CASA del Boca, a commercial/residential development in Boca Raton, Florida

Abstract

My original intent for this thesis in terms of what I wished to accomplish had a great deal to do with how my attitudes toward architecture have evolved. These feelings can basically be summed up in two categories, one dealing with the priority of the designer's responsibilities and the other category concerned with what I feel to be important design concepts. These ideas finally fell into place after four years of struggling to determine how to achieve "good" design. How well I have succeeded in applying them is, as it always has been through history, going to be judged separate from the written description of the designer's intent.I do feel, however, that design decisions should be made with a definite priority system in mind. At the top of my ranking, the professional should first be responsible to the client who employs him and for whom he is acting as an agent. Next, he should act in the interests of. the-users by properly establishing programming relationships to satisfy physical needs. Third in line are the interests of the public who will only rarely view the building as a sculptural addition to the community. Last in terms of priority in decision making comes the architect's ego, the need for recognition among his peers. If the designer feels that these boundaries are too restrictive for his artistic expression, then he should switch to a field less inhibitive than one involving "public" service.From the design concepts which have been introduced to me during my academic career, I have chosen four which are important to me and which I have tried to emphasize in my project. Because I feel that the scale of the building should reflect its function, in much the same way as church designers strive for monumentality to dwarf and humble the user, I have tried to relate my public oriented project to a human scale by manipulating massing and detailing. I also feel that a primary responsibility of the architect to his community involves respecting the context in which his building will be placed, I have tried to acknowledge the neighborhood and surrounding buildings, the local stylistic patterns, the codes, and the circulation patterns of the city of Boca Raton and of my site. Because I feel that specialization tends to limit the usefulness of a structure, I have tried to give my project the capability of seasonal changes and possibly functional changes. Finally, I have attempted to introduce variety in material usage and by changes in scale to minimize sensory deprivation and increase the perceived complexity and interest of the user in the space.