THE NEW WEST BANK SCHOOL OF MUSIC Anna Mahnke
Planning to Realization 2013 - TBD building type: educational, cultural, music performance, public cafe support structure construction: solid construction
roof construction: flat roof support structure material: reinforced concrete, in-situ concrete facade material: concrete, wood, in-situ concrete, reinforced concrete, fair-faced concrete, natural wood, painted wood, triple pane glazing roof material: concrete, reinforced concrete interior work material: concrete, fair-faced concrete, wood, natural wood, brick cladding
The Vision for the New West Bank School of Music was to create a new, extroverted and open space for engagement with the Cedar-Riverside community, celebrating music education as performance. The buidling concept supports this vision with a very open and flexible plan, as well as high levels of porousity and visibility into the common areas of the school. The street is invited to enter into the building, and the music school performs to the public both within and outside its walls. It’s a very urban-driven concept where the street is imagined to have entered the site for the new school and, as a vibrant force, unpacked or built the school progams up, pushing and extruding them into their proper locations. Common gathering spaces occupy and radiate from the heart of the building where the street has divided and pushed the practice rooms and ensemble spaces to the public-facing extents of the building. As if left behind by the shifting of these practice and ensemble spaces, versatile stages or platforms occupy the center common spaces, allowing ensemble performances to extend into the common areas to allow for a larger audience or performance interaction, or to act as “hang-out” space for students and visitors when a performance isn’t taking place. Finally, a wood latice ribbon wraps within and around portions of the building, holding and connecting the practice and performance spaces of the building, acting almost like a curtain to which the music school itslef is performing to the street as its audience.
CONCEPTUAL MODELING
The design process for this project was very intensive in physical modeling. Early iterations focused on threshold studies of how the building meets the ground, the street, how the street enters in, views in and out, journey through the building, and the relationships between tectonic forms. In each of these early models concepts from the final iteration take shape: how the urban street moves throughout the building, visability and transparency into the goings-on of the school, the unpacking and up-shifts of program spaces, and how the building is wrapped to connect the performance portions of the building. Working in strictly physical modeling for most of the design process was incredibly beneficial in learning to think both spacially, considering tectonic relationships, and conceptually, considering possible material choices throughout.
LIGHT STUDIES
Working on the concept of a highly porous and extroverted building, light studies were crucial to understanding the effects of daylight on both the students and performers within the school, as well as the effect of the visibility there-of toward the public street. This point in the process raised concerns for the over-exposure of students to the street. Thusly, the next point in the process entailed exploartions in envelope.
MODELING TO SKETCHING The next stage in the design process combined both further physical model iterations as well as sketching. The physical modeling solidified the program arrangement of dispursing the practice rooms and ensemble spaces to the perimeters of the building, forming common spaces between. Added to the physical model was a place-holder wrapping or ribbon that kept the tectonic forms prevalent and related. Further sketching explored envelopes that might keep a certain level of porosity as well as privacy for the students. The sketches also explored a sculptural or performative facade.
D I G I TA L M O D E L I N G Moving into the final stages of the design process, creating a digital model allowed for ease of manipulation, as well as more precision and understanding or realistic plans and layout. Surprisingly, digital modeling illuminated a clear concept for the entire building design, which had been present throughout the modeling iterations, but became clearer while building a digital model and considering a type of “origin story� for the programs and tectonics of the construction. Specifically, considering the primary concept of the street entering in as a force that builds and arranges the school, how are specific angles, corners, ceiling heights, and stair placements dictated by this conceptual force of the street? Digital modeling allowed for the flexibility, precision, and quick iterative changes to explore this orgin story and the conditions of how the wall meets the floor, where an opening occurs, how a corner is rounded, and how a wall meets the sky.
PLANS AND SECTION- THE FIVE CONDITIONS
1. WALL MEETS FLOOR 2. WALL MEETS GROUND 3. WALL MEETS SKY 5. OPENING 4. TURNS A CORNER
D E TA I L S K E TC H E S
These early sketches begin to map out the 3rd condition of how the wall meets the sky.
D E TA I L M O D E L : W A L L M E E T S T H E S K Y
1. INTERIOR WOOD CLADDING
2 . GY P S U M B OA R D
3 . R 1 3 B AT T I N S U L AT I O N 4. STEEL STUD 5 . W AT E R R E S I S TA N T B A R R I E R 6. FLASHING 7 . GY P S U M B OA R D 8. 2X4 WOOD STUD SLEEPERS 9 . W O O D C L A D D I N G PA N N E L PA I N T E D W O O D L AT I C E S
( AT TA C H E D W I T H S C R E W S )
10. CONCRETE FLOOR SLAB
The detail model was essential to understanding possible construction methods for the condition where the wood latice ribbon meets the woodclad wall of the studios. Additionally, the detail shows how the prefabricated wall cladding can be designed and attched to conceal the concrete floor plate, so as to make it look as though the 3rd floor studio were floating above or extruded from the 2nd floor ensemble space.