PUZZLING ASSEMBLIES Spring 2024
Beginning with the development of a puzzling object, the project develops through the exploration of formal translations. The original qualities imbued in the puzzle were about finding interesting postures through hidden rotational moments. Several components of the puzzle deny particular readings about the extent of its reach and role within the assembly. Hidden within the schism of the rectangular puzzle is an interconnected network of parts reaching through embedded channels and across other pieces.
Translated to a larger architectural reality, the dual museum-hotel massing has large interconnected circulation armatures that cross between various components and help organize the project. The indexical nature of the green circulation armatures create a diagrammatic composition that begins to trace the inner workings of the puzzle's armatures. Multiple poses of the puzzle were explored to develop the massing, as two different states of disassembly were combined to form an 'L' shape, allowing the maritime museum to cover the ground levels and the hotel to rise above.
Puzzle Development
Organized around a central rotational fulcrum, the main massings of the puzzle form a central layered void space which creates a main area of visual intensity. Gravity is introduced visually into the piece around this area, as the larger puzzle pieces are tentatively held above, threatening to slide past one another. Other than the main fulcrum rotations, other puzzle pieces grow beyond their initial reading, reaching deeper into the massing and having moments of locking. These pieces become the most important to the function of the object, and also provide moments of surprise through the reveal of their actual formal extents.
Mechanical Connections
After developing an initial puzzling strategy, the creation of intentional seams and carved voids becomes the main issue of the puzzle’s expression. Through the carving of the part-to-whole logic, latent architectural expression can be embedded through a series of formal exercises.
Since the main mechanistic strategy is developed already, the layers of formal expression begin to construct a spatial logic through the decisions of fitment. Critical to this particular puzzle exploration is the layering of void spaces around the intersection of major puzzle elements. Also, through the intentional misalignment of certain seams to create readings of loosely fit components, certain moves become highlighted through tight vistas.
Multiples
Developed as a pair of puzzle assemblies, the maritime museum and hotel project creates a sprawling mass adjacent to Keelung’s busiest port. The exisitng puzzling moves allowed for the volumes to be oriented through slight torques and pushes. The museum base that spans two exisitng lots is fractured, allowing a network of internal circulation bridges to span across its various volumes. The puzzle was retained as more true-to-form object in the hotel tower. Existing seams from pieces allow autonomous volumes to create different zones and reduce the reading of a solid aggregate. By allowing the museum to be carved in more inense ways, the focus of the project lies in the mediation of the base to tower transition. Here, the intersection of the two puzzles culminates in a large cantilever underneath the split tower volumes. In both the museum and tower, interstitial circulation volumes form the basis of the conceptual throughline. The hidden ‘inner objects’ create moments of intense interest through its intersections at different levels.
