Project 2: Final Submission Drawings and Text

PlanSection of 'Entertainment' Bridge

Short Section with shower centered

Section of 'Private' Bridge and a cut into 'Entertainment' Bridge

Front Elevation

Angled Front Elevation

Axonometric Drawing

A bridge for a ‘lifelong’ bachelor to entertain, while having his process of longing left unseen.
- Edward Hopper, Excursion into Philosophy

- Parti:
The bridge/or series of adjoining bridges determines the Parti. There is an ‘entertainment’ bridge and a ‘private bridge’. The private bridge is made private through a doorway in the bathroom, unknown to the female quest; therefore the use of entry also determines the Parti. The Parti is also activated by the notion of ‘unseen’
A bridge: implies movement from one destination to another. This is a bridge that connects his journey from empty bachelorhood to a search for inner fulfilment beyond. The spaces are about movement and rest, the abundance of light triggers movement/exploration. Rhythm creates kinetic space. Light is used as the catalyst for thought. Light establishes the narrative of the space. In relative order, light is seen as a mirage, monumentality, hierarchy, contemplative, exposing, revealing, awakening and freedom. The bridge marks the succession of events from the bar, to the bed and so on.
‘Left unseen’: the bridge is not entirely hidden, but reflects the visual ability to see it or not. The window cut at the entry plays with this idea and the room unseen behind and unsuspecting door.
The morning routine: The narrative reflects the frozen moment in the painting. The progress of spaces develops with time, his routine from the night before to the morning after. It also reflects the woman’s ‘morning after’ routine.

- Site: the Massif des Calanques: Near Marseilles
Steep, dramatic coastal valley, emphasises the horizontality of the bridge. The glamour of location, and proximity to Monte Carlo, adds to the 1950’s James Bond ultimate bachelor.

- Windows and Doors:
In reference to Qian, the entry to the bridge is a window that must be manoeuvred into – the head-height and rise up. It emphasises the act of illegitimate sexuality. The sound of the waves enters the room through the slit in the curtain glass against the sliding walls, reflecting the 1950’s exploration of sexuality in film through the use of waves. There are no conventional door in the entertainment part of the bridge, but as the persona progress so does the ‘validity’ of the door. The idea of the window is blurred with open cuts, reflecting the idea of an open bridge. Windows and openings create the progressive narrative.

- Architectonics:
Design: reference to Mies Van Der Rohe’s Farnsworth House: with the notion of abundant light, degree of solitude, context of 1950’s and aesthetic reference in idea of sliding curtain walls. Design reflects the planar qualities of 1950’s modernity, a symbolic reference to 1950’s social change for the development of bachelorhood. The horizontality of the bridge reflects to single men moving to city apartments or pads.
Sliding wall curtains create chaotic order of movement along bridge
The columns: reflecting the structural quality of the bridge, but also referring to worship of sexuality; the columns of light draw before the podium of the bed.
Major internal design elements: the entry, the columns, the bed, the shower, the stool, the cubicle, the exit.

- Materiality:
Bridge is very open; although there is a roof and in part walls, the play of walls, glass balustrade and reference to the outside confirm it is a bridge.
As such, the Bridge is constructed of concrete that is painted white, with glass balustrade built in furniture laid appropriately. All furniture is in built, emphasising in the unadorned, structural quality that a modern bridge possesses.