The first place project LINK for the Amber Road Trekking Cabins was chosen for its strength as both an architectural and landscape proposal. The project introduces a series of wooden moles, structural piers used as breakwaters, to connect the coast to the interior terrains of the Latvian landscape. By creating a network of narrow passages leading to the trekking cabins within the forest, LINK pursues an alternative mode of conservatism - creating low impact architectural interventions within the native ecologies of the site to preserve the natural landscape. Through the use of pre-defined paths within the wilderness, there is no disruption of the wildlife or environment of the site.
The cabin itself is successful in its contemporary re-appropriation of Latvian vernacular architecture. While the exterior figure of the cabin mimics the archetypical form of the primitive hut, the interior spaces of the cabin subvert this initial reading. Each cabin is derived from a morphology that enacts both collective and individual modes of inhabitation. The center of the cabin is in fact a voided exterior space, a booleaned cylindrical hearth that carves out the interior of the proposal. This circular outdoor space is surrounded and sheltered by four interior rooms, one at each corner, allowing for private space for each hiker. It is this adaptation of the iconic form of the vernacular archetype into a new spatial typology of collective habitation that creates a productive tension between the shared space of the hearth and the private space of the cabin.
Jury Commentary - International Architecture Competition - Amber Road Trekking Cabins
The third place project, Square One for the Eurostar Hotel Lab Competition, questions modern living in hotel rooms through a re interpretation of the function of the bed.
Nowadays, hotel chains base their innovation research in how to improve different elements of the generality of their facilities to enhance the guest experience. The problem relies on the fact that travelers spend most of their time at their rooms, and not in other places of the hotel, being here the place where they should innovate. The proposal emerges as a response to a specific question. How can we rethink a hotel and its room?
To understand how to answer this question, we need to take a closer look at the way modern guests travel. Each one of them has specific needs and need specific room requirements that a generic room could not satisfy. Adaptability and comfort, luxury and modernity, practicality and functionality are some of the hundred of requirements that each one of them is expecting from their hotel rooms.
Square One is conceived under the idea that in a hotel room, the most important element is the bed. Square One proposes the idea of refounding hotels from the bed to the generality. The understanding of this implies an understanding that the hotel is not a general container of rooms but different rooms that are molded by the user experience and coexist with their differences.
The new shape of the bed in Square One deploys the programs around it instad of just being generic furnishing. Around the bed is where all possible activities can happen.
Its squared and centered geometry permits a quick and easy understanding of the idea. First, it allows the possibility of getting out of it on any of the four sides. Second, it can be arranged in any way the guest wants and feels more comfortable with. The backrests are oriented perpendicular to each other to be able to let one person enjoy the exterior view while the other one can be watching television or vice versa. Also, the bedside tables allow maximum comfort without leaving the bed because they are able to hold a computer, a personal tablet and the hotel tablet from which the guest could order room service, update the door status to 'do not disturb', etc. Finally, they host space for a minibar, so that to enjoy a snack, people don't even have to leave their bed.
By being a central element which is placed at the center of the room, the bed works generating a 'centripetal-like' force which disseminates the programs around it. One of the walls hosts storage space for luggage, hangers, space for the coffee machine, etc. The other wall hosts the window which is framed around the diner table and chairs to allow maximum views and a spectacular experience while dining. On the other wall, the television is placed perpendicular to one of the backrests to generate a comfort space for watching a tv show.
The idea of the bed as the central element is a key factor in this project and it is reinforced through the whole modulation of the room. Bedside tables, closets and everything else is proportional to the beds dimensions. The squared bed is the central element as it deploys a grid through which every aspect of the room will adapt to. Further on, the grid expands and modules the whole hotel.
The process starts from the specific aspects and then develops to the general aspects. It starts with Square One and then builds up to everything.
Project Brief - International Architecture Competition - Eurostar Hotel Lab
The competition entry, Square One², for the InHaus Architecture Competition, questions the traditional idea of pre-made housing by introducing the concept of tailor made architecture. The project places its focus on how to make a modular house that can be specific for each client while still maintaining the industrial process that this typology requires.
Square One² also introduces a new frame for interaction between clients and the fabricating company. Instead of having clients search through catalogues of pre made layouts and designs, the project uses play as a means to which clients can be a part of the decision process. The process works in stages. It starts by dividing the lot into 9x9 squares in which the client can choose between 0-3 courtyards in their houses and between 0-3 garage spaces. Afterwards, a programmatic selection is made, and the general layout of the house is selected by the client. Depending on how many members of a family will be living in this house, the Square One² system allows to host a house for 1 person up to 6 people in the same square meters. The client can choose how rooms can look like, how their big their kitchen can be, how many amenities they want, how much space they want for their children to play in, how much space they need for relaxing and every other aspect of daily living can be chosen by them, simply following the Square One² system and rules.
The prototype house selected for the project hosts 4 people and has enough space to have two courtyards which are linked to every space of space of the house. This allows each place to be connected to an exterior space, being able to expand outwards and granting connected spaces between the inside and the outside. Allowing for a fluid exterior-interior connection allows the user to be in direct connection with their environment, enabling activities such as growing their own vegetables, having their own forestation, collecting rain water, etc. all inside their house perimeter.
Project Brief - International Architecture Competition - InHaus