SYNCHRONICITY 2008
NO HEAR, NO SEE
iSaw is an algorithmic strategy that weaves together disparate programs in the redevelopment and hyper densification of Warsaw’s urban center. This project plays with normative notions of figure ground and posits a programmatic topology which enables two mutually exclusive programs - such as a brothel and a monastery - to coexist, unaware of each others presence. This can be thought of as a thickening of the walls, the subversion of one program from within another.
Kokkugia’s ongoing research into wetFoam geometries, originally developed for the Parachute Pavilion project, is extended here to create a non-linear gradient where the lattice thickens beyond a threshold enabling the solid to become inhabitable – the emergence of a new space. The two spaces share a common membrane and are consequently mutually dependant; however they exhibit vastly different spatial qualities and characteristics.
Architectural projects are often generated through the conception of positive or negative built space, the resultant architecture of course is experienced through both these elements. A wetFoam is conceived of as a heterogeneous field, the relationship of figure and void is recast as an active negotiation, an evolving relationship between the pressures of liquid and gas. A programmatic field condition is generated encoding the “hot” and “cold” activities on the site from which a configuration of locally bound programmatic aggregates emerges. The character of this foam lattice, with its specific curvature and edge-to-surface relationship is more durable and indeed more dominant than any cellular configuration arising from specific conditions.
This project is not a singular design or object but rather a possible instance of an algorithmic strategy devised for the generation of a dense space-filling architecture.
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