PERFORMANCE TOWER RISD Design Principle Professor: Hansy Better Barraza Time: 2015 09-12
A special tower designed for shuttle maker to live, work and exhibit her works.
This is a narrow site located in Providence, Rhode Island, USA. It is close to the riverside and connects to the two main roads. There are three adjacent buildings. The tallest building is 90' heigh while the other two lower builidings is about 32' and 37'. There is a notable geographic difference from the main road to the riverside. Thus people standing in the side which close to the mainroad could directly see the riverside.
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In a narrow and windy site, an elegant tower stands in the wind and perform the shuttle falling silently. Inside of the tower, there are various rooms. Each of them has different floor heights. A spiral staircase connects all of them together. In such a special tower, a shuttle maker lives there for experiencing her shullte movement. When she walks into the tower along the spiral staircase, she becomes a "live" shuttle herself. As she moving from one room to another, she is mimicing the falling track of the shuttle she made. As she staying in the room,which indicates the moment of the direction change of the shuttle falling. She can experiences how the shuttle swings and spins when it falls off as she move inside of tower. She also knows how the shuttle shape is affected by air friction when she stays in different spaces with different heights. In this unique tower, she has everything she needs such as studio, exhibition place, livingroom, kitchen, bedroom, restroom. She can test shuttle she made by drop it from the top floor, and people who walk inside of the spiral staircase could oberve the shuttle falling everywhere. Only in this unique tower, every character of the falling shuttle transfered as architecture language. The shuttle maker could enjoy the invisible but various spaces inside of the "shuttle". She is performing the shuttle falling while she lives there.
How to make the shuttle
paper shuttle
section cut of shuttle
top view of shuttle
the falling track
top view of the falling track
Concept model of shuttle falling track in the narrow site
section cut of the falling track
The c onc ept model indic ates the relationship between the narrow site and the shuttle falling track. The wood sticks along the narrow site indicates the column grids of adjacent buildings and how the grids affects the site. The transparent acrylic represents the the ground. The shuttle falling track model is based on the abstract elevation. The wood sticks indicates one edge of the shuttle and the length indicates how large area the falling could occupy, while the other wider wood highlights the space change inside of the shuttle.
Abstract elevation of the falling track
dropping point observation platform
public route city side
private route river side structure B
structure A
South Main Street
1st Floor
2nd Floor B
3rd Floor
2nd Floor A
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4th Floor
5th Floor
Living room
7th Floor
Study room
Observation point
Restroom
Up
down
Observation point
Entrance Exhibition
Studio
Study room
Semiunderground open area
observation platform & dropping point bedroom /restroom Up
study room living room
kitchen obervation point
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obervation point
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6th Floor
Riverside
studio
exhibition Programs
1-1 Section
flying machine courtyard