Photography by Duccio Malagamba 
Image by J. Azurmendi
Other works by Siza, documented by Duccio Malagamba:
Monday, May 17, 2010
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Drawings
The primary procedure that influenced my design, and that the form of the building was derived from, was the act of grasping, and the emotions connected with a longing. I feel that the servant in my narrative may have an urge to grasp for freedom and for a way out of her enclosed life and into a space where she may live her life to her goals and dreams My model attempts to portray this concept by an elongation up and away from the earth below and the building behind it, as well as a tapering of all the walls, ceiling, and floor to emphasise this idea of stretching, grasping, and longing. The walls are thickened as they draw closer and into the ground and the building to the rear, emphasising how the building, like the servant, is deeply rooted and locked into place.
The elongation of the room housing the walkway also serves to emphasise how far the window at the end is from the servant. The room itself is large, but the place that the servant inhabits is but a small fraction of the space. She cannot access the large window at the end, which would provide vistas of the surrounding landscape, but merely stand far away from it, gazing out with a view enclosed by walls, a ceiling, and curving floor that draws the eye out into the landscape. I imagine that this would increase the feeling of a craving for the open air.
Compounding the sentiments she may feel of being trapped, and longing for freedom is the narrowness and darkness of her living quarters. These are placed at opposite ends of the corridor to increase the pacing motion, and also force the servant to exit the darkened, narrow rooms to come into contact with the harsh and glaring light of the space outside her building. These rooms are to have a more domestic, gentle feel, where the servant may escape the glaring light into a space where the light is more regulated. The light enters though a slit at the top corner of the room, so that instead of a spotlight harshly shining onto a flat plane, it spreads across the adjacent wall, creating a glowing, more gentle light. Louvers near the window allow the maid to alter the light as she wishes. This space would suggest a feeling of safety, of refuge from the glaring light outside, perhaps suggesting that she to some extent feels comfortable and safe in her role as a servant, as she is protected from dangers inherent with being free.
Exiting her servants quarters to her place of work involves walking down a short, narrow corridor, and pushing up a sloping door that acts almost a trap door. This exaggerates the overbearing, imposing view of her place of work that she would gain as she leaves her home.
Monday, May 10, 2010
Finalising Form and Site
I decided to keep with the "grasping" elongated form of the building, but add two rooms on either end of the corridor. This allows not only just for the pacing effect, but also a transition from a potentially dark, enclosed to space, to one where the light is bright and glaring. I've decided to place the site on a salt pan or flat, white desert, to emphasise the isolation of the site. This also has implication for the quality of light.
The site plan and elevation shows the proximity of the servants quarters to her place of work. Her place of work will be represented simply as a big massing, more a conceptual, abstract building than a real one. The proximity shows how the larger massing overpowers and bears over the much smaller massing.
Brainstorms
In these brainstorms, I attempted to break down my narrative into key ideas, play with ideas of massing and site relationships, and determine the form of the building.
- "narrowness" can either be a vertical narrowness, where walls and ceilings may be high, or a horizontal narrowness where ceilings can be low but the floor space wide. Narrowness may also be implied, such as a walkway through a building with space on either side that is inaccessible. The initial forms reflects the latter concept of "narrowness" as the long curved space is essentially impractical and unlivable, while emphasising the horizontality of the room.
- "loneliness" can be shown from either the isolation of the entire site, the isolation of the room from the rest of the building/s on the site derived from distance, or a sense of isolation derived from a sudden change in scale. I've attempted to discuss some of this idea in the sketches showing the relationship of the masses on the site.
- to emphasise the movement of "pacing", I intend on making the walkway narrow, so that no other circulation is possible other than a to and fro motion. I would put items of furniture or rooms on either side of the corridor to ensure that the servant has to travel the length of the walkway to access things.
- the "grasping" motion is the main influence on the initial form of the building. I want the building to appear like it is grasping for the light, space, and air, away from the place to which it is tied, much like I imagine the maid would be doing in her mind. The whole form should show this grasping, forward, stretching movement away from a point.
- the sense of "freedom" will be shown through the method by which the light that enters the building, how it is seen by the maid, and how the building and the maid would interact with it.
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