ARCH 544: Rethinking Metropolis - Institution - Spring 2018
Professor: Tom Brock

Student Team: Sanghyo Kim, Huazhong Wang, Yuchen Tong
Project Title: Casual Monument Community Center

Project Description: “The people want the buildings that represent their social and community life to give more than functional fulfillment. They want their aspiration for monumentality, joy, pride and excitement to be satisfied.” So wrote Sert, Leger, and Giedion in their 1943 text ‘Nine Points on Monumentality’. 

Yet in addition to that, we want a building that is approachable, relatable, and without being overbearing or rigidly formal. Balancing out these needs is what lead us to the idea of the Casual Monument. Containing spaces for galleries and cultural events, dining, health and fitness classes, and relaxation & socialization, the Casual Monument Community Center fulfills the cultural needs of the community while also creating an iconic and poetic space. 

However, the center is not simply inward looking. The uninterrupted spiral of the glass facade allows visitors of the center to look out to appreciate the city around them, to foster pride in the community and city alike. 

Likewise, as ‘Nine Points’ describes the lack of frontiers between architecture and town planning, the terraced gardens surrounding the building tempt visitors to leave the shelter of the indoors and lead back out into the urban environment.