Concrete Waffle slab

Much of my work at the moment is focused on the embracing the existing site conditions, one such site condition I seem to have held onto is the eccentric waffle slap which permeates the existing car-park space. In the case of the waffle slab in this building one can see how as the slab extends away from fenchurch street deeper into the surrounding urban context, it fragments and breaks/moves according to the urban condition. Where the road bends/adjusts slightly, the order of the slabs waffles breaks down . Such an interesting condition of the built environment probably exists throughout many mid 20th century London blocks. However, many may not be visible, because walls, rooms and other interventions would disallow someone from viewing the entire slab/waffle condition as one. As such, one aspect of this site I have decided to focus on exaggerating, highlighting is the waffle slabs eccentric form.

Further to this idea of looking at the waffle slab, I like the idea of taking a building material and pushing it to its practical limits so we may view it as more than just a building material. Taking it out of its usual context as a waffle I thought perhaps the waffle shape could be adjusted/ stretched so that it may become a vault in a crypt. One of my rooms is going to house a crypt underneath the main assembly hall. In such a place I would like to see the vaults become something more than just a room. I want to express the concrete as something more than itself, or perhaps find the "essence" of the material. As Martin Steinmann tells us, there is a trend in contemporary Swiss architecture wherein banal materials are being pushed to places wherein we see them as something more than the building material we are used to seeing them as. In such an instance, I could Imagine the vaults of the underground crypts becoming waffle- shaped vaults, so you experience the waffle as something completely different!!! how mad is that!!