During the 2010 Spring academic holiday, I was invited to travel to Copenhagen, Denmark for a week-long externship at the head offices of Julien De Smedt Architects (JDS). JDS is a multi-disciplinary office known for its research-intensive approach into both theoretical and practical forces that drive design. The experience, though brief, allowed me to be fully immersed in the design praxis of the firm. I was assigned to a competition project for an addition to a sports and athletic training center outside Zurich. The project was in its earliest predesign conceptual phas, which allowed me to participate and learn from JDS’s formalism-rooted-in-reality methodology. The following images are my own design proposals for the project, which were based on practical consideration of landscape integration, efficient programming, and climatic concerns, as well as the desire for compelling formal unity.
MATTHEW MARANO 