UB Cultural Campus - Madrid
Frank Kraemer and Jelani Lowe drew from their experiences while studying abroad in Madrid, Spain. They were immediately drawn to the physical barriers that separate the public and private domains in Madrid. They investigated this duality by layering transparent planes, exploring how to use transparency as a link between public and private aspects of program, while simultaneously providing necessary privacy.
Gallery
Students
Frank Kraemer
Jelani Lowe
Faculty
Term
ARC 406 LAB, Summer 2018
Program
Study Abroad – Madrid
Kraemer and Lowe were very interested in blurring the boundaries of where the architecture ends, and the city begins. The team explored the creation of space, circulation, visual permeability, and enclosure through the same language of duality and transparency.
The overarching concept of the project was dealing with the intermingling of these two conditions through a process of concealing and revealing. The project utilizes the layering of transparencies to create a type of opacity that blurs the lines between public and private.
We were very interested in the concept of blurring the boundaries of where the Architecture ends and the city begins.
– Frank Kraemer and Jelani Lowe, MArch
The overarching concept of the project was dealing with the intermingling of these two conditions through a process of concealing and revealing. The project utilizes the layering of transparencies to create a type of opacity that blurs the lines between public and private.
Kraemer, coming from a multicultural background, has an innate sensitivity to how the built environment shapes and represents a culture. He is fascinated by architecture’s influence over both the individual and the collective public, and its ability to make people feel. He actively tries to engage with these ideas and qualities through his own design work.
Lowe believes that architecture should be the manifestation of an embedded cultural consciousness. His thoughts on design were severely influenced by work he completed through an internship in India. This, along with his time in Madrid and his experiences growing up in Brooklyn, cultivated a core design ideology that observes the dichotomy between public space and the urban fabric, and its implications on issues of public empowerment.
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