Islandscape
enterprise
An
island
There is not a place with more contradictions than an
island between terras. While an
island is the paradigm of isolation and pure identity in its uncontextuality,
la isola del fiume stands as an outdated void between terras. The new
regulations treat this land not as a single unity but as a part of the existing
urban structure. This island wants
to be an object of unique quality recognition. How to inject this land with its own island configuration
and become a new sign into the landscape?. How to create an urban icon that
shapes with its own intensity the surroundings and at the same time stands by
itself with strong stubbornness ? Is it possible to create a new island
configuration? A sort of a laboratory kit for the future?
An island should look for itself and not unshape into
a limitless borderline becoming more part of the outside than of it´s own
self. The island is one of the
more introvert characteristics.
While the borderline is always a place to look at the
water, the real view should be focused on what happens inner-island.
We look at the program and its looks like an
enumeration of desirable ingredients, what it highlights in the list is the big
amount of nature in the shape of a park. An enumeration that runs east west the
island as highlighting the public characteristics of the east side while the
preserving the long shaped west side as a more private introvert park, a piece
of non detailed nature with non strong characteristics.
So as we look further into this scheme it becomes
clear that this approach to the island stands more for the contexts than from
the island itself, it responds to the public sphere at the east where the
downtown is located and the more private sourrondings of the greenfields at the
west coast.
To avoid this boring “paled” and structured program
location, the solution is clear; by simply layering the island in a serie of
bars containing a fresh and intense classification of all the sub items in
every program field. This way, the island responds to its own needs and not
become “part of the context” but an iconic orchestration of every possible contact between nature and social
living.
The island equalizer
The island becomes a “mise en place” of all the
different elements that compose its new islandscape.
The bars
We propose a catalog of six different sorts of nature
each one with its own characteristics and intensities.
among them, the big program gets organized just at
random, at different levels of intensity, graduated by the lineal meters of
each bar and the relations between them. By layering the island in the
east-west sense, the island becomes an equalizer of nature, housing and social
developments.
Woods
The forest seems to be one of the strongest ecologies,
and at the same time its degradation
is creating terrible chaos among the earth surface. As the most
important oxygen supply, this nature is the one with stronger presence in the
bars configuration.
Grasslands
As romantic as it can gets the nature is at the serve
of the human, French-like gardens will be created on this bars, with benches
and playgrounds as well as possible sport structures.
Flowers
This gardens will change with seasons, from roses and
orange jasmine in the spring, to bleeding hearts and variegated shell ginger in
the autuum. This gardens will be layered in the north- south way as well, as to
create different gardens for the people living in the pier dwellings, so each
family will take care of its own parcel lot.
Plantation
Another useful ecology for the human living. It will
also render to the aesthetics of the differents plantations along the seasons.
Just as the flower bars, this one will be also layered.
Green houses
This glass houses will content special species and it
will also be a place with high pedagogic value, as to bless the young with the
wise of nature from all over the world.
Channel
The channels runs north south and carry the wisdom of
old fairie stories from fiume Veneto. Just like a glimpse to the past, this
nature is a tribute to the delicate landscape of the fiume Veneto.
Little wood bridges will cross the channels here and
there for the pedestrian.
This way, by locating one ecology bar next to the
other two curves of opposite intensity appears; one which is the reflection of
the physical strength of each bar and the other being the intensity of nature
running along the island
The pier housing
The most daring element to land on the island. How to
create this new sort of housing without damaging the delicate environment of
the nature bars equalizer?
The housing works as a stacking of the programmatic
needs for the housing scheme. a pier platform runs north south on each housing
bar, this double platform contents all the car access and car park on its
inside, and runs at level 3.00 mts. Then 75% of the housing are located “on the
platform pier”, and the other 25% are “down the pier, into the nature”. By
dividing the program up and down, as required for the senior citizen housing
with assistence, we liberate most of the housing off the ground, and relocate
them on top of the pier with exiting views on the nature bars. The senior
citizen housing are then “green houses”, living among nature, being like the
“nature-keepers”.
Selected stair holes are located on the pier platform
so as to descend to the nature or to go to the upper platform with views
between the pier housing.
The symbolic elements
This are the composition of the major elements, the
unique places that stand by themselves and are too large to be located in the
bars
The civic enterprise
Four bars are yuxtaposed to create the area enough for
the civic enterprise. This development is a joint of all the public
programmatic field. By stacking the program on a “down to earth” level, where
the promenade runs; and in a “islandscape” upper level, we create a “in between” space where the new
plaza is located. This level will be the mezzanine plaza, a semi covered level with spaces for the social
happening and arts expositions. Rounded holes in the floor shows what happens
in the bottom level, with shops, workshops, stores and a variety of spaces.
Desired constellation Memorial
The mezzanine falls into a rampant explanade where the
memorial or monument to the Sailor is located. On this explanade the memorial
leaves holes with water and “stars” connected by a constellation monument. At
night the water holes bright with light and the constellation becomes alive.
This explanade ends in the museum, where memories from
the past are located in the building which was part of the old factory.
12 islands and 6 voids
And in the upper level, the “12 islands and six voids”
locates the bird eye islandscape observatory, a place to enjoy nature in a more
passive attitude. Services as restaurants, showrooms, classrooms, exposition
rooms and a conference room are located in a free form way at this upper level.
The Central Park
To create a void between nature , this park is a
condenser of all the different ecologies occurring in the bars, just by cut
trough the bars we create a section of nature that can be enjoyed from the
inside of this void.
This park is private and can be only accesses from the
pier housing.
Access and circulation
this system allows the maximum possibilities of
connection and consist of two major movement systems:
The Boulevard Road
This road cross the island from east to west at level
3.00 meters and permits the access to all the pier housing and the civic
enterprise.
The Promenade
On the level 0 and by the riverside, this walk runs
along the island to discover each one of the bars from the very beginning at
the west side and ends up in the promenade level at the civic enterprise
building, where it becomes a “laberintic” of shops and craftsman workshops.
This way the islandscape becomes a real layering of
nature and social activities, a
mezzanine in the most exposed of the cases, and a pier as to sail into more
introvert waters. In no way we determine what´s going to happens, but we intent
to describe what lies in the identity of this islandscape enterprise, a simple
and delicate treatment of the nature can be seen as an adventure of undisrupted
dimensions.