IaaC Blog

http://www.iaacblog.com/2009-2010/MAAphase2/rs2/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Final_version1_reduced2.pdf

The movie I am working with is SPIRIT AWAY (Hayao Miyazaki 2001). It is about a family that got lost in an “enchanted” place where is located a HOTEL which main guests are Gods that travel there in order to relax and take herbal and aromatic baths. So, while the human lose materiality, gods win it while they get closer to this world, having and individual meaning of  renewing yourself. The luxury aspect in this hotel for Gods overturned toward the idea of bathing where the spaces more than static spaces are processes, to convert this in a real bath you need the playfulness, the inventiveness, the intuition, the logic, the strategy; it is a fantasy system.

So, focus in the world of bathing I went back in time to review the bath, the bathroom and the bareness.

Along the history, the ritual of the bath meant much more than few minutes dedicated to the personal care. Among Indies and Muslims there is the Sacred bath where people gather before death (the most important event in life); for Greece the bath had prestigious connotations and used to be a place where men gather and chat; Romans used impressive public baths, as real palaces where could bath up to 2.500 persons, having a luxury and social connotations; then Japanese culture (which Miyazaki was inspired) has the Sentos where they believe that without the “skinship” of mutual nakedness is used as a way of brake any taboo among the society; Turkish where the baths are places of social meeting, where vanishes any inequality of social nature. After a forbidden period of this topic in the obscurantism the bathroom was not incorporated to the architecture plan until lately XIX Century, until nowadays where the bath is a crucial space BUT STILL standard, fixed to the ground, isolated, private and sometimes understood as an object more than a space. 

For this reason, I propose the “unfolding time” of the box, to break the boundaries of this secluded space using the NUDITY in the architecture. The idea is not to generate a nudist hotel, is to make the architecture to become nude; it is about openings, not transparencies; about sensations, not images; it is a sequence of feelings and happenings. Baths that dialog with the users and the city, baths that raise from the ground but gradually abandon it while undressing.

How do I do it? The main idea is the deformation of the surfaces in order to generate, contain, and stretch spaces (which is understood as the tectonics of the water) is directly linked with the setting of the program in the building.

In order to approach this narrative two main components are proposed:

Stream net. As a surface, a collector, which deforms in order to contain spaces and also has the quality of hold  this DROPS, which are the capsules. Is the public space, the STRUCTURE and also the “aisle”, the main nudity in the proposal, is where the bath takes place.

Capsules. Those random drops that are being hold in the mesh and transform the topography of it. Is the room, the “inner”.

The idea is not to generate a façade, instead the building is developed as a section, letting the spaces to flow. The public services and spaces that can also be used by other people beside the guest are in the “ground level” (but also this level become different levels, changing and playing with the topography and public space). And the FLUID NET level where is located the program exclusively for the guest. So we see how the rooms (DROPS) hangs all over the net; and how the scale of the objects dialog with the scale of this main system which is the scale of the exterior.

The floor plan shows how the main program is developed as a unique space with no walls, no limits, so the narrative of the surface is constantly related with the interior- exterior and vice versa. In this way, this OPEN PLAN become a general bath (social areas) where the rooms get dissolved.

The experience of the bathROOMS. As unique spaces, and object “enveloped” with no boundaries, make –nude- the privacy, with no attachments. This spaces have the DECK that connect the interior of the building  with the exterior. The space deforms to generate the bathtub, etc, where the bed is floating as the interior flows.

In this view we can appreciate how this drops change the lecture of the building at night, while during the day its appearance is blurry at night shows the happenings and experiences.

The journey of gradually discovering this hotel concept began from a serious of movies connected to the theme of death, its consequences and the feelings that it carries with it. Inspiration to a great extend was the light discussed as the last thing that one sees facing death and the positives and negatives of this. During the research process I came along the 5 stages of death/grief/separation and also discovered that each of them (Denial,Anger,Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance) has its own colour and can be expressed through it. This brought me to the idea, that colour use itself and chromatherapy in particular can be a means of counteracting negative feelings and achieving a balance. Research continued with defying the gradients that can enhance or tone down each of the feelings/conditions mentioned above and how exactly to apply the system to the room interior. The shape of the perspective hotel room – the capsule was to a great extend influenced from the shape and functional form of the LED light capsule. With round edges and surfaces on the inside and outside and through EcoTect studies this proved to be the optimal shape to project artificial light from the inside to the outside and have natural light projecting from the outside inward. Using a grasshopper definition I was able to multiply in a zig-zag manner my small and large size units, so that I can control shadows better and create a system of placement that can be easily applied to any landscape or density condition. Using the definition I developed a series of hotels, based on the same system. User contributing to the room with his/hers condition and mood, the room contributing to the condition of the user by changing colour gradients to improve the mood, the room colour contributing to the pixelated image of the front facade, and the gradient that is projected to the back facade. The overall shape of the building was a result of the different options generated in the systemization process and trying to explore more verticality and the maximum area to project colour onto, as well as the maximum visible area of the gradient created by the separate parts. The result is a structure that is constantly in motion in terms of colours and projections and is totally dependent on the user and his/her mood, in this way making everyone a part of the experience.

See here PDF Presentation – part 1
See here PDF Presentation – part 2
See here PDF Presentation – part 3

See presentation: http://www.slideshare.net/paulopgon/19022010-presentation

Click here for movie : BBC Documentary

Click here for PDF

The idea of the room was to leave the expression once the guest has been in side. Just like the ancient use to do with theirs script .

Above there is the first shoot of the plan and how the are distributed at the floor hall.The elevator at the center is not the same as showed from out side render.

At this image we can clearly see the intention of the out side elevator,which does not work and also the idea was hardly criticized  by the professors…

Epicurus Recipe to Happiness_ Friends, Freedom, and an Analyzed Life.

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Epicurus 341  BCE  –  270  BCE

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