Carson Michaelis
S09 → New Radio Liberty
Fall 2022
Studio MA1
École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
Professors Meritxell Vaquer & Daniel Bosshard
Partner João Saraiva Teixeira
On Pals Beach in rural Catalonia remains a now-defunct cold war radio station. Run by the U.S. government and left to the Spanish in 2006, it has become an object of little desire to all but the locals, and now sits vacant and vandalized in an uncommonly well-preserved coastal pine forest. Our new plan for the complex proposes a university-partnered research campus, as well as group housing. The work below focuses in on the housing for three different groups: resident researchers, a year-long refugee learning program, and primary school groups on four-day visits.
Responding to each group, as well as the existing structures on site, the design proposes two simple moves to re-imagine the entire space. First is the creation of a cistern for water storage and meditation in the main courtyard, and using the surprisingly solid ground removed to create rammed earth walls to extend and connect existing structures on the site. Second is the redesign of the entire roof, which will now expand and connect between previously isolate structures, and between them generating a serioes of courtyards and gardens that indicate program.
Historic Images of Pals Beach Radio Liberty; Site Plan Drawing
New Campus Plan and Section
Residence Floor Plans
North Elevation
South Elevation
Section through visiting student rooms, main courtyard, and researcher housing.
Section through refugee learning housing, main courtyard and cistern, and youth play areas.
Detail section through researcher housing and main courtyard.
Detail section through new addition with rammed earth wall.