ARCH30001 Design Studio Delta Journal by Yan He

DESIGN JOURNAL:

ARCHITECTURE AND THE EXPANDED FIELD Name: Yan He Student number: 980426 studio number: 03

Contents Libraries role in city & memory

The Architect and Culture

The role of Architecture within Culture

Concepts and Parti diagrams

Life Between Buildings

Spatial Sequence

Shadows, Inhabiting Depth, Witnessing time

Critical Reflection and Proposition

Good Design in an urban context

CITY

There were many different people walking along the street. Each of them rushing to their own destination. Everyone carries under their arm a book telling their own stories and feelings about this world. When they are talking to someone else, the book would be opened and those thoughts inside emanate and interweave with those of others, floating above the city. People enter the library carrying their books. They pour out their thoughts and read other people’s stories.

LIBRARY

I feel like people walking into the library are equal to the books that came in. From Lydia’s story, I found that the library are inclusive and open to anyone, whether you are old or young, rich or poor, wise or dull. Homeless people come and use the computer to search the apartments that he might be afford. The library can even give homeless children a place to play, to live. The library can also be a wonderful memory for many children. Children could run through the stacks, and crawl around on the play rug, or just stared out of this big window in the library when they don’t really want to go somewhere else. There is always a warm ‘home’ and a welcoming librarian there. Library could accommodate all kinds of cultures. There are books in English, Spanish, Chinese, Korean Urdu, Hindi, and more in Queens Public Library in New York City. People from different culture background come and find the books they need. The library brings together different stories and books, and it can also be a place to collect and collect people's different ideas, so the library can be a home where everyone can express or vent. And other people could read it and feel it. They may have dreams, and aspirations, memories, and hopes for the future associated with it. People could do anything they want in library. They use the library for so much more than books. According to Annie Spence, library is the only place that you don’t need to buy anything or believe in anything to come in. You can just come with any question you have and ask for help. From the podcast, a man walked into San Francisco Public Library looking for books by the Marxist political theorist. A women asked the librarian for Amy Grant Christmas album by singing songs at the Pal Verde Public Library in Phoenix.

LIBRARIAN

Library can be compared to places of mystical magic. It just likes the room of requirement in Hogwarts or chocolate factory that Charlie has visited, where when you need something, the room just makes it appear for you, just like librarians try to do. Librarians are eager to help everyone who comes to the library and try their best to satisfy them. Like Todd Lockwood has said, a photographer and music producer in Burlington has said, being a librarian is sometimes a challenge because you will receive and have to sort all kinds of different books. I would like to create a special space for them in a library because they are so important. They make library more meaningful.

CULTURAL CONNECTION There are cultural development within architecture and city. Cultural conversations that take place open up new kinds of possibilities. Cultural venues helps local community and economy development of our city. A place full of culture make anxious mind take a whole new look at the world as well. It reset the boundaries between people and world. City is essential to be a place that people have freedom to express themselves. There are all kinds of cultural communication coming up within the city. For example, streets is an amazing place that develop imagination and creativity. There are thousands of people walking through there, which is a good chance exposing the art works of street artists. Those place allow people express their ideas, meet and collaborate with others.

The role of Architecture within Culture It cannot be denied that architecture is essentially public. In other words, there is ineliminable cultural presence in architecture. Sometimes it is hard to integrate the nations, communities and culture into a building. Opening the architecture onto the world and emphasizing the sense of public in traditional architecture is a way to make the culture of architecture and people’s cultural activities interrelate. It could reopen the architecture to the wider world as well.

There are two descriptions of architecture relationship which are opening in and opening out.

OPENING IN

Architecture is usually seen as reserving individual following the personality and tastes of the clients. It is being as an expression of personalities. It is easy to understand that architecture is created for individual. Therefore, it might be hard to link the architecture of individual to the conception of culture. It seems like architecture remain enclosed within the relationship between architect and client instead of relation to the culture outside world. However, there are historical and cultural dimension with the program, geometry and the use of materials. Therefore, it is essential to further consider the building with broader cultural considerations.

OPENING OUT

Opening out makes internal and external spaces relate to each other. It allows architecture remain public nature with a sense of cultural interacting. We should not only focus on the surface decoration and construction, but also use these things to create more possibilities and achieve the purpose we want to create. For example, the complex surfaces of Online Multimedia Centre, at the St Albans campus of Victoria University beyond any concern with the decorative, providing potentials to create a visual urbanism. The importance of architecture is more than just its appearance. We need to be concerned with the meaning of culture behind this and interplay of the architectural and cultural characteristic

Concepts and Parti diagrams Green River by Olafur Elliasson Eliasson believed that most of individuals are completely disconnected from their environments, particularly the urban spaces. It is generally believed that the external environment has no effect on people. He put some green dye into the rivers and used green color to reestablish the relationship between people and their surrounding spaces. The river in the city is being like a still picture for the citizens rather than a fluid and dynamic force of nature. The green color make the whole spaces have a sense of time and dimension. City is being negotiable and tangible instead of a postcard. So the green river make people to notice that they are also being a part of the city. An important part of this artwork is about public involvement. Eliasson wanted to capture the difference and to bring new points of view with some familiar context to people. As Eliasson has said, the point was how it looked before and after, not the green river. People’s view and understanding of past and future has been transformed.

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Shadows & Inhabiting Depth I think people experience shadows in different ways and from different angles. Shadows have two sides. It brings depth to the space, however, it may gives people in the space a sense of oppression. It depends on how you use and design the shadows efficiently being as a part of the architecture and how you feel the shadows when you use the spaces as well.

Witnessing time Shadows appear because there is light. The shadows and light change as time goes on. At the same time, the sense of spaces changes as well. In other words, the space could capture the time by recording the feelings of shadows.

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Spatital Sequence The tone of the music gives me an ethereal feeling. In my view, music determines the atmosphere of the whole space. If music is the spaces that the architecture has created. People can be thought of as scores in music. They have freedom to play their own role in that space, however, there are still rules they need to follow. With the change of the melody, people’s mood will also be driven to change.

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Critical Reflection and Proposition I was inspired by baracco and wright studio, Fitzory community school. They created a cantilevered balcony with some greenery Provide veranda type garden and provides richness to the space. I think It is good idea to having such a kind of space between the outside and inside. I design a balcony outside the first floor. There would be some greenery. Moreover, the interior is quiet space so that if people wanna talk or they have a phone call, they can just have a relaxing moment on the balcony.

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Good Design in an urban context The most important thing for urban design is providing connections to people. New pedestrian connections give people a more pleasant and convenient environment. People would like to walk in the city instead of other transit modes. Open to sky connections would improve legibility and reinforce a sense of publicness. Increasing the connections between people and the buildings such as positioning the main entry on the main street could make their access easier. t The connections of the building and street is significant as well. It is to provide a publicly accessible space.

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