Design Concept

My building concept deals with the ideas of conditional transparency and opacity. Glass is transparent at all angles, and concrete is opaque, but by constructing planar elements of thick concrete, thin aluminum and glass vertically and horizontally, moments of "gray", essentially experienced translucency, can be achieved.

Though this strategy could work with nearly any program in theory (as any solid concept should) my concept is particularly suited to a program with a blend of introverted and extroverted spaces. Experienced, free flowing transparency is important for all areas of public meeting and interchange, where as a lab space should experience internal transparency, folded inward away from the outside. And finally, office spaces should feel completely private for discussions and feel open and inviting during office hours. Day lighting an extroverted space is fairly straightforward, as a lot of literal transparency of materials is necessary. Composing an introverted space, on the otherhand, with a pleasing relationship with the exterior poses more of a challenge.

Suppose two parallel opaque walls of equal length. When inside that space, views outward are only forward and back, but are otherwise uninhibited. Passing by this space, however, prohibits any experience of the interior space until one's right on top of it. Therefore, anyone inside the space experiences pleasant exterior views coupled with experienced privacy and intimacy with relatively few gestures.