Gt_2P, a parametric design and digital fabrication studio shared with us their project ‘Til Til D.F.’, the result of a private licitation ordered by Dimanche Industrial Group. The main instruction was to develop a project with diverse uses in an open space, having as special consideration the mimecking between the buildings and its surroundings.
More images and complete architect’s description after the break.
The general plan was designed considering the client’s requirement, which consisted in the development of a wide, open public space to embrace civic, cultural and recreational activities, and also to support high assistance events.
The Project is located in a 100.573m2 land. The first design operation was to parametrically divide the land, allowing the development of flexible solutions in order to evaluate different program proposals. The land was divided in multiple strips to distribute the permanent usage buildings, the ocassional usage buildings, and the services facilities. A central ellipse was projected in the center of these strips, which acts as an “attractor” of them. Moreover, it is the point where all the different programs converges.
The first strip – the one that faces the access road, contains a high tensión line, and therefore was used as a parking zone. The central strips include a gas station, an ecumenical church and a strip center. Finally, the last strip – located at the back of the land, contains large buildings for fairs, expositions, and an event center. These buildings face the central ellipse, reinforcing its central-attractor function.
The dimensions of each strip are related to the use they accommodate. This is the variable that defines its volumen, by rising the buildings height according to the kind of program they house. Therefore, the buildings’ volumen makes evident the relation between the different activities that co-exist within the Project. Also, the buildings’s height was considered to relate the Project to its surroundings, by leaving a central depression (a lower area) on those that exceded a certain volume. In that way, the disposition of the buildings in the land and their different heights allows a deep relation between the project and the surrounding landscape, blending it through the buildings’ silhouettes.
The parametric design methodology employed in the development of the project allows the integration of all the variables included in the Project into a single model. In that way, the relation between the buildnigs and the landscape, and the volumen requirement of the different programs are integrated from the very beggining in the creation of a new topography that gently blends with the original land situation. Also, the strips are conceived to join between them at certain heights, and therefore, the user can not only be inside the buildings, but ascend to them going from the central ellipse, through and elevated park located on the buildings’s roof.
Each building is made of a steel structure with glass, which maximizes de visibility and the relation with the surroundings from inside them. This deep relation between the Project and the landscape is reinforced with the vegetal coverage that the buildings have, which allows them to mimic with its surroundings. Therefore, the project is intended to allow recreational activities in an open space that highlights the nature presence in the area through the carefully thought design and material election.
Summarizing, the whole Project – its geometry and its relation with the land, is defined through the identification of the main variables involved in the program, usable surfaces, volumes according each use and their relation with the landscape.
