Mystery Play

Designs

Transition

The Bargeman_

The Bargeman’s 28 day round trip was the starting point for my design process. I thought about how he lives in a constant state of transit, a continuous flow of the same routine. I saw this as a journey of solitude for him, where he reflects back on his well lived life. To put this in a visual sense i drew his journey like a timeline, starting a point A with his wife and ending at point B with his mistress. The middle of the timeline was circled as a transition stage, in which the Bargeman reflects and adapts to which ever life he is headed too.

To replicate this transitional phase i designed a series of bridge houses as a symbol of constant movement from one point to another. House 1 is a collective of units below the bridge with a mirror tower protruding up through the surface of the bridge. This is kind of the iceberg metaphor in the fact that the protruding tower is just the tip of the structure below. A teaser of what is hidden below, like the bargeman and my first impressions of him. He turned out to be a much more complex character then i first perceived.

House 2 plays on the notion of the Bargeman’s double life, hence the mirror image of the East and West wings. Only separated by the mirrored tower which is used as a transitional symbol. However the two wings can only be accessed at the same time when the barge is docked in the tower. Therefore the barge becomes the bridging mechanism just how the barge is the man’s connection between his tow lives.

Again using the bridging idea House 3 uses the expression of his linear travel. I started to wonder if along his travels he took a right turn or a left, where that would end up taking him, guiding him onto a different tangent of travel. This is why the spaces are slightly disconnected and very snake like. In house 3 the tower is the entry point where the occupant transcends from public to private or vice verse.

Finally house 4 took a different turn on the bridge as well as the tower. A circular tower was inspired by his cycle or constant routine. Down stairs the tower is avoided as the occupant must walk around while the upstairs mezzanine level cuts through the tower. This adds excitement of the unexpected in what seems to be a dull form. Just the same as one would see the Bargeman’s life, dull and going round and round.

Keeping with the transition theme the interiors are all rather free flowing and open. Hejduk’s 12 units all interact within these spaces creating a constant flow of movement and never stationary in one spot. Just like a man’s life on the water.