Martin Schroth
In/formation spaces
This project for a research library forms a new campus centre for the extension of the University of Iceland in Reykjavik. It is proposed as contribution to the master planning for the former, inner-city airport area and raises questions about the future of educational and research institutions.
The proposed multi-use campus building articulates and integrates new levels of organizational interaction, enforcing fluidity, ambiguity and hybridisation between social groups and functional categories. In so doing, the space enables informal communication between visitors where boundaries begin to move and create new social opportunities. This spatial effect is derived through the development of an inter-relationship between spatial concepts and structural typologies.
The project relies on a detailed analysis of the Philharmonic Hall in Berlin by Hans Scharoun. The analysis focuses on how circulation routines are regulated by the bounding envelopes. It sets forth a model about the structural relationship of curved lines given by a complex configuration of loops and folds. This model is referred to as a generative, structural unit and further investigated for its performative potential in engendering architecture. The design of the architecture depends on scalar shifts of the unit where repetition and variability are explored in a rule-based manner.
By interrelating the generative, structural unit with programmatic requirements, rich spatial conditions are developed.