Nima Javidi

Hybrid Mats | Bridging Over Han River - Ecology, Structure, Accessibility

 

The studio uses the prompt of the Seoul Architecture Biennale (Land Architecture and Land Urbanism) and investigates the possibilities of a new paradigm for bridges. A paradigm that moves away from the entangled relationship between structure and path configurations (common in bridge design) and uses the absence of vehicular traffic in the prompt to explore a fine grain montage between patterns of ecology (waterways, windways…), structure (rhythm of columns, arches, shells…) and human settlement to create a thick yet light new constructed layered ground over Han River. This studio will explore three examples of this paradigm across three sites outlined by the biennale.

Students will use Seoul and its unique geological condition as a starting point to think about multilayered structures that can accommodate the passage and continuity of waterways, windways and human settlement through its thickness and crust. This infrastructure reading tries to inform ways of thinking about the infrastructure that addresses ecological discontinuities caused by human settlement in less of a picturesque act and more of a generous framework that allows ecological continuities while allowing human settlement as an overlay.

 

Professor: Nima Javidi

Advisor: Behnaz Assadi, Landscape and Ecology

Students: Jihoo Ahn, Razaq Alabdulmughni, Jaemin Baek, Laela Baker, Aerin L. Chavez, Jiyong Chung, Martina Duque, Alex J. Han, Annie He, Jiwon Heo, Rebecca Anne John, Jade Zhang