Alternative Sources

Change of plan. The chance of me actually getting inside the building again is so slim that I have had to look elsewhere for the information I need. Luckily, one of my course mates was able to tell me that the walls are load bearing brick with steel columns inside. Which is what was initially thought anyway. I am now going to get to work on the sections I sketched out and mark out where the loadings are and the current plan of the walls etc. I also need to draw up a scaled section to start thinking about my design within a measured environment - or as measured as I can get anyway. Once I can see what walls I can afford to remove without the whole building collapsing, I really will be able to start getting some solid designs down on paper. Hopefully. Feeling a little better but will feel even better when I get drawing again!

Stuck

Nearly a month into the project and I still don't have a design. I thought I nearly had one but now I'm back at square one.

Last week were our interim reviews in the week leading up to them, as well as working on portfolio and technology, I had started to develop my concept of using columns and working with the landscape in front of the theatre. I had a go at looking at different layouts by using a sketch up model but nothing really seemed to look quite right and it seemed a bit of a pointless exercise.

It was suggested that I take another look at the site and how the structure works and then allow that to influence my design. I think this really will give me some ideas about my design and it should determine the form my intervention as the structure is the bare bones of it. It's now just finding the time to get to the site and get inside again. I am hoping to be able to go down on Friday and then I will be able to start to really work on my design over the weekend and into next week - not having a design at all this far into the project is starting to make me nervous but I'm hoping it will all turn out ok!

Developing

Over the last couple of weeks, I have been trying to develop my concept and come up with a design.

After the site analysis presentation, I started looking at the parts that interested me and we discussed our thoughts with our tutor. I started out by drawing a rough site plan and just getting my ideas down on paper. This helped me organise my thoughts and after scribbling all over the Playhouse plans, I decided that I wanted my intervention to mainly focus on the front of house as the foyer is really small and impractical for the building: it is too small for a large group of people to stand in/walk though it at anyone time. I would also look at the bar and how this could be changed - having it in auditorium and facing the stage seems odd to me and slightly impractical. 

After making a sketch model showing how I would use the columns around the front of the Playhouse to indicate the entrance to the theatre I made a series of quick sketches and brainstorming how I could use the columns to open the theatre up, making it both inviting and allowing easy circulation, especially after a show when everyone would be leaving at the same time. 

Site Analysis

The task for this week was to work on the site analysis. Rather than doing this in small groups and all presenting the same thing, we did it as a studio group so we were split into small groups and given a different part of the analysis to work on. We would then present this and be able to share and use whatever analysis interested us.

My group's task was to look at Typology. This meant we were looking at theatres and similar buildings to help us understand how the public space works. While other group members looked at the theatre layout and other theatre layouts and public buildings, I opted to look at the evolution of the theatre from the Ancient Greeks to the Romans to the Globe Theatre in London. Looking at history of buildings fascinates me so reading up about how the first theatre came about in Athens was really interesting and I was then able to compare them all and see exactly why the theatre has developed the way it has. I was able to find lots of books about the Greek and Roman theatre and from them I could draw up plans and could see how even the modern day theatre holds similarities to the originals. 

We were also tasked with each coming up with three urban artefacts from around the site and what we would do with them. The columns on the original facade of the Hippodrome caught my eye - as I mentioned in my previous entry. I would really like to do something with these as the are not only an interesting feature of the site but also link back into classical theatre - looking at theatres like the Opera House in Manchester etc.