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Suzi Williams

MArch

As a designer, I continue to develop an understanding of my design process and explore how architecture and design can cultivate purposeful space, relationships and meaning. Combining a background of fine art with systems thinking and circular economy principles.

Dambovita Centre for Culinary Arts

Interior Perspective | Market Hall
Ground Floor Plan | Community Allotment Facilities and Market
Exterior Perspective | View of South Facade from Rowing Lake

Upwelling the Vibrant Sub-Surface Currents in Bucharest

The following project is situated in Bucharest, Romania and presents a new centre for traditional culinary art empowered by local produce. Situated on the cusp of a urban wetland which re-activates the Dambovita river, and adjacent to a key vehicular artery of the city, the culinary centre mediates the boundary between urban and natural and celebrates a strengthened ecological relationship. The centre looks to upwell the rich sub-surface currents of the site, to empower the dynamic and varied local community through the engagement with local produce at various scales. The objective was to ascend from the historical narrative of control and commodification of space and to create a new urban fabric which diffuses the traditional boundaries of public and private and supports new productive regional climate patterns.

Watercourse Mapping | A Layered History

A meandering history of control, privatisation and enclosure is reflected in the historical water course of the Dambovita. Bucharest was once a major fishing capital in Europe, however layered channelization procedures, economic and political agendas and illegal agricultural trade has caused severe habitat fragmentation and rendered the Dambovita abandoned by the city.
Hydroglyphs | Translation Tools

‘Hydroglyphs’ explored the conceptual drivers of the project, and helped to develop a design language that would translate the concept of upwelling the surrounding sub-surface currents into an architectural proposition.
Theatricalization | Detailing Response

Operable low-tech components were explored to facilitate a responsive architecture, activating the public-private threshold and creating an object of theatricalization. The building becomes a demonstration and record of time, space and place; where and when. Across days, weeks and seasons, the architecture swells and contracts; channels, feeds and encloses.
Meander Mapping | Programmatic adjacencies

Inspired by Harold Fisk’s Mississippi meander maps, three flows were investigated to define programmatic adjacencies and layers. The journey of resources from the wetland and community allotments, knowledge flows and food flows were illustrated across the proposed programmatic functions. These defined moments of enclosure and moments of upwelling.
Masterplan | Central Catalytic Component

The culinary centre guards the local community allotments, serves as an activist for the urban wetland and is positioned as a connecting piece between two vibrant high-streets. The architecture enhances the existing environmental, educational and commercial flows on the site.
Upwelling | Conceptual Translation

Thresholds of public and private transitions were also explored vertically. As local produce physically moves up through the building to service the various culinary functions, controlled thresholds define public interaction with private space. Traditional architectural components of separation are investigated to converge activity within the building and foster productive social, educational and economic exchanges.
Enclosure | Threshold Detailing

Visibility between the ground floor market space, the school classrooms and kitchens and a fine dining restaurant above encourages the layering and convergence of users and functions within the culinary centre.
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