The Grotto Station

THE GROTTO IS AN ADAPTIVE SHELL ABSTRACTED BY THE CONCEPTS OF AERODYNAMICS AND THE DEFORMATIVE PROCESSES OF EROSION AND WEATHERING. USING SITE CONDITIONS, SUCH AS THE HIGHWAY, BRIDGE AND HYPERLOOP, WERE DEPLOYED AS MAJOR WIND VECTORS TO GATHER A BASE FORM. THE DYNAMIC SKINS AND PANELS CAPTURE THE WIND PHYSICALLY AND BY CHARACTER, TRANSFORMING ITS EXPERIENCE FROM AN AMBIENT FORCE INTO AN ORGANIZATIONAL AND CIRCULATORY SYSTEM. THE OBSERVER NOW ACTS AS THE WIND ITSELF, SWEEPING ACROSS THIS CONCEPTUAL HUB.

TREATING THE HUB AS A CONCEPTUAL GROTTO, HIGHER DENSITY SPACES WERE AFFORDED MORE ROBUST EROSIONS TO INFLATE THE SPACE WHILE MORE PRIVATIZED OR TRANSITIONAL SPACES WERE TAPERED TO FORM ELONGATED NOOKS. THE INTENT IS TO ALLOW FOR A SEEMINGLY SEAMLESS TRANSITION THROUGH THE STATION, SLOPING UP AND DOWN THROUGH A PROGRAMMED, WINDSWEPT CAVERN. THE LANDSCAPE IS ALLOWED INTO THE SPACE TO FURTHER EXEMPLIFY THE IDEA THAT IT IS EMERGING OUT OF THE GROUND. THERE WERE 6 ITERATIONS BEFORE ARRIVING AT THE FINAL OUTCOME. SEVERAL STUDIES WERE FOCUSED ON CREATING THE BASE SHELL AND UNDERSTANDING HOW TO MANIPULATE THE MESH UNDER THE CONSTRAINTS OF THE KEY CONCEPT AND THE SITE CONDITIONS. ARMATURE STUDIES ALSO MADE UP THE BULK OF THE STUDIES, INVESTIGATING MULTI SCALE ELEMENTS AS WELL AS INDEPENDENT VS DEPENDENT RELATIONSHIPS. PHYSICAL AND DIGITAL SKETCHES WERE DEPLOYED FOR DISCOVERY THROUGHOUT THE DESIGN PROCESS WHILE DIGITAL MODELS AND DIGITAL STUDIES WERE DEPLOYED FOR CLOSER INVESTIGATIONS OF RELATIONSHIPS AMONG ELEMENTS AND INDEPENDENTLY. VIRTUAL AUGMENTATION/REALITY WAS UTILIZED AS A MEANS FOR EARLY PARTI WORK.  THE PROGRAMMES WERE CONDENSED INTO THE FINAL BY SLIPPING THEM INTO THEIR AFFORDED NOOKS. MUCH THE CAVERN DWELLING CREATURES, HABITABLE SPACE WERE STUCK TO THE WALLS OF THE STRUCTURE. VOLUMES ARE DEPENDENT ON THE PROGRAMMES DENSITY OF USE. SINGLE DAY (& NIGHT) HOUSING PODS ARE MORE PRIVATE AND THEREFORE TUCKED INTO THE LOWER ENTRY LEVEL POCKETS. MORE PUBLIC; COMMERCIAL AND TRANSPORTATION PROGRAMMES ARE AWARDED THE LARGER VOLUMES TO INSIST ON PUBLIC USE AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR GATHERING.MATERIALS WERE CHOSEN BY THE INTENT OF PRESENTING THE FINAL FORM CLEARLY. OPAQUE, TRANSLUCENT AND TRANSPARENT CHARACTERISTICS WERE SET AS BASE GUIDELINES, THEN GOING ON TO TAKE AN INDUSTRIALIZED MATERIALITY, SUCH AS IRON, SYNTHETICS (PLASTIC) AND GLASS. GIVEN IT’S FORM WAS TAKEN FROM ADAPTING THE STATIONS ARMATURES, THE HYPERLOOP PODS HIGHLIGHT THE STATION AS A TYPOLOGY FOR AERODYNAMIC STRUCTURES. AND CREATE A BRAND FOR THE STATION. THE PODS MATERIALITY FOLLOWS SUIT WITH THE STATION, AND RETHINKS TRAVEL ACCOMMODATIONS. METAL DESIGNATES PERMANENCE, SUCH AS THE ARMATURES; SYNTHETICS DESIGNATE ADAPTABILITY, AND WERE EMPLOYED FOR SKINS; GLASS DESIGNATES CURIOSITY, AND WAS DEPLOYED FOR PUBLIC USE PROGRAMMING. VARIATIONS IN FROST,  TEXTURE AND SCALE FURTHER DESIGNATE THE TYPE OF PUBLIC PROGRAMMING, WHETHER ITS AN OPEN USE OR SEMI PRIVATE MODULE. VARIATIONS IN PANEL TRANSLUCENCIES  INFORM THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN KINETIC AND STATIC PURPOSE. SPECULATIVE SUSTAINABILITY TECHNOLOGY WAS EXPRESSED THROUGH TRANSLUCENT, SYNTHETIC PANELS THAT WOULD MOVE WITH THE WIND MUCH LIKE RIBBONS, COLLECTING ENERGY THROUGH THE VIBRATIONS AND OSCILLATIONS SIMILAR TO THE WINDBELTS. THE OVERALL SHELLS PANELIZATION ALLOWS FOR MORE CONTROLLED MOVEMENTS AND THEREFORE ARE LESS DYNAMIC IN COLOR AND OPACITY. DIVIDE AND CONQUER WAS THE BASIS OF ALL WORK ON THE PROJECT. PRELIMINARY DESIGN WORK WAS DONE INDEPENDENTLY THEN COMPARED WHILE TAIL END OBJECTIVES CLOSER TO SUBMISSION WERE PROGRESSIVELY  DONE TOGETHER MORE FREQUENTLY. AT ITS CORE THE MAIN STRATEGY WAS DO AS MUCH AS YOU CAN AND THEN TALK IT OUT. THE GROTTO’S EXPANSION PLAN IS INTENDED AS A MODULARIZED SYSTEM OF ARMATURES, ADAPTING TO THE NECESSITY OF ITS SECTION. A MORE RIGOROUS INFRASTRUCTURE FOR THE HYPERLOOP TO LINK LOCAL HOT SPOTS WOULD TRANSFORM THE STATION FROM A TRANSIENT STOP TO A LOCAL HUB FOR SOCIAL, COMMERCIAL AND TRANSPORTATIONAL USE. IT BECOMES A CROSS ROADS FREE OF FRICTION, HIGHLIGHTING ITS SEAMLESS TRANSITIONS WITHIN AND WITHOUT. UNNATURALLY NATURAL, THE GROTTO’S INTENT IS TO EMPHASIZE THE NOTION THAT IT HAS ALWAYS  BELONGED ON ITS SITE, SITTING UNDERGROUND, REVEALED MORE AND MORE WITH EVERY GUST OF WIND UNTIL ITS RECENT DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION. 

AS TIME GOES ON, THE GROTTO WOULD TRANSFORM INTO A LINEAR CITY WITH MAJOR NODES DESIGNATING STATIONS WHILE THE ORIGINAL STRUCTURAL MODULES ARE ADAPTED TO BECOME TRANSIENT/TRANSITIONAL SHELLS BETWEEN STATIONS. FREE OF VEHICLES, SECONDARY HYPERLOOP RAILS CAN BE ADDED FOR SHORTER RUNS IN BETWEEN STATIONS, AS WELL AS LOCAL INTERESTS. THROUGH THE DESIGN METHODOLOGY, THE GROTTO ADAPTS TO ITS VARIOUS SITES BETWEEN PUNE AND MUMBAI.