Ornamental Ants

Ornamentation, to me. is communication

communication through almost any form

talking, sound and music.

writing and pictures

signs and colours

similarly, building form can subtly communicate.

while originally I thought a buildings purpose was to communicate an idea or a concept, after further reading it seems that buildings are not restricted to these factors.

a design can joke, argue and to a certain extent hold a conversation as one travels through.

the challenge is to communicate in this language.

ornamentation is the ability to enhance this communication and bring it to focus. to communicate a thought through a median outside of speech.

Obstacle

The River

The rivers relationship to the site is difficult to define.

Its slow winding arcs through brisbane and beyond are pivotal to the shape and future growth of the city. along with its historical relationship with the site when the wharf was active.

But, looking at how people use the site for transition and travel, the river is ultimately an obstacle.

A natural beauty, and a national icon, but for the purposes of this site, the river is an obstacle in which to circumnavigate.

on reflection, the river extends the time in the 'mental void'. the time between perceived spaces.

the extension of time in this void probably makes the feeling of transition more apparent and more effective. the longer the transition the longer one has to reflect and refresh. so the obstacle is not really a bad thing.

Similar exercises

this is a picture of players from the collingwood football club in a recovery session.

the practices employed here are the same theories behind the race horse training pool.

the walking movement releases stiffness from the legs and increases your blood flow.

Exemplar Pool

The pool for my site will be focused around recovery. slow constant movements to create steady blood flow around the body.

The best example of this currently is actually a pool designed for race horses.

these pools are designed to get the horse moving its legs in a consistent motion to decrease stiffness and increase muscle tone.

the pool is also good for respiratory breathing exercises.

Site arrival

Site map showing types of access through colour coding.

the red shows transition space relevant to site.

green for pedestrian

black roads

blue water

Transitions

Story Board

this quick storyboard shows how people make a transition using the site. in this case, going home from work.

Reading 3

Totally spaced on putting the third reading reflection up, my bad :S

After reading about Lyons practice I found it interesting how they used almost like a uni classroom approach to their initial stages of design. Collaboration and workshop, especially at that stage of design can create countless viable options. This team orientated design would create a more consistent timeframe of output because of a constant evaluation process by other peers.

The ornamentation and abstractions are obviously what has given this firm its renown but I was very interested in how the firm approaches a building or institution not by ‘what it is’ but by ‘what it can be’. Personally, I believe it is the most innovative approach to analysing because as stated it takes away assumptions and stereotypes that are present in a functional building and unlocks new potential and use.

I was also impressed by the way this firm conducted their research into the hospital by talking one on one with people who had experience. Not just people who worked in a hospital but patients, visitors and onlookers.

I also thought the way that the firm included the client was fantastic. By including them in the design stages allows the client to watch potential designs unfold and gain complete understanding of the building.

What resonated with me the most though was the quote ‘Lyons is in the business of ideas’.

Bridge Diagram

This image is the same as the previous only that this time I used the void in the sky to demonstrate change in the person. as the person moves from the city to new farm they get bigger. Obviously its not literally growing, but instead a persons sense of belonging, self importance or confidence changes..

personally, I feel more comfortable in a place such as new farm then in the city and the growing people can represent that also.

obviously that feeling is not shared by everyone... the growing people simply represent change in the person.

Diagrams

This is two images side by site that i edited to show the heights of buildings on each side of the bridge. the left side shows the outlines of the city buildings and the right hand side shows the outlines of the buildings in new farm.

in this picture I was trying to show the transition from a different angle then just a plan of the site.

this image shows the huge difference in either side of the bridge.

Diagrams from site.

Diagrams from the site showing the transition and change of environment in the different areas around the site.

the first picture shows these 'zones' in isolation and the second shows the zones overlaid on the site.

Red indicates the commercial buildings in the city. the blue shows the residential and small commercial area of new farm.

The area shaded in green indicates the transition one makes between these two opposites. as mentioned earlier, this transition is physical, mental and emotional. the physical change being, a change in location. mental change being a change in what one would tend to think about in each of these places and who this person would socialise with in each of the spaces. an emotional change could be a sense of belonging to one place or the other.

some changes could factor all three aspects for instance, a change into more or less comfortable clothing.

this green lies directly over the site. the bridge can also define a threshold between the two.

Site Analysis

so i havent posted for a while cause im lazy but the next few posts are catchup on what ive been doing starting with this site analysis.

I went to the site during the day and found absolutely nothing that i didn't already know from the original foli site analysis. those findings being: the site is predominantly used as thoroughfare. unless you have some business being there (ie. design assignment) then everyone is likely to move quickly through the space.

I then changed tactic and began to look at the site and guess where people might be heading when travelling through this site. I hypothesised that the people used this thoroughfare as a means of travelling to and from work.

To test this theory I walked with large groups of people leaving work at about 5pm on a friday night. I took note of how people were leaving work that would affect my site. including, City cat, walking/ running/ cycling, and driving.

This theory then became an idea of transition between work and home. not just physically but in a mental and emotional sense. this ties back to my original concept of changing environments through a physical and/or emotional and/or mental change.

I came to the conclusion that any building on the site should not be a final destination, but instead something that can enhance this experience of 'transition'.

hopefully that all makes sense.