Fluid dynamics model [1/3]

Ambiguous Exteriority is a housing project that developed by challenging fundamental assumptions about the role of partitions in domestic space. Early in the process manifestos or statements on domestic architecture were established as a conceptual basis for exploration. My manifesto posited that the partition is not a static entity that simply demarcates one space from another. The partition or boundary is an element caught in between the flux of dynamic programmatic events. Thus the partition needs to register the conflicts and negotiations that are taking place between these events. To begin exploring these ideas physically I set up a series of controlled fluid dynamics experiments. Using 2 parts of wax, a set of containers, and a timer, I conducted reaction experiments, pouring the 2 wax parts in various predefined methods and durations. In trying to define an alternative behavior for partitions the negotiation between heated fluids became an analogical tool for developing potential characteristics.

These models were cut, drawn, and analyzed, indentifying moments and conditions of convergence, envelopment, and displacement, amongst others. The following challenge would be to understand how that manifests itself at the scale of a living unit and the building as a whole. I began massing studies, turning my attention to the zoning envelope as condition for investigation. Analyzing set back limitations, and floor area ratio (FAR) percentages I began to modify the zoning envelope through a similar experimental process. Exterior and interior space was no longer mutually exclusive. Atmospheric pressures had to negotiate with controlled environments. Through a wide series of iterations this morphological transformation would take place within the buildings column structure. Atmospheric zones surrounding two corners of the building would seep into the internal mass, penetrating to create a shared indoor/outdoor park below the upper most floor of the building.