LEUNG CHING YAU, CLARISSE ARCH 3075 DESIGN 5 TUTOR: THOMAS TSANG SEMESTER 2, 2019-20
3035480742 THE UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURE
Scene 1 Masque: Front & Back Stage Relationship
Scene 2 Site Analysis: Kulturforum is a Front Stage
Scene 3 Massings: Flipping Front & Back Stage
Scene 4 Proposal: Shifting Front & Back Stage with Floor Levels
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Scene 1 Masque: Front & Back Stage Relationship At the start of the project, John Hejduk's The Lancaster/Hanover Masque No. 27 Row Houses was studied. A one minute stop motion video was made with white cardboard models of changing scales. The topics of front & back stage and the shifting of the high & low are explored.
1 Plan & Section of John Hejduk's Row Houses 2 1:100 White Cardboard Model of John Hejduk's Row Houses 3 Experiment of the 1:100 Model being Rearranged
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1 Kinetic Motions Making Spaces 2 Rippling Forces Creating New Relationships 3 Planar Courtyard Row Houses 4 Sectional Courtyard Row Houses
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1 Backstage - Photo Station under the Bed 2 Thumbnails of the Masque Video 3 Backstage - Story Board 4 Front & Back Stage Relationship
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Scene 2 Site Analysis: Kulturforum is a Front Stage The given site is Matthaikirchplatz, Berlin, Germany. It is located in Kulturforum, a cultural hub in the former West Berlin. The site is studied with the lens of front & back stage. A site map is drawn as a study of what is the front & back in the area. Spaces for display including tourist attractions and museums are catagorized as the front stage. Supporting structures like carparks and private spaces are considered the backstage in a city. In history, there was a growing number of cultural institutions in West Berlin since the 1950s. Kulturforum is one of them to display soft power. This aligns with what is observed from this site map that Kulturforum is a front stage.
1 1:1000 Site Plan 2 1:1000 Mapping of Front & Back Stage
Front Stage
3 Backstage - 1:1000 Site Plan Drawing Process 4 Analytical Site Plan Mapping the Front & Back Stage
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Back Stage
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Scene 3 Massings: Flipping Front & Back Stage The project is a Mediatheque. A Mediatheque is a place containing various forms of front & back stage. The supporting structures in a Mediatheque are the research lab and office. The spaces for display are the exhibition and performance spaces. The supporting structures are usually considered as private, quiet, introverted, and inaccessible. Whereas the spaces for display are often seen as the public, crowded, extroverted, and accessible. The front stage is usually the space with the most attention when being designed. The massing studies explore the ways of challenging the site condition and put the most private backstage in the lower floors, and the performance spaces on the top. So visitors would enter the Mediatheque through the backstage.
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1 Mediatheque Programme Study about the Front & Back 2 Massing Developments 3 Entrance to the Mediatheque through the Office and Research Lab Collage 5
4 Material Transparency of the Three Layers Collage 5 Massing Model
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Free Plan The free flow of hard and soft partitions in space to allow members of staff to open and close their backstage. Visitors can peek, look, walk, or crawl into the backstage.
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1 Plans of a Massing Study with Long Ramps 2 Sections and Elevation of a Massing Study with Long Ramps 3 Key Elevation of a Massing Study with Long Ramps 4 Spinning Tunnel 5 Spinning Tunnel with Two Layers 6 Soft Partitions 7 Hard Partitions 8 Flowing Space to Display and Conceal the Backstage
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Scene 4 Proposal: Shifting Front & Back Stage with Floor Levels With the performance spaces at the very top, when visitors enter the mediatheque, it is like entering a forest through the roots. Visitors travel up through the layers of the ground and reach where the trees are. Just like when visitors enter the mediatheque through the backstage, they see someone making props. They do not really understand what they see. But when visitors reach the roof, they see the performance. Suddenly they understand more about the roots. The project also explores the use of shifting floor slabs to make front & back stage conditions according to the programme. The shifting floor slabs could work with a mechanism used in traction elevators. Having a major weight and a counter weight balancing and shifting. When there are more people on one side, the floor will fall. The more dramatic the difference of mass, the more dramatic the shifting is. Hence, the crowd can actively choose their floor heights. The question being explored is how a changing plan and section can allow different front and back stage relationships to occur. How the premanent structures could allow the temporary floor slabs and partitions to shift and flow.
1 Concept Diagram of the Roots and Trees Relationship 2 Sectional Perspective Collage of the Elevators through the Backstage to the Front Stage
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1 Analytical Site Plan Mapping the Front & Back Stage with Mediatheque Proposal
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2 Sectional Perspective Collage of the Elevators through the Backstage to the Front Stage
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1 Floor Plans of Upper Floors 2 Ground Floor Plan
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1 Cross Section of Mediatheque Proposal 2 Shifting Floor Slabs Diagram
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1 Longitudinal Section of Mediatheque Proposal
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