MIT Architectural Design
Option Studio
Instructor: Antรณn Garcรญa Abril
- Type: Cultural
- Location: Menorca, Spain
- Individual Project
Drip is about a construction of concrete dripping, and centering production around ideas of its unique material gesture. Concrete works are usually focused on fixing or avoiding surface imperfections, but this project celebrates the fluidness of concrete before the curing stage, and the form shaped from its material movement becomes the MATTER in this project. This creates constraints that aren't rational when transforming into DATA but it broadens the scope of exploring engineering opportunities playing with the MATTER.
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Through iterations, I found the act of dripping forming an architectural expression of dispersion. The drips scatter easily and have created a variety of shapes, which enriched the process of form finding. This can't be achieved or ever designed from human kind, but only the MATTER itself can create its form. And, irregular or imperfect shapes can be anything - small objects, furniture, floor, faรงade, and ceiling.
Site photo with a footage of the Talaliot sitting in the center of the photo
The musuem is surrounded by the most abundant prehistoric monument on the island of Menorca. The site is hugging the architectonic remains, which are scattered over the site and gradually the stones gather around the Talaiot. The stones are the traces of the history of this cyclopean prehistoric site and scattered stones were inviting people to Talaiot.
Scattered architectonic remains around Talaiot
Exterior view
Just like the stones, dripped concrete will resemble the natural setting of the architectonic remains. The natural scatteredness links to the dispersion of concrete drips, and itโs not only the Talaiot but also the architectonic remains that will be part of the museum, making the new interventions blend to the nature. Eventually, the configuration will invite people to two spots - the Talaiot and the gallery.
Through scanning, scaling, and positioning, the entire site become a mixture of a landscape full of natural stones and dripped concretes.ย The museum consists of a main gallery, a visitor center, stone garden and drip garden where blobs of concrete drips and rocks are placed next to each other, and lastly the Talaiot.
This image shows the overall sense of the scale of the dripped elements
Conceptual Section Model
Below space is the exhibition space and above space is an immersive environment where people are surrounded by the drips, and I call this place, drip garden.
Structurally there are three mega-columns that support the shells. the bottom shell is a pre-tensioned structure and relatively curled concrete structure allows the bottom shell to easily form wrinkle lines that mimics the dripped forms.
Construction Process
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excavating
1:33 Models
Underground level
Exhibition Space
Ground level
Drip Garden
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