︎unEARTHED
sp 2016
︎in collaboration with Lida Chrysanthou
New York City
bedrock exposes itself intermittently above a manicured surface in pointed
rough outcrops, peeking out and hinting at the presence of a persistent,
organic subterranean world just below, and deep below the surface.
The protruding
rock formations inspired us to expose the original and hidden contours of this
site, to strip back what has become a concrete plinth parking lot, and reveal
the complex ‘natural' rocky landscape beneath.
This school
addition is as much about subtraction.
From heavy to
light, from sidewalk to existing building, students traverse this new addition,
interacting with the architecture and landscape through a gradient of density
and heaviness, through movement or destination.
From heavy to
light.
Three programmatic
bars provide distinct spatial experiences with this new landscape.
A
partially-submerged library flanked by an existing retaining wall and a new
rammed-earth wall, where clerestory windows draw light into this heavy, quiet
space; instilling calm and centering sentiments of being within the earth.
A bar of
laboratories hugs the ground, flanked by a courtyard of trees and grasses and
rock in front, and a pool of collected rainwater flowing down the rock face to
the rear; it both sits and is nestled within the ground.
A bar of
classrooms floats above the ground, stilted and lifted, the rock flowing
jaggedly beneath the floor, with large open windows looking out to the existing
school and back over the new addition; light-filled and open.
The cross-grain
is a ramping glass walkway traversing the site, offering an alternative path that
links, wraps, meanders along and intersects the three bars.
The buildings
and landscape alternate; three distinct bars, three distinct landscapes. The elevations of each bar speak to internal
function as well as adjacent context; porches lining courtyards floating above
the ground, or glass enclosed halls floating over water and rock, tapered
windows curating views out and in.
All three share
a 10’ modular structural system of prefabricated frames as the grain of the
project. The design of wood members,
concrete walls, and glass openings varying relatively from one to the next,
changing scale and organization to reveal the architectural intent and feeling
of each degree of weight or weightlessness.
Comprehensive
design considers these many scales of architecture, and attempts to distill an
idea of throughout. The transition from
heavy to light is not only felt in the planning of spatial relationships with
the landscape, or the way each building touches the earth or opens to the air,
but also in the structural systems, the materiality expressions of each bar,
and joint details.
