HEIROGLYPHIC ENGINES

BS Arch Studio V

The goal of this project focuses on introducing visual interest by subtracting existing material in a retired parking garage. Going off the initial impressions of the garage during the building’s survey, it was easy to notice how the path forward ignores the overwhelming presence of featureless materials. By introducing actions like light and vertical movement into the “dead spaces” of the building, this plan will create transparency and interaction behind unseen spaces. By bringing in additional light and visual power to the area, the increasing permeability of light and sound will bring attention to what would otherwise be another unassuming space with minimal interest. We can achieve this by embracing the massive wall forms brought about through the function of the building and cut massive open spaces to introduce scale. We will carve a collage of voids into the massive concrete walls that stand above the removed floor plates of the parking garage.

The carving process will be done using a combination of traditional stone-cutting techniques under the use of modern concrete cutting tools. These cuts take advantage of an incredible opportunity to interact and control the immense multi-story gypsum slabs from our drawings and physical model featured later in this booklet. By cutting back the floor plates from the wall, we can also introduce additional sources of light and massive scale, and will create a visually mechanical patchwork of spaces too. Since the cuts will be arranged in a grid-like formation aligned with the supporting pillars, the newly introduced cuts will not intrude on load bearing spaces.