#casbarian

Moving from an architectural concept to a building is an arduous struggle, whose reward is only manifested in the successfulness of the building. The Urban Winery was a struggle to successfully employ the idea of cutting categorical strips of a site. In this case, I believe that it can be a successful endeavor. 

In the middle of it all, the site sat at a crossroads of sorts that led to its poly-directional design. 

The Urban situation is not one of calmness and serenity. It is a struggle in itself, with countless problems and battles to be fought. The stripped winery reflected this as, wedged between 2 grids, it responded to both, showing its interest in both sides, and showing how it is a product of its surroundings. 

Entry Sequence

By creating a focal point for the strips to gather around, an entry courtyard can easily be made. Major points of entry are the only times in which the wrapping pieces of the strips are actually cut into. These attract attention and create a hierarchy of entry.  

Grapes

The category of the turning point of the stripping (the triangle) is categorized as Grapes and Cars. Where the beginning of the "process'" of visitation and wine begins. The cars are below a sloped (for irrigation) piece that is accessible from the entrance as a roof terrace. 

"Mind the Gap"

In order to keep the strips as separate pieces, I responded by creating a "gap" of sorts, that was visually accessible, and not physically accessible. It is about 3 ft, and grass would be at the bottom. I admit that this was where the project could have had different potentials, or broke some of its rigidity, but the choice that I made was the keep the strips as separate pieces on the "urban block." 

The Jumble

"Cut and Fold…don't glue" -Professor Casbarian. "Whoops..." -Entire Class 

Architectural process is something one develops in school. It is not necessarily inherent, easy, or coherent, but something more experimented, discovered and refined. School is the time for this procedure of experimentation, discovery and refinement. This studio decided to examine the outcome of buildings that began with a very specific process. Cutting and folding paper, with minimal gluing to develop abstract spatial concepts. 

Decision Time: Strips

After much discussion, I chose the "strip" concept, literally cutting the shape of the site into individualized strips. This concept gave me freedom to cut the site in various directions, sizes, and heights, depending on program. It also raised a lot of architectural questions and problems that led to its final outcome.

From Paper to Diagram

Transforming this idea into diagram was simple, once the program was given. The project was an Urban Winery, which differs from a regular winery in that it has program that can be categorized, such as a public entry, wine making, administrational, and more. By assigning these categories into strips, it gives each strip the ability to have an internal circulation, and a clear definition of programatic categories. 

More architectural problems answered: Circulation

With any structure, there are many layers of circulation. In a winery, there is also a circulation of wine, also known as the wine making process. The strips created essentially internal circulation within each strip, and the categorization of each strip furthered this concept. To breath this, lesions were created in the strips, that allowed for crossover between strips. These allowed for things like tours to move through all of the strips freely.

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The After Thought: 

With any spatial experiment/excersize, the conceptual architectural implications are found after the fact. The categorical stripping of the site created a series of seemingly separate structures, woven together with a similar architectural language. I call this the "urban block" condition. Each piece of the block had an internal circulation, and a seemingly inclusive system. 

The Site is an important architectural concept...says some. There is a definite rift when it comes to architectural theory on whether the site, the program, the concept, the form or any other factor should be studied first. Because of this 'rift,' different studio professors will have you study different ones first. Professor Casbarian (our current prof) believes in SITE FIRST! We were told that our final project is going to be an 'urban winery' but no specific programming or anything, and that we should just study the site as it stands. So below is a study of the different elements such as the demographics, the methods of approach, the splice in the grid of streets at that point, a mapping of building typology, a site history and more. 

From the studies, I found that the site sits at a focal point, where there is a splice between two different communities. One side that is more urban, a little multipurpose, but mostly offices. The other side, all residential. This is seen in differences in transportation, views, typologies and more. This site stands at an important point that can help fill the gap between the two sides and that the spur (small highway) creates. 

Anecdote: Studio Song