Mockup Model - 1:200

At the request of one of my friends, I have decided to post a quick description of the building. The brief asks for a series of rooms designed according to a narrative that we decide on ourselves.

My updated narrative: A tunnel carved into a cliff, poised to take advantage of views, for a philosophy student to contemplate the differences between eastern and western philosophy.

I separated the building into two wings, to explore the differences that I perceive between Eastern and Western philosophy. Western philosophy has an outward view, and looks to the world for answers and inspiration, so accordingly, I designed a wing perched out from the cliff, with a full glass window, giving views out onto the world. Eastern philosophy is more concerned with looking inside oneself for answers, and so I buried the Eastern wing further underground, where light comes from a shaft that emerges onto the surface. Here you cannot see out onto the world, but light is still allowed to penetrate the space.

Some Poche Inspirations

Burying the Form

Thanks to Anu for posting this image from Mulloway Studio. I saw the exhibition of Australia's entry at the Venice Biennale, and this was definitely one of the most impressive models. It got me thinking about my own design, and how I was planning to 'carve' my spaces out of a large stone block, and place this in the landscape. The image made me think of taking this idea further, and embedding the scheme within a cliff, carving the spaces out from the rock.

'An architecture born out of sightless light and sound' - Tadao Ando

I then remembered this unbuilt (unfortunately) scheme by Tadao Ando for a House in Malibu. He also carves out of the rock, using it to form spaces, vistas, windows, views. P.S Sorry about the poor quality images, they are scanned from my book, and I didn't want to damage the pages.