also photographed the facades of this museum. Unfortunatly I did not find what I was looking for. I did not feel touched by the photos, so I started a new idea. By photographing elements of the building en shuffle them I started to see combinations. One photo is nice, but two next to eachother can lift eachother to a whole new level. Lines and colours will be seen. The two photos become a pair.
Elevation
This traditional 19th century building in the heart of Ghent was the scenery for my first project where I had to deal with two functions within one building. For the first time I had to deal with technical consequences that some design can give. In this project the building is divided in two parts, private and public. The public space includes a coffee shop, a bicycle repair shop and its office. The private space, on the two top floors, consist a apartment for the two owners of the coffee shop. I focused in this project on the first three floors, the public area.
Twiggy, Gent.
The main idea was to create a space where people can drink a coffee while waiting on their bike to be repaired. Although the functions of the public space are all on different floors there is a connection between the levels. The hoisting system makes it possible to lift the bikes and lower the bikes to the bike repair shop in the cellar and to expose the bikes in the open space.
Exorbitance
Located at the Co-site in Oostende, I had to design an interior for a young couples first house. The house originally had the function of a shop. The small ground floor and the first floor with its diagonal ceiling makes the surface very small. The interior of the dwelling need to be as efficient as possible. By embracing all the square meters and make us of double functions the interior resulted in an efficient house. For example, the staircase is part of the kitchen storage and the cooking is also a dining area. For me it was important to show that a small surface doesn’t have to look big by making one open space. Although the space is very open, it is also divided in separate areas with different functions. To avoid a chilly atmosphere and to easily hide the pipework I choose to use plywood as finishing.
End.