Konrad Marusarz
Auto Repair Shop “BEYOND”
From fourth-year undergraduate studio Above, Across, Around.
Faculty: Abigail Chang
About the studio:
This studio aimed to distill architecture into a set of relationships in space, applying an acute awareness to detail to our everyday environments (rather than reserving this attention for extraordinary buildings). Beyond optical characteristics, we studied materiality as visceral interpretation, where transparency, blurriness, and reflection produce order and disruption. Students translated the spatiotemporal qualities of early propositions into scale models; 1:1 photographic projections presented the interiors of building proposals for programs such as a dentist office, laundromat, car repair shop, or hair salon.
About the project:
“Beyond” describes a point in space in relation to another that is not directly accessible. The notion of “beyond” implies a place of greater importance, which may contain richer elements that are not easily attained. The building proposal for an auto repair shop examines the preposition “beyond” through three approaches. First, two cone-like volumes produce a forced perspective, manipulating the perception of space to appear further. Tighter niches for an office and entry open toward large, open areas for the garage and car lifts. Second, the profile of the garage roof curves upward and reads as a receding surface from the front elevation. This profile produces a soft, indistinguishable edge whose end disappears out of sight. Third, containers that house the waiting room and restrooms give the illusion of levitation through materiality. Translucent partitions compartmentalize the back of house and double through the reflective interior. As they slide and slip past the exterior shell, the hovering containers allow customers and employees to be viewed through partial glimpses.
Winner of the 2022 Faculty Fellowship Award for an oustanding fourth-year undergraduate project