Winter 2015 - Erin Besler
Crashed Cube
This project sprouted from mainly two ideas, how to situate a cube in a ground, and how to enhance the space in and around it via manipulations to the cube. The form takes on a persona of a pyramid with a strong base and walls that taper to the sky. Using concave surfaces develops a more complex dimension to the interior and exterior space.
On the interior there is a hierarchy of floors due to the way the form is tilted. At the top is the least amount of space, and at the bottom, is the most amount of space. The tilt adds to the dynamism of the tapering surfaces but it can also prove difficult in planning core structures. An elevator and a stairwell must be located in a way that it reaches both the top-most floor and the bottom-most floor. This motif of shrinking is continuous throughout the form. While the exterior sides bend in to squeeze the interior, they create a subtle depth seen from the outside. As the form reaches for the sky, its interior shrinks.
The cores are not central, one must walk through the array of columns in the building. This “Typical Plan” celebrates the free plan as described by Corbusier and Koolhaas. To contrast against the claustrophobic, deflated feeling of convex walls, the interior is free from walls, at the cost of having a large column grid. If one stood in just the right corner of the building, they would be able to see all four interior walls. Surface-wise, there is a bandage-like window motif that covers the building; balancing the claustrophobic effect of the convex walls, strip-like windows break up the continuity of the curved surfaces.