architektonima, by Maya Christodoulaki, is a creative architectural practice forging a distinctive approach to spatial creation: it is both embedded in the materiality and the making of buildings, as well as, active in research and theory. The space-making methodology is rooted in a profound engagement with mathematical thinking and natural philosophy, and is practiced and applied using architecture, signals and weaving.

SHOW: All Research Building Teaching Weaving Exhibition Photography

The Rawmantic City
2015

Two striking New York references, the Eldorado -a luxurious cooperative in the Upper West side- and the Equitable -a classic figure of the Financial District- serve as the design input for this project. By disassembling Manhattan’s core into its own diminutive parts, we aim to loosen the orthogonal integrity that often identifies historical monuments. The pieces are reassembled into units that carve out space through their constructive disjunction.

The design process aims to reflect the changing relationship between architecture and the City nowadays. On the ground level, the building incorporates every existing structure into its circulation, which is served
along with the two prominent towers on each side of the building. The formation of the characteristic facade is part of processing a plethora of structural elements that blend to build up a striking exterior and a dense interior. The relationship of the megastructure to the urban fabric defines the overall form and is expressed externally by exposing the program of the building. The building extends gigantically above the city and disrupts the regular grid of Manhattan. It occludes within the diverse architectural elements that define the island, yet still, afford to mimic the tight architectural vocabulary and differentiate substantially from any nostalgic approach.

Category
Thesis, University of Innsbruck, Urban Design

Space-making through architecture, signals and weaving.