Week 9: Group Discussion

On Tuesdays class this week I had a group discussion with a breakout group about my work. I have still be struggling to get a sense of how I am going to further develop and what ideas I could bring to my design so the group discussion was good to get some outside perspective and suggestions.

I showed my work from the A3 surface exercise we did in Week 6 and also went over my key concepts and ideas I am wanting to achieve with my design. A point brought up was that the walls in the space were very plain. I showed them some images of my artist models and talked about the aspects of their work that I am interested in and how I am using them to influence my own work. A suggestion was to have some kind of illusionary affect on the walls. The ceiling and floor create this abstract and illusionary mood already so further exploring this and how it could grab the viewers attention to look around could work with my project. With this idea I could possibly play with and explore the use of the pillars in the space as they are a structural feature and ignoring and disregarding them would defeat the purpose of my design.

The only thing to consider when exploring an illusionary affect is the level of distractedness the wall would create. My concept is to draw attention upwards as the ceiling is the main feature; I don’t want to keep the public looking at eye-level as this destroys the purpose of the space and makes its direction in development confusing.

An observation made by the group was that the projection of light on the floor was similar to that of a gently disturbed water surface. A suggestion was made to possibly explore this further in my design. This was an interesting suggestion because I have previously considered the reflection affect through water and had considered using this in my design. The article How to Encounter a Puddle By Anny Li and her exploration and documentation of puddles in New York City was what triggered this brief idea and concept. I had considered having a thin layer of water to create a reflective affect but considered the cold atmosphere it would create with the public travelling through water in a dark space and I wasn’t quite sure if this was the affect I wanted to create.

This suggestion from the group made me reconsider this idea. I don’t necessarily have to incorporate water in the sense I had considered before but it could visually enact my concepts, ideas and purpose for my design. Water not only has a reflective element to it (Anish Kapoor), but it also has fluid and rounded form and movement (Georgia O’Keeffe). If it were to be considered as an element on the floor of the space, it could also act as and element of manipulating conscious movement and actions within the space and creates a connection between the public moving through the foyer and the qualities of the space itself. The public would also carry a part of the design with them, in a temporal sense. The public leave their mark on the space (wet footprints) and he space leaves its mark on the public.

Another observation by my group was the horizontal and vertical relationship. My design focuses on the movement of the public on a horizontal axis but also the eye-line and attention of the public on a vertical axis. In some way I need to explore the relationship between the two so that they work together and not against each other.

It was also brought to my attention the work of Japanese architect, Junya Ishigami. Below is a picture of his work, Balloon, which is made from aluminium, weighing over a ton, but is suspended in the air like a balloon because it is filled with helium.

(http://fullinsight.com/blog/2012/10/cuboid-ballon-by-junya-ishigami)

Not only i the slightly warped reflection of its surroundings interesting and resonate with my design, but also its combination of structure and form with fluidity and movement. It amazes me how something that large and heavy is a creating a sense of floating and defying gravity.

(https://www.iconeye.com/diary/item/3544-junya-ishigami?cpnb_method=cpnbCookiesAccepted)