The Data Cloud

05/ 2020 instructor: Cern
        The Nivola Museum functions simultaneously as an icon for the Orani municipality but also as an entity separated from its ecological and civic context. The addition of temporary residences to the existing complex thereby presents an opportunity to disassemble this dilemma, proving that the museum can proactively and adroitly engage both environments. Our intervention aims to:

1. Preserve the surrounding ecology by prudently situating the residences within an olive orchard;
2. Project a worthy civic icon, representative of Constantino Nivola’s signature sand-casting technique;
3. Promote cultural heritage by utilizing a design that supports the local masonry economy. 

Our aesthetic became enamored with rammed earth as the primary mode for achieving conservation ecology, in which our residences are erected using predominantly earth removed by on-site excavation. The residences bridge Nivola’s artistic legacy given the conspicuous assembly and aesthetic similarities of rammed earth to sand-casting; furthermore, the sculpted towering profiles of the residences aptly rise above the surrounding tree canopy formalizing an iconic vista for native Oranians living across the valley, all the while nimbly weaving between the tight arboreal constraints of the grove. The idiosyncratic arrangement and craft of the residences lends individual character to form, fostering opportunities for guests to experience many welcome surprises in their stay at the Nivola Museum.

This proposal is created in memory of distinguished architectural historian, critic, and educator, Richard Ingersoll, who challenged and inspired a generation of architectural thinkers to expand their conception of the architectural discipline beyond the singular building and toward broader sociological issues.

exisiting infrastructure on site

steaming effect as a concept for the data center