Recently, I was privileged to have Monaco project in which I was team member of exhibited at Design Life Bangkok - an RMIT graduate Alumni exhibition. I have been meaning to get my work together for while but I seem to quite easily find others things to occupy my time on - like the next project. Nevertheless, here is the text and images that was displayed at the exhibition.
Project
This is a proposal
for 12 boutique apartments, penthouse and mixed use commercial in the
illustrious Monte Carlo, Monaco. The 1000m2 site sits directly adjacent to the
Monte Carlo Casino Gardens providing sweeping south facing views of the Monte
Carlo Casino and Mediterranean Sea. The extruded volume is carefully twisted, tapered
and pulled, directing the buildings energy towards this main view. Juxtaposed against
the context of heritage Beaux Arts, Mediterranean influenced and late 20th
century in situ concrete buildings, timber louvers and triangulated glass
panels are used to carefully articulate the volumes movement and operate with
varied planes of transparency based on privacy needs and admission of light. Each
apartment has equal north views onto Boulevard des Moulins and South facing
views towards the park and ocean. A reinterpreted fishbone plan was adopted to
achieve this which therefore created dynamic internal and external spaces. The
plan is separated into night and day zones with the focus on the living, dining
and main terrace to be spatially generous and awash with ambient light. Linked
by a passageway and restaurant terrace, the ground level lobby, mezzanine
office space and first level retail areas are accessed on both Boulevard des
Moulins and Avenue de la Madone.
Practice
Kengo Kuma and
Associates, in association with the Kuma Laboratory at the University of Tokyo
is a large scale practice involving more than 150 personnel. Kuma founded his Tokyo
based practice in 1990 before establishing his Paris branch in 2008. With over
60 projects on the go around the world, Kuma rarely takes a day off in his
quest of sensitive architectural perfection “for architects, perfection is
necessary” (CNN). Through his early experiences with Japanese craftsman in the
countryside, Kuma applies traditional materials and sentiment to contemporary
design problems – often resulting in delicate, textural and multilayered works
that harmoniously respond to the atmosphere of its place.
Professor Kengo
Kuma and Associate Professors Ko Nakamura and Mikako Koike headed up the Monaco
project team which consisted of Bojan Koncarevic, Tomoyo Sakane, Nikola
Nikolovski, Chen Yao and myself as an intern. Over a two month period we all
worked through an intense design process involving many digital and analogue
processes. I was personally responsible for the fundamental apartment planning
and later devised the twisting concept for the form.
