TARA MEHTA
The basis for this building's program is to provide a tower mixed with a communal hill for bouncing down/biking/sledding/skiing/snowboarding. The tower is mixed use and has public spaces on the lower floors and private living on the top three floors.The hill inflates out of the building on designated days and is meant to be a community event that brings people interested in a certain kind of mountain sport. The hill faces northward. Here is an animation that illustrates what the inflation might looks like.
The ground level is lofted above the community alley way as a public covered pavilion space and also the entry up into the tower. The only part of the building that touch the ground here are v-supports, a staircase and elevator facing the alleyway/boardwalk. This entry arch gesture is mirrored on the other side of the block in another project that will be presented later on.
The height of the building not only allows for the hill to inflate out of it but also serves as a sort of beacon to invite others from outside the community into our community and all that it offers.
As one enters the building, rising up into a cloud either via elevator or stairs. This floor space houses sports equipment (for example snowboards or bikes) and gear storage and performs as prep space to put on gear and get ready to descend the hill. There are two floors within the cloud dedicated for this. Above those floors is a utility space, entirely devoted to inflating the hill. This is where the air pumps, generators and uninflated slide are stored and operated.
One continues upward and enters up into the main atrium of the tower. This is where community members, families, friends are welcome to hang out, chat, watch the hill activities, and go down out onto the hill. Those that live in the building continue up into the private residence floors above. A feature of those floors are the amorphous structures that allow for more private functions in the otherwise glass enclosed residence space. Each floor has a bedroom. There is a kitchen on the top floor and on the first residential floor or the 6th floor.
The function of these private rooms are more gestural. I imagine the residents of these living spaces to be active participants of the downhill sports and also maintain it. The residence floors are also wrapped with a bubbly slide-like structure that can be multiuse. It can connect the apartment floors from the outside or provide as part of the community bee highway.
The design of this building definitely evolved a ton over the course of the studio. At the end here I thought about fun and balloon like ways to carve out interior spaces and create a fun space to inhabit and experience for members and non-members of the community throughout the building not just on the inflatable exercise hill.
The height of the building not only allows for the hill to inflate out of it but also serves as a sort of beacon to invite others from outside the community into our community and all that it offers.
As one enters the building, rising up into a cloud either via elevator or stairs. This floor space houses sports equipment (for example snowboards or bikes) and gear storage and performs as prep space to put on gear and get ready to descend the hill. There are two floors within the cloud dedicated for this. Above those floors is a utility space, entirely devoted to inflating the hill. This is where the air pumps, generators and uninflated slide are stored and operated.
One continues upward and enters up into the main atrium of the tower. This is where community members, families, friends are welcome to hang out, chat, watch the hill activities, and go down out onto the hill. Those that live in the building continue up into the private residence floors above. A feature of those floors are the amorphous structures that allow for more private functions in the otherwise glass enclosed residence space. Each floor has a bedroom. There is a kitchen on the top floor and on the first residential floor or the 6th floor.
The function of these private rooms are more gestural. I imagine the residents of these living spaces to be active participants of the downhill sports and also maintain it. The residence floors are also wrapped with a bubbly slide-like structure that can be multiuse. It can connect the apartment floors from the outside or provide as part of the community bee highway.
The design of this building definitely evolved a ton over the course of the studio. At the end here I thought about fun and balloon like ways to carve out interior spaces and create a fun space to inhabit and experience for members and non-members of the community throughout the building not just on the inflatable exercise hill.
