/ Beauvais Observatory
Spatial intervention in Beauvais Cathedral behaving as a prosthesis on columns.
Inhabitable telescope and planetarium.
Inhabitable telescope and planetarium.
/ Model Making
Use of different techniques for model making by stacking paper/cardboard layers.
/ Elements + Column Studies
Study of the insertion of stairs within the column.
/Column Studies
Evolution from basic form
/ Elements Studies
Study of the insertion of architectural elements. Stairs.
/ Column Study Models
Cardboard formal study models.
/ Column Studies
Potential spaces created with and within columns
5 / Model thinking|making
Plaster casting of development #1 column.
Formwork consisting on plastic tubes held together by tape and MDF rings.
5 / Project Development
The drawing represents a first attempt to formalize our intervention in the Cathedral of Beauvais. This intervention consists of an inhabitable telescope, a meeting point between the contrasting, yet similar world of micro and macro scale.
Solid & Light Texture & Proportion
4 / Re-Barcelona Trip Fotos
3 / Model thinking|making
Models of the same kind of column, realized by experimenting with different techniques (plaster&metal wire).
3 / Model thinking|making
Plaster casting of one of the types of columns, understanding it as the space defined by the exterior void (paper tubes).
 |
2 / MAPPING
The drawing shows the extrapolation of values taken from the data collected at Beauvais Cathedral.
2 / MAPPING
The drawing directly shows the data collected with the tape system at Beauvais Cathedral. The darker the circles, the greater the density, the wider the circles, the greater the intensity.
2 / MAPPING Process
Understanding usage of space by analyzing the concentrations of dust. Mapping exercise realized by collecting dust samples through the use of tape placed on cathedral floor.
1 / Context Analysis - Column G
The analysis focuses on the construction lines behind the cross section of column G, one of the oldest types of columns found in Beauvais. The design of the column can be deducted by a polar array of squares ending up alternatively with circles of different sizes.
1 / Context Analysis - Column H
The analysis focuses on the construction lines behind the cross section of column H, one of the most recent types of columns found in Beauvais. The design of the column, as well as of its smaller version H’, can be deducted by a series of tangent circles.
1 / Context Analysis 1&2
The analysis focuses on the construction lines behind the cross sections of the columns. Some basic geometrical relationships can be recognized in all the examples despite their different styles.
These formal differences are very revealing in terms of the structural history of the cathedral.
1 / BasseOeuvre Analysis 2
Proportion analysis of the "Basse Oeuvre" floor plan and facades. All dimensions in proportion to a 5m radius circle.
1 / BasseOeuvre Analysis 1
Construction analysis of the exterior at Beauvais Cathedral. Drawing shows "Basse Oeuvre" merged with the incomplete cathedral through a 1m x 1m grid.
/ Project Manifesto
The intervention is based on the contrast of scales within Beauvais Cathedral. Treating the cathedral as magnifying lens, the investigation explores the contrast between the micro and macro scale: the difference between miniscule particles and stars. An exploration of the night sky that has often clashed with the ideology of the Church; nevertheless, this science is already present in this same cathedral with the important astronomical clock by Verité. Therefore the project is developed as an astronomical observatory. An opportunity for the continuation of this science, presented as a facility for education rather than private and conventional scientific research.
In order to develop this, a study of verticality becomes necessary. In the case of Beauvais, this means columns. Commonly known as a rigid, upright support element, columns associate what is above with what is below, but it can be so much more: the meeting point between the two scales. What if a column is not only a column? A column thought as stairs, as void, as inhabitable space, as vertical arrangement of elements. In this circumstance, as an inhabitable telescope that brings the macro scale within the cathedral, a parasite element that derives from the original geometries present in Beauvais Cathedral.
In order to develop this, a study of verticality becomes necessary. In the case of Beauvais, this means columns. Commonly known as a rigid, upright support element, columns associate what is above with what is below, but it can be so much more: the meeting point between the two scales. What if a column is not only a column? A column thought as stairs, as void, as inhabitable space, as vertical arrangement of elements. In this circumstance, as an inhabitable telescope that brings the macro scale within the cathedral, a parasite element that derives from the original geometries present in Beauvais Cathedral.
