Constructing the Gestalt - Maryhill Loops Road

Undergraduate Thesis - Virginia Tech (2016)

Advisor: Aki Ishida

This intervention at Maryhill Loops Road plays out across three areas. Each area attempts to simultaneously create a sense of place at Maryhill Loops Road as well as each area. The primary challenge is found in the formulation of a framework through which one can construct a sense of place. There are a few moments where one can see the other areas but the whole is constructed as the inhabitants move between each area. Through moves operating at the scale of the site, building and element, the architecture makes latent opportunities for the inhabitant to create links between scales. This collection of links is the composition creating this sense of place or implicit whole.

The site complements these objectives of the architecture in its physical scale and subtle richness. The physical space stretches the concept of ‘linkages’ Maki presents, and the interplay between the roads and topography introduce a ‘green tunnel’ effect. This effect is when the inhabitant cannot see the other areas while moving between them, resulting in a more pronounced reveal of area site upon arrival. The architecture acknowledges this reality at each area through a shared vocabulary and suggestion of the ‘ideal’, reducing its dependence on explicit visual connections and instead relying on cognitive links to construct the sense of place.

This intervention is the culmination of ideas and hypotheses formulated from a series of studies during early stages of the thesis.