Some perceptual exercises.

Not sure if these are effective. What do you think?

Well, here it is:

And now graduation. And then….

The project will read differently depending on whether you view it from above the hollow or within the hollow. I’m investigating the effects of different materials, so that the building will at times appear light and reflective, and at others will be dark and mute. The fractured formal language, however, will generate a flicker between the two perceptions of light and heavy.

The following are some photographic studies of reflective, transparent, and matte materials.

These materials are then arranged three dimensionally. The resulting cube seems to be both pushing into space and pulling out of it, obscuring the true limit of the architecture.

Max Abramovitz’s 1963 proposal to fill Panther Hollow in Pittsburgh would, without any modesty, “transform into one of the architectural wonders of the world a desolate ravine.. The net result will be a center for research which aesthetically and functionally will have no equal.” While researching the site of my thesis project, I found this great promotional pamphlet for the project.

The cover:

Courtesy Carnegie Mellon Architecture Archives

The cover itself was enough to amaze me, it felt exactly like a concise thesis for the project. Knowing the site makes this project more amazing than just seeing these images,but imaging that where the building is currently is a very large ravine.

Courtesy Carnegie Mellon Architecture Archives

As the description continues, “According to architect Max Abramovitz, Panther Hollow may well become the nucleus of the nation’s first 21st century city, a city in which the individual can find rewarding employment, recreation, culture, and higher education, all within walking distance of his home. A person could live his whole life within a half-mile radius of this center – and an extraordinarily rewarding life it would be.”

Courtesy Carnegie Mellon Architecture Archives

Courtesy Carnegie Mellon Architecture Archives

In a way, I think its great to see this modernist project of Utopian life pop up here in Pittsburgh in a way that possibly would have transformed Pittsburgh. But like all those projects, it seems like there a few drawbacks of living deep in the guts of the building. Also, the hollows of the city highlight the topography’s connection to the urban fabric, and negating it completely ignores the potential of this condition. Either way, it blows my mind.

Courtesy Carnegie Mellon Architecture Archives

And the final trademark image:

Courtesy Carnegie Mellon Architecture Archives

I am looking to figure out how the building can dematerialize. The hollow accumulates a lot of fog, both natural and artificial from the neighboring boiler plant. I’m not looking to cloak the building in the fog, but I think it would be interesting to consider the exterior of the building as a porous, indefinite whole. The materiality can dematerialize, shift, obscure, and float the mass.

The interior social spaces are unrelated to the external form, creating an experience that cannot be objectified by understanding an exterior to the interior. Like the belly of a whale, the inside spaces and structure have no evident relationship to the exterior form. This results in an architecture that is purely experiential.

Pittsburgh’s hollows

Possible site locations

Community typologies surrounding hollows

Circulation typologies in hollows

Panther hollow’s community divisions and circulatory connections