Шахира Хаммад

Asemic Forest – Westbahnhof Train Station

source: highlike

Work: This project represents my thesis for the “Excessive” Post-Graduate program at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, 2012. We were asked to envision a new train station for Vienna, one that would either modify or replace the existing Westbahnhof train station. I chose to keep the existing building, but to contaminate it with structures that would express a complexity that now is missing. My intervention was inspired both from Nature and Culture, and beyond its polemical characteristics it does intend to bring back what in science is called: Spontaneous Order. This is not disorder in the common sense, although it could have this appearance. It is, evidently, a reaction against excessive rationalism and rationalizations. Yes, it is excessive, but essentially it tries nothing else but to bring the complexities present in Nature into the urban fabric. In a way my “project” is not really a “project,” since I let what I envisioned come into being “naturally,” almost by itself, expressing not only outer realities, but also inner ones. We could say that maybe this is an Epimethean work, as opposed to being Promethean, that is, a work in which thought comes afterwards… so the relationship between cause and effect is circular, not linear… All in all this is an architectural meditation on Time as well, since the structures I envisioned do reflect metamorphosis, the passage of Time, change, ephemerality and even decay… themes, again, neglected by conventional architectures. If chaos is deprived of its negative connotations maybe we will have again the chance to reach the positive aspects of what is called “spontaneous order.”
Postgraduate thesis University of Applied Arts, Vienna Thesis advisors: Hernan Diaz Alonso, Steven Ma.
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source: cargocollective

This project represents my thesis for the “Excessive” Post-Graduate program at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, 2012. We were asked to envision a new train station for Vienna, one that would either modify or replace the existing Westbahnhof train station.

I chose to keep the existing building, but to contaminate it with structures that would express a complexity that now is missing. My intervention was inspired both from Nature and Culture, and beyond its polemical characteristics it does intend to bring back what in science is called: Spontaneous Order.

This is not disorder in the common sense, although it could have this appearance.

It is, evidently, a reaction against excessive rationalism and rationalizations. Yes, it is excessive, but essentially it tries nothing else but to bring the complexities present in Nature into the urban fabric.

In a way my “project” is not really a “project,” since I let what I envisioned come into being “naturally,” almost by itself, expressing not only outer realities, but also inner ones.

We could say that maybe this is an Epimethean work, as opposed to being Promethean, that is, a work in which thought comes afterwards… so the relationship between cause and effect is circular, not linear…

All in all this is an architectural meditation on Time as well, since the structures I envisioned do reflect metamorphosis, the passage of Time, change, ephemerality and even decay… themes, again, neglected by conventional architectures.

If chaos is deprived of its negative connotations maybe we will have again the chance to reach the positive aspects of what is called “spontaneous order.”
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source: designboom

vienna-based designer shahira hammad has conceived a proposal to envision a new train station that would either modify or replace the existing westbahnhof train station in austria’s capital city. by maintaining the original structure, the existing building becomes the foundation for the new form to express itself with complex architecture. influenced by nature and culture, the intervention becomes characterized by spontaneous order throughout its final appearance.
the organic fabrication is a reaction to excessive nature’s unique sequential geometry, reflecting on the idea of how time plays a role in metamorphic construction.
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source: gaoloumi

这是由Shahira Hammad构想的奥地利维也纳西站项目方案，这是对既有的火车站的改造幻想，设计师保留既有的结构，但是利用一种随意的结构将其点缀，从而表达出一种消失的复杂性。设计的灵感既来自于自然也来自于文化，除了极其富有争议的外形，设计师还想带回的是一种在科学领域被称作自发秩序的概念。这不是通常概念下的无序，尽管看起来可能有点，但其实它是一种对于过渡理性主义和理性化的对抗，以形成一种过度化的感觉，本质上它就是将自然中早已存在的一种复杂性带到城市肌理中而已。
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source: urdesignit

Shahira Mammad ha sviluppato per la tesi del suo programma di post-laurea presso l’Università di Arti Applicate di Vienna, un progetto per il nuovo volto della stazione ferroviaria di Westbahnhof, che modifica l’attuale complesso della capitale austriaca. Mantenendo la struttura originaria, l’edificio esistente diventa la base per l’espressione della nuova e complessa forma architettonica della rinnovata costruzione.

Influenzato dalla cultura e dalla natura, l’intervento è caratterizzato dall’ordine spontaneo in tutto il suo splendore. L’articolata struttura organica è una reazione all’eccessivo razionalismo e riflette l’idea di come il tempo possa giocare un ruolo fondamentale nella metamorfosi architettonica, portando le complessità presenti in natura nel tessuto urbano.