Project Description

In a time when everything is going as fast as possible and the average human attention span is decreasing due to connectivity, an architecture engaging body and mind is more important than ever. Stress narrows our attention and our connection to the present moment and personal encounters. how can a space instead create consciousness so that we become aware and mindful in the present moment? In relation to the thesis theme ”Mobility”, the experience of the spaces in my project are created around the idea of movement as a factor that creates awareness and consciousness.

By emphasizing the path to our destination, we can make the arrow longer between point A and point B. This can be done by using different types of mens to heighten the sensory experience acoustically, tactilely and visually. We can see the path we think we are going to take to get to the goal, but along the way we meander, we engage, we stop and touch the texture of the wall, we feel the light filter into the space, we pause in the warmth from an early morning light, we hear the sound from dripping water, and we feel the breeze from an open window. These are perhaps the more memorable experiences. not the goal but the way there itself.

My project is located in Riverside Park on The Upper West Side. Riverside Park consists of a narrow 4-mile strip of parkland between the Hudson River and the Riverside Drive and expansion from 59th to 155th street. I’m placing my project between 100th and 109th street. The site has a steep topography leading up to the city blocks. Underneath this topography, a railroad tunnel called ”Freedom tunnel” is located. The tunnel is currently used by Amtrak trains going to and from Pennsylvania Station. As you are in the park, you’re either walking on top of the tunnel or next to the edge of it. I’m placing my project along the length of the tunnel wall. By doing that, creating a setting which allows for experience of different phenomenons along the horizontal movement at the site. To connect the different areas along the wall to one another, I created what I call ”a spine” inside the tunnel. Inside the spine, movement is experienced by the act of the human body moving through a sequential space were body and mind is activated by changing the light, materiality, sound and scale. On top of the existing spaces, light weight pavilion structures acts as the entrance to the spine, guiding the visitors down to the subterranean world. In order to create the experience of different phenomenons along the spine, I divided it in to four different sections organized by the experience of four different elements. Those are water, sound, wind and light. The programmed spaces adjacent to these experiences, relates to that specific element. The first one which is water, (space for relaxation) utilizes a thermal bath. The second one which is sound, (space for reflection) utilizes a meditation and yoga studio, the third one which is wind, (space for creation) utilizes a ceramics studio and a creation space for children, and the last one which is light, (space for concentration) utilizes a library and study space.