"At times the mirror increases a thing’s value, at times denies it. Not everything that seems valuable above the mirror maintains its force when mirrored. The twin cities are not equal, because nothing that exists or happens in Valdrada is symmetrical: every face and gesture is answered, from the mirror, by a face and gesture inverted, point by point. The two Valdradas live for each other, their eyes interlocked, but there is no love between them."
- from Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino
In Calvino’s Valdrada the inhabitants are inextricably interlinked with their images. In-between the real and the reflected, something dynamic happens.
The collaged box applies the concept of the in-between space to the idea of travel. When we travel we set up a dichotomy of experience. We carry with us our familiar daily lives and are confronted with the unfamiliar experience of the place we have traveled to. In order to mediate the dissonance between these two realities, we construct a third, virtual reality. When we travel we actually travel in-between. We can never be fully a part of the unfamiliar and we can never fully let go of what we have come from, so we create in our minds a space where both of these conditions can coexist.
What happens though when constant confrontation with the unfamiliar becomes the familiar? In Barcelona the site is already packed with sensory stimulation and a mix of foreign cultures. We are increasingly having to address the unfamiliar on a second by second basis. With this sort of overload, how are we to experience the physical world? How can we construct an in-between space of contemplation and difference when there is no point of contrast to a world of constant unrelenting contrasts?
This project creates a point of contrast to an overloaded world. The series of spaces serves as a “sensory rehabilitation center” which attunes the mind to some of Barcelona’s more subtle sensory experiences. By creating this point of contrast it becomes possible again for people to construct an in-between space where they can consider reality.
To access the site most people would come from bustling Las Ramblas, through the mingling smells and sights of the Mercat St. Joseph, onto the plaza. The site strategy is to still allow the plaza to be an active, open space where things happen and people move through. The building, being in a sense about sensory reduction, defers to the plaza, moving to the side and mostly underground. The roof of the building becomes a secondary plaza, one which moves at much slower pace, as it’s not tied to main circulation systems.
Entrances and exits to the sensorium are designed to make the transition from the outside world a gradual one. Sloping planes and columnar forms mediate the spaces. The pedestrian would enter into the building on the ground floor into a room paved with the same tiles as the plaza. As the person moves deeper into the space these tiles begin to shift in height, causing awareness of them. The person then passes through a steam room which negates and cleanses the sensory experience of the outside. From here they procede through a sequence of rooms in the building which alternately highlight a specific sense.
There is a room which mimics a starry night, something which is present always in Barcelona but never seen because of the city light. There is a room where the sound of people walking on the plaza above reverberates through the ceiling. Eventually the person emerges from these spaces and begins to walk a long slope up to the plaza.
While the transitions from the plaza to the interior of the building are gradual, the transitions between spaces in the building are more about contrast. Contrast heightens the awareness of the sensorial experience particular to any one space.
