HANNAH DORIAN
Projects 2 and 3 centered around a spec community filled with micro-intentional communities and domestic living spaces. Through out these two projects I worked closely with my partner, Peregrine. Together we created an Urban Winery. As expressed in our manifesto, the intention of this community was to ‘turn capitalism on it’s head’ and harness a commodity, wine, as means to deconstruct barriers and foster both community and personal growth with the people living between our two properties. We also wanted to find ways to blur the lines between the inside and outside, creating domestic spaces that played with this tension. Residents who live on Peregrine’s site and my site share the spaces between both of the buildings. My building, as described in the Program Brief above, specifically focuses around the show rooms and public areas used for the wine making process and domestic living spaces for the temporary site workers.
Project 2 was kicked off by selecting two items from our domestic spaces and a model piece created during our first project. For this portion of the project I selected a bottle of perfume and a tablespoon from my home, in addition to a model of a bottle of wine from my first project.
We then created Rhino models of our three objects. The shapes, forms and materiality of our objects were then used to create the foundation of our building and domestic spaces.
My initial building form, shown in the above model, was created by combining the perfume bottle, wine bottle model and a toy wooden rabbit, which came from my partner Perrigrine’s set of domestic items. The cylinder shaped midsection of the wine bottle was used to formed the scalloped front facade. The underbelly curve of the toy rabbit was used as inspiration for the side and back windows/walls. Finally, the beveled edge of the perfume bottle was used as inspiration for offsetting the second level roof and floor The perfume bottle was also utilized to form a bridge (not shown in the images above) which connected both Perrigrine’s and my buildings at our rooflines.
The final model for Project 2 was created by using museum board and two found building materials: dried linguine pasta and velvet obtained at a local resale store. I felt that the pasta connected back to our programming of an Urban Winery, as it is often a meal paired with wine. I also appreciated how the pasta held onto a slight translucently, allowing some light to pass when held up to the sunlight. The application of the velvet leaned into the concept of ‘turning capitalism on its head’. The material was pealed off of fine jewelry boxes which were bought at a local resale store for roughly 25 cents per box. The placement of the material also helps to create both vertical lines on the front facade, and then transitions into a horizontal reading along the back of the model.
After the completion of Project 2 Peregrine and I negotiated with our classmates to change the location of our two plots. Initially our buildings were located on the south-western residential street boundary of the greater community. Being that our buildings are connected to the sales of a physical commodity, wine, we relocated the two buildings to the eastern street facing sidewalk. The buildings are now nestled between two commercial buildings (shown by the two grey boxes in the site plan image above). The intention of this updated placement was to invite people into both the winery and the greater community. The community path, which is connected to the public sidewalk, leads into the property and meanders over to the other intentional communities within the block.
Focusing in on my building, the plan drawings walk you from the ground floor up to the tower which connects over to Peregrine’s building. In this building the floors move from being both private and public on the ground level, to the two mid levels which are open to the public, followed by the top floor, a private space for residents in the tower. The plans demonstrates how the first two staircases respond to the shape of the building, curving along the exterior walls, pushing the circulation to the sides of the building. The third staircase jets above Mid-Level 2 connecting up to the tower and is hung by steel cables off of the ceiling. The images also show the curtain windows on Mid-Level 1 and 2. These allow sweeping views of the collection of mico-intentional communities.
The section drawings show how the multiple vertical layers are stacked and offset on top of each other. They help to show the division of space within the building and how each floor connects to floors above and below it. The major changes which transformed the space from the initial building form developed in Project 2 was removing the side and back walls on the ground floor to make room for a hill and the division of second floor into Mid-Level 1 and Mid-Level 2. The hill was brought in to help foster the blurred lines of inside/outside. It creates a cozy nook for residents to sleep and houses a private bathroom (shown in the plan drawing of the ground floor). The initially spacious second floor, which originally had roughly 16’ ceilings, was divided into two levels. This created an open air work space to both create the wine, serve as a tasting room at the central semi-circle tables on Mid-Level 1 and room for a lounge/office space on Mid-Level 2.
Illustration of the front facade.
The exterior renderings show the tower connection between the two buildings which share the Urban Winery programming. An interior courtyard like space is formed by the curve of Peregrine’s building, which creates an exterior gathering space for both the public and residents to enjoy.
The physical model helps to articulate how the building reads differently depending on which side of the building you are facing. Beginning with the scalloped street facing facade, the solid walls help to form a vertical presence. Wrapping around to the north and east sides of the buildings the mullions holding the curtain windows push the form to read more horizontally. Finally, moving to the southern facade the rectangular wall hints that a solid rectangular space may be behind, yet the space it actually a man made hill, enclosing a private sleeping area. Both the hill and the curtain windows help to create a blurred boundary between the inside and outside. Allowing nature to come into and live within the building.