between a rock + a hard place
a rock climbing dwelling on the threshold of the natural and the man-made world
ARCH100D
David Orkand
Final Project
UC Berkeley || Spring '21
This rock climbing residency situates itself between an organic natural rock formation, Indian Rock, and an existing hardscape of a surburban neighborhood. The project negotiates the threshold between architectural and natural manipulations, fractures, and erosions, and its resulting spatial and experiential qualities.
streetview render
indian rock site
The site is located at a very prominent natural rock-climbing spot for locals and visitors alike the end of Indian Rock Path, one of the numerous "secret passageways" throughout Berkeley that link the mountainous hills to the downtown. Through circulation paths, framing devices, and the neighboring context, the site at Indian Rock lies at an interesting boundary between the manmade and the natural world.
The project is forced to contend with the rugged rock face on one side, and the suburban property lines on the other. By literally "carving out" from photos of the existing rock face, this rock climbing residency for visitor climbers blurs architecture and organicism to create a new housing typology.
split and shift
The project begins at street view as a flat, architectural facade, but it slowly erodes away within itself. Mimicking the natural elements of weathering and erosion, programmatic volumes fracture and shift around each other to create new spatial and circulatory opportunities that blur the boundaries of the artificial and the existing earthwork.
