Darius Magada-Ward is a multi-disciplanary designer based out of Chicago, Illinois. He is currently pursuing his Masters of Architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology.
Pool Party
The Pool Party imagines a winding pavilion integrated into a topographically challenging landscape that places the user in a position to engage with water and all its most magnificent aspects: the joy of play, chaos, and healing are all on display.
The Pool Party imagines a winding pavilion integrated into a topographically challenging landscape that places the user in a position to engage with water and all its most magnificent aspects: the joy of play, chaos, and healing are all on display.
Feburary 2023
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April 2023
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The site is located at a unique point along the Chicago lakefront. Sandwiched between high volumes of foot traffic from recreational users of the park from the Northern side of the city and Chicago’s busiest sections of tourism from downtown. A corridor between downtown and Lincoln Park, as it reaches peak volumes of circulation it paradoxically acts as a dead zone programmatically for the lakefront’s users. Bathers primarily utilize the concrete slabs to the south and the beach directly north, and the current paths for bikers and runners bypass the site. This zone is ripe for opportunity for new year-round public engagement through the form of the building’s various programs, and the adjusted surrounding landscape.
We began to formulate our concept through a simple massing process by imagining bars of form to represent individual programs. By asking the most basic questions about what the functions of an aquatic center we began to determine how might our proposal best serve the surrounding community. Pools and fitness centers more generally tend to be private institutions, so creating something that could act simultaneously as a meeting center, zone for play, and a relaxing area of escape were important issues to consider.
The form of the building came about by imagining bars of program hinged, stacked, and placed fit to each have an ideal relationship with the site. The pool program faces the bay between North Avenue Beach and Oak Street Beach, framing the iconic view of Lake Shore Drive and the Hancock Tower. The cafe atrium is hinged to meet the users of the lakefront’s walking path, offering a place to cozy up or grab some refreshments. The facade is treated through diagonal bands of Indiana limestone and glass, patterned to create a beautiful chevron motif that calls to mind both the wonder of the Great Lakes and the glacial winters of Chicago. At evening, the bands of glass become a band of light, floating above the depths of the lake. The shifts of the facade also create tectonic breaks within the ground to form interior pools, and the treatment of both the pools and glazing can be seen as one cohesive whole. Within the cafe atrium these breaks create interior pedestals for sitting or studying, as well as depressions for an interior greenscape. The building’s entrance consists of a lobby featuring a welcome desk built into a stadium staircase that operates as a means of circulation as well as a meeting place. Finally, a sloping yoga studio and auditorium sits beneath a rooftop pool that dramatically cantilevers over Lake Michigan.
The site is located at a unique point along the Chicago lakefront. Sandwiched between high volumes of foot traffic from recreational users of the park from the Northern side of the city and Chicago’s busiest sections of tourism from downtown. A corridor between downtown and Lincoln Park, as it reaches peak volumes of circulation it paradoxically acts as a dead zone programmatically for the lakefront’s users. Bathers primarily utilize the concrete slabs to the south and the beach directly north, and the current paths for bikers and runners bypass the site. This zone is ripe for opportunity for new year-round public engagement through the form of the building’s various programs, and the adjusted surrounding landscape.
We began to formulate our concept through a simple massing process by imagining bars of form to represent individual programs. By asking the most basic questions about what the functions of an aquatic center we began to determine how might our proposal best serve the surrounding community. Pools and fitness centers more generally tend to be private institutions, so creating something that could act simultaneously as a meeting center, zone for play, and a relaxing area of escape were important issues to consider.
The form of the building came about by imagining bars of program hinged, stacked, and placed fit to each have an ideal relationship with the site. The pool program faces the bay between North Avenue Beach and Oak Street Beach, framing the iconic view of Lake Shore Drive and the Hancock Tower. The cafe atrium is hinged to meet the users of the lakefront’s walking path, offering a place to cozy up or grab some refreshments. The facade is treated through diagonal bands of Indiana limestone and glass, patterned to create a beautiful chevron motif that calls to mind both the wonder of the Great Lakes and the glacial winters of Chicago. At evening, the bands of glass become a band of light, floating above the depths of the lake. The shifts of the facade also create tectonic breaks within the ground to form interior pools, and the treatment of both the pools and glazing can be seen as one cohesive whole. Within the cafe atrium these breaks create interior pedestals for sitting or studying, as well as depressions for an interior greenscape. The building’s entrance consists of a lobby featuring a welcome desk built into a stadium staircase that operates as a means of circulation as well as a meeting place. Finally, a sloping yoga studio and auditorium sits beneath a rooftop pool that dramatically cantilevers over Lake Michigan.
Fall 2022
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Fall 2022
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Fall 2022
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