Title
The Making of a Room, Visiting Unit with TEd’A
Description
“Architecture comes from the making of a room.” Louis I. Kahn. The room. 1971
The workshop titled “The Making of a Room” with TEd’A and Ricardo Devesa explored the intricate process of designing a summer house situated amidst the scenic beauty of a Mediterranean forest and coastline. This educational journey was framed around “4 Divertissements and a Project,” serving as a structured exploration into the nuances of architectural creation through four distinct scales: Landscape, Typology, Room, and Element. Participants were engaged in a hands-on learning experience, creating four models and four drawings to embody their conceptual insights and architectural decisions.
The program was divided into four captivating divertissements, each designed to challenge and expand the participants’ understanding of architectural spaces and elements:
1. Forgotten Rooms: This segment encourages participants to delve into linguistic archaeology, asserting that changing our language can transform our world. By resurrecting words on the brink of oblivion, the workshop aims to rediscover and reintegrate forgotten rooms into contemporary architectural discourse, fostering a rich dialogue between past and present spatial practices.
2. Rooms, Walls, and Columns: Inspired by the porches delineated by Jean-Nicolas-Louis Durand in 1802, this exercise tasks participants with configuring a room using only walls and columns. This direct engagement with classical architectural elements challenges attendees to contemplate the foundational aspects of spatial design.
3. Collage of Rooms: Exploring the dynamic relationships between rooms, this segment introduces concepts such as enfilade, grid diagonal, scattered, cross, room-in-room, overlap, and in-between spaces. Participants are encouraged to experiment with spatial arrangements, fostering an understanding of how rooms can interact to create coherent yet diverse architectural experiences.
4. Variations of Rooms: This final divertissement invites participants to introduce alterations, variations, or distortions to traditional room elements such as pavements, columns, beams, ceilings, socles, walls, joints, finishes, lintels, frames, and wiring. By rethinking and manipulating these fundamental components, the exercise promotes innovative approaches to room design and construction.
Overall, “The Making of a Room” offered a comprehensive exploration of architectural design, from the macro-scale of landscapes to the micro-scale of architectural elements. Through a blend of historical reverence and forward-thinking innovation, the workshop equipped participants with the tools to conceive and execute a detailed project—a summer house that harmonizes with its Mediterranean environment while reflecting the nuanced interplay of spaces and elements within.
Details
Client: ETSALS, La Salle, Ramon Llull University
Date: 2022, September – 2023, January
