Cristina Manta
Architecture & Design
Projects
3|Infinite present project
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The third year project explores architecture as a form of cultural speculation, being deeply rooted in the study of places and non-places and their subsequent patterns. To these, a layer of architectural and fictional literature readings is added (i.e. "Onde hundred year of solitude"), all of which are applied to the chosen site : the Castlefield Viaducts.
In this context, the building proposes cross-programming and a layered range of activities within. It not only consists in treatment facilities and nursing homes for amnesia pacients, but it also offers interactive experiential spaces for everyone. Questioning the relationship dwelling-built environment (Heidegger) has become a pressing issue in the modern instantaneous society, where one might easily lose sense of the tactile, spatial and temporal components.
Thus, the project attempts to slow down the rush of everyday life and raise awareness of our behavior in relationship to spaces and places.
2.3|Grand Junction project
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The aim of the the Grand Junction project is to reconnect the Hulme Playhouse/ Hippodrome (Manchester) with Hulme, based on the current regeneration schemes. It consists in three types of intervention: the renovation of the entrance/ ground floor section of the Playhouse, the design of a new performance centre on the immediate site and a landscape program which connect the two buildings.
Based on the dialectic method, the INVERTED BOUNDARIES project is a synthesis between antithetical concepts informed by site analysis: exposure/ enclosure and translucency/ density.
These opposing ideas create physical and metaphorical interstitial spaces, blurring the boundaries between inside and outside.
2.2 White Water project
The project consists in a Canoe and Kayak Visitor's Centre, based in Ironbridge, Shropshire, England.
The structure is inspired by the topography of Ironbridge at a macro level, as well as by key elements of the site at a micro level, such as the verticality pattern of the surrounding trees, and the layout of the slope. These are based on Frank Lloyd Wright's principles of organic architecture.
The proposal stresses the tension between man-made and nature,between static and dynamic. It blends in with the surrounding nature, while enhancing the transition indoor-outdoor through the vertical glass strips, the entire structure appearing to be dissolving through the tall trees on banks of the river.
2.1 Cold Light Pavilion
The pavilion project was part of the second year brief, and provided a rich learning experience, from the early stages of the design process to the final installation on site.
UNDER THE CANOPY is a pavilion designed and built to enhance the views of the Dunham Massey gardens, by framing them between three elegant arches, part of an open structure.