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!)
I find it quite ironic how one of my main themes is circulation and I completely forgot about disabled access to the upper floors. Darn. I am still working this out but I am thinking of making it part of the landscaping. I already have exterior stairs so I can try and work them into each other although I feel I have to be careful so that it doesn't become too similar to my previous project. As the ramp will have to reach a height of about 3 metres, I have to have a slope of at least 36 metres - going on the 1:12 gradient determined by the building regs. This, if I get it right, could be quite interesting and a key part of my intervention; the space below it can be used to create vital spaces that could be used for gathering or a cafe or spaces that could be used for pop up shops and similar.
I also had to return to the brief and make a list of all the facilities needed within my design. Some of them have already been considered and are covered by my multi studio/circulation space. One of the things I forgot about was the projection booth but I think that this can also be covered by the multifunctional space - a mini outdoors cinema could be created by closing the studio doors to create a flat surface to project onto with the steps under the stairs acting as seating - although this could only really be done during the summer months. Or I could just be boring and put a projection booth behind the circle and put a temporary/moveable screen over the stage so that the theatre doubles up as a cinema.
There are also a couple of other facilities that I needed to consider, such as the blue screen facility and the seminar room. I feel that it would be cheating to try and incorporate these into the multi studio space but they would kind of fit. A seminar room could be created by having tables and chairs in storage and setting it up when the room is booked for a meeting. I could also transform the space into a green screen facility by, well, adding a green screen. From my knowledge, you simply need a green/blue area where filming takes place but I think I will have to look further into that. I guess I would also need to include a computer suite for editing the footage. This could relate back to engaging the community and local schools and youth clubs.
In order to show this, I think I'm going to need a number of different sketches showing each different function of the spaces. Photomontage time? Using this relatively small space to create a range of different spaces reminds me of those ridiculously small flats where everything folds up and hide away so that you can only have one room set up at a time but it's all there and when it's not needed, it gets hidden away . . . .
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.