Hypohyle

Ecological Aesthetics and an Architecture of Assembly

Advisor: Barry Wark

C O L L A B O R A T O R - E S T E L L A L I U

Toolkits - Rhinoceros, Houdini, Zbrush, Keyshot and Photoshop

Models - 3D Printing, Effect Spray Paint and Material Imitation

Year 2023

Project Published: PressingMatters
Exhibition: UPENN Weitzman School of Design: 2022 Year End Show

The project is focused on the exploration of ecological aesthetics that move architectural design beyond the disciplines ongoing nature – architecture dialogue. Rather than see the two as separate entities, we tried developing architecture that purposefully displays and celebrates buildings enmeshment with their environments.

Promoting weathering, non-determinate plant growth and the general degradation of our buildings goes against architectures modus operandi. It subverts both the ontological ideas prevalent throughout modern history that we and by extension our artefacts are separate and elevated above everything else on the planet; as well as potentially undermining the primary performative function of architecture to mitigate our environment and provide us with comfort.

We undertook the project that reconceive architecture not as a static whole, fixed at the date of its initial construction, but as an assembly of matter constructed and reconstructed where its qualities and configurations are perpetually changing and being regenerated, part by part. In this way, building can possess both qualities of ‘dirtiness’ and pristineness simultaneously as different parts will display different levels of environmental enmeshment, thus avoid trending purely towards obsolescence and ruin.

Methodology Exploring

In an age of increasingly extreme weather, we considered the characteristics of the public spaces of the future and specifically in Southern Spain which is faced with increasing desertification. In extreme heat, public spaces with open and exposed condition may no longer be appropriate. Many projects of the early Moorish work reject giving privilege to the façade and focus on the areas of interior inhabitation. ne of the most spectacular spaces that exists in many of these buildings is the hypostyle, a grand hall characterized by its columns and arches. Inspired by these spaces, we designed a new hypostyle as civic space, characterized not by void but by matter. This matter should be an assembly that creates spaces, associated functional requirements, and provide cooling and shading for the increasingly hot Andalucian climate. We explored how these spaces could become reimagined through new structural potentials beyond the stone lintel and arches that characterized the early typologies. In addition to this, we considered how the assembly of matter designed to display its enmeshment with environment might make visible the ecological. In this vein, the proposals should promote biome specific weathering and non-determinate flora propagation and promote new forms or environmental engagement in the city.