This is a project for the Postgraduate Training Center for Applied Meteorology (PTCAM) in Israel, by architect Gregory Kogan.
The organization provides educational programs for meteorologists from around the world. The building is planned to provide scientists with accommodation and studying in various formats.
The building is located in a remote residential area of Jerusalem, in close proximity to a new tram line currently under construction. The tram line will bring passenger traffic to a quiet area of the city. Therefore, in addition to the functional and logistical challenges, the aim was to give the building a memorable and vibrant look. While working at this project, I relied on the idea of the unity of opposites, the synthetic kinship of contradictory elements – fire and water, sky and earth, body and soul, and so on. Opposites need each other, and their tension is the soil of harmony and unity. Being attracted by the ability to secretly transfer matters from one place to another I used metal downpipes as an architectural element expressing this mysterious dependency. Pipes are not covered by concrete, on the contrary, they are given the key decorative role on the facades facing the tram line. To highlight the facades I used strong color contrasts and opposing textures against one other.
I started the design process with the main section plan in which I contrasted the residential part of the building divided by regular crossbars, with the emptiness of the educational part reaching the roof. I based the floor plan on two non-parallel lines whose gravity, leading to inevitable intersection, seemed cosmic in scale. During the design process, I was looking for solutions to express the main idea of the project at all levels, from the site plan to the details. The project became a real creative laboratory for me, a space for both creative research and instrument tweaking.
How has VisualARQ contributed to the project development?
My main drafting and modeling tool was VisualARQ. In my opinion, this is a very balanced and flexible tool that makes life significantly easier by automatization of a routine work, still providing the level of control I need over the final result. It’s very important that I always have a choice when to turn to 3D and when to 2D. The longer I use VisualARQ, the stronger the feeling that it is a unique craft product, finely tailored to the individual needs of its users.
Author: Gregory Kogan (Pinterest)
