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Ciao,
Well studio has kicked into full gear. Needless to say I have not been able to post much and I am going to let you know how it turned out.
As mom and dad, especially Jasmyn is aware. When studio is in session there is not much else that happens. Especially in this case. My two partners are on opposite schedules as I am. I work best early in the morning and get things done in a timely fashion. They like to work late at night and at studio. It is more of a social event for them than a working session. One of them smoke like a chimney, which could explain the cough I have developed since moving into the apartment. My two partners are also roommates next door. But the situation is a little more complicated than that, they like one another they are in denial. Or at least the girl is. So you know you do not want to piss each other off when you first start dating, you always put your best foot forward. Well everything I suggested was ignored and brought up later as their idea. SO this was a very fun
time.
The project was one of the best ones there if I do say so myself. I did the model and the diagrams and they did two drawings and three sections between the two of them. But they did go out to lunch and dinner a lot while I stayed behind and worked. This is why I would never stay up past 1:00 AM.
It boils down to I contributed the water element (which the partner took credit for â“ we had discarded it the night before when the male wasnât there and by morning it was all the females idea.) So I chucked that one up to not worth the argument. I contributed the vegetation wall and the design of the paving. We got slammed pretty hard in the mid review for setting up what the critic considered a new axis, which linked the Oratory and the Tiber River. The actual axis in his opinion was Via Gulia. This was implemented by Sixth V, in his design of axis that linked pilgrimage points. Our piazza was nick named, Piazza del Jasmyn. I really was not the one who came up with this, but it was the
running joke in our group.
They choose the site that was opposite of the site that was decided on prior to the male joining the group. So you will get the picture that a lot of things happened to change when I was not part of the discussion - but that was cleared up late one night when I lost my temper and told the exactly how I felt about this. Needless to say the second week was more like team work than the first and the project defiantly ended up better for it.
So here was the concept. We used the geometry of the existing contemporary urban fabric as an organizational device that creates a bent axis. On the one side of the axis we have a water volume that is created by sprinklers that are installed in the ground. This would enable us to keep the idea of a swimming pool in Rome but modified to respect the ideas of Romeâs culture. Instead of having a large amount of the area under water, we decided the placement of sprinklers would allow us to change between as wet and dry area as need. So that was
liked. We also decided that the idea of using Via Guliaâs parameter as a unifying element throughout the piazza. This was expressed in the travertine lines that run in the site. The webbing of the matrix that is created changes within the zones of the piazza. In one area where the water is it is travertine in another colour, in another is grass and the last are the pavers that are brought in from the street. A lot of our ideas were generated from trace. The area was originally a palazzo which was burned, the church in the palazzo was the one thing that did not. So the church was in our site and we incorporated what was into what it. They really really like this aspect (mine). The façade that was destroyed was continued by a steel and wire screen that has vegetation that grows from the wires. This would visually continue the original wall and restore via Gulia to the pre existing condition. The grass part of the piazza was located in front of this and the idea of bring the green spaces from the larger regional context was implemented. The original courtyard was turned into a gathering
area for the water, which rant underneath the apse of the church. Mega brownie points for tying in the significance of water and the continuation of the axis of the church into the site. The streets what existed was turned into pedestrians ways and we re routed the cars away from our piazza. The proposal we gave got really good reviews from three of the four critics. The one guy who really nailed us at mid review made the comment that our project was extremely elegant. He also personally liked it because it took into consideration what was Rome. That we used ideas here, since we choose a very historically loaded site we did not fight it. We used it for our purposes.
A lot of other people were criticized for bring an American attitude to the project, not respecting what a piazza is and why it functions successfully. Not that our project was perfect, they still felt it could have been a tad simpler but as he said for a ten day project it was an excellent solution.
Now if we back track, the mid review went well. The one guy who liked it was not on the last review. That man is the person who is working on the construction documentation of Zaha Hadidâs new building here in Rome. Which maybe done by the time I come back (we all have dreams this is mine). He identified himself more as an artist than an architect. So he made the comment that our project was useless, but life needs useless things. Especially beautiful useless things. He also said in Rome things are done a certain way and this was foreign and radical that is good. He made the comment that when parks in Rome dreamed this is what they wanted to be. This only infuriated the guy who was upset we did not take into consideration the history involved. So we kept what we had modified it and incorporated more of the history we talked about but did not really research. The BS games we play back home do not really fly here. We learned that quickly at mid review.
So the final project went well, Brandi and Bush will be arriving the same day. So I am sure there will be more fun things to write about
Ciao Ciao
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