A perspective showing the entrance on the centre. The building takes form according the forces that shaped it and act upon it. It is morphed as an extension of its surroundings and interacts with its immediate environment.
Close-up of the light effect on the floor created by a light well. The view also reveals the coherence in circulation between programs with different floor levels interconnected by one smooth surface which is within the accessible slope ratio.
As we near the end of the process examined within this research, a clear layout of the main intentions, the process and the outcome of that process is set out and illustrated. The main intention of this body of work is to reduce the complication that surrounds the construction of fluid concrete spaces. These spaces allow for coherence within the built environment enclosures. Throughout the course of research, a lot of challenges have been met due to the experimental nature of the investigation as a material process. The challenges met have opened doors of perception to steer the interest towards areas of interest that branch out to investigate in detail some aspects that push for the main intention.
Our process of exploration has relied on a nonlinear synthesis between information gathered from models of different scales and mediums. Different weights of emphasis have been placed on parts of the process depending on the gain and relevance of the part under examination. The sequence of progression towards a viable solution to the proposed problem is recursive, and iterates between what these techniques have as results, of data to inform the research.
Complex Euclidian forms are not new in the design of contemporary buildings. Many architects have attempted the creation coherent forms that imitate the organic forms found in nature. As a departure from the rigid orthogonal planning of the human interventions on nature of its different scales; architects, planners and engineers have been adopting these complex geometries to create human built environments that take shape according the forces that act upon them. The immense and exponential advances in digital design, analysis and computation noticed in the recent years have allowed for these projects to become feasible. Advances in material sciences and the building industry have allowed for their construction.
The formation processes of these buildings have not yet reached a level of maturity to rival nature’s simplicity and economy in creating complex materialization. The process of construction is usually an afterthought of the envisioned design, where plenty of materials could be wasted in the process, leading to an un-ecological intervention with nature.
We aimed for the resulting spaces of our work to stay truthful to the ambitions of unifying the building into a single system that handles environmental, pragmatic and structural conditions within its enclosure.