Flexible
critics: Ferda KOLATAN, TA Michael ZIMMERMAN.
suckerPUNCH: Describe your project.
Angeliki MAVROLEON & Rosanna PITARRESI: Our proposal for the Real Fictions II studio added to the existing urban infrastructure at the Embaba Bridge in Cairo, Egypt.
- Angeliki MAVROLEON & Rosanna PITARRESI, “Real Fictions ii: Railway Bazaar.” Plan.
- Angeliki MAVROLEON & Rosanna PITARRESI, “Real Fictions ii: Railway Bazaar.” Cylinder Chunk.
- Angeliki MAVROLEON & Rosanna PITARRESI, “Real Fictions ii: Railway Bazaar.” Chunk.
- Angeliki MAVROLEON & Rosanna PITARRESI, “Real Fictions ii: Railway Bazaar.” Model.
- Angeliki MAVROLEON & Rosanna PITARRESI, “Real Fictions ii: Railway Bazaar.” Interior Render.
- Angeliki MAVROLEON & Rosanna PITARRESI, “Real Fictions ii: Railway Bazaar.” Texture Close Up.
We saw an opportunity to link the various disconnected paths (vehicular, railway, and pedestrian) and capitalize on an opportunity to create new sensorial experiences along this critical transportation gateway. We achieved this by designing an architecture that forefronts the figure as a 3-dimensional object and as a shell to house program such as bazaar, galleries and cultural spaces. Our intervention on the site is a submerged network of vaulted tunnels that opens up to larger more expansive spaces. The construction of the vaulted tunnels funnel natural light into these subterranean spaces in a unique way that captures movement on the ground plane through the play of shadow.
sP: What or who influenced this project?
AM & RP: Hassan Fathy, the Monastery of Saint Simon in Zabbaleen, Embaba bridge, Karnak Temple, Mosque of Ibn Tulun, Roxy Paine.
sP: What were you reading/listening to/watching while developing this project?
AM & RP: Reading: “The Library of Babel” by Jorge Luis Borges, “The Estranged Object” by Michael Young, e-flux – Superhumanity. Listening: Sampha, Nicholas Jar, Tops, Tennis.
sP: Whose work is currently on your radar?:
AM & RP: su11, Young-Ayata, Herzog & de Meuron, Snøhetta, SHoP.
