Projects of my Study Duke Cermak

In this presentation I’ll show you some of the projects I designed at school. Some of them are made in co-operation with other students. I’ll make a brief explanation of the designs. The sheets are set without time so you can click to go to the next sheet.

The first design I will show is a square in a city with a Kiosk.

One of the first designs I made, was a town square, at that moment there were some problems with criminality and a part of the square wasn’t used enough. The square has the form of the thick black line in the drawing. The rectangle above was the part that wasn’t used enough. The rest of the square was e bit of a mess, the dots in the drawing are old trees they where already standing there. Beneath the square is a parking lot. Old trees that where given a new place New stores to a track people Deepening in the square Steps to deepening Stroll path in a sight line of the square also to combine the square to 1 Kiosk with parking lot entrance.

This was the idea I had for the stores in the deepened part of the square. These stores would be small and made of glass (mostly) The problem was that the stores would be against a wall wit an entrance. So I had to make that entrance clear. There also was an entrance to the existing shopping mall in the left corner. There for I also needed to make an entrance for the shopping mall.

This is the model I made of the Square, the next design is the design I made of the Kiosk that is standing in the middle of the Square

Path to underground parking for bicycles and mopeds. Stairs to the parking lot The form of the kiosk I based on the form of the Square. As you can see on the drawing beneath. Bridge over stairs Summer time bar Kiosk Storage room for bar and kiosk Payment for parking

Artists impression of the kiosk.

Model of the kiosk

The next Design is the design of a Grand café.

The grand café was located at the side of a lake, on a slope with a difference in height of 10 feet. This design was meant as interior design.

The back of the Grand Café was placed on a slope, the front stood in the water. As you can see at the front of the design there is a half round terrace. This is separated from the inside with a quarter round glass shield. The bar that is standing against this glass wall is meant to be used for the inside and the outside. The grand café was made quite high I did that on purpose. Because I wanted to make to storages of tables on top of each other. The design was purposed as a concrete “block” in that block I wanted to make vertical strokes of glass, this glass would be white glass. That way from the outside you could see the people moving inside but couldn’t really see them. I used that same idea in the kitchen.

2 storages of tables Terrace Inside and outside bar Kitchen Bar Entrance of glass so it can be looked into from al around Horizontal windows to expose the motion in the kitchen. The windows in the design have a different orientation, vertical and horizontal. This was done for a reason. On the slope, in the kitchen and the entrance, it was convenient if the windows where horizontal and on eye height, so that people that are passing by can look inside. Under the grand café self there was a bicycle path, therefore I chose to make the windows vertical so it would follow the direction of that path. The window inside, that is placed between the kitchen and the bar, also is the storage place for the drinks, glasses and used things in the bar.

Underneath the kitchen there was a basement. That basement partially was in the slope to the water. The front was out of that slope. There was the place for the toilets. In the back was the storage for the kitchen and the bar. Stairs to basement

The following design is a design I made in the Summer seminar in Germany

These pictures are pictures of the design I made in Germany (Ruhr gebied) during the summer seminar. In the seminar you could choose what plan you wanted to work out (al fictionally) you had a location witch you had to analyze, find a new function for it and then design the building you wanted. The location I chose, was an old industrial area with some buildings on it. As soon as I saw this building standing there I knew I wanted to do something with it. The building is about 275 yards long. It is build of solid concrete. It’s former function probably was for the mining in the area, in old pictures there was a train parked on top of it. Underneath there also is a rail way. (the picture in the middle) On the other side of this building there where similar building but shorter. As new function I thought of a discotheque, the location is quite isolated, and the construction of the building is enormous.

New entrance Because of the length of the building, I wanted to give this an extra dimension. Therefore I wanted that the people who visit the discotheque all take the same route,. Because that way they would get a glimpse of the building on the outside, it’s monumentality. To make this possible I wanted to make a route to the entrance of the building. At the parking lot you step in a kind of mining train, this wil take you to the entrance of the discotheque. You can see how the route passes the building en then goes untherneath it. The ground floor is mostly open. There is a place for outdoor events, there also is one big hall because the sight underneath it has a very special “feeling”( as you can see in the picture shown before). You kind of walk between the legs of the building.

New entrance My idea for the interior of the building was to create a landscape inside of it. I wanted to realize this effect by making different levels in the main hall, these levels would be connected by slopes. Because of the form of the building all these levels have a different width. This has an intensification of the length of the building. A disadvantage of this was that the lowest stages are quite small. I made the 2 highest levels on the sides of the building so that if your standing there you could see through the whole building, from one side to the other. The smaller hall’s at the side of the building I only gave one level because this effect wouldn’t be strong enough so it would be a waist of space. The problem was that the building didn’t have an entrance. Therefore I had to make one Myself.

For the new entrance I took the basic form of the existing building and turned it, so it would be standing up. This form wouldn’t have conflicts with the building. Because it’s similar, but absolutely not the same. Because it is the entrance I wanted to make it very impressive. I did this by making the entrance very high (twice the existing building) an leave it almost completely open, it only would be filled with air bridges. I also had the idea to make it a sort of watch tower from where you can over see the area. The rest of the area would be left as it is, like a wild park. In the entrance is a wardrobe and a check in. From the entrance you can go inside the main hall, to the upper side hall’s, the outdoor area or to the “under hall”. Ground level Under hall Outdoor area

Level 2 Level 3 Under hall Outdoor area Main hall Side hall Main hall

This was a kind of a brain wave. Because the building is very impressive, I wanted to make the corridors between the different hall’s impressive to. But it also had to be functional (sound leek) so the first thought was a tourniquet. But for me that wasn’t impressive enough, you see them every were, so it’s not new. Then I came at the idea to turn the tourniquet a quarter, so it would be standing up. In the drawing you can see the way it works. We had a discussion with the teachers about the safety of it. I persuaded them because it should be just as dangerous as a normal tourniquet. The problem would be that it looks more dangerous, because it’s very high and something new.

This is a design I made of a recreation building in the water.

I wanted to make a very simple design in base form, I wanted to give the design a special look by making it different then others. That’s why I started with a square floor. I wanted to make the construction very minimalistis that’s why I had very few coulombs, but where they where needed I made them very extreme. Because of the few coulombs it was necessary to use a hanging construction for the second floor. This is also used as fencing for the terrace that will be on the second floor.

This is the final result of the design it’s deepened in the water so the people who are sitting in the bar (that is bellow) watch over the water as if they are swimming. Surrounding the building I made a landing-stage for boats. I gave the design a horizontal direction in the windowing so that it would have the same direction of the water and give it kind of a floating shape. It also was to make the building look lower then it is.

The last design I will show is a design of a congress centre.

This design was made in co-operation wirh another student. The meant to blend in to the nature. It is standing on the boarder of a forest and a moorland. That’s why the form is made to grow out of the ground (out of the moor up to the trees). Near the design there is an old monument. That’s another reason why it has to blend in, so it wouldn’t drag away al the attention. A back lying thought of the design is the idea of Hundertwasser: vertical planes are human, horizontal are from the nature. That’s the reason why the vertical planes are made of a more industrial type.

You could also walk through the building without really entering it. This was done so that you can take a walk to the top of the building without having to take the same way back, but walk through the building. In this corridor you can look at the inside of the building, go inside the building, at the back you can take a look outside, or you can go down en continue walking in the forest.

At the backside of the building you come out in the forest. That’s why the back is constructed with coulombs. This is done in a deconstructive way as you can see, this also is an intensification of the perspective of the building.

I hope this gives you a impression of the designing I did and the techniques I’m used working with. If you have any questions please contact me. Duke Cermak Duke Cermak, Brugstraat 19, 2471AS, Zwammerdam, Holland The painting on the first sheet is: Anatomy lesson, repairing mother earth. Made by Jan Cermak