Intellection

DA4

The Wall Workshop

DA5.1-2 Redux

4-5 Temple Tastes, written by me.

SA10 Villa Rotunda

SA9.1-3 Sketching Carlo Scarpa. The first drawing is a redesign of the baseboards in the upper rooms of the Castelvecchio museum, the only Scarpa detail the entire trip which felt slightly hamfisted to me, with heavy concrete cast in a thick bunker between the soft plaster wall and wood plank walking surface. Scarpa must have wanted to make abundantly clear the difference between the contemporary walking surface and the ancient castle walls, but the angled concrete beach thrust in between plaster, pine, and travertine seemed like a little too much of a statement. I borrowed the language of Scarpa’s easels to cap the plank ends with pine, dovetail the travertine door sill, and float the boards on a pillow of air instead of butt them against concrete.

More Scarpa.

SA3

SA8 Hadrian’s Villa. Spatial sequencing.

SA7.3 Florence

Methods Drawings. Torre Largo Argentina, Campidoglio, Ponti Della Musica e Settima, Auditorium Portico.

DA3

6. “Perambulation Permutation” Trastevere is very interesting as a Roman neighborhood, because it has a large diversity of building types, uses, and zones within a very few city blocks. This scenario seeks to imagine Trastevere reordering itself to include many different kinds of spatial sequences, with slight emendations to the figure ground growing to larger alterations.

SA4 Museum re-use. Crypta Balbi and Baths of Diocletian. The corner sketch from Crypta Balbi shows deposits of layers over centuries, from the old roman steps to the renaissance palace. The tiny detail shows the skeletal terra-cotta pipes. The museum has to be described in both plan and section to picture the interlocking layers uncovered by the archaeologists. The Baths of Diocletian are a much more traditional arrangement, with some monumental remains and archaeological detritus arranged in large halls. Newer architecture conglomerates with old rooms.

These sketches helped me learn that a Nolli plan doesn't describe everything, and a roof line doesn't always reflect street level. Small niches and corner conditions make a difference in experience, as do gardens spilling out into the street. The most interesting spaces have context close to the user, a view of the immediate surroundings, and a distance view of the rest of the city.

Choosing interesting details for this building was a little challenging. Since it is conceptualized as an interweaving series of smooth planes, the building tries to hide its joints, or disguise them with a little paint or plaster. Reflections in glass make it difficult to know what exactly you are looking at. So, the details are small, subtle, at the scale of a hand or a couple fingers.

Odile Decq’s architecture is a spaceship from the dark side of the moon landed into the urban context. Her tectonics are dark steel forced into and entwining with the existing building. Her details are structural, bold, varied, and forceful. Her structure prefers to hang from above on thick members, only coming down on light spidery legs.