This project, sited at Mill River, New Haven, Connecticut, is about the void, the gap, the space in between.
At the site, I found this moment where the stream carved into the land moving and powerful. I hope to build something that celebrates the void sculpted by the nature. The tall, heavy, thick, masonry walls dwarf the ceiling, amplifying the sense of compression, forming the parallel between the pass-way for water and the pass-way for people.
To emphasize the gaps and the walls, I minimize the presence of ceilings. When we approach the buildings from the entry point here, we can’t see the walls or the buildings, we see the ground sculpted by heavy masonry. When we get closer, the walls completely occlude the ceiling and we find ourselves meandering in a space alternating between opaqueness and transparency, solid and void, compression and release. With our back against the mountain, we face the water, parallel with the stream, hugged by the stone.
