Sunday, June 15, 2008

PROJECT 3 ART GALLERY,SHOP/HOUSE


Jenny Green's Sculpture: Backflip
Oil paintings by Peter Francis Lawrence
Oil paintings by Peter Francis Lawrence
Oil paintings by Peter Francis Lawrence

The contemporary artworks I have chosen to display in my gallery uses the simplest abstract forms and colors to represent movement in nature also can be interpreted into a journey or circulation flow in architecture terms. Jenny Green an Australian born sculptor who lives in Sydney a quote for her approach to her sculptures’ my challenge is to capture a moment in time. I see my sculptures as drawings in space evoking both mood and movement’. I am very inspired by her artwork as movement can invoke emotions which I try and capture in my design using circulation a huge design concept. Peter Francis Lawrence also another well known Sydney artist which his oil paintings draw the approach best described as movement in nature. Also in his artwork we can see a relationship of movement and flow, what I like about his work is the nature colors in architecture terms materials this will be my main focus on the selection of materials I use in my design. Materials which I took out of these paintings were stone, wood, and concrete, very simple but a touch of modern taste.


Site: location
Initial drawings
Sketchup development 1Sketchup development 2


Final Ground floor plan
Final first floor plan Final 2nd Floor plan Long and short section
Section of the office,bathroom and interior courtyard
Views from Sketchup View of building from King street
First level view of the gallery lounge
Interior view of the front gallery to the back
The view of the masterbedroom and walk-in wardrobe
The upper main gallery view
The office view
The art of picking a site was not easy as the brief mentioned to be located in the heart of Newtown on King Street. My first impression to King Street was it was a busy place with many backgrounds as the upper street was filled with University students from Sydney University while the lower street was a crowd of people dressed very expressively commonly known as in the fashion of ‘Punk’. King street’s buildings all mostly Victorian heritage buildings where little modern architecture was found, from this I made a decision that my design would not be too dramatic which is bold, simple but creative in its own unique way.

I ended up picking a place in the lower part of King Street where the atmosphere is peaceful and quiet feel where it was not as busy. To me a gallery’s atmosphere is very important as it is also a dwelling; a busy road creates noise which will disturb the beauty of the experience of viewing the art. The location is sort to be perfect in my sense as it is very accessible 5 minute walk to the train station and the surrounding shops were somehow relate to art. The rare access street is a residential area which also contributed a part of the consideration of picking this place as it is good location for living.

My interpretation of the brief was to design an art gallery, shop/house for an art dealer.’ A gallery/shop in a dwelling’, this is very important concept to my design as I focused on the dwelling part more as I interpreted the building to be a gallery as a courtyard of a dwelling. Many things I have considered that have determined my decision on focusing on the dwelling rather than the gallery. My argument is that the building would be used as a dwelling more compared to being a gallery and if we concentrated on the gallery the space would be a waste because you can only use that space for the gallery. I believe a good living comes first above all. So my goal is to try and make spaces which cross the boundary which can be used as both shop or dwelling purposes.

My development is very simple as I first tried to design like an exterior massing which had a traditional façade and picturing the interior as the concept coming from my research of Le Corbusier’s La Roche-Jeanneret villa having the second floor looking over looking of the artworks. Then I looked at Kimbell art museum by Louis Kahn that really sparked my inspiration in design above lighting as a key element and different king of light such as green light. Testing if the rounded arch roof is the best way to go but I ended up changing because I wanted to do something of my own.

Then I started to develop the façade and the front gallery keeping in mined of a display area which all shops/ gallery have I made a small window. With a concrete wall blocking inside blocks any views of the interior. What I’m trying to do is making security in the sense of a dwelling and a preview of what kind of shop is it hanging paintings. Only diffuse light will enter into the front gallery, it is the darkest room only lit by lighting it is a sense which I try to convey. Relates to my concept of flow like but in a sense of tone it gets lighter as you go further the’ journey’ to search for light. And putting where the stairs are at the other side of the entrance later on changed it to in front of the entrance which I believe is much better as a gesture of welcoming that the positioning of the stairs is very important as hidden stairs means it’s private. (Talking about stairs I decided to install a see through staircase because it acts as a window a preview of what the main gallery would be)
Keeping in mind with all the rooms I have to develop I made a quick analysis of which spaces would be where, and that it goes public to private from ground to top level. So in logic terms I listed down the functions of each room related to each other as a sense of flow leaving me ground floor having an office, toilet, gallery, garage, and storage space. As you can see from the photos I have extended the window of the façade using up maximum amount of space. I started to introduce a curve in my rectangle site which later on I changed as introducing a curve might disturb the rhythm of the design. Also you can see from the picture that I have put a stone path on the left side of the ground floor it acts as a non visual bearer but a bearer to protect the paintings and a sense of flow is seen from the stone path.
Then I started to play with the level changes giving distinct areas of the gallery as level and height of space will contribute to the experience the front gallery is in smaller. I made the front gallery much lower in height because I discover the nature of shops as; the front gallery is mostly a browsing area which is the decision where people would want to continue or not very an important space.
Then I got a problem which I solved later putting an interior courtyard was the positioning of the office and toilet if I made it to the wall it would disturb the flow of view, which is my main focus.
My design is really focused on natural lighting as each room has its own portion of the sun light. The main 3 areas which give natural light, first is the main gallery strip as it gets above south sun light which is even it also gives an opportunity for artwork viewed from above. The second area is the interior courtyard which its main purpose to give green lighting to the office and the bathroom. The interior courtyard will be filled with shrubs and bamboos a Japanese garden which is clean and neat. I think the experience of gallery must be taken to every part of the building even the public bathroom must be considered. The window acts as frame as the landscape garden acts as the painting which also relates back to my artworks of nature. The bathroom can be accessed from the office or the main gallery which is very convenient.
The third area is the main outside courtyard which provides a space for viewing a sculpture by Jenny Green it also acts a divider to spaces as it divides public and private as the back part of the building is where the garage and storage area is and the bedroom/workshop for the artist.

The first floor’s purpose is very simple as it acts a upper viewing platform and also a function area which parties and meetings could be held as it occupies a kitchen and lounge and 2nd main gallery. This is the area I explored as the space that cross the boundary, having sliding doors it enables the owner to make the kitchen private or public. Also the lounge at level two can be used as a spiritual space when needed when the gallery is not opened.
The kitchen is connected to the back building as I mentioned earlier my focus is the flow of circulation. This is very convenient for a dwelling purpose as an example if the owner comes back using the car buying food his/her first place would be to the kitchen putting a access there it meaning shorter route rather going to the front stairs going up. It also acts as a private access not disturbing the main flow of the gallery. The workshop/guestroom is situated at place where easy access to the storage when finished or needed supply from the garage. I made enough space to become a bedroom also when not used as a workshop as it too has an ensuite access another space of the idea of crossing boundary purposes.

The third level is accessed by a private stair as positioned in a more private manner, first you arrive to the lounge it was very hard designing the third level as it has to match the existing floor plan of the lower. Trying to make efficient use of the space and keeping in concept of walking in wardrobe to the ensuite I ended up having the above design. As you can see from the plan I made the master bedroom bigger compared to other rooms as an office can be installed inside as what Adolf Loos said it is for the owner to decide what how they would like to decorate it. Maybe another room can be later on installed if they plan to have a child.
Last point I would like to point out on the third floor is the light catcher for the main galleries it’s shape is a half cut arch having only the top half glazed how it works is using reflection on to the wall it diffuses the light going down giving a more even light for viewing art.

My third project is really simple but detailed in every way, my main concept focus is about the dwelling and the ‘circulation of people’ and view because this is how they experience artwork and ‘circulation of view’ lighting etc. To achieve this I incorporated concepts of level changes and different types of light turning it into a journey. The material I used is very simple as I mentioned earlier I picked materials from the artworks ‘nature’. Using the materials I was also able to identify public to private as ground floor concrete, first floor timber and then second level carpet. The interior walls I have chosen are white because it gives a sense of clean and neat as it has no certain sense of background at all because each art work is different so I did not want to make certain assumption of a style etc.
The exterior of my design uses concrete which gives it a sense of modern also does not make a bold statement to the rest of the street.

You may tell I have used what I have learned from my pervious projects to this design. From the Bawa office I learnt how to use the flow of movement functions and from the second project the experience of views. I leave with this last message of this project is that I focus on the function of the design rather than the look, Frank Lloyd Wright ‘form follows function’.



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