A Chronotorium is a conceptual building typology, an architecture to understand time.

Modern, contemporary thinking suggests that objects, tangible or intangible, are not separate entities but parts of a greater whole. This idea extends into the abstract concepts like that of time and space. We can therefore assume that we live in one infinite, continuous moment. However, we can only access an infinitely short amount of this moment, referred to as present time.

The Chronotorium at Skidaway Island is an endeavor to raise awareness to this phenomenon. The architecture is meant to expand the infinite moment, to emphasize the present. Although the awareness and importance of the present time only can be found within oneself, the architecture can encourage a meditative environment and a close connection to fundamental perceptions of time.

Time is an abstract measurement of what has happened and what has yet to happen. We can not reverse the order or go back and forth between these. Yet, time is one universal dimension that we all exist in.

The space in between what has happened and what is yet to happen is commonly referred to as the present moment. This moment is however infinitely short and merely an imaginary barrier between the past and the future.

In order to emphasize the present, the architectural design forces its inhabitants to make choices. Since a choice is a decision made in the present, for the future, based upon cumulative knowledge, it encourages people to live in the moment.

The infinitely short gap in time that we call the present is the only time in which we actually act upon. Anything past that is out of our control.

The complex circulation is a metaphor for how we exist in both the past, present and the future and that they are all equally important to us.

Upon arrival, one will have to make a choice as one enters the gap between the two structures. Either of the two entrances will let one experience both structures but in different orders. From the first floor of the dark structure one can reach the second floor of the light structure and vice versa. There is however not a link vertical link between the first and second floor of the same structure.

The perforated walls indicate how we can always hint what is beyond the present moment but never exist in either the past or the future.

The disconnected planes indicate how neither the future nor the past are fully shaped. Both the future and the past are constructions of our imagination.

The idea is to give the user a subconscious understanding that one’s past will influence one’s future. The choice of past can only be made in the present moment.

Legend:

1. Space for External Inspiration

2. Transitional Spaces

Legend:

1. Introducing Space

2. Space for Internal Reflection

3. Need Based Spaces

4. Interstitial Space

Section A-A