Inside Out

The project is an intervention and intersection of architectural forms with the existing concrete “chapel” at the corner of Watt Way and Bloom Walk. Incorporating the quote from Venturi, “the expressive differentiation of the inside and outside spaces”, I focused on the differentiation of the formal language and lighting condition of the inside and outside. Looking also at Tadao Ando’s Azuma House as a precedent, my project is defined by enclosed spaces with no apertures to the periphery and an internal, open courtyard. The internal courtyard, defined by a curved glass wall, becomes an “aperture” to nature and the source of natural light and air, highlighting the contrast between rectilinear and curvilinear forms, the discontinuous and continuous, and the solid and transparent, as was emphasized in the Venturi reading.

The light condition of the site provides the possibility to have “light indicated movement”, the idea to use natural light and its diurnal movement to determine the location and size of programmatic space. Small amounts of light also enter along the existing concrete walls through thin skylights, as a contrast and complement to the type of light entering from the courtyard.