Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Introduction to New Project

It certainly has been a long time since the most recent post, a testimony to how busy villa life is in between our study travel trips. So though this project is new to you, we have already reached the first stages of development. And so, a brief period of catch-up!

SEMESTER PROJECT: Edifici per abitazioni-- Castelletto

The site consists of a vacant parcel above the CAF villa, where the salita San Simone interescts Via Domenico Chiodo. The property is bound by an apartment structure to the west, and another residential property directly to the east. The parcel consists of a flat section and a portion which is steeply sloped to the border formed on the southern edge. Expanisve distant views of the port are a feature of the site.

The design challenge calls for the design of a multi-family housing project and a public piazza, that would hypothetically be maintained by the City of Genova as a public ammenity.

Our first steps in the development of this project were research and site analysis. We broke up into teams to start building a context model of site, research from books, and research from life.
Below are some examples of research in the form of precedent studies and case studies, compiled and presented by Karyn and I.


New Municipal Offices, Genoa. The field study group also visited and photographed this building, observing how it relates to its surroundings and the landscape.


A series of typical floor plans, providing inspiration from precedent.

Below is one view of the massive site context model built in part by the entire studio. It is at 1/8"=1' scale, an ambitious task, but will be a useful design tool as we develop models at the same scale. Our site is the area illuminated in the middle right section of the photo.

Site Context Model, 1/8 scale

As we became more familiar with the site through our research, we began to develop schematic design proposals for the program. On Thursday, October 2, (yes yes I know this was a long time ago) we spent the day doing an extended sketch problem. Each student produced an initial site plan at 1"=20' scale and a North/South Site/Building Section at 1/8"=1' scale, the same scale as our context model. This challenge forced us to examine how our buildings would fit into the landscape, and how to develop the relationship between the public space of the piazza and the private space of the housing units.

Currently we are working in pairs to finish out the semester with joint projects. The pairings will help us be most efficient with our time in the villa, while also challenging us to merge our distinct ideas into a single unified project.
The partnerships are as follows:
Brian/Tim
Ryan/Mariana
Sara/Will
Karyn/Chris N.
Mason/John
Erica/Chris L.
Frank/Shana
Geoff/Elissa

There will be further updates on this project as we have interim reviews... or perhaps later catch-ups a month after we have the review!

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