squeezed & edgy
a program-less building designed around two assigned words
ARCH11B
Andrew Atwood
Final Project
UC Berkeley || Spring '19
For this project, we were assigned two contrasting words to incorporate into our design for a program-less building and its surrounding path. The brief required the inclusion of: two stories, six rooms, three supporting columns, one continuous interior stair case, an exterior pathway and a fixed number of doors, benches and windows. Using the words "squeezed" and "edgy", the program-less building was designed around a rhythm of compression and release.
a spectrum of spaces
With two words, squeezed and edgy, as my guiding concepts, I focused my designed around a rhythm of compression and release. From wide, expansive spaces to narrow, cramped rooms, the user travels through a series of spatial experiences that build upon each other to create an appreciation for space, or the lack of it.
Visitors approach the building through an undulating pathway. Before entering the building, the path leads visitors into a edgy crevice which provides a severe feeling of compression as the building weighs on top of them. They squeeze through a dark, compressed tunnel carved through the solid mass of the basement, before being released into a wide, expansive lobby area.
