This Design Development proposal continues with the schematic work of Selgascano Architects to construct an auditorium and conference center in the Spanish Extremadura outside of the Medieval walled city of Plasencia. The exterior shell references the rugged landscape below in its geometric organization as well as how it sits like a ship at port treating the Extremadura as the sea beneath. This skin serves to protect the simple concrete volume inside which contains the building's program and is wrapped in an intertwining system of circulatory ramps. These ramps provide the impetus to treat the building as a stage for movement, as visitors engage with the circulation and the program their movements are recorded and projected onto the polycarbonate light boxes beneath each ramp. Thus the building begins to operate on the macro, meso, and micro scale. During the day it sits like a sign alongside the highway adjacent to Plasencia while at night it becomes a lamp, broadcasting the activity of the interior. As one moves closer to the space the organization of the skin becomes clear, referencing the area in which it sits and pushing its logic inside the atrium through a boolean operation, a clear puncture through the center. Finally the detailing of the white concrete panels cladding the building's core becomes visible and referential to the organization of the circulation, subtly emphasizing the movements a visitor makes as they participate in the act.

This Design Development project is a continuation of a competition entry by Tom Wiscombe of Emergent Architects for a Museum and Public works exhibition center located in the Futian Center District of Shenzhen.  The project embraces the concept of the northern part of the Futian Center District as a traditional Chinese courtyard space.   The L-shaped massing of the building serves to create a defining corner to the urban fabric.  The building itself supports an astonishing canopy which extends over the void created by the buildings massing.  This canopy creates an outdoor courtyard within which lush plantings, step seating, and a central cooling pond define a microclimate which serves as an oasis within the stressful urban environment.   The architecture of the project is embedded within the structural system which supports the massive outdoor canopy.  The structural concept is related to the wing of a dragonfly which uses depth of section to increase the structural stability of the overall system.  A central moment frame which is connected to two vertical concrete cores defines the primary structure of the building.  A secondary structure extends out from this primary system with a branching logic that while increasing the structural stability of the building also defines a series of interconnected programmatic volumes.  The effect of this system is an ease of circulation throughout the building and an overall connectedness of the spaces interior and exterior to the project.

Students: Kurt Brosnan and David Holbrook