HADRIAN'S VILLA
Ancient Plan Analyzing of Hadrian’s Villa
Accademia Adrianea di Architettura e Archeologia, Laser Scanner Survey and Photoscan Detection, August 2017, Tivoli, ITALY
A future oriented micro-scale community was chosen to show how older technologies are used to exploit new tech-systems. Steemit is a social media platform where everyone gets paid for creating/curating content powered by Steem Block Chain and Steem Cryptocurrency. The system (that) supports powerfuls to become more powerful, led users to find the vulnerabilities and use them. Social interactions and use of cheats(bots) became necessity and the social structure to be portrayed started to be formed. For prospective virtual working, a physical working space was started to be defined by users via interviews. Design process started by applying the circumstances of system to spatialization symbolically.
The initial design concept of the space comes from Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon; a system with a central tower to see each cell that a prisoner is incarcerated in. Fact that prisoners cannot know when they are being watched, causes to a psychological behavior that they have to act as they are being watched all the time. Data flow of transactions and changes in currencies induced Steemers to want a screen that can be seen from anywhere. Panopticon which means to observe(-opticon) all(pan) reversed and a space is created that can be observed by all from Spherical Screen in the center which broadcasts crucial information while underlining the dependency to data. Further design decisions are also made to be in consonance with the nature of Steemit. The only condition to be a part of the Steem community is the determination to acquire its knowledge. The design of the cooperate campus responds to this situation by embedding to the ground, making it somehow hidden from the incognizant eyes. Building shows itself entirely, only after going through the entrance. Corridors that limits the vision only to lead to large open spaces and sharp verticals cutting circulars are recurring element in the whole design. The levels for housings emphasizes the social hierarchy and the arrangement is representing the obligation to interact. The spaces that are not receiving natural light were reserved for gaming, mining and studios where main content for Steemit broadcasting is created. Great courtyard is tilted like a slice of virtual sphere was cut out and the traces of the sphere continuous to the upper levels to define circlers in 3dimension. This tilt allows rain water to gather to symbolic ‘Reward Pool’, nurturing the single olive tree on the center while creating the potential to afforest the rest of the place (if the sources are used wisely). Cantilevered Skybridge reaches to the center of the space to fulfill its practical role, carrying the spherical screen. However, since it carries the screen, it is the only place in the campus where the screen is not visible, making it very unique, an escape from the current burden of data in mind.