The Fallen Church Matera, Italy

On May 15th, 2020 viaARCHITECTURE submitted a proposal to Reuse the Fallen Church- Chiesa Diruta of Grottole, Matera.

LACRIMOSA (REQUIEM)

Full of tears will be that day When from the ashes shall arise…

The fallen church is risen again, metamorphosed from architectural ruin into an instrument of remembrance and performance. It has become a voluminous space of sound and celebration returned to the city of Matera as well as an instrument of ongoing performance, reenacting the historical and environmental role of rainwater conservation, brought to life with its own Stravinsky fountain.

The 16th century remains are stabilized and allowed to determine the performance hall as a nested form within a new space defining envelope. The envelopes’ structure is entirely of mass timber, supported by glue laminated columns that emerge from the central space like a forest of trees to support an array of discordant and parallel V-shaped trusses. The trusses fold downward toward the center so that the roof can act as a collector of rainwater. The collected water travels down the columns and across demarcated paths embedded in the floor terminating with a set of tubular scuppers that, like trumpets, project the water as a performance into a monumental basin, an urban scale fountain set adjacent to the lower entrance. The side walls of the envelope are hung from the trusses to fit tautly over the masonry church form like a glove. The exterior cladding is standing seam lightweight steel, and it is punctuated with windows that, like musical notes, resonate with those of the structure that remains.

The orientation of the original church has been reversed to allow the lower level to act as a vestibule with coat room, gift shop and ticket booth. Above this, at the top of the stair, is the entry to the performance hall with a balcony over the entrance, and an interior bar. Bathrooms and dressing rooms occupy an ancillary structure to the original basilica. The stage sits in the position of the original church vestibule, the eroded corner becoming a second means of entrance. Like a gothic cathedral the emphasis is vertical, onto the new material presence lofted above and illuminated. The columnar displacement in line of sight is counterbalanced by video monitors which occupy all parts of the interior space.

Melbourne Affordable Housing Challenge

On December 8th, 2020 viaARCHITECTURE participated in the Melbourne Affordable Housing Challenge hosted by Beebreeders.

The 1960s saw both a rejection of the monumental vision for public housing and a dissolution of the political responsibility to continue creating it. Aldo Rossi’s critique was at the center of the European rejection. Architecture of the City was a protest against the aesthetic functionalism that had been embraced by the public housing industry. Rossi rejected the architectural avant-garde’s attempt to turn the ordinary into an agent of revolution. He declared that

“(…) housing must be ordinary, something that recedes into the fabric of the city, and not something that stands forward from it; that residential buildings are fabric, not monuments, and only by continuing to be fabric can they make a positive contribution to the city as a collective work.”

The Victoria State Government established its Housing Commission in 1938. In spite of the failure of tower-in-the-park modernism in both America and Europe and the success of its own prefabrication plants, it would choose to abandon its lower rise, higher density track record for Melbourne. Between 1964 and 1970 twenty-eight sites across nineteen suburbs in inner Melbourne would be cleared and developed with forty-seven 20-30 story high rise housing blocks situated in unadorned natural landscapes.

This proposal seeks to provide new affordable housing by re-urbanizing Melbourne’s public housing sites- introducing a new low-rise infill to both engage the surrounding streets, integrate certain commercial and retail adjacencies, offer 2nd floor amenities and services for the larger constituency and better define its landscapes, the now intra-block gardens, to better allow for recreational leisure.

San Francisco Affordable Housing Competition

On July 2nd, 2020 viaARCHITECTURE participated in the San Francisco Affordable Housing Competition hosted by Beebreeders.

While it is perhaps appropriate to put forth the challenge of an ideas competition dedicated to AFFORDABLE HOUSING for the purpose of keeping the subject of affordable housing before the public eye. we propose that AFFORDABLE HOUSING IS NO LONGER A DESIGN ISSUE. Affordable housing is a political issue. Modern housing prototypes have been produced for over one hundred years. We merely need to select one of these prototypes and build it. What needs to be designed is public policy, choosing how a community will prioritize its resources. Housing, along with access to affordable health care and quality education should be available to every citizen as of right. The absence of affordable housing is not the result of a reciprocal absence of advocacy, of economics, or design, but simply the lack of political will. The methods are available. The means and the incentives to achieve it are not.

Kemeri Bog Competition

(A) View towards Main Entrance

ORACLE

In Classical Antiquity, the Oracle was thought to be the mystical portal through which the Gods could speak directly to the people.

This proposal is shaped as a man-made clearing, a space that allows for an interface between the Earth and the Sky; the vertical axis that can intersect with the horizon and the extended horizontal path that will traverse the Great Kemeri Bog. It is a space that allows for the gathering of knowledge through its Visitor Center exhibition and a place of respite as a kind of oasis that offers regeneration.

The enclosing walls are fabricated in faceted sections from Shou Sugi Ban charred wood, a finishing system invented in Japan that naturally preserves the material. It is set up to act as a scrim- a surface that both filters the condition that lies beyond it while allowing natural light to enter in.

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(A) Oracle Plan

(A) Section through Courtyard and Campground
(B) View from outdoor Cafe towards Ticket Booth

October 2018