The Influence of Confluence and Resolution on Architectural and Structural Frameworks

This investigation focuses on the ideas of confluence and resolution as generators of architectural volume. This focus is applied as the driving design idea extending from the selection of the city, to the selection of the site, to the organization of the building and, finally, to the architectural development of the details, all of which help resolve the design and construction of the building.

The layering of confluent conditions, from the site to the detail, is intended to create a building in which an occupant may begin to understand the relationships influencing the design and development of the building, and by extension, development of the built environment. One can even begin to recognize the importance of a building’s position as a confluence of events within a city.

The building topology used to express these ideas of confluence and resolution is an intermodal transportation station in the City of Detroit. The multiple transportation circulations that enter an intermodal station explicitly define the station as a confluence of transportation flows within the city.