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WHAT MADE METHINK ABOUT YOU

alban denicportfolio

‘‘To be an architect’’ Let me tell you what it means for me :

To reveal the world its real beauty; hope and light where it seems not to be any. To turn the reality into surprise; variety and challenge as prime rules. To act with generosity; optimism and honesty as intimate qualities. To fulfill the expectations of tomorrow cities; generic and emotions will stand together.

For architects understand the exceptionality of being and work to give it the importance it requires.

Feb. 2009

Student embryohow to enter the city?

What a surprise to fi nd on this district of Versailles an extraodinary cohabitation of all ages. This diversity has been the reason to design a introverty building able to house all these diff erences. The central squared place with its cafeteria is the element which highlight this exchange between generations. Students who travel here far from their home can walk a place they appropriate for themselves before approching the city. A way to bring confi dence.

Presentation semi-open modelUrban integration

Ground floor planSpatiality model

Jul. 2008

Art installation ‘‘Gandamaison’’with guest Tadashi KAWAMATA

During nine summer days, I have been part of a team of fresh students led by Tadashi Kawamata to build his future temporar art work for Fall 2009 in the School of Architecture of Versailles taking control over the entire show room, inside and outside.

His approach is much more about accumulation in order to turn a commun object in a maze, and it has been achieved here using as part of the design the only wood caget to create this incredible spatiality.

Art Center entrance

Wood spatiality

May 2009

K d’Ecole 09,Place des Manègeshow to lead the citizen ?

The XVIIè century town planning in Versailles has left us this icone of these three huge and magnifiscent avenues. Nevertheless, they separate Versailles in two distinct ditricts lacking connections. This artistic walkway lead the visitors going through this liminal bloc thanks to arcades remodeled following the japanese Torii. In the meantime these arcades enhance this place as a real nod for more pedestrian connections, more porosity.

Arcades sequenceurban implementaion

buildings

pedestrian

carways

Art CorridorAccess from Avenue de Paris

Access fromAvenue de Sceaux

View of the main Plaza

Feb. 2010

Intertwined Urbanityhow to make the street climb a building ?

The city of Pantin, in the Northern suburb of Paris is one of the very growing areas in the region Ile de France. In order to design this site, we must worry about the future of this site and build an idea of what could be an anticipation. This small programmatic city is to respond to nulerous of condominium projects in close surrounding. The decision has been to raise the street to the top. A web of ramps leads the pedestrian to his goal, but giving an appreciation of the walk itself. The goal is in tha way to reach it. These walkways are made of surprises created by the «over-density».

Unrolled walk-way

Aerial viewUrban integration model

Apr. 2010

Milan 2015 world fare,French pavilionhow to work on emotions ?

Far away, two straight bright lines in the city. When one is approaching, a vertiginous experience catches him observing all these people moving so easily in the height. The reinterpreted two seeds tanks apperas as towers of glass and steel frame settled in the middle of the Universal Exposition of Milan. Leant on the glass railing, one may be amazed by the stir below, just enought to understand that the exhibition is hidden under his feet! Sensations, the first material of this project, provide the meaning for this sculptural architecture.

Tanks sectionMaster plan

Project from public plaza

Elevators madness

Ramp entrance

Observatory pavillion

Jun. 2010

High Stratumhow to catalyst community life ?

This housing project takes place in Berlin. The 100 units have been united in fi ve greater unities of twenty each to respond to the urban scale surrounding. We opened the site to the pedestrian to optimize activities, shopping, public amenities and create a sense of place. To ensure a good relationship between these two worlds, public and private, a complete wall free level has been designed nine meters high (30 feet) with a particular attention to vertical connections.

The idea here is to make it a true center for communities living upstairs, attemping to gather collective practices in one fun and attractive place. Thus exchanges within communities would be easy, more intense and friendly.

Habitat detail model

Balcony view

Final model overview

Street view

Conceptual model

Feb. 2012

while overlapping a crack...how to cross an urban fallow ?

What was a challenge in this site is the fact that we were facing a rupture between two districts which would need to be connected in a close future. This rupture was due to the old rail track still in use today. Our intent is to overlap this crack to turn obstacle into symbol of union. This is 30 000m² (323,000 sqf) of office space along with a number of facilities which find their good location up in this new floor.

A progressive fragmentation in the design follows the scale of districts from a boulevard façade with a strong identity to more little volumes closer to the human scale of the future residential zone nearby.

View on the crack

Dec. 2010

Higher Place,the Door of silencean urban nest on the tenth floor ? GRADUATE DESIGN AWARD

Wolf Point in Chicago is unique for its feature. Even though it is surrounded by urban activities, it has a very silent space. Using silence as a base for the design, we strive to develop transcendental spaces, both in intense and intimate relationships between water, space and sky. This silence was discovered high in the air. When one can ascends to the top of a building, he must welcome the silence that enable him to appreciate the space and the view.

This idea was applied to the architecture of the project and a portion of the programs were elevated above the urban noise. By leaving an open area on the ground where the programs would have been located, a void was also created. Playing with this negative footprint, we allow the urban layered-floor, so dense in Chicago, to catch his breath.

Final model View from the riverwalkConcept

Hotel and activity complex from the Chicago River

Detail structureView of the garden

May 2011

Active Bargeshow to transit people ? SEMIFINALIST ONE PRIZE 2011

What is researched here is an answer for how to make transit time valuable, and how this value can infl uence these prime factors such as time and price, but then integrating others like health and enter-tainement. These barges are to respond to the crucial need of transportation over the East River, but also to off er new way to express the desire to live together as a collective enterprise. A piece of land you can rent for an exceptional event, a transformable public place, the ship which will lead one on the other bank, the fi shing farm one is going to spend the afternoon, the beach one will be enjoying the sun all along the East River while he is commuting, or the daily bath on swimming pool for one another.

More than only an architectural move, it is a total reshaping of the society toward a democracy more active and participative.

Final model at Green Point, NYC

Master plan

Perspective on the East River

Barge prototype From the inside of a barge

ALBAN DENICFRENCH Graduate StudentB.Arch in Versailles 2010Exch.Program UIUC 2010/2011M.Arch Candidate 2013www.c14-architecture.comalban.denic@gmail.com

Thank you for your time,Wishing I caught your interest,