SEARCHING FOR THE HISTORY OF THE FUTURE:

RETHINKING THE

EIXAMPLE BLOCK

Fall 2014

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Advisor: Dietmar Eberle, Beisi Jia

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PROJECT STATEMENT

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The project is built on five basic issues of architecture: place, structure, shell, program and materiality. They are examined individually in Phase I and together in Phase II - the final design unites all the thematic areas into a genuine project.

The sequences of the design phases reflects in turn the hierarchical weighting of the themes, which derives from the differences in their useful lives and at the same time reveals an approach to architectural questions that is separate from the program.

It should be understood as a critique of modernism’s focus on the program, juxtaposing it
with an understanding of architecture which emphasizes a building’s useful life and status.
This re-evaluation of the focus on program in favor of useful life is the consequence of questions of sustainability and resource management which are always latent these days.

Observing and grappling with a single theme and in combination as a successive bringing together of themes leads step by a step to the ability to relate tasks and solve them at the same time.

The traditional linear sequence of analysis and design are abandoned in fovor of working in parallel. Thinking on several levels - and hence across many scales - is a central requirement of each design development.
 

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RETHINKING THE EIXAMPLE BLOCK

The Eixample city block in Barcelona is rethought in terms of circulation, lightwell, balcony space & urban fabric.
The design aims at improving the provision for natural sunlight and ventilation in the reinvented facade; facilitating communal interaction in the semi-public corridor; and providing public flaneur in the neighborhood.

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PROJECT RECOGNITION

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- Nominated design studio presenter for
Public Forum: Mid Semester Design Studio Symposium
Spring 2016 Special Event, The Faculty of Architecture, HKU | 2014.10.24