Delaminated Landscape
The main aim of the project is to create a subtle and seamless embedding of the colonial substance on-site within a 21st-century intervention. To achieve this, the project delaminates the ground and lifts it wherever the program is needed, creating a sandwich between ground and landscape filled with the program outlined by the customer. The entirely parametric nature of the project allows for simple updating of the program and profound flexibility during the execution of the design.
The landscape itself is defined by a responsive pattern, resulting from a generative process, which is both responsive to environmental forces as well as programmatic necessities. The Patterns can define the nature of the garden areas or can transform into structures providing shading as well as envelopes for outdoor Restaurants, Bars, Food Stalls, sporting activities, and more.
Most of the building volume is concentrated on the western part of the site in order to minimize the building envelope, as part of the sustainability strategy of the design. Rules of sustainability are applied rigorously throughout the design: The project makes extensive use of earthwork, by using the earth needed to excavate the car parking to form the landscape. Earth is used to provide insulation, to avoid waste of energy. Areas that do not need a view (Changing Booths, Squash Area, SPA, Tennis Center Court, etc), are primarily covered by earth, allowing only for daylight coming from the top. In order to provide a natural cooling system, the project suggests applying near-surface geothermal energy. The feasibility of this idea is based on the fact that major earthwork is part of the project proposal, which facilitates the inclusion of near-surface geothermal energy facilities.
The curvilinear form of the design facilitates the collection of water. The design includes channels along the slope lines which lead to the main water reservoir on the site, the pool between the two main colonial buildings. Apart from its practical nature, the pool forms a refreshing central point of reference for the design, as well as a reflection pool for the colonial buildings.
The lack of paving in our project, which serves to seals the ground, is intentional for two reasons: On the one side, the project uses a sophisticated method of gravel paths to create permeable surfaces that lead to a water collecting system underground. (gravel is used wherever paths are needed) and on the other hand, the lack of pavement increases the green areas of the design. No clear separation is made between areas for cars and pedestrians, increasing the attention of car drivers on the premises. The presence of cars is not encouraged on-site and avoided as much as possible. The parametric pattern in this design is both an organizational device as well as architectural intervention. It is of multiplicious nature, serving to provide a subdivision of the site, off the various garden areas and different greenscapes, but also framing, and incorporating, the colonial buildings. The pattern seamlessly converts from planar subdivision of the landscape to a three-dimensional scaffold for shading, restaurants, bars, etc, without outshining the main jewels of the site, the Club Building, and the Brigadier Annex.
This proposal suggests the fusion of landscape and architecture to provide a subtle frame for the colonial buildings. Solutions of sustainability are provided by the form of the design. Patterns are used as both generative devices as well as architectural interventions.