I regard my final-year project as a unremitting quest for the limitations of space. A quest for explanations for the way we perceive space in relation to city, material, light and time.

In 'El Raval', an old quarter in the heart of Barcelona, I conducted a study into the way urban space is experienced. This quest to find the space in-between laid the basis for my design for a cultural centre, including a number of new dwellings.

The brief with its diversity of users and their equally diverse wishes requires a structure able to accommodate all these. The size and position of the centre desires a clear design strategy for a new infill. An exhaustive analysis of the existing situation led me to subtly differentiate the present urban fabric. The principal direction (the warp) has been retained whereas the transverse (the weft) has been interrupted, freeing the way for a varied game with the 'in-between'.

I established architectural principles that give shape to the entire plan area so that the urban structure could go on to inform the architecture. References to the setting and to variation in the perception of space provided the stepping-off points for the developed principle of slabs and cores. The slabs refer to the vertical city and the typical Spanish facade composition on the street side. The cores with their suspended elements are a foil to the free play in the internal spaces of the patios and blocks. The further you penetrate the site, the more the two principles merge. The slabs create vertically oriented spaces with an open floor plan that winds between the slabs. Daylight floods in freely on the street side. In the cores the sense of space is more subdued, with small openings making a maximum impact. All in all, this project outlines a new course of action on designing inner urban sites.

Place of education: TU Delft
Specialization: architecture
Tutors: Daan Vitner, Bernard Olsthoorn, Rogier Verbeek