EU Consulate: Mediations and Mechanisms

EU Consulate: Mediations and Mechanisms

Van Loon, M.P.L.

Bier, H.H. (mentor)
Schoonderbeek, M.G.H. (mentor)
Rommens, O.R.G. (mentor)

Architecture

Bouwkunde

Border Conditions

2011-06-27

The one-on-one field research in Odessa, Ukraine, resulted in the development of the jump-cut in space. The jump-cut is originally a film editing tool to (un)relate multiple events in a scene, whereas the notion of re-orientation plays an important role. In space it has been interpreted as the movement form one point to the other, being cut by different (un)related scenes programmatically, geometrically and visually. The gridded city centre of Odessa contains two urban phenomena. One is the top-down urban preservation of classical, western-European facades. This type of façadism creates ornamental and symbolic boulevards in the linear network of the grid, being completely detached from its interior and back side. The other phenomena is, a Soviet-period driven, development of the courtyards on the inner side of the grid blocks. Expropriation, intensification of program and people, and deterioration followed each other towards a complex geometrical situation, a loss of façades diminishing the border between interior and exterior, and unexpected visual relationships. The design for the EU-consulate, is based on discussing the surface which divides two spaces, either interior and exterior, or both. The jump-cut takes place by the act of making the dividing surface spatial and programmatically relating and un-relating scenes. The operation which has been used is voronoi on an individual cell-based logic. The operation shifts the six surfaces of a volume (one cell), according to the position the central point. The difference of the minimum shift and maximum shift causes the interior space (the minimum cell) and the in-between space (the edge). Because the operation takes place on all individual volumes, some volumes are shifting away from each other, others are interwoven. This procedure makes it possible to adjust the shift according to the necessary relationships with the neighboring volumes. Besides a geometrical relation, the operation also generates visual relations by the making of openings. Because it works in three dimensions, the language in section and plan is identical. The EU-consulate, a test case for the EEAS (European External Action Service), has been exploited in its diversity of types of program and participants; diplomatic and ceremonial, providing, controlling and personal. The project gives a reading of this programmatic complexity through its architecture.

jump-cut
voronoi
shift
in-between
facadism

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:899cbd34-1392-44f9-98c7-0f49a3e0bd31

Student theses

master thesis

(c) 2011 Van Loon, M.P.L.