The studio project is an institute for sleep research in Chicago, which supports patient services, research and monitoring labs, operational spaces for physicians and technologists, and spaces for public engagement (exhibition space for art installations, library, auditorium, movie room, cafe and a space for experimental research attraction for public). Facilities for single-night clinical studies and multi-night/day research studies co-exist, providing a balance of daily functionality for staff and long-term patient living spaces. The structured schedule of diagnostic sequences, scientific analysis, and shift work will provide a framework for the exploration of the multi-sensory experience of sleep and wakefulness.
SITE
The institute of sleep research will be located along the western edge of Chicago’s Washington Square Park. Adjacent to the Newberry Library and a series of low-rise residential building, the site is a double Chicago city lot on North Clark Street, bound mid-block between West Delaware Street (S) and West Walton Street (N).
While visiting the site I was impressed by how radically scale of my surroundings differed, especially in the West-East direction - the view from the East to the West gives an impression of being in a small town, while the one from the West to the East made you feel like a part of a big, metropolitan city.
The scale difference was the main urban theme I took as a challenge for the project. I decided to complement both scales of the site by placing public functions on Clark Street (both for height and convenience) and the sleep research zone in the back of the lot. This would make the tower invisible while walking at the street and seen only from the distance. The decision of a tower was caused by the lack of daylight on the site. Extruding the building would allow me to create friendlier and healthier atmosphere for researchers and techs who work in the center for 24/7.
CONCEPT
The design of Sleep Institute is based on experiential aspects of dreams. I tried to capture adventurous quality of them, since it is the aspect that amazes me the most while sleeping:
One never knows what will happen next in the story - sometimes people around you turn into another characters, or sometimes you change yourself; sometimes the environment, where the story develops, transforms in front of you and takes a form of something illogical, but in dreams you know everything is supposed to be the way you see them. The stories transform as well when you least expect them to. And most importantly, sometimes dreams leak into our lives, they make an impact on our mood as we wake up.
I believe that sleeping is not only a physical process and one can gain much more from it. Sleeping lets you become a character of a story and observe adventures of various people, including yourself.
That is why I thought that the best way express the character of the function of sleep center would be by creating adventurous, dreamy spaces, where I would let everyone explore different stories.
After experimenting on different architectural forms, I thought that the best means of creating adventurous spaces would be by lots of cracks and openings with visual connections to different parts of the building, opening unexpected angles to spaces. I believe that visual links increase people’s curiosity and make them want to explore more, keep their eyes open. I started looking for an architectural language to let me capture unexpected and dramatic changes.
P.S. You can find study process here:
1. http://ruso-m.blogspot.com/2012/01/blog-post.html
2. http://ruso-m.blogspot.com/2012/02/meanwhile-in-dream-field.html
3. http://ruso-m.blogspot.com/2012/02/meanwhile-in-dream-field-2.html
4. http://ruso-m.blogspot.com/2012/03/meanwhile-in-dream-field-3.html
5. http://ruso-m.blogspot.com/search/label/Sleep%20Institute
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| Building Entrance through art installation space |
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View from W.Walton Street
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| Experimental Research Space for public |
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| Library & Cafe |
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| View to the atrium space from below |
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| View to the atrium from the roof |
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| Floating boxes |
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| Building assembly detail section (day) |
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| Building assembly detail section (night) |
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| Section B-B |
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| Night view |
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| One of the floor plans showing sleep rooms with nurse stations. |
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| Section A-A |
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| Elevation on N. Clark Street |
MEP System Design Strategies
MEP systems were carefully integrated into the architecture. The diagrams below explain different aspects of the design.
