If you have been wondering why it's been such a while since I've posted about any school projects, it's because we're on to a big one right now. As a matter of fact, it's our semester project. Such projects do of course take time, and my case has been no different. But since it takes time, I would like to at least inform you of my work so far. The finished project is due to the 10th of June, and the presentations on the 14th and 15th, so the finished result will be posted sometime by the end of June. The bathing complex consists of a sauna house, a series of small beach cabins, a sun clock, a stairway to the coast and a bathing bridge that goes out to the deeper parts of the sea, where swimmers can dive in (the latter two, I have decided to make one long component).
So the theme of our current semester, is City and Countryside. The direct translation from Danish is, as I can see, a bit confusing, so let me explain. Basically, the theme is the difference between the natural and the man-made. So with this said, the two logical directions to take from the theme, were either to design something that works with nature, or something that stands as contrast to it. I decided to design my project to be a very sharp contrast between man-made and natural, but in a way that despite the contrast, the man-made structures do no harm to the natural environment. As you can see on the picture above, my sauna building in the woods is designed to be an extremely stereotypical version of a house, while also being rather minimal - A bit like a Monopoly house you could say.
Furthermore, my connection to the coast and sea is a 200 meter long wooden stair/path, that moves through the forest like a man-made highway, once again to stand in contrast to nature. Now this rendering isn't too good to show the concept, since the actual stairs will pass trees as well, but have holes in the path where they are, thus leaving them unharmed. This gigantic wooden path will continue directly to the sea and down in the water.
Above here is a rendering of some of the cabins by the beach. I wanted to make them look as a continuation of the village in the background, but due to their size, this definitely won't be easy, and my arrangement of the cabins will most likely change drastically by the time I finish the project. My current concept is to make a little village of these cabins, with showers, sitting places, etc. The idea is to (unlike the sauna and the wooden path) make a traditional beach environment, rather than create a nature experience. Below is a rendering of the cabins that continue on the beach.
Finally, there is the mentioned sun clock. Now this element of the project is rather different from the rest, as you might have noticed, so I decided to make a special use of it. Since the island of Hven lacks a defined and clear centre, I decided that the sun clock should have a monumental function, thus defining a centre and also creating a space for local (and tourist) interaction. I have yet to design it, but I'm currently focusing on getting the other larger elements done, so it'll have to wait a little. With that said, this is what I have done so far. A lot of the concepts and symbolical elements of the project remain unexplained here, but they will be so when everything is completed.
- Andy Minchev
