Scope: 2A Final Studio Project
Supervisor: Dereck Revington, David Correa
Year: 2019
Tools: Photoshop | Rhino | Illustrator | Conceptual Design
Recognition: Feature in Galt. Publication 2019

Demur/e is both a reflection of and escape from the city of today, tomorrow. In a city dominated by rectilinear, tectonic forms and regular space, Demur/e is a rebellion. As a space which prioritizes views to the city, it remains a single, undulating, smooth surface with no harsh corner lines. The building is a field for human interaction and contemplation based upon its contrast to the surrounding city.

The journey begins in the fabric of the city, turning a corner Demur/e confronts the onlooker as a blank form literally eating and eaten away by the adjacent buildings. It compresses passers into the crack between the fabric and its challenger making the materials, smells, and shadows pungent in their minds.  Once in the main atrium, confronted by blank, smooth walls, the exterior views take on great new significance.  The two portholes in this juxtapose a parasitic view into the adjacent, columned industrial building and an open view to the sky; they loom over the entrance to challenge any preconception one might have of spaces, from light, to regularity, to ceiling height.  

Further along the promenade, one finds the final porthole which frames a direct view of the city. The space is an interior field which fosters conversation, but is a space left to the wanderings of the vagrant mind.

It takes one on a journey, driving through the form alternately compressing and expanding around the participant. It is not a passive space: one is invited to look, question, and ponder the contrast of architectural language and its effects on our lives.

Finally, one turns to be greeted with the final sequence: you rise violently through the belly of the city to the viewing deck. Unframed and at eye level to the city, skirting the atrium’s oculus, the view is now at the scale of the city, unabashed. One is left to draw their own conclusions, document what they have seen, and return to the city with fresh eyes.

Demur/e is a new typology of building which grows out of dissatisfaction with convention: it is a place in the structured city to directly question the systems surround in an architectural, sociological, and humanistic context. For the betterment of the future of cities, the decentralization of opinion in the city is a must.