As the creation process unfolds, imagination engages the artist in his work, creating an engagement to it. Starting with an idea, the building’s story unfolds with various aspects and peculiar details. Architects create the narrative with diverse spaces to experience the building and surroundings, allowing users to translate, reinvent, and become part of what is happening. A building crafted by imagination, thought, and various techniques creates a narrative and an image that portrays the idea of belonging. The factors to consider while designing the building are construction techniques, the use of sustainable materials, and the understanding of climate-responsive approaches.
New era construction techniques
An understanding of how the methods and the materials relate is necessary for the construction of a building. Various technology solutions such as 3D printing, precast building components, and interactive designs were utilized in order to create a building using advanced technological understanding. Architect Neri Oxman applies computational knowledge to design across disciplines, media, and scales, from micro to macro, via her research on computational design, digital fabrication, materials science, and synthetic biology. A primary goal of Oxman’s is to implement design principles inspired and engineered by Nature in the creation of new design technologies that enhance the relationship between built, natural, and biological environments.
Understanding it through the architectural experience of Therme Vals – Peter Zumthor
“Mountain, stone, water – building in the stone, building with the stone, into the mountain, building out of the mountain, being inside the mountain – how can the implications and the sensuality of the association of these words be interpreted architecturally?”
Peter Zumthor
Therme Vals has been designed with simplicity through the material and an elegant form to provide a sensory experience. The Spa/Baths were designed by Peter Zumthor and opened in 1996 before the existing hotel complex existed. In essence, the project involved building a cave or quarry-like structure. Under a grass-roof structure half-buried into the hillside, the bathrooms blend in with the natural surroundings. There are many layers of Valser Quarzite slabs composing the Therme Vals.
Design inspiration came from this stone, which was treated with great respect and dignity. Guests can enjoy the antique advantages of bathing in this space designed to help them relax and enjoy a relaxing experience. Combining light and shade, open spaces and enclosed areas, and linear elements yields an intensely sensual and restorative experience. Essentially, the interior space has an informal layout that follows a carefully modelled path of circulation, leading bathers to predetermined points while letting them explore other areas on their own. In constructing the landscape, the architect was primarily influenced by his fascination with the magical qualities of stones within the mountain, with darkness and light, with light reflections on water or in the steam saturated air, with the unique acoustics of the bubbling water, with feelings of bare skin and warm stones, and with bathing rituals.
Their intent to engage with these elements, consciously implement them and give them a special shape was evident from the beginning. The stone rooms were designed to accommodate the human form, not compete with it. They give room to the human form, regardless of age or gender, and a place for it to live.
References:
ArchDaily. 2022. The Therme Vals / Peter Zumthor. [online] Available at: <https://www.archdaily.com/13358/the-therme-vals> [Accessed 5 June 2022].
D' Angelo, M., 2022. Neri Oxman Takes Her Interdisciplinary MoMA Exhibition Online. [online] Architect. Available at: <https://www.architectmagazine.com/design/culture/neri-oxman-takes-her-interdisciplinary-moma-exhibition-online_o> [Accessed 5 June 2022].
Dimscale.blogspot.com. 2022. ARCHITECTURE REFERENCES – Therme Vals, by Peter Zumthor. [online] Available at: <http://dimscale.blogspot.com/2013/03/architecture-references-therme-vals-by.html> [Accessed 5 June 2022].
MIT Media Lab. 2022. Person Overview ‹ Neri Oxman – MIT Media Lab. [online] Available at: <https://www.media.mit.edu/people/neri/overview/> [Accessed 5 June 2022].
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