Stage 1 design project: Memory Spot

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MEMORY SPOTMarta Zembinskyte

Stage 12010/2013

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The memory was about me visiting a cathedral when I

was five, experiencing a building of a

substantial scale for the first time. I do not

remember the cathedral for its elaborate details or

religious objects within it, all that was out of the scope

of my understanding. All I could

perceive and remember was a feeling of an

enormous volume and light, perhaps what the

architecture of religious buildings share in

common, the language to define the divinity;

limitless heights and infinite spaces. And the light to

emohasize the voids. Architecture of the

cathedral uses contrast to communicate these ideas. It

contrasts scale of the human body to the scale of the

building. There are some memories about

materiality of the building that contributed to the whole

experience, cold sleek marble floor and white colons,

walls and ceiling to reflect light and emphasize the

contrast between chaos of the city and perfection of the

god’s home.

3Surface

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Finding the right structural expression for the memory

involved making many preliminary models that explored

concepts of height, light and surface in separate.

Light

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Many of the models were made intuitively from

materials that were available at that moment and then

particular qualities of interest were emphasized in

further development.

Light

Surface

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This model that was made to convey the concept of

height and was the most succesful hence was taken to

the next stage of develpopment where I merged the

rest of the key ideas. The resulting model allowed for

experience of light and height by moving through the

structure.

Height

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Resultant model.

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Alternative model.

Scale 1:20

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Final model.

Scale 1:20

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The structure was intended to be built in a rural area to

get unobstructed sunlight. The atmosphere within the

building would change in corespondance to the moving

shadow over the day and this would emphasize

co-dependance between the building and the light.