Unit 4

2.16 to 2.19 Newly integrated intervention within an existing urban block, adult education, workshops and learning facilities as well as childcare, by Boon Wei Phum

2.16

2.17

2.18

Modular waterfront

Fulvio Wirz, Stratis Georgiou

The unit’s agenda investigates how a largescale project can give rise to a glocal (global-local) approach. With fabrication labs (FABLAB) operating around the world providing manufacturing processes and collaborative digital design platforms becoming increasingly accessible to designers and contractors, can architectural design and construction framework be updated to give rise to a new regional approach?

Naples is a city whose economy is heavily based on touristic development. The coastal area of Via Caracciolo has a prominent and iconic role for the city having to negotiate the needs of local community and the ‘pressure’ of global tourism. The waterfront of Naples is missing a cohesive plan to reconstitute an intimate bond between the city and its most important resource: the sea.

Students developed a modular design system which can dynamically adapt to different scales: the urban one set by the masterplan of the waterfront and the architectural one of the attractor buildings. Fourth year students worked individually on a smaller scale whereas fifth year students explored collaborative workflow defining common strategies for the masterplan prior to developing their individual work. We understand the design process as a multi-layered discourse consisting of physical model-making, bespoke drawing techniques and reference to theory, in order to communicate readings of contextual qualities of urban/architectural conditions.

The idea of ‘junction’ was explored this year as means to reconcile local and trans-local scales and to test strategic design interventions with the aim to unlock new opportunities by speculating on new forms of connective architectural typologies.

Students:

Y4: Alexandros Koutougias, Ilyas Demirci, Ioanna Oikonomou, Kai Xin Yeo, Ludmila Olei, Mohamad Wassim Ajouz, Moustafa Can Gokpinar

Y5: Ali Kaptan, Anastasis Troullides, Anees Imtiaz, Gideon Seglah, Liang Liang He, Nadzirah Hanis Fairuz, Nur Bahirah Abdul Rahman

Visiting Crits:

Monika Bilska, Carine Cohen, Michela Falcone, Palak Jhunjhunwala, Vicenzo Caputo, Tommaso Casucci

Special thanks to:

Rasti Bartek (Cundall) for his structural engineering consultation.

4.1 Birds eye view of NEA-Polis 2.0 Performing Arts Center by Anastasis Troullides. 4.2 Proposal for a master plan formed by the interconnection of cultural centers around the Chiaia waterfront, where the lines intersecting within the study area are forming walk paths. This continuous approach interacts with the modularity of the hexagonal grid to form the final coastline and the transitions from the city. Team project NEA-Polis 2.0 by Anastasis Troullides and Gideon Seglah. 4.3 Diagram of master plan formation at Naple’s port. The project focuses on the redesign of one of the piers of the port with the adjacent land being redesigned with residential and retail uses. Team project by Ali Kaptan and Anees Imtiaz 4.4 Extension of the Chiaia waterfront with the creation of artificial sandy beach, something that the area used to be, thus connecting the city back to the sea and it’s past. The master plan is completed by three cultural attractors, one theatre, one contemporary museum and a visitor’s centre for Neapolitan Food Culture. Team project by Nur Bahirah Abdul Rahman, Liang Liang He and Nadzirah Hanis Fairuz.

4.2

4.3

4.5 A component design study by Gideon Seglah based on a hexagon, further tessellated and rotated in order to form directionality and continuous patterns. 4.2, 4.7 Ali Kaptan is using circle packing patterns to form the organisational plan of his proposal, a Performing Arts Center. The circles are pinched down from their centres to column shaped elements, in different heights, forming a multi-levelled vast landscape on the rooftop which is planted. The proposed center is an extension to the existing Pallazo dell’Immacolatella which is converted to a Cultural Center. 4.8, 4.9 Component development and aggregation studies by Nur Bahirah Abdul Rahman. The size and height of each component adapts to the programmatic uses. 4.10, 4.11 Anastasis Troullides developed a diamond-shaped component, comprised of triangles, thus creating a stable form. The aggregation is formed by three different scales, each adapting to the programme of the Performing Arts Center

4.5

a.4 4.6

4.8

4.9