The third year Design Studio 7, “make. do & move” was centered around the theme of Integration. The task was to design a public facility in Whitmore Square tailored to the people of the area which offers the opportunity to reconnect with an embodied experience of making, working together, promoting cultures of creative production, collaboration, co- working and embodied expression with the aim being to design a place where groups of people can collaboratively promote and a manage a mix of creative initiatives.
NB: scale depicted on images is not accurate
The brief asked for the integration of three main spaces; making, doing and public realm. Making included ceramics, carpentry, sculpture, and printmaking. Doing was centered around spaces for collaboration, whilst in terms of public realm we could only occupy 70% of the site with the rest to be left to the public as a way of inviting interaction with the public.
Utilising initial course research I undertook of the site, it’s location and social demographics I used these to shape my buildings form and layout.
Based on preliminary site analysis I focused on location and social demographics to inform the direction of my buildings form and layout.
Based on preliminary site analysis I focused on location and social demographics to inform the direction of my buildings form and layout.
One of the factors to address with the site was transportation and traffic. My building aimed to promote bicycles as an alternate method of transport through design integration which promotes a healthier life style as wells as a reduction in traffic. I achieved this through a tailor made bike path that slices through the building winding down to the service loading dock areas where there are multiple opportunities to store bikes.
My observations of the site picked up on a lot of brickwork from Adelaide’s CBD history of brick kiln production. I also noticed the extent of weathered materials in and around whitmore square which led me to toying around with the metaphor that drove my project of ‘peeling back the history of the site.’ I did this by contrasting new materials of pre fab concrete with recycled bricks.
The peeling part drove the form of my building which manipulates corten sheets to achieve an abstracted form with the corten symbolizing the peeling and the oxidsations of steel on concrete an ode to the wear, tear and history of whitmore square. The perforated sunshading of the western wall of the façade continues a bleeding of the form of the building.
In a response to the city in a broader context I became aware that the city skate park on north terrace will be closed to make way for medical research facilities. I observed this as an opportunity to put a unique twist on my public domain which will attract a younger demographic and a different form of culture to add to this center for collaboration with skateboardings association with street art, fashion culture and music.
