Receptive Architecture: Theatre and Market at Porta Ticinese Part 2 Project 2010 Yuichi Hashimura University of East London London | UK The basic intention of the project is to create a public building that is receptive for the functions and change of the times so that it is integrated into the city fabric of Milan. The concept of receptiveness arose through the observation of great Italian architecture that are persistent as public spaces. In this project, this issue is translated into the sense of the distance between the form of architecture and the programmes.The two main programmes of this project, flexible theatre and food market, are applied for the reasons of not only their publicness but also the analogy in the required tolerance of architecture. Considering the natures of theatre and market, the contributions of the building for them are not very great. In terms of the fictional nature of a performance that is arisen each time, theatre is only partly related to the building. Although a market is full of feeling of everyday life, it has common points with a theatre in the way that the substance is tolerated by the users, also it is an ephemeral existence; it appears every morning and disappears before the sun goes down. Thus the original natures of theatre and market belong to happenings rather than institutions, and they are free from the building in some degree.Pursuant to that concept, the building features the clear and sober form of the use of modular construction to bring some universality and tolerance. The precast concrete roof with suspended concrete facade panels supported by two lines of columns caps the main floor, which has flat continuity with the newly created plaza in Porta Ticinese as well as the promenade along Darsena, the dock that used to be a lively trading spot. And the theatre and the market are set in the void of the main floor as a great central nave. Although this building is designed to be flexible and universal, it possesses, at the same time, the certain character in the presence that will be a new landmark of Porta Ticinese. In his project for his Diploma, Yuichi ‘Hashi’ Hashimura proposed a singular building that accommodates both a contemporary theatre as well as an existing market. Sited on the eastern edge of the Darsena Basin in the south of Milan, the building has a quiet yet powerful presence on this busy intersection at Porta Ticinese. The form of the building, a long low shed, recalls the industrial heritage of the basin and surrounding canals yet, upon closer inspection, a building of exquisite detail, proportion and finesse is revealed. The proposal’s strength also resides in the way the ground surface is articulated, allowing the building to connect comfortably back to the city on all its four edges, inviting occupation into a range of new public spaces.‘Hashi’ is an exceptional and thoughtful student of architecture, one whose vision and clarity as a designer are remarkably mature and one whose exemplary talent is tempered by a unique quality of reticence. Tutor(s)Mr Mark HaydukMr Jan Liebe