DESA1002 'Continuous City' Justin Cockinos

Abstract

The generic city that our group was allocated was Venice which I personally had little background knowledge on. After researching this city I found it interesting that although Venice is well known for its gondolas and canals, there are in fact very few places left that rather build or maintain these traditional vessels. I saw this as a good opportunity to design a new building that would offer these services plus more. Acqua Bottega which simply translates to “water workshop” provides a network of marine services such as maintenance, installations, and repairs on all types of water vessels, particularly Gondolas. Situated on the corner of two key canals in Venice, Acqua Bottega presents a spacious open plan design that is modern yet fitting to the Venetian setting. The buildings primary circulation space divides the structure into public and private space while providing a coherent directional flow. The application of natural lighting is endorsed through the ample use of fixed windows that wrap the corner skin of the building. Over the past fourteen weeks I have been introduced to the skill and knowledge required in order to produce creative, innovative and appropriate solutions to architectural problems. I personally found it difficult to comprehend the conceptual and metaphoric levels of experience. However I do believe that I have improved my communication skills by studying a building through the ways that people have communicated it., allowing me to reinterpret and represent the building in a variety of medias through personal narrative. I also believe that my techniques for spatial organisation and architectural representation techniques have grown. In such a short time I hope that it is evident that my awareness of meaning and design principles has improved. I anticipate further developing these skills and applying them to my work in the weeks to come.