A Design

After struggling to come up with my design, over Easter I was able to finalise it and draw up my plans of the theatre. 

I looked at the Carre d'Art in Nimes. Designed by Norman Foster, it is built opposite a Roman temple and mirrors the design of it. I decided to look at the profile of these buildings and compare them to mine to help inform my design. After trying several designs, I decided one I was happy with which followed the same design as the buildings in Nimes and also allowed me to keep my idea of circulation through the building and  site. 

Over Easter, I also made a start on my Integrated Design Report and I found referring back to this blog really helpful - especially for the past projects. I am planning on writing the report alongside working on my project now that I have caught up with it.

To help me gain spacial awareness of my design's footprint on the site, I made a sketch SketchUp model. This also helped me to arrange and finalise the design for the front of the building. By creating a large staircase up to the theatre's main entrance, there is space underneath the steps, which will be used for the box office and cafe. I was also able to incorporate the disabled access into this although it moved to the other side of the stairs from how I originally built it. This was for a couple of reasons. The first was that with the car park around the back of the theatre, it made sense to have the disabled access on the road side of the stairs, meaning there is a smaller distance between the ramp and the car park. By swapping the ramp from the site side to the road side of the stairs, a large space has been created facing the site. This means that I can make the link between the site and the community gardens and the theatre, something that was important to my concept.

Today I have been working on the sections and although they still need a bit of work doing to them to finalise them before I put them into Photoshop, they are more or less done.

Next, I need to look at materiality and environmental aspects of my design. I will also need to make my final model which will probably take me a while (if my White Water model is anything to go by!)

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. 

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!