Embracing the Broken Courtyard
HKU MArch Studio, Design 11, 21Fall
Tutor: Joshua Bolchover + Kent Mundle / Donn Holohan + Jersey Poon
Group: Calvin, Frank
Key words: Transformation / Obsolescence / Experimental structures / Rural-Urban / Material tectonics
【01】Transformation
“DESIGN IS RESEARCH”
Throughout the semester the studio will conduct ongoing research into how architecture affects and alters the process of rural/urban transformation. The aim is not to conceptualize architecture and territory as a matter of scale but as a dynamic and complex set of relationships, including urban, material, and ecological aspects.
Experiment:
Drawing and observing
Each student will set up a simple physics experiment that involves dynamically changing processes.
Each student should work on creating a device or instrument that also allows for the recording of experiments at each stage of transformation.
This process of change will be observed, recorded, and then transformed into a symbolic map that can describe the spatial relationship over time on at least two scales. Experiments should be set up so that the process itself can be tracked or measured.
Physical experiment → System record → Drawing translation
【02】Spatial Generator
FRAME + CORE
In phase2, we are asked for a combination of small wooden strips and concrete solids as elements of the main space exploration.
Based on this, a prototype that fits the site is made as a space generator. Therefore, regarding the frame made of wooden slats, I divide it into two types: light and heavy, light – as an extension of space, and heavy – as the main structural frame to hold up the entire light frame.
【03】SITE SITUATING
FRAME + CORE + SHIFTING
Each person’s venue is different, and the lot is allocated. Everyone needs to do prototyping in their respective venues. What we got was a ruined site called “Broken Courtyard”. The original building was destroyed by the earthquake, forming this special broken open space. We needed to design a prototype for this, which could then be adapted to similar venues.
The overall frame is still a combination of Core+Frame, but it needs to be adapted to the site. So I still use the method of flat illustration and set the rules myself. Roughly decomposed into four courtyards, each has a central and symmetrical space in the middle of the unit. The large platform on the right is a public platform, and the left is three different types of housing. Finally, it merged with the original building into a ring (Embracing) and shared the entire platform together. This is the most basic concept.
