Adam Wells Parti

The first precedent that I choose was APM by BIG architecture. BIG was commissioned to build a pavilion for the art and science of watch making, for their client Audemars Piguet. The parti for this pavilion combined the context of their client with the necessary program required for the building. The main idea of the project was the linking of program into one continuous processional space. This processional space began to organize both program and context simultaneously into one.

My proposed design for the San Antonio site references this precedent in an attempt to blend the context of the site with the program into a linked processional experience of the community members. The central element of my parti is the large open space that begins to organize the program. In my precedent, BIG uses the central element as a way to wrap the program around itself and create an encompassing experience in one space. Because of the large site and the intent to link two communities, my design uses the central element as an organizational tool that serves as public space. From this central public space, the program begins to radiate from it and create an organization on the site.

The form of BIG’s pavilion references their client, Audemars Piguet, a Swiss watch company. The central element in my design attempts to reference the figural form of the San Antonio River. The river currently divides the two communities. As a way to bridge the gap, the figural form that organizes the space in my parti is oriented to be viewed as an offshoot of the river itself. This created offshoot allows the members of the community to see the river as a way of joining both of the neighborhoods together rather than seeing it as a gap that divides them.