Mid-review just happened and went well, then we went to Brazil and I basically forgot that we were even in school, much less working on a studio project. So to recap, I began this project by thinking about how people explore cities and we, as newcomers to BA, explored this city. One of the major things that we did was explore neighborhoods by going to places that had art markets or ferias. These events allowed us a safe and secure way to visit a neighborhood while giving us a destination point to arrive at. I was also thinking about how these ferias give each neighborhood a chance to put itself on display and represents something unique about each neighborhood or community. So my project became a school + art school and market, where you would have craftsmen and artisans come in a teach workshops to students who would then be able to sell their wares at a market.
In thinking about site and location, I chose a site that was at the edge of the villa that faces Recoleta, the extremely wealthy bordering neighborhood. I did this as a way to try to create this filter and gateway from one to the other, where the building would act as a beacon and invitation for people to visit.
My initial diagrams were of clusters of buildings that created a chain along the long, narrow site. But I felt like this was too clunky and I landed on this idea of these different ribbons that move along the site, moving in and out of the existing villa buildings and drawing out characteristics and pulling in new experiences.
So in the project the school, workshops and studios would act as a canopy above a large open space that would be inhabited by the market. This underneath would serve as play areas, parks, and transit hubs as well.
The three elements - school, workshops/studios and the openspace would cross over one another creating spaces both horizontally and vertically. The concept is attempting to mimic the existing way people move through the villa, which is a weaving through rather than the straight grid of most cities. This comes from the irregular development of the villa and I'm hoping to be able to hang on to that atmosphere.
So the next steps now are starting to input the program into what I have now, which will ultimately dissolve the diagram a little bit and make it into more of a building. Also beginning to develop the underneath landscape and how that moves through the site. I'll keep posting updates as I get them and a recap of Brazil coming soon!
