Another semester goes by. I’m entering the final semester of the master’s program, the thesis semester. Last semester was different to what I expected. It was not a design semester but rather we researched and prepared for out thesis preparation. The last month of the semester, January, we spent time writing our program booklet. It is very open on how you handle this booklet and approach your program. I decided to include a lot of information of the research that led me to choose my project.
Last semester I started by analyzing the fort typology and by researching into the current use of the Fort Ricasoli (my site). As I mentioned on previous posts it’s being used for filming movies, particularly ones who deal with ancient cities and civilizations. Fort Ricasoli has been the site for movies such as Gladiator, Troy and Agora. Malta, is a very prominent place for movie filming due to its geographical location, its history and the ability to resemble to a variety of place, including modern Mediterranean cities such as Tel Aviv and Nicosia. This is evident in the film Munich by Steven Spielberg.
Further exploring into movie and set producing I started to research and get interested in pre-cinematic forms of entertainment, such as the panorama and diorama buildings. I found a very rich ground that allowed me to explore possibilities of how to introduce public space into Fort Ricasoli.
This is what my thesis will be in breaking into the private and defensive perimeter walls of Fort Ricasoli and propose that expanded filming facilities become some sort of place for entertainment and recreation. To engage the process of filmmaking into the cultural scene of Valletta and Malta.

Given the circular nature of the panorama building, I’m exploring some building types that have been designed with such dominant geometry. I’m currently looking at Guarino Guarini, Italian baroque architect which had some impressive understanding of the this shape and evolving it into producing and generating other geometries.
Here are some excerpts of my research and analysis and my first design approach.


panorama building analysis


praxinoscope analysis


set of Gladiator



watercolor of proposal after study of Guarino Guarini's plan of St. Filippo Neri

Antonio

I was not allowed to photograph on the site, due to restrictions by some of restrictions of the company leasing the grounds of Fort Ricasoli. It was a nice challenge because this forced me to draw more and I even dared to explore again my roots and watercolor a little bit. One of the nights in... View full entry

I'm writing from Malta. We are on the final week of our 2 week field trip to Valletta. Similar to last year in Sarajevo our aim in this trip is to pursue our interest(building program) and to find a site where we would like to spend the next semester researching and preparing material for our... View full entry

I’m back into blogging mode. I stop writing last semester and I didn’t get a chance to even wrap up the first year of my Master’s. As I mentioned on my previous postings we focused last year on projects in Sarajevo. The first term the goal was to develop an architectural... View full entry

Some weeks ago we finished an 8 day workshop with CITA, Center for Information Technology and Architecture. It’s one of the four Institutes at the Kunstakademiets Arkitektskole. Their research and execution focuses on the intersection of architecture and digital technologies. The theme of... View full entry

The COP15 started last week in Copenhagen. The city is packed of people from all over the world and there is a very tense environment in the city. There are a lot of police officers patrolling the city at all times. There was a big demonstration on Saturday around the city. Here is an image of the... View full entry

We are well in our way on our projects in Sarajevo. It’s been a while since the last time I posted on the blog, but I still want to share a bit more on our Sarajevo trip. We had our first pin-up on the second week in Sarajevo to discuss mainly our sites, our analysis and ideas on the... View full entry

Ars Aevi In 1992 during the siege of Sarajevo, a group of Intellectuals started an initiave to create a cultural project of worldwide artistic cooperation. The idea developed to create The Museum of Contemporary Art in Sarajevo. Artist from all over the world and other museums organized a yearly... View full entry

This year’s 2-week trip for department 2 occurred in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina (1 of 6 federal units in former Yugoslavia). The study trip involves students from every year at the Department 2. Each year class had different assignments and methods of approaching and analyzing the city... View full entry

Welcome to the Kunstakademiets Arkitektskole blog. I’m enrolled in the new 2 year English Master Program at Department 2; Architecture, Town and Building. We are 22 students from a variety of backgrounds that will be launching this program. The group is composed of 11 local students (that... View full entry