While researching the site and context of my building, became interested in how the concept of varying degrees of porosity would play into the urban fabric of the downtown mall and its surrounding networks of transportation, being the bus system, bikers, drivers, and pedestrians.
As I developed my project, the central organizational concept has evolved, and can be briefly described as a pedestrian cut-through that has been formed by piercing a plane with an elevator shaft and then peeling up and extruding the plane.
The program for this building was a public cultural center organized run by a forager of Sassafras. For this project, I used this prompt to explore fluidity and porosity and how it may into the way different users may circulate throughout my space.
Being at the intersection of 2nd street and west main and conveniently right next to a bus stop, I focused on opening up a new pathway and overhang where people both busy and free could have a nature experience as they save time and continue throughout their day.
The way I thought about porosity in movement along with how the forager would use this space influenced me to place the storage, preparation, and processing space for sassafras-related goods on the first floor with its own street-side private entrance to allow for easy deliveries and shipments.
As I continued development I wanted to make sure natural forms that were semi-porous and can be seen in the elevator and façade screens were reciprocated on the horizontal planes allowing skylights to seep in from above, making the learning environments on the second floor an enjoyable workspace.
The layering of natural and curvilinear forms is then continued onto the third floor to ensure that the forager’s private space is pleasant and has plenty of access to natural light.
Finally, the promenade through nature and natural forms ends on the fourth floor where the public is able to have the full experience of bathing in nature and getting a break from the stresses of the city under the shade of sassafras trees used for study and production by the forager.
In section, you can see the interconnectivity and open space between floors and how the positioning of the stairs calls for circumambulation and full experience of the interior space.
Additionally in section, the elevator and façade screening and their ability to be open and closed in response to privacy needs become more clear.
Here I have an animation looking out the elevator shaft, I wanted to make sure that the elevator was just as much as an experience as the stairs for those who are not able to take them. I did so by making more light flow in as you move up, just like how moving up through the canopy of a tree would be.
This Drawing focuses on how the cut-though would look in relation to the bus stop from a human perspective.
I made this interior perspective to give a sense out of how the experience of the stairs would feel while offering an understanding of how truly open the interior of this seemingly closed of building is.
Finally, I have a rendering to give a sense of what both facades would look like from the point of view of a person on the street.