Elizabeth Diller; Charles Renfro; Ricardo Scofidio; Benjamin Gilmartin
This tower of learning, a school of medicine, offers a way of creating fluid vertical space, breaking the tyranny of the repeated floor plate normally associated with the making of towers. The theatrical quality of the vertical ribbon of spaces made up of staircases, social and study amphitheatres, generous galleries and landings, all work towards unifying this fourteen-storey building into one convivial freespace. This imaginative installation combines the presence of a large physical model with a vibrant method of documenting the life of the building using two drone videos. Citing the influence of Robert Altman’s way of filming The Player and using drones in a similar way to record the life of a finished, occupied building, it is as if the visitor is an invisible presence peering through the windows, or a ‘fly on the wall’, witnessing the activities within.
This is a dynamic vertical university, optimistic and liberating for students and professors alike, a generous freespace where social interaction is celebrated and where the discovery of knowledge is promoted within the dynamism of the form and the fluidity of the spaces.
YF+SMcN