BERTH

Berth uses principles of design for creating masks to create an architectural language of masking, perocity and spatial hierarchy. First, the ideas of offset, perocity and division were extracted through studies of hockey masks in order to create a language for the design of the three biggest components of the program, the theaters. From there, the silohuette of the old trade ships that used to sail the waterfront of the Delaware River, in conjuction with the idea of offsetting, were used to create unique volumes to house the stringent structure of the theaters.

Berth is a multi-purpose building complex dedicated to housing theaters, convention rooms, offices, classrooms, as well as retail spaces and groceries as well. This large program is meant to inject an area of Philadelphia, Northern Liberties, with a building that will help promote “carnival” and community gathering. This idea of “carnival” is the driving force of the project, and aims to create an architectural intervention in this young, growing area of Philadelphia to promote opportunities for peaceful protest.

As the rest of the program was arranged around the theaters that protrude and push from the normative boundary of the required program, seams begin to open up to not only further articulate areas of varying program, but to also allow for light to penetrate the into the interior of the large building.

A perocity, in the form of spheres, was applied to the masses to serve to not only tie the theaters and the program together, but to also provide functional objects that vary and scale, use, and definition throughout the space.

The evolution of the models, starting with the one below, and ending with the one below that, illustrate the way in which main program, the theater spaces, and the rest of the program were methodically integrated. The theaters were first situated within the larger context of the rest of the program, but then the same principles that were applied to the masked theaters began to infest and integrate with the larger contextual mass of the building. This perocity then began to take on different scales, manifested by volumes that served both the purpose of void and mass, adding to the layered and integrated nature of the program. Furthermore, to allow for further articulation of the major theater spaces within the larger context of the building’s program, seams were grown from a rule based on the natural geometry of the volume. These seams allowed for aperture, ventilation, and unique spaces that exist within the mass of the major program while still existing as a negative space.