A Home for Art Within Nature: Dugok-ri Cultural Resource Facility
| Location: | Dugok-ri, South Korea |
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| Status: | Competition Proposal |
| Date: | 2020 |
The landscape of this part of Hoengseong-gun is defined by a mix of lush forested hills and productive agricultural fields. This mix of ancestral nature and productive landscapes provides a rich context for a new cultural facility. This facility aims to become a revitalizing cultural and economic force for the region, but also provide a platform for local creativity, and work as a hub for a new regional network of cultural institutions (some existing and some new).
The Cultural Resource Centre Complex is to be built in a secluded rural location, which offers it bold opportunities for connecting with the rich local landscape of forested hills and fields. A home for art must be designed within the local landscapes, taking cues from the site to define its placement. It rises upward from the valley of agricultural fields, yet comfortably nestles within the lush forested hills, respecting the local typology and flows of the site. It must proudly represent the beauty of local lifestyles (through spatial organization, materiality and building programming) while humbly embedding itself within the land.
Context Plan
Building Site Plan
The site plan makes full use of the local topography to provides efficient access for visitors, staff and loading while respecting the local landscape and providing a unique way to experience art within nature (both fields and forests).
The building stacks and flows along the site’s topography, making use of the different datums to create separate access points: Public access happens uphill while private access (loading and staff) happens downhill. The main public entrance is located within a peaceful central forecourt enclosed by the hills and the building, it is accessible from all sides, whether visitors are coming from local villages, mountain paths or by local transit or car. The central public area beyond that forecourt extends onto the roofs of the private spaces below, these public terraces become flexible exhibition areas with magnificent views of the surroundings.
Building Morphology
Elevation and Section
Pedestrian Boulevard
View towards main entrance forecourt
Spirit of Forgotten Forests
京都の町において、人々の生活や信仰の場として自然は常に身近で神聖なものであり、町を包み込む温かい布のようなものとして大切に扱われてきた。そしてすべての自然は平等に貴重であり、自然の要素である木や石、水、土すべてにそれぞれのSpiritが宿っているという人々の自然に対する愛がこの町を自然と美しく共生する日本の文化の中心地として形作ってきたであろう。
| Location: | Kyoto, Japan |
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| Status: | Competition Entry |
| Date: | 2018 |
Plan and Section
A project in collaboration with Asuka Kohno
Kyoto was built on the strength of a very intimate relationship between the human realm and the nature which cradles it. From that relationship, an appreciation of landscapes and their changing character grew to become an integral part of the rituals of daily life (a folklore of spirits, hidden in light and obscurity, in the movement or stillness of plants and water, of soils and stones.)
Long ago, the site of this project was a forest, but today it is nothing more than an isolated patch of greenery, disconnected from its traditional presence in daily life by tall hedges; but take a peek behind the hedges and you’ll find a forest with its own story to tell.
Besides the formal pathways, sidewalks and parking lots that have become the spaces of daily life, we find a small patch of forest yearning to be rediscovered. We enter and find three distinct landscapes, each with its own character, its own spirit. To communicate with these landscapes we insert a small temporary structure inspired by that landscape, a lantern-like device to capture and amplify its unique qualities. These structures invite us to dwell within a forgotten forest, to observe its beauty, and immerse ourselves in its stories with all of our senses. In addition to existing hedges, we designed simple earth walls, benches and plantings that guide people's gaze and movement towards discovering the three different spirits of the site. The sequence through the site is designed to engage visitors in a playful game of hide-and-seek with each of the three landscapes.
Procession / Experiences
Three spirits of the site:
A. 温糺室 / A warm room
Under a dense coniferous forest canopy, warm waterways course through herbaceous plants; within this soft and humid space, one feels cocooned within the warmth of the local ancestral forests that once occupied the site.
B. 木漏れ日 / Sunlight and shadows
Further into the site, the shadows of barren deciduous trees sway in the wind. Within the shoji-like enclosure, visitors find a place where they can enjoy the theatrical performance created by the winter forest.
C. 巣床 / Burrow / Nest bed
Furthest along the path, animals look for places to nest and burrow. Visitors are invited to lower their point of view, hiding themselves close to the ground in a sheltered place where one can see without being seen, and experience a rarely seen side of the forest.
Construction system and timeline
Winnipeg Warming Huts
To bring warmth to a Winnipeg winter, we propose a simple and evocative set of curving walls made of undyed industial felt.
| Location: | Winnipeg, Manitoba |
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| Status: | Competition Entry |
| Date: | 2018 |
To bring warmth to a Winnipeg winter, we propose a simple and evocative set of curving walls made of undyed industial felt. Felt is an ancient material that speaks to us of warmth and comfort not only through it’s insulating qualities, but also it’s soft texture and colour, its density and round sculpural forms. Rather than creating a single enclosed space, the meandering walls form pockets of shelter, sized for groups from 3 to 10. At 3.0m high, the walls are high enough to create a sense of deep enclosure, but still open to views of the Forks. The felt will be made rigid and self-supporting by being soaked in water and frozen in the -30°C cold. The assembly process will be a performance in itself, as a pump draws water up from below the river’s frozen surface, and transforms a flimsy substance, hung from portable frames, into a hard shell that nonetheless appears soft.
Construction Process
Takeshita Concert Hall
The Takeshita House of Music is located between a centre of youth pop culture on Takeshita-Dori, the high-street shopping of Meiji-Dori (connecting Takeshita to Omotesando), and the traditional landscape of the Togo Shrine. This context presents an opportunity to create a place of exchange between these different worlds, attracting a wider range of audiences and performers, fluidly accommodating the contrasting identities of adjacent neighborhoods.
| Location: | Tokyo, Japan |
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| Status: | Competition Entry |
| Date: | 2015 |
The Takeshita House of Music is located between a centre of youth pop culture on Takeshita-Dori, the high-street shopping of Meiji-Dori (connecting Takeshita to Omotesando), and the traditional landscape of the Togo Shrine. This context presents an opportunity to create a place of exchange between these different worlds, attracting a wider range of audiences and performers, fluidly accommodating the contrasting identities of adjacent neighborhoods.
Our proposal is an attempt to remove from the music hall any sense of exclusivity, monumentality, or association with an unapproachable ‘high’ culture. Instead, the concert hall must be accessible and open. To this end, the theatre volume is wrapped in a lightweight, open structure, which allows public spaces such as the restaurant and bar to support the life on the street as well as serving the guests seeing a performance. This type of structure is a contemporary adaptation of traditional Japanese framing typologies, which allow spaces to be selectively indoor or outdoor.
A narrow, one storey pavilion extends the commercial frontage on the north side of TakeshitaDori, and creates a permeable transition into a public square that links Meiji-Dori Street to the Togo Shrine garden path, and to the entrance foyer of the theatre.
The concert hall itself is the classic shoebox shapeof dimensions similar to Boston Symphony Hall (still considered one of the acoustically greatest halls in the world) with three tiers of wraparound balconies. The end wall behind the stage is acoustic glazing, corrugated to diffuse sound, allowing natural light into the hall while presenting the image of the city as a backdrop to the performance. Towards the entrance, the concert hall lobbies on each floor face onto the Togo Shrine park. In addition, the ground level side walls of the theatre are designed to pivot open, creating for certain events a new public relationship between the concert hall and its surroundings. These pivoting panels not only allow for a seamless transition between the plaza and the concert hall, they also help welcome a greater variety of musical genres within the concert hall by creating an open condition which is more acoustically suitable for amplified music.