During the break I made a series of mini models and drawings to help me explore my conceptual ideas. I used this exercise to try and help me explore ideas in a physical sense to help give me more direction for next steps.
I also created the first iteration of my positioning statement to help me organize my thoughts and ideas and give me direction. I’ve been feeling like I have such a wide range of ideas and I have been struggling to find the main concept in which I can explore this array of ideas while still being clear with want I want to achieve.
Below are my ideas and my first positioning statement.
DRAFT IDEAS
Gentrification
Disregard to surroundings
Encapsulating and trapping
Created two separate worlds
Social climate and purpose change
Loss of value and status in a traditional sense
Highlighting the disregard n terms of the design and construction of the wintergardens so there needs to be consideration to the gardens history popping the bubble and reconnecting the the two worlds
One entity
Encapsulated
Trapped
Escaping
Reclaiming
Questioning limitations of Thresholds
Disregard
Result of disregard
Wider system
Reconnecting
Contrast
Pop the bubble
Lost value and status
time
POSITIONING STATEMENT
This project is focused on reflection, reconnection and the idea of one being.
When the Wintergardens were built there was little consideration to its surroundings. It was created as a bubble of curated nature, separating it, using physical thresholds to create two worlds of the same contents, meters apart, one socially viewed as more elite. The glasshouses specifically are a means of encapsulating, trapping and preserving; an unnatural way of controlling a component of nature.
In this project my ideas of nature are heavily influenced by John Dixon Hunt’s theory of First, Second and Third Nature. The gardens are an example of third nature and its surroundings an example of second nature, both are viewed and experienced as two separate entities. My aim with this project is to reconnect the common denominator, nature.
In my view, nature is part of one large systematic entity which has been continually disrupted, displaced and controlled by humans over time. This project is a way of reflecting and reconnecting and highlighting the idea of one being by stripping away the social views and hierarchy placed on nature. The aim is to take the power and control people took for themselves and give it back to its rightful owner, nature.
Because my concepts have grown from the disregard taken in the design and construction of the Wintergardens it is important that I consider the history of the establishment when reconnecting the inside with the out in order not to repeat the point I am highlighting. My project is just a dot in the timeline of growth of the site, and you can’t grow without reflection.
Spatial Design by Ciara 