UNWRAP
Cellular Strategies - Fields of Feedback

Designed by Audun Hellemo

The project area is the same as in the Madrid Study. The issue of fear has been highlighted by the Atocha bombings in 2004, and serves as a backdrop for the project. Where the Madrid study focused mainly on programmatic issues, the architectural project is mainly focused on public space. As showed in the previous study, the different ethnic groups use the spaces in the city in very different ways. The plaza - the spanish public space per se - is an outdated typology that no longer answers to the needs of a multicultural city. The city thus needs a new typology, and a new design strategy in order to accomodate the needs of both new and existing users of the area. The project area is analyzed in its relationship to accessibility to the different public spaces available. Within the dense built fabric, both existing courtyards as well as commercial program serve what might be used as a different public space. The borders between the typologies are the interface for a negotiation - crucial in processes dealing with both fear and use of public space. Instead of a traditional design process, the project is more focused on local knowledge and different relationships on the site. The project is set up as a game between two opposing groups - the current tenants and the government of Madrid - that react differently to the physical condition always evident on the site. Where the government wishes to open up the structure, the tenants want to close it - as suggested by us in the previous intervention. By setting up certain rules and programming this in Maya, the role of the architect thus changes to a policy maker that defines relationships and spatial possibilities, more than a designer as such. The project also shows that as a result of this, the architect also has to be responsible for deciding the moment to call for action - as the results are highly dependent on the order and timing of different interventions taking place.

Teacher's comment:
Sabine: If you had been able to finish the maya scripting, this would have been an exemplary project