A brief overview of the semester's thoughts thus far...

In order to progress from this point in the semester, I need to take time to organize ideas that may become the architecture in my site, ideas that I've spent weeks researching--namely ideas originating from the study of limestone. Upon visiting the site, I searched for the structure, the underlying order of the site, and found limestone, literally the underlying layer. Limestone defines the aquifer of virtually all of Florida. Thousands and thousands of years ago, Florida was underwater. Sea life was diverse and bountiful. The water level dropped, and for 8,000 years exposed the coral, which became layered with remains of the once-lively sea community. All life died, fossils slowly joined together, hardened into a single entity made of tiny micro-organisms, shells, sea horses, snails... This new rock emerged: limestone. Because limestone is made of many small parts, it is porous, filtering water down to the aquifers. Specific to Crystal River is one type of limestone called Dolomite:

Under a microscope, Dolomite is made of numerous shapes that seem at first random and upon further inspection delicately placed and organized. The shapes talk about negative space and movement, existing in a beautiful two-dimensional composition. Never touching, sheering along one another creating movement; the form suggests the function of water filtration.

For a stagnant rock, limestone's existence is essential and dynamic. The rock allows all other micro-ecosystems (hammocks, sand, water, marsh) to exist on a single site, holds them there, gives them nutrients, yet for the most part hides under them. Architecturally, limestone is a physical example of many concepts: space and void (on a small scale), hide and reveal (on a large scale), layers, texture (on every scale), touch, and ultimately--peaking up in key points along the shore--occupation.

In the first project, limestone was explored conceptually in a single joint. The joint was literally the central hub of the model, and the pieces creating this shifting joint spoke of small sliver spaces, the joining of micro-ecosystems, and the microscopic shapes present in Dolomite--how filtration may begin to occur in these shapes.

The second project--pavilion--was a short study on how people may begin to interact with the limestone on the site, and how this interaction may enhance the Crystal River experience. It was short, ugly, and ultimately unsuccessful, but useful in that it got me thinking about possibilities to be explored in the next project.

In the final project, I will focus on one particular part of the program to develop in detail: the chapel. My studies of negative space have already come into play to influence the site plan. I'm most interested in how negative space will manifest itself in the interior of the chapel; how shifting masses may filter light and potentially even water; how this filtration will affect the experiential design; light walls v. water walls? / sight v. hearing (seeing light, hearing water, calming...). There is a lot of architectural potential in these ideas that hopefully begin to three-dimensionalize in the next few weeks.

My next step: light boxes.