Secret Spiral

Secret spiral

Autumn 2019
Academic
GSD 1101_Core I: PROJECT
Harvard Graduate School of Design
Instructor: Sean Canty

This project involves designing a group of five rooms, one of which seems to be hidden from the other four. The program requires providing a means of access to the hidden room while controlling the degree to which the room becomes vulnerable to disclosure. The definition of “hiddenness” and of “roomness” is to be developed through creating an expectation of a visual and spacial experience that ultimately leads to a slip in perception.

The discrepancy between the subjective and objective experience in this project is that what appears to be a series of circles nested within each other is actually a spiral. As one travels along the primary circulation on the central axis, they pass though a series of portals. Because of the nature of these corridors (dark, narrow, and claustrophobic), people initially perceive them as just thresholds.

The “slip” occurs in the center where one would expect to find the final innermost nested circle. However, there is no back door to be found. Visitors are now forced to confront the corridor, realizing that they had been passing through this “hidden” room the entire time.

This fifth room is where different hierarchies collapse. First, the hierarchy of circulation (primary vs. secondary vs. tertiary) is now unclear. Second, the relationship between boundary vs. in-between space has become unclear, as thresholds are no longer just thresholds. And lastly, the definition of “roomness” has been muddled, as what was initially understood to be a room is discovered to not be a simple enclosed circle.

The fifth “hidden” room simultaneously defines and obscures all the various spatial conditions, making ambiguous the definition of “roomness” and the corridor vs. room relationship.