A crosswalk and bench were scanned through photogrammetry and selected for the contrasting man-made and natural material qualities of the two grounds. To create an interwoven composition, the operations of contouring and intersecting were used to merge and defamiliarize the scans.
The proposed mineral garden is a field of undulating blocks, consisting of interwoven strips of softscape and hardscape. Visitors move through a series of exterior thresholds and garden terraces that oscillate in elevation across the quarry site like a wave. Enclosed spaces are carved from the landscape, shifting between courtyards for public gathering, private chambers for contemplation, and a central library. While in the gardens, visitors are exposed to minerals on a monolithic scale, revealing qualities from an excavated world below.
Inspired by the text “How to Domesticate a Mountain” by Anna Neimark and Andrew Atwood, we developed a series of design operations to combine and defamiliarize two photogrammetry scans of ground into a composite form.
"A domesticated object has all the attributes of the original, corrected through a system of disciplinary norms." - Anna Neimark and Andrew Atwood
Visitors move across the site along a central axis which takes them through a series of undulating courtyards and thresholds. This axis intersects with the central library space and the two courtyards connected to it. A secondary axis along the side of the site brings visitors to the rear of the project where there is a series of sunken meditation chambers, zen gardens, and reflecting pools. Using the central axis brings visitors through the public gathering spaces while the secondary axis leads to private meditative spaces.
Sunken Reading Courtyard
Threshold Courtyard
Landscape Details
Exercise 1 - Research into the Gavorrano Mining Research
Exercise 2 - Creating a Composite Ground