Archinect
Thomas Haller

Thomas Haller

Minneapolis, MN, US

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Nexus Concept Montage
Nexus Concept Montage
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Nexus_Cyclical Urban Research Center

The Sandnes Project consists of many opposing ideas coming together to create multiplicity and dynamic environments in the public realm of the city. To connect these parts, to create a homogeneous urban dwelling, we implemented an idea of a city blanket with stitches. The blanket is the layer of public connection that happens throughout the city, laying and folding in many directions, vertically and horizontally, to establish pedestrian, vehicular, and visual continuity in the total master plan. This layer can follow along public ramps or grand stair cases; it can be the main commercial avenue where it bleeds into transparent storefronts; it also manifests itself on the top of building rooftops or island features. In the Nexus the blanket happens 6 m above the lower service level -- stretching from the island to the rail line in the back of the section -- supporting the commercial level, with the avenue and the main courtyard of the interior space. It also exists at 12 m, where it sits over the light rail and creates the floor plane of the research facilities. Also it covers the whole building section, creating a secondary ground plane over the entire building which connects to neighboring structures. The stitches are the secondary supplements to this layer, taking service systems through the section, to other levels of the blanket and all the spaces consumed or resting in the blanket -- as in the Nexus they are the five towers spaced throughout the section. With these two concepts, the city life is not constrained by physical barriers of elements, such as walls, rail lines, building masses, and separated corridors -- one can travel more freely creatively and in turn social barriers will have less physical distinction.

 
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Status: Competition Entry
Location: Sandnes, NO
My Role: Architectural Urban Designer
Additional Credits: The subSystem 13 Studio: Kansas State University / CAPD 2010

 
Urban Context / Urban Map / Site Map
Urban Context / Urban Map / Site Map
Building Longitudinal Section / Concept Explanation
Building Longitudinal Section / Concept Explanation
Site Context / Site Plan / Infrastructural Diagrams
Site Context / Site Plan / Infrastructural Diagrams
Public Realm / Site Plan / Programmatic Diagrams
Public Realm / Site Plan / Programmatic Diagrams
Semi-Public Interior / Research Center Plan / Enclosure Diagrams
Semi-Public Interior / Research Center Plan / Enclosure Diagrams
Building Cross Section / Concept Diagram
Building Cross Section / Concept Diagram
Interior as the Microcosm of Urban Context
Interior as the Microcosm of Urban Context
Thesis Board Display
Thesis Board Display