The End is Nigh!

With event's month and various other things happening, I am so glad that I did as much work as I did in those three weeks around Easter! 
Yesterday, I finally made a start on my digital model and am currently working on the first floor. 
Yesterday was also tutorials and I feel that I am now ready to start really selling my idea. The design work it practically done and all that's left is to sort out the materiality and do some killer images. Looking at my sketch model from the outside reminded me of David Chipperfield's restoration of the Neues Museum in Berlin. And I think I can definitely take some inspiration from how he presented his idea. I am also planning to look at some of Peter Zumthor's work and how he uses stone to create some bold finishes on his buildings. This relates back to using classical buildings and theatre as precedents in my design. I think using stone on the extension will make a bold statement against the brickwork of the original theatre and having the grand staircase leading up to it will be similar to the ancient and classical theatres. 

A Design! . . . . Finally

After being completely and utterly stuck and void of inspiration and ideas for the past week or two, I was really looking forward to talking to my tutors to try and get a fresh look at the project. It helped when I was discussing it and what I had done. I surprised myself slightly as it felt like I had done nothing when I had a fair bit to talk about. 
Once I got home, that small spark had disappeared once again but I got out a couple of books to flick through to see if anything triggered. These were 101 Things I Learnt at Architecture School, XS and XS Green. Whenever I read the first of these, I always see something new and it gives me a new perspective. I used the other two books a lot over the summer for the first project and I thought I might find something in them that I could apply to my design.

It wasn't until last night when I really started to think about my design again that I came up with my concept. The main themes I wanted to look at were:

• Classical Theatre
• Engagement with the community ie the local primary school, the garden centre next to the site
• Circulation

My concept allows me to combine these three themes surprisingly easily, making me thing that this is the right way to go about my intervention. The origin of the idea came from talking with Clare in studio on Tuesday. She had made a suggestion a few weeks back about using steps as a grand entrance to the theatre. After modelling this, it didn't seem to work very well so I tried  dismissing that idea entirely. However, she talked about rather that stepping the landscape, having the main entrance on the first floor and this classical style staircase leading up to it. As I had already dismissed the idea of stairs, I admit that I didn't really like the idea but I did a section sketch of how it would look and having exterior stairs up to the first floor would create an interesting space below them and would allow me to explore the new possibilities of where to put the bar/box office etc. It would also create this more private space where the entrance currently is. I thought about how this could be an informal/daytime entrance with the stairs creating a shelter or gathering space.

After a whirl of brain activity and my brain going far to fast for my hands to keep up I was able to  decide what I wanted to do with the space where the current entrance is. I thought about creating private rehearsal/activity spaces for youth clubs and schools to use. This then developed to opening the building up to the space below the stairs and then creates small informal performance spaces. This then expanded to open up fully into the theatre to create a circulation space, allowing easy exits after performances.

To help me look at the possibilities of this space, I made a little model with large 'doors' between the two rehearsal spaces and to the front and back. I am really pleased with this idea and I'm looking forward to exploring it further and developing my design.