Project type: Athletic Center
Location: Charlotte, North Carolina
Critic: Peter Wong
There is a place that exists completely void of the technology that has consumed people today.We are all “media people”. We experience things through a technological medium that seems to take precedent over our real world interactions. Interactions through media exist as tiny threads in an ever-changing and constantly multiplying web of communications; they are intersections that don’t intersect. Real intersection can happen when there is a lack of this type of communication.
Leave your devices behind you, and you will find yourself in a new place. A place that is embedded in its landscape, one that is designed for movement. Interactions happen in all types of spaces, from a capsule that holds only a single human body to an entire Icelandic mountain range that does not seem to end. The architecture of this place is functional, yet it stimulates a desire to be disordered, without direction. It is an architecture that operates on its own terms.
Upon approaching the building it is geological; a rock in the landscape, a bar that intersects the movement and pathways of skiers. As the building is passed through, it becomes tectonic; architectural, and light. The balance of these two personalities is materialized by a basalt stone retaining wall that extends towards the peak of the structure and supports a thin wood frame facade. The facade is designed with operable windows to allow for daylighting, ventilation, and views.
The diagrammatic short films describe the atmosphere of the hostel. Movement is happening all at once, and never stops. The movement of skiers, building occupants, lift riders, and everything in between is documented by the architecture itself.
