Cadwallader | 2020
Understanding that the program of my building will need to incorporate an orchard, from which to source the apples, in addition to the brewing facility - my precedent visit was two part. Threadbare Cider, is a tasting bar and brewing center in Pittsburgh’s North Side neighborhood, but they source their apples from Soergel Orchards which is about 3 miles away. I paid a visit to the orchard to inspect the scale of their spaces and the additional processes that the apples go through before arriving to the brewery. I was startled by the fact that my building’s circulation emulates a fruit elevator; a machine that acts as a conveyor between different steps in the apple processing line. In a macro scale I'd like to place the consumption spaces, through the building along the journey of the cider brewing process. Throughout the roof’s orchard I’ve submerged scalable retreat spaces which have the potential to embrace either one of two emotional characteristics: the playful open social space that interacts with the interior of the cider house; or the closed, internally reflected, contemplation space that is attentive wholly to its occupant rather than other spaces and patrons. Both functions can easily be employed by the occupant to create their desired environment; this agency, on the part of the occupant upon their own experience in the space, is meant to elicit a feeling of empowerment. My analysis of the site inspired these secondary program spaces; I found that the site has a transient population composed of people whose institution’s make them at risk for heightened levels of stress (hospital and university). My design aspires to introduce a public space for the people who spend their time around Brigham Circle, that allows them to temporarily escape to a calming environment without having to leave Mission Hill. Each datum of occupiable space inside and outside of my building is defined by the visible connections that are provided to the spatial condition by the tectonics of layering and fanning.
