Provincetown, Room by Room

This project re-imagines the small coastal town of Provincetown, MA. Inspired by the Cape Cod paintings of Edward Hopper, the project tries to preserve the uniqie connection between the land, built environment and the sea. The specific painting that inspired the design is called ‘‘Rooms by the sea”. In it, we can experience the feeling of proximity to water very vividly. An extreme high tide condition is depicted in the picture. The room seem to hover over the sea and it is somewhat threatened by it.

Unlike most responses to the sea level rise, this project proposes an sectional city that has strong ties to both land and the sea. The section, which becomes the unique character of this new city, leads to the development of new architectural types which end up definind the urban morphology. These new types are houses that are built as collection of structurally and tectonicly seperated rooms.

Inhabitants are expected to experience this city by constantly moving up and down between the main street and the beach through the raumplan-like section of the house, arriving at either the Hopperesque room that hover over the sea, or the little shope on the main street.