a quote...UN Studio

“As an expert on everyday public information the architect collects information that is potentially structuring, co-ordinates it, transforms it and offers ideas and images for the organization of public life in an endless, seamless system.”

The new concept of the architect (1999)

Ben Van Berkel and Caroline Bos

I came across this while reading a manifesto for architects, written by Berkel and Bos of UN Studio. This sentence stood out to me since it describes an approach that I am using for this current project, as well as an approach that I feel is valued and appreciated by contemporary architects. I am aiming to create an "endless and seamless system" that is informed by the measurements and patterns of movement in the buildings that surround the site. Pictured below is one of their projects that I was immediately drawn to.

* UN Studio was included in the list of architects that we looked at today in the diagramming presentation.

http://www.unstudio.com/projects/dance-palace

DANCE PALACE

INFO

St. Petersburg, Russia, 2009

The 21,000 m2 Dance Palace forms part of the European Embankment city quarter masterplan for a new urban square in the historic centre of St. Petersburg. The building presents an open and inviting theatre with provision for 1300 guests (large auditorium 1000, small auditorium 300). Integration with the existing neighboring buildings is achieved by both the scale of the building - which in elevation follows St. Petersburg’s typical 28m roofline – and the transformative transparency which is introduced by a facade system of triangular cladding panels. The variation between opaque and perforated panels creates a controlled openness, depending on program, views and orientation. In the main auditorium the horseshoe form was chosen for its acoustic advantages and the proximity it affords to the stage.