5A Vertical Studio
SCI-Arc – Fall 2020
Instructor – Jenny Wu
The studio begins by exploring the scale of material by curating several collections of textile details that possess similar material quality and/or assembly. Using their collections as a reference, students design a hybrid material object that allows them to explore material, geometric, and spatial strategies that are further developed in their building project. Students are given a site and translate the strategies from their hybrid object to a massing strategy. The second half of the semester focuses on the development of the project into architecture, with the focus on the relationship of the “shroud” or skin of the project to its inner figure (building mass) as well as the translation of their material studies into architectural elements. The studio project is a new addition to a canonical building from this century. The project will be a standalone building on an adjacent site, not attached to the original building. Students will select one out of a list of four buildings from various time periods and regions around the world as their site. Students study the circumstances, culturally and urbanistically, that led to the design of these buildings. They mine, disrupt, and expand on those expectations in the design of this new addition.
Hybrid Physical Model Photographs
The hybrid explores the idea of tension between a structured shroud and a loose, layered inner object. At a first glance, the shroud tames the inner object, held in place with a seam consisting of loops and buttons that hold it together. At a closer look at the bottom of the hybrid, the inner layered object starts to feather and flow out of its shell, which pushes the shroud out from the inside, deforming it. This creates a new tension between the inner object and its outer shroud, both impact each other at different moments, all determined by where the seams are attached.
The behavioral logic of the inner object and outer shroud is most clear in the section, the outer shroud is tamed and stays in place, and the inner object follows its own freeform logic. The inner feathered object continuously flows throughout the floors, and transitions from a wall, to a stair rail to a ceiling in the theatre. In terms of program, the most condensed program is located in the thickness of the shroud, while the more public open spaces are located in the center, divided by the inner object.
What is important to note in the plan, is the way the feathered object creates circulation and flow throughout the building, almost like a maze. The stairs are never visible to the user of the building since they are obscured by the feathered petals. The only way to circulate is to experience the space between the the petals which reveals the hidden structure. The inner feathered object connects all of the elements of the program together.
Night Renders
NAB 