architectural design_presentation_02 idea&concept

02_idea & concept

In order to talk about the concept it was important to look at the connections at the site. Firstly we needed to find the right size and volume for our building. In the scheme we show our process of thinking, we started out with showing the borders and the maximum space we could use. The maximum for us, was defined by borders of the square in the floorplan and by the height of the cathedral size wise. Then we started to cut the volume down slowly to find the right position and size. We lowered the maximum height considering we do not want to make competition to the majesty of cathedral, we want to preserve the monumental feeling. Next we cut the volume in size from the west side of the square since we wanted to leave some free space infront of the apsid not to change its look and perceiving. Reason to cut the volume from the east came up when we looked through historical plans and analysed them. We could clearly see, that the big open space on front of the apsid is quite new, and there was always block of buildings leaving only small square area for the market. We choose to follow this axis and leave the market square empty. In the end we cut the volume to the final form to a narrow rectangle, to preserve the free space in front of the cathedral and also to preserve the relationships between streets. This way we can add value to both squares.

When working with such historic area, we needed to agree on our opinion how to work with it and in it. One thing we realised was, that heritage area is very untouchable for us. We do not want to change it. It was quite interesting thought for us, that there is a metaphore in how similar this is comparing with nature. Both worlds very untouchable and beautiful.

We were very interested in this topic, and looking for inspiration, we found a very special kind of art. The best known artist in this kind of art is Richard Serra. The concept of his art is to put large scale statues into spaces in order to change the perceiving of the space.

Firstly we explored more art with this concept. It is seen installed mainly in nature, where a very small touch makes a big difference in percieving the nature. In our eyes, changing the persieving of something very well known and untochable by a very small intervention. Leaving a footprint.

Then we thought about how can we use this concept in urban space. We found multiple references of small or big objects used in the urban space to change its perceiving and atmosphere.

We thought about how we can implement this into the square. The idea started with what happens if we put for example a wall in the middle of the square. How does it change the perceibing of the square and space. With a simple scheme we show, that the difference between perceiving before and after putting the wall is huge. Especially talking about the cathedral, which is the main point of interest when looking at the square. Suddenly the cathedral can not be seen copletly and clearly and you wonder, what is behind the wall? also the small opening changes the flow of the square, people have to go around or as a mass through the opening. A very small structure/object changing the perceiving of a very well known scene largly.

So the remaining question was, how can we do this with our volume? To apply the concept, but use our building as the object. Clearly the volume was too big. It would change the place too much which was not our goal. We put the building underground, which reduces the volume and use small parts of the building peeking throught the surface. The parts visible will act as our statues to change the perceiving of the space. Visible parts are skylights bringing the light to the gallery and they leave a small footprints and hints of our building on the surface.

When looking at the sections, there is a connection between the square and the underground building made by skylights. The two areas overlap by changing level of the ground. The entrance we located from the courtyard of the Toullouse-Lautrec museum to preserve the connection with museum since it is an extension. It provides easy access from one exhibition building to another.

In the cross section it is shown that we create a different atmosphere in the gallery space. Last time we talked about the difference between the atmospheres inside the cathedral and outside at the square. Now we created another atmosphere, in our eyes somehow similar to the cathedral atmosphere. They share this kind of sacre quite atmosphere.

When thinking about the functions and programme of the building, we needed to find the relationships between each of the spaces. In this scheme we show what the relationships look like to us, how they connect.

We started to think about the order of the functions and how to make the layout in the building. In order to find the right layout we put the functions next to each other and looked at the proportions they represent. Next we prosposed multiple options of the combinations, but we agreed the final option will be chosen individually in further process.

architectural design_presentation_01 analysis

01_analysis

When collecting the information about the site, we made basic analysis in a medium scale. We analysed the structure of the blocks of buildings, buildings, the river, the greenery, the public space and the roads. As a result we can say the location has a very dense structure of buildings, which are usually enclosed around a small courtyard. Looking at the roads, cars have access to the area only in some parts. If there are roads open for cars they are one way roads. There is a quite large pedestrian zone where no cars are allowed. There is a road for cars directly at the site, which goes through the square next to the cathedral in a L-shape. This connection road is quite important in organisation of the traffic in the area. Greenery analysis shows, there is not much greenery in the area when talking about streets or square directly. The greenery is concentrated mainly around the river coming from the center of greenery in the area - the garden. Public space is mostly made by pedestrian streets leading to the square with the cathedral. 

Next we analysed the historical aspect of the site area. When looking at the buildings, one can see different eras. The city has a deep middle age history and it formed and evolved ever since. To get to know different layers of time and history at the location, we made a scheme showing the age of the parts from the oldest (the darkest color) to the newest (the lightest color). Our site is located at a very center of the oldest part of the city.

 To really define the atmosphere of the site, we made an analysis of the different layers of the site that we could recognise by all the factors shown in analysis that affect the site. The layers of atmospheres we chose were: touristic layer, local layer, noise layer, secure layer and insecure layer (in this exact order). The touristic layer was composed by the interests of tourist coming the square. Their main interests are the cathedral and the Toulouse-Lautrec museum. The local layer aims at the interests of the local people, showing that the cathedral is one of the local points as well as a touristic point, where the difference is, that for local people the interest is the inside of the cathedral and its function more than the outside of the cathedral. Outside interest point of the cathedral for locals would be only the entrance. Noise layer shows the road with cars is a big distraction enabling the place to be peaceful, on the other hand, another center of noise - local square market, which makes social noise of people negotiating and shopping at the market. This noise is considered as not distracting, in fact helpful for the public and social atmosphere. Then we decided to name a secure and insecure layer. This layers indicate where a person can feel comfortable or not quite comfortable. As a secure we marked the interior of the cathedral, the small greenery with a fountain, the space infront the tower of the cathedral and the narrow street behind the cathedral leading to the museum, where there is also located a small stream with a fountain. These places make people feel comfortable, secure and intimate. On the other hand, the open space infront of the cathedral and market can induce a feeling of respect and insecurity (when looking at the huge scale of the cathedral from such small distance). The road with cars going straight through the square is very interrupting as well. We marked the interior of the cathedral as insecure as well, as it can have the atmosphere of respect made by the scale of the building and lighting etc. 

When talking about the site and its atmosphere the cathedral is a huge part. Not only its scale but also its beauty is unbeatable. We tried to understand how its presence affects the square and the area. As the diagram shows, the floor plan of the cathedral takes around 35% of the floorspace of the square. Being such a big part in this public space, we looked at how different the atmospheres can be, only devided by a wall, by comparing these two clips filmed at the site.

 Next we looked at how is the atmosphere changing when walking around the cathedral at the square. We picked different clips of points when the mood is changing more drastically. 

  We started to ask ourselves question about the museum to find out what is the atmosphere of a museum for us, and in the end merge these two atmospheres.