Program for a resort hotel/marina

Transition, as related to us by Webster, isthe "movement, passage, or change from one position, state, stage, subject, concept, etc., to another." The human individual continually experiences countless different types of transitions from before birth until after death. Of all the varied types of transitions, physical transitions, the movements from one physical environment to another, are the most easily recognizable. The individual, in his daily routine, makes many physical transitions; from dark to light, from bed to shower, from home to work place, from outside to inside, etc.

In any case, physical transitions should be controlled by a suitable "transitory vehicle." A controlling vehicle reduces the chance of traumatic effects occurring during the transition. When moving from the environment of one's penthouse apartment to the environment of the street, for example, failure to use a proper transitory vehicle (stairs or elevator) could prove to instigate severe physiological transitions. In order for the transitory vehicle to function properly, it must relate to both environments simultaneously.

Architecture may function as a physical transitory vehicle. One passes through a gate when transitioning from street to garden. A doorway provides the vehicle for movement from outside inside or from public to private. An airport acts as the vehicle relating two-dimensional earthbound travel to commuting within air and its three dimensions. Architecture, as a transitory vehicle controlling the transition from one environment and its activities to another, should relate to both environments simultaneously and in a way proportional to the importance of each environment and its activities.

An example of architecture used well as a transitory vehicle is the TWA Building in New York designed by Eero Saarinen. The metaphor of flight projected by the structure links the building, which, by current building practices, must be anchored to the ground, to the sky where the activity of flight takes place. The curving surfaces of the building also help reinforce the idea of movement. In all, the building provides the user with a smooth transition from relatively slow, horizontal movement at ground level to faster movement within the air.

To explore this thesis, the proposed project is a resort hotel/marina. The design will center on transitions as large in scope as from land to water and as small as from guest room to balcony. Emphasis will be on creating an architectiire which sensitively aids the user in transitioning from one environment and its activities to another.