31 Columns
A tall room, two slabs, and 31 wooden columns. This project reduces its architectural means to a single repeated move, allowing small interventions to produce outsized effects.
The columns are non-structural. They do not carry the building; they carry the room. Freed from load-bearing duty, they become spatial devices. They structure space, organize movement, and modulate light without the use of walls or partitions. Thick, triangular in section, and unavoidably present, the columns define the character of the space and shape its material atmosphere.
Repetition replaces enclosure. Most architectural elements are omitted, and finishes are kept to a minimum. The space relies almost entirely on the placement of columns to do its work. As one moves through the room, the field produces variation without formal change—moments of compression and release, proximity and distance. Seating and circulation settle in the spaces in between.
Used as a café, the project resists the conventional logic of retail interiors. Rather than minimizing columns, it treats them as its primary spatial instrument, using a single, familiar element to produce a room that is active, legible, and present.
