The story begins with the greenhouse. When one thinks of a greenhouse, the stereotype would probably be a structure of steel and glass used to cultivate plants. Within the history of greenhouses, they took the form of winter gardens, a type of popular social place in the high latitudes especially during the winter-- a warm, greenery-filled interior, yet with the airy feeling of being outside. For the site of this project,I chose the Faroe Islands, where extreme weather exists and a greenhouse might be a potential solution to some needs.
Everything about the Faroe Islands is the opposite of what I used to know. It was challengeable and also important for me to learn about a new place and try to position myself properly since the Faroe Islands is such an isolated and colorful world.
With its changing extreme climate and dramatic landscape, the human presence seems particularly insignificant. Full of awe, caution, and passion, the Faroese people have created their home in this land. Since the Faroe Islands have had colored paint, each tiny house leaps colorfully across the tundra as if to say, "I'm here! I'm here!"
bird's eye view of Velbastaður:
https://gis.torshavn.fo/pano/panoramas/bygdir/#velbastadur_norduri_a_heyggi
CONCEPT
I went to the Faroe Islands for research in March, windy, cloudy and rainy, and it would be very lucky if we could see the sun. I chose Velbastaður, which is ten minutes away from the capital Tórshavn, as my site. Due to its close proximity to the capital, it is a popular settlement while still preserving the feeling of living in the countryside with the sunshine and by the sea. But also because it is too close to the capital, the village does not have much infrastructure, and the villagers just live in their sweet home most of the time. More than 300 people in the village know each other, but they also keep themselves disconnected in many ways.
The village is built on a slope of nearly 30 degrees, with houses, roads, and any space deliberately created, like isolated islands, weakly linked by human acquaintance physically. In a city built on flat land, public spaces such as squares are of great importance to life. It gives people the possibility to connect with each other and create a common memory. In this project, I try to bring the quality of the square to the city in my greenhouse; to become a "slope square" for the village.
DESIGN PROCESS
In the design process, the very focus is how to bring the communality and publicity of a flat city to the slope village.
My first step was to plan the functions of the greenhouse, which is selling, gardening and dining. Acting in these functional spaces encourages informal social activities to occur. Secondly, a gently sloping path was introduced in the site to break the large volume of the building while breaking the restrictions that the slope creates based on people's activities. This is also the logic of the development of the village form, where the roads were built to guide people to settle in the sloping site. Finally, some open space are placed between houses and the slope. The outdoor space can be sheltered from the wind by the cooperation between the buildings and the terrain.
The undefined open space is a background for life here. I believe that space is not defined by the architect, but by the user. What the design is supposed to achieve is contextualized with the possibility of development and change. The villagers might bring extra chairs from home to the site and come to relax and chat sometimes. The water is gurgling, with horses and sheep passing by occasionally. This is my vision of the greenhouse.
