A world of alternative urban opportunities

Project idea

The desire to experiment with what we can find in the layers of the city,
to search, research, imagine and apply various methods of preserving,
converting, rebuilding or expanding the existing buildings of Bratislava,
can provide surprising and unusual answers to the questions of today. The use of such methods becomes a matter of city densification and at
the same time reveals a completely unexplored architectural-analytical
potential. The thesis has the ambition to deal with the experiment as one of the methods of searching for new possibilities, to provoke an architectural dialogue between the researcher and the city and to define its limits and potentials.

Project description

The goal of this work is to contribute to the field of research that could deepen the discussion about urban densification and all the phenomena related to it. What happens when an unknown element lands on the roof, leans against the gable of the house or gets in the way in the yard? The resulting contradictions and fusions show that the application of similar strategies could be successful. The significance and importance of this research lies in the fact that it presents a different view of the design possibilities that the contemporary city offers. When we try, we could be looking at a compact city, creating extraordinary moments, providing unexpected, vibrant and sparkling scenarios. There is a world of alternative urban opportunities, hidden and waiting. These interventions, due to their volumetric nature, lead to questioning the very structure of the city, indulging in the possibility of imagining unforeseen, alternative conditions.

3 situations (typologies) were selected from the city according to their qualities and peculiarities, which are organized into 3 categories of densification possibilities (superstructure, extension, solitary). They are the first step in the gradual process of abstraction of real urban conditions. Each category presents 4 densifying strategies (contrast, symbiosis, control, intervention) in all situations. In some cases, the methodology of provocation for the creation of fictional formal compositions becomes the use of examples from the real environment. In the resulting moment, a series of diagrams are presented that represent one concrete and simplified principle that governs the morphology of the place. Each resulting option is then weighted according to six parameters, which represent a subjective categorization, the result of which is not one clear "winner", but its meaning is comparative. After reaching this stage of diagrammatic abstraction, the examples are transferred to space in the form of collages depicting the real and imaginary state. The space is a reflection of a simpler principle that rejects architectural detail, objectivity and program. Therefore, created spaces can be more appropriately defined as formalized, which do not actually fulfill a function (with the exception of intervention). The result of this process of abstraction is a dense city area of idealized forms. It should be remembered that by continuously going through categories, the relationship of conditions to situations also changes in the same direction. This means that with the superstructure, the bias is strictly directed towards the roof, the extension pushes into the space and the solitaire draws attention to the relationships at the urban level.

Technical information

In this work, 36 alternatives of how to approach densification were gradually presented. They were chosen based on the author's thinking, perception and feeling, but as with the initial act of searching for these possibilities in the sketching process, the search does not end at the end of this project. The model was developed to demonstrate already revealed situations, but with each "wrong" combination, more and more are added. The process of infinite positions, a puzzle game...

Documentation

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