The site sits on the remains of the Greek walls. Recently, it has served as a parking lot for the adjacent hospital. The crowds do not flow through via site, but pass by a very narrow path in front of the exquisite but non-functional church. It is a forgotten open space surrounded by the backside of monuments with an unexplored history. How to take the existing value and atmosphere of the site? The given topic is “corridor”. A corridor is usually an accessory space which does not appear independently and without separate functions. I broadly categorize three spatial features for the corridor: tends to make people pass by; could be portrayed as axles from its form; with intentions or destinations. My idea is to make
a corridor on the ruin that makes people experience a sequence of calmness.
The general design strategy is a progressive diagonal from the southeast to the northwest corner. The southeast corner which is the lowest level point will be the entrance of the building. It consists four courtyards. Two of them are filled with different heights of vegetation, rising from the southeast to the northwest. The other two attached to the streets display the ruins. The depth of the eaves in the deepest courtyard is enlarged in order to provide the sense of shading. The whole building is made with dark and extremely light metal structure. The large sculptures standing in the corridor are the main structural support for the metal roof. Moving from the entrance to the deepest part, people gradually feel like walking below the ground, being hidden in the forest, and disappearing from the place. This corridor redefine the relationship between the site and its surroundings. It is an extension of the lively and the dense city; an open space that rejoins the city with a calm nature.
The collage made in the very beginning portraits my intuitive response to the site. It shows the atmosphere of tranquility and the mystery of the unrevealed. The contrast between the dense urban landscape in the background and the foreground presents the detachment of the site and the context. I would like to extract this sense of atmosphere between presence and absence from the place.
