Verse Hostel, Co-work and Cafe
"A building can only be understood by moving around and through it and by experiencing the modulation and feel of the spaces one moves through."
Geoffrey Bawa
Client:
Verse Collective is a socially-orientated collective of designers and creatives based in the Southern Province of Sri Lanka.
Description:
The project involved the transformation of an existing concrete-frame building - previously a wedding hall and hotel rooms - into a hostel, café, co-work space and clothing & surf shop.
Verse 2
Verse 1
Context - Hiriketiya Bay
Drone View
Site:
The site is a 100m deep, linear plot with frontage on to the beach. The existing building is placed deep into the site with a court of palm trees fronting it. Adjacent to the site is a palm-covered hill. This provides for natural and soft foreground filtering views of the sea beyond.
Interior Rendering
Concept:
The intervention responds to the depth of the site by setting up rooms (inside and outside) along its length, creating a journey between the building and the sea. The thresholds between these ‘rooms’ are articulated by architectural elements such as water features ,forecourts, changes in direction and widening/narrowing of the path.
The end point of the journey is articulated by an opening made in the slab, allowing light and rain to fall into the once dark space. The floor below is cut open to create a water feature. The water not only assists with passive cooling, but also reflects the sky - and therefore light - further into the space.
Walls are opened and replaced by timber louvers to allow large openings toward the surrounding views and maximize cross-ventilation.
Opening made in Slab
Lounge and Co-work Space
Space:
New building elements are expressed separately from the existing structure serving not only to distinguish between old and new, but to express the elemental honesty of that which supports and that which encloses.
Materiality:
A local plastering technique of polished stucco was used to distinguish the ‘boxes’ and give a corporeal quality to the surfaces.
Hostel Entry and Pod
Details
Rendered Perspective
Interior Renderings
Garden and Cafe
The garden was conceived as as an outdoor lounge, cafe terrace and event space. The concrete platform is rendered by the dappled shadows of the palm fronds.
Cafe & Garden
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Mini-ramp & Garden
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Construction Progress
Garden & Hall Before intervention