STUDENTS PROJECTS
PROJECTS2013
Students: Vasiliki Kolliaki, Karolos Michailidis
Professor: Kas Oosterhuis
Assistant Professor: Tomasz Jaskiewicz/ Christian Friedrich
Technical University of Delft. Hyperbody_Non-standard and Interactive Architecture
Date: January 2013
A location where the dead and the still living can meet- where religion is not a barrier and where faith is a personal way of expression.
"Death as a social phenomenon has a multilevel meaning in every society, a spectacular manifestation that is expressed with grief to celebrate its presence. The existence of Death is just fragmented without the commencement of Life. This empirical relationship forms the social norms towards the realization of Death and the acceptance of it. In modern societies humans are mainly inhabiting the world with fear of the unknown, the after-Life, or the end of something known and familiar"
Between the buildings of Rotterdam, the Babel Tower connects water and sky, isolated from land but an integral part of the city, and fighting its way in society. A proposed Architecture which expresses grief, but also one which provides solace, and more importantly it returns death to its rightful place within society - for death does not overlook the city, but it is part of it.
The metamorphosis of the journey, through fire, water, ground and air, returning to the compositional elements of the human substance. Inverting the biblical story of Babel and building up a vision where the Babel Tower brings people together and the acculturation leads to enlightenment. Because it might sound unpleasant and unwelcoming but the trip of Life is most certainly full of sensory experiences. A location where the dead and the still living can meet- where religion is not a barrier and where faith is a personal way of expression. A vertical interaction through a journey of images, the stages of realization and acceptance. Providing cemetery space for the city of Rotterdam and proposing a social and cultural awakening, the Babel Tower aims to become a landmark, a symbol for the city, a reminder.
In our struggle to celebrate differentiality and cultural diversity we conceptually divided our project in 2 parts: the infinite necropolis ((Greek plural: necropoleis; Latin plural: necropolis: large cemetery or burial ground, usually including structural tombs) and the ecumenopolis *(from Greek: οικουμένη, meaning world, and πόλις (polis) meaning city, thus a city made of the whole world). We would like to present our project on the journey inside and through the building since our focus is a lot on the experience. There are three main scenarios that define the building.
First, the visitors who are here for a ceremony and 'burial'. The deceased is taken high to the ceremonial space to get prepared in the capsule while the family visits the Aula. The walkway from the reception point to the Aula is connected by a narrow walkway where the cables connected to the capsules can be seen emerging from the water. The family then also goes to the ceremony space where the final goodbye takes place and the capsule is released through a specified elevator into the sea and the family continues the journey up to the Activities area: he meditation and yoga space, group therapy, cinema and restaurant. Secondly, we have the people who are here to visit their beloved ones. Going to the level of the visiting rooms, the capsule is summoned and ascends through a railing system to the position of the visiting room. Finally the 3rd scenario is related to the cultural aspect of the project. The visitor can go underwater to the archives and library, visit the Aula, a space of contemplation and acculturation, of might be living or renting a room in the tower or just be visiting for the promenade.
Our aspiration was to form a social commentary and question how can people of different religions in a multi-cultural society interact and establish a peaceful and balanced co-existence in this Tower of Babel?
Website: http://rerdm.hyperbody.nl/index.php/project02:Frontpage
