Abheet Deval
The Art Hostel -A New Building for Instituto Cultural Inhotim, Brumadinho, Brazil
Smooth and Striated Spaces
This proposal, Art Hostel focuses on ‘‘Spaces of Exchange’’, the project serving Artist Students, Teachers, Visitors, Inhotim Museum tourists and other local cultural activities, provides broader platform for interaction. These users from various backgrounds exchange their knowledge taking place at different scales-modes, and the complexity of these moments-situations are being attempted to explain through this project. Further, to grasp about these conditions, Gillese Deleuze theory on ‘’Smooth and Striated’’ and Nomadology brings lot of things in sight. Smooth space is a space of becoming, of wandering, where the movement is more important than arrival, like the micro exchange of informations taking place in transit spaces such as corridors, stairs, semi-public areas etc. In striated space, lines or trajectories tend to be subordinated to points: one goes from one point to another, similar to interactions within rooms, where hostel user communicates on one to one level and further expanding neighboring rooms. In the smooth, it is the opposite: the points are subordinate to the trajectory. On contrary private space is a striated space, of which boundaries are defined and confined to a mental space, as to relax mind needs perceptible volume. Public spaces are undefined and loose, where group of people try to define their own volume.
The design includes aspects of Brazilian modern architecture, like use of multi-skin facade, merging of exterior and interior landscape juxtaposed with movement patterns, response to ecology, local culture etc. To deploy all above said aspects in further, few background study models and digital tools helps to parametrize various aspects, hence these are used to control Movement pattern, Light conditions required for different usage and day patterns, Views in-out, Volumes of spaces, Organization and Orientation of programs and transition of materials from floor-wall-roof-ramps.
On the site, it exposes to other boundary conditions, Brumadino village on east, brings in culture and people from this settlement, on south Inhotim memory center, which in future will be a large platform for performing arts and exhibitions, to the North a educational program in form of school and in east view vast of natural landscape. The design attempts to integrate all these condition keeping in mind the demands of programs and users. Hence the programs are divide in major two wings, Hostel on one side and Cultural on other side. The in-between, courtyards, open-air-theater, exhibition spaces, class rooms, restaurant and multi-purpose hall, weaves these two wings together and provides broader range of flexibility.
In conclusion, a sequential journey taken from any one point to other, reflects the complexity of Brazilian cultural identity and simplicity of brazilian way of life, together expressed in form of Art and Architecture.