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A. Sioli

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Inspired by the notion that people frame their lives and experiences through stories (Sartre 1938), this thesis explores the role of narrative in architectural design, proposing that architecture is not merely a physical space but an intricate interplay of tangible and intangible elements shaping human experiences within the built environment (Pérez-Gómez 2016).
Moreover, the research explores how literature can inform architectural design, emphasizing the importance of atmosphere and embodied experiences (Pallasmaa 2005; Zumthor 2006). It addresses key questions about translating narratives into functional design and extends the concept of narrative-driven architecture beyond temporary installations to permanent contexts.
Through theoretical research, case studies, literature analysis, and personal narrative surveys, the study identified the location of the project as well as the design principles and strategies that integrate narrative, atmosphere, and embodied experience into architecture.
The culmination lies in an architectural design with a focus on creating spaces and atmospheres that translate fictional literary experiences, emotions, and journeys into tangible form. Ultimately, the fictional narrative aspires to create spaces that are both emotionally resonant and functionally purposeful.
This results in a design of Casa Habitoria - a living habitat that is a unique meeting point of personal stories and communal experiences. ...

On - going open-ended designed places in Den Helder

Master thesis (2023) - Y. Zhang, S.I. de Wit, A. Sioli, C.H.E. van Ees
The urban spaces that arise as a result of urban shrinkage and decay are loosely defined (Franck & Stevens, 2007). The ambiguity of these spaces provides a potential outlet for accidental or spontaneous encounters, informal activities and alternatives to our increasingly commodified, controlled and privatised 'open' urban spaces. Many topographic unions, particularly those that are easily accessible and large enough to contain interesting physical features, have the potential to become 'dynamic 'indeterminate spaces'' or 'slot areas' (free zones).As undefined ambiguous places, these sites are highly inclusive of environmental renewal within and outside themselves. This means that interstitial sites temporarily or non-temporarily allow for any movement to take place in the city. The design task begins with an urban memory path based on void and leftover places.The understanding of the sites as carrying memories depends on the audience. They can be anyone, human or non-human. So, let's make the audience the players. And we, the designers, are the directors. ...

Rethinking informativity to serve life-value in Helsinki Central Station

As labor increasingly takes place solely in the confines of a laptop screen, the office as a building type seems almost redundant. At the same time the profitability of data collected of consumption puts conventional understandings of value production under question. How does information become valuable, and how should we think of value to begin with? The project employs an understanding of value as a qualitative, subjective excess effect of life that can only be quantified as profit through the production of metrics that make it compatible with the field of economy. Helsinki Central Station provides a case study of an intensely public site where original functions have been gradually replaced by opportunities for consumption that economize its life-value. The goal of the project is to counter these processes of capture and re-intensify the experience of moving through the terminal building. Focusing on the habit of voyeurism, the project speculates new constraints to put travellers into unexpectedly close relations to intensify the station’s singular quality as a composite of strangers in a certain rhythmic movement. ...

Evoking New Meaningful Connections in the Touristic City of Amsterdam

In recent years, overtourism has become a big problem for many European cities. In Amsterdam, tourism is changing the experience of place of its city centre, which negatively affects resident’s quality of life by causing feelings of alienation. As a result, more and more residents seem to retreat or move away from Amsterdam’s city centre, jeopardizing the livability and residential function of the city.

The aim of this research is to add architectural interventions in the city centre of Amsterdam, which will evoke new connections with the places overwhelmed by tourists, by mitigating feelings of alienation between residents and tourists. These connections must both be social, as well as to place, in order to introduce a new, more social, sustainable and liveable way of tourism.

In this research, the embodied experiences of Amsterdam's overwelming places such as the Jordaan, the Canal Belt, the Oudezijdse Burgwallen and the Lastage have been studied by means of narratives. These narratives were created from both the resident’s and the tourist’s perspective, in order to find out which (spacial) qualities of place evoke a sense of identification, belonging or connection among the residents and tourists. Ultimately, from the collection of narratives the users, activity, experience of place, structure and architectural atmosphere of the overwelmed places are defined, and together form a concept for the architectural interventions that will mitigate the feelings of alienation.
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Rethinking the Estate Landscape for Sensorial Affordances

Master thesis (2020) - B. Amarendra, S.I. de Wit, A. Sioli, L.M.M. de Wit
People continually shape the landscape. The landscape being a palimpset of their socio-economic and cultural ethos. Few landscapes become valued as heritage and a marker for regional identity. However, often times, landscapes deemed as heritage might not strike upan attachment with the lives of the people around and within it. A heritage landscape for a few might mean very little to many others. Additionally, when elements composition the heritage landscape begin to fall apart, the landscape is pushed further into a state of disassociations.The estate landscape of the Baakse Beek narrates quite a similar tale. It is an estate landscape losing prominence and attachment from the rural lives. This broken relationship is further aggravated by the brook decaying functionally, ecologically and sensorially. Curating experiences offers a revitalisation of the heritage estates to become a setting for formation of experiential narratives and appreciation of the brook, which vitalises the aesthetic and ecological diversity within these estates. In doing so, the research entails the use of narratives as a method for documenting the uniqueness that lies in the basic unitof the landscape’s composition i.e the enclosures, mapping the experiences in these enclosures and alongthe brook, and constructing the plethora of socio-cultural engagements and perceptions in and with the landscape. Enriched by the theories of Sensorial Landscape, Seasonality of Landscape and Aesthetic Engagement, the research led to the curation of a tapestry of sensorially stimulating and engaging spaces. The project delivers a way of seeing the brook as integral to the experience of the landscape . It hopes to inspire the different stakeholders of the landscape to envision a more whole some outlook of looking at the sustainability of these heritage landscapes not only in functional terms, but also in terms of socio-cultural connections that sustain the value of this landscape. ...