This is a project I was making for design studio Florian at Faculty of Architecture, Czech Technical University in Prague in summer semester 2013.
IDEA
The “Qubix GRID” is located in Plzeň, next to the city center at Sady Pětatřicátníků. The site mentioned could also easily be looked upon as a place best suited for creating a healthy public space. Since the city of Plzeň struggles to become a place that people visit for culture.
By creating something very dynamic and original, the old city center gets a fresh public space just next to it without interfering with the historical content. The potential of the city center is also partly crippled by being quite dangerous even in daylight because of the threat homeless and street people mean to others.
This dynamic square is useful for nearly anything and does attract a lot of visitors throughout the year, so it is expectable for the bad behaving people to either be changed by the crowd around them or move elsewhere, which would be less fortunate. A big contemporary problem of Sady Pětatřicátníků is the intensive traffic. However, that is a subject to change in the future with the introduction of a traffic ring around the city.
By creating something very dynamic and original, the old city center gets a fresh public space just next to it without interfering with the historical content. The potential of the city center is also partly crippled by being quite dangerous even in daylight because of the threat homeless and street people mean to others.
This dynamic square is useful for nearly anything and does attract a lot of visitors throughout the year, so it is expectable for the bad behaving people to either be changed by the crowd around them or move elsewhere, which would be less fortunate. A big contemporary problem of Sady Pětatřicátníků is the intensive traffic. However, that is a subject to change in the future with the introduction of a traffic ring around the city.
CONCEPT
This project‘s construction is merely hypothetical and would require further investigation and possible alternation of some key dimensions, hydraulic technology and materials used.
The square‘s total size is 43.2 by 36.5 meters. It is divided into 3 parts. The first and the third part consist of 96 x 38 blocks which makes them 43.2 x 17.1 meters large. Both of these parts are assembled of 45 x 45 centimeters large blocks that are glassed on the sides. Each block moves along the Z axis to the maximum elevation of 2.1 meters above the surrounding terrain.
The third part serves as a communication corridor. It is 2.7 meters high and can form itself into stairs or a lift but still is capable to be elevated 2.1 meters above the surrounding terrain. The halls underneath the surface are floored with 135 x 180 centimeters large blocks each on it‘s own hydraulic cylinder. These spaces can be used as a restaurant, cafe, showroom, exhibition space, cinema, theater or dance club. All these usage scenarios are interchangeable between each other throughout the day. Cafe in the morning, art exhibition at noon, cinema in the evening and dance club at night.
The square‘s total size is 43.2 by 36.5 meters. It is divided into 3 parts. The first and the third part consist of 96 x 38 blocks which makes them 43.2 x 17.1 meters large. Both of these parts are assembled of 45 x 45 centimeters large blocks that are glassed on the sides. Each block moves along the Z axis to the maximum elevation of 2.1 meters above the surrounding terrain.
The third part serves as a communication corridor. It is 2.7 meters high and can form itself into stairs or a lift but still is capable to be elevated 2.1 meters above the surrounding terrain. The halls underneath the surface are floored with 135 x 180 centimeters large blocks each on it‘s own hydraulic cylinder. These spaces can be used as a restaurant, cafe, showroom, exhibition space, cinema, theater or dance club. All these usage scenarios are interchangeable between each other throughout the day. Cafe in the morning, art exhibition at noon, cinema in the evening and dance club at night.
HYDRAULICS
Hydraulics system consists of a metal grid which supports 360 hydraulic cylinders. Each holds 5 blocks. The block in the middle is attached directly to the cylinder and the remaining four are connected to it via rails with cables that can be pulled to elevate them.
