WE ARE ALL IN THE SAME BOAT
Rudolf Schwarzl, Anna Borkowska, Alex Capener
student
Universidad de Alicante
Austria
Urban Design and Landscape
The IDEA is upcycling old boats. Clean, modify, switch, update and assemble them. The idea of the shape origins in sea associated elements. First there were… more
Shafinaz Sameen
advisor
University of Illinois Urbana Champaign
Bangladeshi
My interest is primarily in a project's ideological and philosophical aspects as well as how a… more
The project is well conceptualized within 'sustainable' development and the attempts to save the environment are praiseworthy. The ideas of re-using old boats and not exploiting the lands physically too much are excellent. Living in boats is not uncommon in many parts of the world. The way a holiday resort is conceptualized as villas within boats on a site adjacent to the shore is hence nicely perceived. I want to congratulate the students for even imagining in such a way in today's time when it is crucial that architects rather build fewer forms on the land and save our earth from excessive exploitation.
However, students could have found some help by looking into the architecture of (wooden) boats as houses and how people spend months within such spaces (i.e., riverine south Asian regions) to transform it into a modern holiday stay and make more connections with the naturally produced spatial qualities than imposed. The geometric aggregation derived could have some manual touch at the end to provide more spaces to pause and enjoy the waterscape. The cells placed in quite a number all over, in my view, can also prevent the serenity of nature as the villas from outside generate an outlook more of a mechanical product of steel and wood than boats made of natural wood. It's not built on the land but still has many elements. Maybe, attempts to come up with a simple design could be made. Although I understand the task was more focused on developing the unit details, I believe such considerations can always be kept in mind for future exercises. As a whole, I appreciate students' sensitivity toward the environment and their intensive engagement with project.
Dear Shafinaz Sameen, thank you very much for the honest feedback. It's nice to hear that someone has actually looked at and noticed this project. I put nature first and how we could protect it from us humans or this master plan. Thanks for the tip on engaging with houseboat dwellers in Southeast Asia as inspiration for a more natural design. In any case, you could make the placement different and more selected. In my opinion, less is always better, we could have been even more radical.
Basically, I wanted to show that it would actually be possible in practice to protect the entire floor, regardless of how it is used, and not to seal it. In order to remove fixed roads, the whole tourist aparat had to be questioned and the assembly had to be rethought. I'm curious to see how much of the natural area will not be built on or will be destroyed by construction work.
I am grateful for this exercise, which challenged my critical thinking a lot and further sharpened it.
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