June 2010 Archives
Since none of you saw my final presentation, thought I would post it.. for posterity!!
Here goes..
MELTING SPACE.
The design thesis is an investigation into the dynamic distortion of space, perception and feelings.
In the main project I use water, movement, steam and reflections to create a series of sensorial experiences that seem to defy the laws of physics.
The project proposes an alternative to the rigid, static and orthogonal experience of self-similar space within the gridded city
Instead it is about creating spaces that are alive and emotive that make you feel through all of your senses and feel something within. I am interested in spaces that move you: the iconicity of the experience.
For the re-brief I chose to look at Zaha's Peak project because I was interested in how she uses the VISUAL DISTORTION of perspective and form to construct a moving and gravity-defying VISUAL EXPERIENCE within and in contrast to the orthogonal context of Hong Kong.
By de-constructing space according to different perspective points Zaha allows for a space to be perceived very differently depending on your point of view within it. Giving the sensation that it is moving or morphing as you move through it.
The re-brief re-imagines and focuses on the physical and emotive EXPERIENCES that could be generatedTHROUGH VISUAL DISTORTIONS of space in the peak. Linking an emotion or feeling with a visual distortion of space and perception.
Awe and suspension: through the distortion/ exaggeration of the cantilever which projects out of the image
Vertigo or a sense falling or fear of falling: due to the exaggerated perception of depth, through the contrast of foreground and background
Imbalance and disorientation. This is an anamorphic projection which can only be read from one point of view through a mirrored cone, so you feel as if you are off balance or out of focus until you are in exactly the right position to read the space.
Movement and change: This plate is a 2 way image whereby your perception or reading of the space changes depending on the position of your body relative to the image.
Re-brief conclusion
The re-brief of the Peak investigated how visual distortion of space can generate a physical and emotive experience.
Taking this as a departure point for the main project, I wanted to investigate a much more PHYSICAL AND SENSORIAL way of exploring the distortion of space and experience.
Whilst Zaha and the re-brief only address the VISUAL.
Melting Space distorts the visual, acoustic, oral, tactile, sensory and emotional experience of space. To change the experience of gravity, orientation, boundaries, vertigo, isolation, atmosphere.
The design proposal is a set of pool spaces, which use water, steam reflections and movement to create a series of sensorial experiences, within and in contrast to the even more orthogonal context of NY. I use movement and water as a material to transform the sense of space and experience within, to create an isolated escape or sensory retreat. It is a separated world of its own, which has its own weather, atmosphere and laws of gravity.
The project is explored and described through a series of fictional scenarios or scenes outside and within the pool rooms, which speculate on a journey through the this world and what kinds of feelings and physical sensations can be experienced within.
(Now I am going to start the story.)
Distortion 1: awakening curiosity through movement
From the outside the pool spaces aren't like the static monumental towers surrounding it. They turn and transform: and the sounds of crashing water and rain from within can often be heard from the street awakening curiosity and confusion in the minds of those passing by.
Distortion 2: Mystery through weather and microclimate
Occasionally water leaks and sprays out onto the street creating its own local rain showers.
Like a leaking fire hydrant in summer, it draws you towards it to feel the cool water on your skin and to play in the rain.
In the winter steam pours out into the cold air and clouds form at a low level hiding the pools behind it
Distortion 3: Suspense through the dark journey from the street
The building sits on top of an existing building and you enter from a dark alley off the street.
Walking into the steamy alleyway you go through a corridoor and into a dark lift steel lift shaft. Looking up you see the light from the pool spaces above.
Travelling up 8 storeys you finally arrive at the heart of the pool spaces in the steel core.
From here you can enter all of the pool rooms
GOING BEHIND THE SCENES:
The pool spaces sit above the existing building and connects down through the central core, where you took the lift up into the building.
It is here that you have all of the main structure and services for the building.
And all of the interlocking pool rooms centre around and connect back to this central circulation core.
This is one of the service connection details between the wall of a room and the core.
GOING BACK INSIDE THE BUILDING:
You step out of the core and walk straight into the first room.
Distortion 4: Freedom from gravity through water and orientationless room
Climbing down one of the ladders poking out at different orientations, you feel you have entered a gravity free space, and feel slightly dizzy.
Plunging into the warm water you feel your body and mind adjusting to the new perception of gravity. You float in a gravity free-state.
GOING BEHIND THE SCENES:
These sections show how every room the rooms are orientationless and seem to have no sense of gravity or direction, because they are designed to work and transform at different orientations. This shows how one rooms changes and the water is displaced as it is turned 90 degrees.
GOING BACK INSIDE THE BUILDING:
Distortion 5 The feeling of VERTIGO AND IMBALANCE through the turning of a room
In another room, gravity and orientation are subverted further as the room itself starts to turn. The walls become the ceiling the floor the walls, and water pours from room to room, brushing against your skin and filling the room with sound. Transforming your experience of space within.
When turning sometimes it is difficult to tell which way up you are or what is the floor or wall or ceiling, creating a temporary dizzying sensation of vertigo and imbalance. (This image shows the tilted wall as the turning room is in transition. Whereby it is hard to tell what is floor or wall and which orientation you are. It also uses context of the dizzying and perfectly symmetrical tower facade to help in creating this sense of imbalance, as it can be read both upside down and the right way up.)
GOING BEHIND THE SCENES:
The rooms are turned and re-configure through the rotation of rooms on 3 axes and the interlocking geometry of the rooms.
This shows the structure of one room and the ball-bearing tracks which allow for the room move and to turn.
GOING BACK INSIDE THE BUILDING:
Distortion 6 the sensation of flying and freedom through water and transparency
Diving into the next pool you feel like you are soaring through mid-air above the city below.
Distortion 7 feeling weather inside a room.
You come up to the surface and feel droplets of water on you skin and hear the sounds of rain. For a moment reality seems to be reversed as the external phenomenon of rain is brought inside.
Distortion 8 feeling of enclosure and boundaries through walls of cascading water.
The room is pushed out to reveal sweeping views of the city. The experience is still and quiet and you can hear the sounds of the city below. It is an if there are no boundaries between inside and outside. You feel open and exposed. But then as the water overspills in the pool above you and crashes down, the water blurs and drowns out the view and sounds of the city. Leaving you feeling enclosed behind a wall of water.
GOING BEHIND THE SCENES:
To allow for the water to define the sense of space, the walls are completely transparent and seamless, borrowing from the technology used in aquarium construction.
GOING BACK INSIDE:
Distortion 9 sense of isolation through layers of steam and disorientation through fog Steam builds up in the walls, making you feel increasingly cut off and isolated from adjacent rooms and the city.
And sometimes the atmosphere becomes so thick you cannot see at all, creating a sense of disorientation and vulnerability. No longer able to rely on your sight, you put your hands out in front of you and use sound and touch to navigate through the room.
GOING BEHIND THE SCENES:
This shows how steam is also used within the walls to obscure and hide the view of the services and structure.
GOING BACK INSIDE:
Distortion 10: The feeling of IMMERSION through sound and sight of crashing water. You feel like you are drowning or being immersed underwater as you hear and watch the room in front of you being filled with floods of water. This awakens a sense of fear and excitement.
The scenes describe and speculate the feelings and phenomena you can experience in the pool rooms; which can create feelings of disorientation, fear, desire, flying, enclosure and immersion. And since my thesis focuses on the distortion of experience through all of the senses, I have also been developing a film which shows some of the scenes and how I designed the sound of the spaces within too.
Conclusion
The project and thesis started by questioning the conventional repeated and orthogonal subdivision of space within the gridded city, and focussing on the iconicity of experience over the object. The orthogonal towers in the city within which both the re-brief and the main project are located in, embody form and scale. But often create conventional and repetitive self-similar experiences of space within.
Looking at Zaha's Peak as a precedent of a distorted and gravity-defying experience of movement within and in contrast to the orthogonal fabric of Hong Kong. The ambition of MY project and the thesis was to investigate ways of distorting space (first visually in the re-brief, and then through all of the senses in the main project) to create an escape from the rigid and self-similar spaces in the city. And to use the distortion of space and perception, through water and movement, to awaken feelings and unique physical experiences of mystery, curiosity, orientation, surprise, isolation, freedom, enclosure, atmosphere and weather.
The project/ thesis evolved into the creation of a world within a city, which is about moving you emotionally, through the senses and mind. A phenomenological investigation into architecture and its relationship to experience and emotion, through the distortion of space and perception.
