asacred
integrating the secular into St. John the Divine, in sympathy
An architectural apparition completes the unfinished transept and elaborates upon the rest of the crossing of St. John the Divine. To complete the crossing, a language of soft bays with a strong emphasis on formal expression makes up a newly formed structural skeleton reminiscent of the traditional cathedral with its ornament stripped. This uncanny mirror image then reflects to it, the ways in which it extends itself and bends its integrity to a new, secular world in the form of disparate program elements such as a velodrome, conservation lab, and amphitheater to cement the inclusive events (blessing of the bikes, animals, and secular concerts respectively) into a set of fixed program. This architecture revitalizes the site it situates itself in and carefully extracts then elaborates upon the already existing ephemeral program.
Click to see full thesis: https://indd.adobe.com/view/1629b4d0-4e68-4d66-a567-4ffaeae8d749
Click to see research: liquid memories
phase 01 : liquid memories
These conceptual relics extract and subvert expectations of tension and compression through a method of framing, casting, and pressurizing. This produced bespoke relics whose surfaces appear soft and flesh-like though they are made out of hard materials and a negative for asymmetrical vaulting
phase 02 : site
The cathedral was a place for interconnectivity and a space to contemplate what is larger than oneself. However, keeping in mind that America’s earliest settlers came to America precisely to escape this chokehold that religion had on Europe, how should we make sense of the role of a cathedral of this scale in America's most modern cosmopolitan city?
As a reaction to the questioning of the validity of its existence, it is the church’s intention to be one that shares its space and integrates with the secular world to achieve this wholeness/interconnectivity. We are concerned with the ways in which this existential crisis manifests in the physical world.
Integrating the sacred and secular. Coming to terms with how they coexist.
Strange things occur in this place. Blessing of the animals and bikes. These programmatic events are indicators of the cathedral’s need to integrate with the secular world. This and secular concerts. It needs to do this because it can feel that apart from being the largest cathedral in the world and a prominent tourist destination, it is in danger of becoming a defunct space. Introducing a theater, velodrome, and conservation lab, programs that address the integrative programmatic events, expand upon the cathedral’s already existing efforts
phase 03 : design
Cathedrals are described as having “anthropomorphic qualities.” especially in the architectural language that describes their components: groins, ribbings, and cells are common terms suggesting the connection between the superstructure of the church and the human body
The apparition aims to revitalize the cathedral. The conservation lab offers a museum for people to visit, the velodrome is a spectacle of itself, and within the crypt, an amphitheater is put in place to provide a home for secular concerts. These are programs that expand upon the cathedral’s already existing efforts with a more secular focus but then show it the ways in which it extends and bends its integrity to a new world, through the asymmetry of its distorted structure and the odd absurdity of these secular programs integrated with each other and the sacred program of the original cathedral.
