Catch Up 2

So for my initial massing of my project, I wanted to evoke the image that I had posted previously of the mountain. After a couple of massing studies, I decided on the one below.






The central core would be the lobby for the apartments, while the apartments would reveal this core towards the top by varying heights of each tower.




Physical Model



At the very top of the rising towers would be the chapel. It would be reached by an elevator that rode the front facade from the church lobby on floor two to the Chapel at the top. I was very heavily influenced by Salmona, who's images appear below.




Salmona's apartment project evokes the same solidness and materiality that I want each tower surrounding the center to have. I imagine this center to glow at night, which I depicted below.




This way, you can really tell that each apartment is giving away to the central, community based piece.

Catch-Up Week Part 1

So i have had a busy couple of weeks (writing a blog while in school is harder than I thought) and I have made much progress in my studio project. I will attempt to catch everyone up this week, the last one before our Spring Break.


So after I completed sight analysis and what not, I took a step back and thought of what I wanted this building to accomplish. The combination of both divine and domestic entities is a treat rarely seen in architecture. My fist image was to imagine the apartments as a mountain, with the church located at the top of this mountain, or closer to heaven.




After this initial image, I went back to the church website and saw that the bulk of activity does not happen through religious events, but instead through community service. In fact, they only have religious services on Sunday. I decided to split the program up so that the bulk of church administration happens closer to the street level, while religious services would be located at the top.



Through this image, the journey of the architecture becomes more important then the architecture itself. That is, what was once static forms becomes an experience unto itself. I pursued this idea and have made great strides. More to come tomorrow in part two........