/collisions Explorations: Landscape Studio 1 Gabrielle Raz-Liebman
GALLE
1
45 .5
RY
PHYSICS
BUNKER
.0
45
3
44.5
2
4
44.0
SWANS
TON ST
Site Plan
1:100
1. Kangaroo Paw Anigozanthos flavidus 2. English Elm Ulmus minor var. vulgaris 3. Flax Lily Dianella revoluta 1
2
3
4
4. Banksia Banksia spinulosa
SPENCER ROAD
TIN ALLEY
SWANSTON STREET
Site Plan
1:500
Constraints
Opportunities •
Space to create a new activity node in the Melbourne University campus.
•
Large area allows for design freedom and opportunity.
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Location on the edge of the site encourages visitor access and the blurring between the private and public domains.
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Option to rethink the connection between the site, Elgin, and Swanston Streets: trams, bridge, footpaths.
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The history of the Betatron presents an interesting precedent for student and visitor engagement.
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Connection to the Ian Potter Museum of Art provides opportunity to extend this existing cultural node.
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Ian Potter Café already brings a multitude of visitors into the site.
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Bunker below the site creates a physical constraint, especially in relation to landform manipulation.
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Access to the site must be considered for people of all abilities, and given the existing topography.
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Elm trees (and their roots) take up a large area of the site: must be considered in design process.
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Noise pollution from Swanston St will restrict the sorts of activities that can occur on the site.
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Proximity to academic buildings restricts the levels of noise that can be made within the site.
/model exploration
/to recontextualise In this first series I explored the connotations and associations of the found object. I worked to subvert the original intentions of the item by simply placing it in locations not normally associated with the Virgin Mary. The tension and humour found in these images greatly informed my design progress and outcome.
/to destroy As the ice melted, it began to crack, and I was inspired to push this process further by throwing the object onto the ground. It took two attempts for it to completely break. These images of the shattered figure was critical in the process of developing my design outcome.
/precedents
Christine O’Loughlin, Cultural Rubble 1993 Ian Potter Gallery, University of Melbourne Photographed by Nick V., http://melbournedaily.blogspot. com.au/2012/03/ian-pottermuseum-sculpture-mural.html
McCann Melbourne, Collision 2015 University of Melbourne http://collision.unimelb.edu.au/
‘where great minds collide’
Gordon Matta-Clark, Conical Intersect Near the Centre George Pompidou construction zone, Paris, France (1975, documentary photograph, Paris Biennale)
/design development
/concept The University of Melbourne is inwards facing. Buildings turn their back on the streets and their surrounding public domain, rejecting the experience of those who cross the thresholds between both spaces. But the Ian Potter green space provides the university with an opportunity to turn its attention towards its edges, and embrace opportunities for activity in the outer parts of the campus. My brief was to create a space of congregation for students, through a design that also creates as a suitable public image for the busy Swanston Street frontage. My interest evolved out of the contrast between the demands of the two buildings on the site’s boundary: the Ian Potter Gallery and the Physics building. The contrast between the programs of each building provided an opportunity to further my explorations from the model-making phase into a design that creates tension and excitement through the manipulation of form and subversion of context. By doing this, the space will be transformed into a physical representation of the University of Melbourne’s ‘Collision’ campaign. The Statue of David represents art, and provides a reference to the similarly romanticised allegorical figure of the Virgin Mary. This contrasts with the jagged manipulation of its oversized form and the metal pillars that protrude from the ground to collide with the surrounding buildings, representing the contrasts between the artistic and the purely physical. This design creates a space that evokes a sense of tension, sculptural interest, and invites the public and students to engage actively with the site through a sense of curiosity and exploration.
/design drawings
Plan
1:100
East Elevation
1:100
South Elevation
1:100