Underlying Locations pt.1

It was about this time two years ago that I submitted my application and proposal for the thesis program at Philadelphia University. At the time I was studying in Copenhagen and had no idea what I wanted to spend the next year and a half researching and designing.

I won't get into all of the details of my final project. I think it is pretty well explained in what is posted on my Archinect.com portfolio here. I will however talk about my thesis process and how my initial proposal evolved into what it became in the end.
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[image: phenrydelphia @ Flickr]

I was just getting settled into my Kollegium when thesis proposals were soon due back at Philadelphia University. At the time I was very uncertain what I was going to send, and made numerous mock proposals with all kinds of crazy ideas. The one topic that kept coming back to me was the idea of development underground. I am not entirely sure of the root of this idea. It probably has something to do with either my passion for 80's and 90's science fiction or that I didn't see much daylight while studying in Scandinavia. Also though, this was around the same time the Burj Khalifa was really picking up in the media, and I was thinking to myself rather then a mile up, what if a project was a mile down? So these were the grounds (get it?) that I started with to launch my thesis research.

While in Europe, I looked for precedents that I could use to get my imagination going. A little while later on a tour of Helsinki I walked into this:

[image: Fanatical Apathist @ Flickr]

And I was at a lost of words.
I had truly walked into one of the most inspirational pieces of architecture I had ever come across. This is the Temppeliaukio or "Rock Church" located in Helsinki, Finland. This structure was built from the inside out of a large rock formation near the center of the city. You enter in through a hillside that resembles a cave entrance and then into the huge expansive room seen in the photo above surrounded by bare rock and an enormous copper disk floating over a clerestory of light. Everything about this place was what I wanted to focus on in thesis: inhabiting the underground, the sculpting of daylight, the hollowing out of immense masses; it was definitely a huge push to get me going in the direction I wanted.

Temppeliaukio sketch

The rest of my time abroad was spent refining my proposal for when I would return back to Philadelphia the following semester. During the summer months I spent time creating visuals and collecting resources to help illustrate my developing ideas. I think for pt.II I'll talk a little about those readings and collages.