Project 2: The Bridge

A bridge for a ‘lifelong’ bachelor to entertain female friends, whilst hiding a world of hopeful longing.

Edward Hopper, Excursion into Philosophy


The building is built as a bridge, with a bridge connecting the entry and a bridge connecting the two spaces – the two worlds. The bridge is symbolic of the journey that this man takes in the painting, realising his emptiness and longing for more. The site is a steep coastal valley, which the bridge leaps over; the verticality of the site, through contrast is to heighten the horizontality of the bridge. Also, the glamour of location adds to the 1950’s James Bond bachelor representation.

In reference to Mies Van Der Rohe’s Farnsworth House (In the notion of ‘abundant light’)I considered the idea of curtain walling through the idea of ‘skins’ of walling, as such my design plays with that (my reference is more aesthetic). The world that he entertains his female guests has an outer skin of vertically folding walls to connect this part of the bridge to the ideas carried from the site, whereas the ‘world of longing’ experience Villa Savoye inspired horizontal slits, to connect with the idea of the bridge connecting two worlds – to show contrasts. The holistic design is aesthetically derived from 1950’s modernity; this is the time that the idea of bachelorship began with men moving into bachelor pads/apartments, hence the focus on horizontality.

The ‘entertainment’ part is entered through a ‘window’ – highlighting the sense of illegitimate lovers. From this part of the bridge, the other ‘longing’ part is hidden, which I play with perspective and the balcony across the entry plays with teasing the idea of not being able to see it. In the entry there is a bar for the bachelor to entertain. This bar is also wide and deep enough to act as a ‘bed’ to start off the succession of events. As things heat up the bachelor and his guest move through the double column like entry – as a temple worship into the bedchamber. The sound of the waves enters the room through the slit in the curtain glass against the folding doors, reflecting the 1950’s exploration of sexuality in film through the use of waves. Also there is a space next for this sophisticated bachelor and the guest to dance the night away. As the bachelor awakes the next morning, programmatically before the guest, he first hears the sound of the outside and then sees the abundant light as it hits his face; it provides an awakening of his inner self. The bachelor’s excursion occurs in the morning setting (the painting is a morning scene), the bridge incorporating the man’s morning routine to almost force him into this journey. As he enters the bathroom, he takes a little leap across (obviously symbolic) the water and closes the sliding ‘wall’ and amongst other things needs to have a shower. To have this shower he must enter a bridge and close a hidden door in the folding walls behind him; I explore the evolution of the entry throughout. As the guest awakes, the light doesn’t allow her to procrastinate in sleep. As she realises the bachelor has left she changes in the bathroom in case that he comes back. She cannot hear the shower as she is distracted by the water feature that extends across the floor. The feature also disallows her movement to the balcony – as she will see the ‘other world’. As she leaves the bathroom through the entry, the alignment of the sliding wall, to the bedroom glass panel, to the entry bridge directs the guest back out the illegitimate window entry, and away. On the other hand, the shower that the bachelor is in has no roof, acting like the window in the bedroom, acts as a downward well of thought (as with the painting), where he looks up into the sky to reflect on the world around him and back onto his own life (this shower provides a long enough moment for ‘excursion into philosophy’). The wall adjoining the shower is actually the door into the world of longing; after cleansing away the filth of his bachelorship he may now enter. Here he is met with a single built in stool and a large floor to ceiling glass curtain which looks back onto the world of bachelorship, reminding him what he has just left. As he begins to yearn over his shallow life and long for something secure and real he can retreat to his safe cubicle to think of what he is longing for. This is a reminder of the emptiness of his current life and a juxtaposition to the show glamour of the 1950’s bachelor. The main light entry into this cubicle is from a cavity-like slit to a large glass exit door that extends a vista to the world beyond. As he, in his longing, decides to leave this safe cubicle in the power of wanting more, he ventures through the rhythm of balcony/wall to suggest movement to the door that he allow the bachelor to explore to fill his longing. He is on the other side. The bridge is complete.