Thicken

Instructor - Russell Thompson
Partner - Nupur Shah

The title of our thesis is “Thicken.” 

Our interest is in challenging the conventional nature of the large building envelope. As a container to separate the interior from the exterior, the conventional building envelope is constructed as a thin membrane of cladding. Acting as a kind of wrapper, it has no spatial thickness unto itself. This project explores the thickening of the building envelope to give it volume, inhabitability and a density of optical effects.

Our project is the design of a new Philharmonic Concert Hall in the city of Prague. Prague’s music culture has grown in several symphonic orchestras over the last 100 years, attracting orchestras and artists from all over the world to perform in various halls around the city.
They are historical buildings of architectural significance, and were recently refurbished with a focus on preservation. However, neither can support Prague’s orchestra's growing ambition. These expectations call for a new concert hall - one that lives up to world-class standards and creates a new cultural identity generating feature of the city, to become a lively and open space that serves both the citizens of Prague and visitors from far and wide.