In Olinda, if you go out with a magnifying glass and hunt carefully, you may find somewhere a point no bigger than the head of a pin which, if you look at it slightly enlarged, reveals within itself the roofs, the antennas, the skylights, the gardens, the pools, the streamers across the streets, the kiosks in the squares, the horse-racing track. That point does not remain there: a year later you will find it the size of half a lemon, then as large as a mushroom, then a soup plate. And then it becomes a full-size city, enclosed within the earlier city: a new city that forces its way ahead in the earlier city and presses it toward the outside.
Olinda is certainly not the only city that grows in concentric circles, like tree trunks which each year add one more ring. But in other cities there remains, in the center, the old narrow girdle of the walls from which the withered spires rise, the towers, the tiled roofs, the domes, while the new quarters sprawl around them like a loosened belt. Not Olinda: the old walls expand bearing the old quarters with them, enlarged, but maintaining their proportions on a broader horizon at the edges of the city; they surround the slightly newer quarters, which also grew up on the margins and became thinner to make room for still more recent ones pressing from inside; and so, on and on, to the heart of the city, a totally new Olinda which, in its reduced dimensions retains the features and the flow of lymph of the first Olinda and of all the Olinda’s that have blossomed one from the other; and within this innermost circle there are already blossoming-though it is hard to discern them-the next Olinda and those that will grow after it.
Italo Calvino 1972
This project was inspired to architecturally express the story of Olinda by Italo Calvino, creating a space for storytelling. By physically weaving in design elements that respond to the story while also reflecting the chosen site, context and climate.The story of Olinda speaks of growth in a circular motion which drove the circular form of the ‘Olinda Hut’ and the operability.
Set in the heart of Edinburgh, Scotland, in Holyrood Park on 259 hectares diverse landscape, consisting of rocky hills, green slops, crags and lochs. A place of not only natural significance but of archaeological, architectural, religious, and cultural importance. A place with numerous narratives to tell.
Olinda Hut
Academic / 2021 / Individual Project
Embodying a circular form, the design emerged from the notion of growth and the connecting of two different experiences, one below ground and one above ground. Movement of the structure was explored to allow the hut to have two phases, one opened and one closed.
The design is intended to be passed through by users on their way through the park, a place to gain some extra knowledge and narratives on their journey. The design splits into 2 halves, one moving out to the North with views of the city scape, the other moving to the South with views of the mountains and sweeping green hills. Each side promotes a different type of story to be shared about the site. The ground floor connects people to the raw site and prompts stillness before moving up and growing.
These stories touch on religion, archaeology, architecture, geology, history, flora and fauna and human’s place in this part of the world.