Analytical Study Drawing of our Site
Content and Container Studio
Instructor | Emanuel Admasu
RISD Fall 2015
The Modern Ritual
Nadine Zaza and Celeste Martinez
Nadine Zaza and Celeste Martinez
CONTAINER
Cathedral Square | Providence, RI
Our project is based on defining a Modern Ritual as the ritualistic obsessions of modifying the . body. A shift from the former religious rituals that pertain to the site.
we’ve titled it “All Saints Retreat and Spa”. Our site which was Cathedral Square in Providence RI. The church in relation to the site is similar to how its shadow cast within the square, in that it has a dominant presence but is not fully activating and populating the public space.
Moving forward we also wanted to show the relationship the site had to the downtown by looking out from the site and looking in from the city. The disconnect that the site has along Westminster is evident through the lack of visual context into Cathedral Square in comparison to downtown Providence.
In tracking the procession of how one would experience the city along Westminster which is one of the main axis into the site it was evident that the public appeal to Westminster, which does not reflect Cathedral square, relies heavily on its commercial appeal along the street front. So, in reading the site we wanted to enhance the potential porosity of the public spaces through the extrusion of the apertures of the surrounding buildings. Each floor is read as having more capability to view into the site which puts potential users in a position to be on display as they move throughout Cathedral Square. We also noted the current uses of the site which were of a predictable ritual in the private realm of the church and also in it’s unpredictable uses in the more public seating area.
We wanted our intervention to be a continuation of Westminster so that Cathedral Square could become more integrated into the logic of the downtown pedestrian appeal.
This caused us to look out into the city to better understand the ritualist spaces that exist throughout Providence not only in Catholicism but in all religious beliefs. The lack of concentration of any one of these types of ritualist spaces as well as the dates in which they were built, for example all of the downtown religious spaces were built between 1810-1832, caused us to look upon other more modern rituals as a means to engage with the public on our site.Since we could no longer rely on the members of The Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul’s to bridge a connection amongst the other religious spaces throughout the city and the current understanding of public interests. From the mapping, we saw the increase of spaces in close proximity to the site which relied on acts of physical improvements that were performed on the body through methods of surgery, spas, salons and exercise facilities.
Of these programs the majority of which rely heavily on altering the self image. A great contradiction of the doctrine of the church which states the body is a god given temple that shouldn’t be altered as it is unnatural and immoral. This caused us to expand our definition of ritual to no longer be through the spiritual realm but one that is solely focused on physical improvement through means of a body based ritual.
CONTENT
Analysing 3 Case Studies
DUTCH PARLIAMENT
In our intervention we have allowed for the main circulation path to be integrated into how a user would access all programmatic elements throughout the project
AZADI TOWER
allowed our program to not only respond to the existing conditions of the ground and create circulation that allows a clearer reading of program as one moves through the spaces, but also for the personal expression and modification of the body to push into the shared public space of Cathedral Square and with that the contrasting views of what can and cannot be performed on the body.
POMPIDOU
Iwe have addressed this disconnect through our integration of the experience of the user from public to private and programmed spaces in a way that it is not against a building made of separate components but instead allows all of these elements to be incorporated into the path
Through our project we are catering to the existing urban condition of Westminster as being a main means of entry into Cathedral Square As well as a possessing modern day elements of ritualistic obsessions with modifying the body. These conditions are concentrated in the programs along the circulation of our intervention. The programs that we are proposing forces the user’s body to not only be on display but have the user constantly cognitive of these rituals and the potential to act on them.
In our understanding of the Modern day ritual we’ve looked at the ability of how religion is now portrayed in contemporary media.
The overall plan of our intervention. Which includes: Bazaar, locker room and sauna, pool, gym and cosmetic surgery facilities, public gathering space and waiting room for the cosmetic facility in Cathedral Square, A regular pool and lap pools, gym and studio spaces, turkish baths, consultation rooms, two main surgical rooms, and outpatient rooms
