Intertwinements: Building Community Through Intertwining Conditions

To intertwine: to twist or connect together. Intertwinement can be two or more elements, physical or metaphysical, that interlace and fuse with one another. Architecture that is designed for people and the human experience, as all architecture should be, must be intertwined in many ways at a variety of scales. As said by Steven Holl in his book titled "Intertwining", "By weaving form, space, and light, architecture can elevate the experience of daily life through the various phenomena that emerge from specific sites, programs, and architectures." Architecture that intertwines with its surroundings and encourages entwinements within is what impacts and builds the human experience.

Throughout this year long exploration, ideas of intertwinements have been a reoccurring theme that's been studied under three main concepts: •Relationships – Perceptual and physical relationships, the relationship of the building to the site, and how the architecture impacts human relationships and interactions. •Ideas of pushing and pulling as a condition of intertwinement •Ideas of unrestrictive, loose, ambiguous boundaries These three main concepts were analyzed at a variety of scales including site scale, building scale, and spatial or room scale. Each example of these ideas at varying scales is in the form of a duality, exploring how two or more opposing ideas intersect and entwine with one another. These dualities include: •nature/campus •movement/node •stone/glass •social/recreational/study •together/separate •in/out •table/object •active/quiet •large group/small group/individual

Examples of these dualities of intertwinements were studied through the design of a residence hall on Virginia Tech's campus to explore how the architecture of a residence hall can also contribute to building community and fostering an inclusive environment.