The Realization

Final production of our studio designs for the cemetery at Igualada, Spain has been in full effect for a few days now. Cinco-de-Mayo celebrations took a back-seat to days and nights spent drawing and modelbuilding. This is the final produciton-model of my design, displaying the aforementioned canopy system:

An aerial overview of the site with the proposed intervention

Starting with the two areas of intervention, the canopy extends to connect both with the rest of the site

A view of the lower expansion, looking toward the upper-

From the entry sequence, one can barely distinguish that anything differs from the original

Aerial view from the North

A view looking down from the upper expansion, covering the connection to the lower-

Gimme' Shelter

The going theme is now a canopy of sorts to tie everything into the site. It will envelop the new intervention and act as vines entangling the old with the new, or a candy wrapper, twisting its way around the existing. Corten steel louvers will shade the new spaces while allowing freedom of the elements throughout.

Levels

this is my working scheme for the design at Igualada cemetery. its a site model made up of 13 layers; let's take a look st its construction step by step...

Level 1. The Base

Level 2. The lowest contour along the road

Level 3. The first level of the Columbarium

Level 7. The second tier of burial chambers

Level 10. Showing the existing chapel as well as the additional contemplative space

Level 13. Aerial

this is the first attempt at a 3-dimensional representation of my intervention at the igualada cemetery. it's a bit shallow, so the shadow relief does not do it much justice but i wanted to share it with all of you nevertheless.

Concepts for an Addition

Our new goal is to create an addition to the Igualada Cemetery and add program such as additional burial sites, and places of religious and secular contemplation. here are some ideas i am working with:

a section looking east through the program, showing the exhumation of spaces from the landscape

layout based on a cross-axis intersecting the valley procession

site plan showing existing program (black) and additions (purple)

Final Maps

Our final critique for the mapping of the Igualada cemetery was yesterday. Professor Andrew Thurlow took time out of his sabbatical to reign supreme over our group for the evening. Here are some pictures of my final Axonometric and Sectional drawings and the layout of my presentation. To clarify, my project was a focus on the staircase that runs through the 2 levels of interment chambers, a sort of walk through the valley of death, as it were. Quite powerful.

the actual hand-drawings

everything laid out

Drawings Without Paper

A drawing of my "moment" made of out bent pieces of wire:

Lo' and Behold

After all the fiasco with various school staff, Caiti and I were finally able to get our plaster casts poured last Friday. Well, in the freezing rain amidst all the heat we were taking, I was able to get mine poured but it cured too fast for her to get to it as well. But the mess was there and after some spiteful cleaning using chunks of ice, we were done and done.

a similar perspective to the drawdel

success!

Look - It's a Drawing! No, it's a Model!...

Actually it's a DRAWDEL, a model of a drawing - or a drawing of a model, I don't know the details are kinda hazy...

This is a section of the Cemetery in Igualada, Spain. It is a staircase which penetrates through two levels of burial chambers of sorts, where human remains are interred. It is an interesting concept to literally walk through death, so to speak, and be able to emerge back into the light...

Book Carving

In a nutshell, our first project in Studio 413 was to take a book we had received as a charitable "donation" from the library - I think they may have believed they were going to be returned - and cut into the book to reveal something about its contents.

My book was "HOUSE" by Tracy Kidder - coincidentally something I actually needed to read for another class. After hauling ass through its contents it went under the knife

The Book got divided into 5 sections, each a function of a typical House.

These sections were labeled TO EAT, TO SLEEP, TO THINK, LOVE, and LIVE.

Each Section, as you flip through is marked with a set of Abstracted shapes cut into the pages  marked with various colours.

These shapes on their own don't make much sense until you reach the end and each shape corresponds with a floor plan of the actual house described in the book, with colour-coded programmatic elements.

Intruiging

Unknown Bridge, Unknown Location:

Meanwhile in Oklahoma...

A lot like my last post, this is a similar proposal for a subterranean museum in a defunct mining-town in Oklahoma:

http://www.archdaily.com/198621/mine-plug-didactic-subterranean-architecture/#more-198621

Exhuming Central Park

I found this interesting article on ArchDaily:

http://www.archdaily.com/201710/excavating-wilderness-an-urban-subterranean-dialogue/

Since our studio is dealing with Architecture as an exhumation I feel like this establishes the idea very well. It is a project for a Natural History Museum in the middle of Central Park in New York City and would be very interesting to go visit, should it ever get built.

The Inspiration

The House from the Southeast

The single greatest inspiration for me in my emerging career as an architect has got to be this project by Hagy Belzberg and associates. It is a house built in a Nature Preserve high in the hills of Malibu, California. It projects from its rocky-outcropping hilltop location and appears as if it were flying into the Pacific Ocean below. Built in the late 90's and completed in 2000, its design is revolutionary compared to its contemporary counterparts: projecting butterfly roofs, walls of glass, and unlimited vistas all add to the effect that this house resides in harmony with nature.