Alexander Hartway | Christine Bach | August Lundberg | Ida Madsen
iAAR Pre-Workshop
Arkitektskolen Aarhus | 2-6 Sep 2013
Day 1: Exploring the possibilities of plastic....
After experimenting with the properties of plastic and learning what structures and shapes were possible, we began to delve into creating forms that could be interacted with on a human scale. Our early concepts were to create a circular passage through which one could enter, roundabout and then cross over the entry by using their body weight to push down and lower the exit to be accessible. However, maintaining a circular shape proved to be difficult with the inflated plastic. We then began to explore the possibility of passing through the plastic instead of passing within it. Using a confined space to inflate the plastic seemed to provide interesting possibilities in terms of circulation and passage. We explored how human movement could be interrupted and manipulated by different shapes of a “plastic doorway.� Further iterations of this idea could be modular pieces that could be disassembled and reassembled to suggest different forms one must take to pass through.
Our assignment was to make an entrance to the city-structure. We wanted to use our experiences from the last assignment, where we worked with interrupting the natural movement in a passage, which made us want to change the entrance structure that had already been designed. Instead of one long. wide lobby tube, we split the form to make two tubes to create a space in between, which you can only enter from one of the passages. When you enter the structure you see two seemingly identical tubes and you have to choose to go left or right. One way takes you directly through the structure and into the next space – the other one has an opening into the space in between the two tubes. The space in between is visible from both tubes, and if you choose the directly-passage –you might get curious about how people got into the space in between. The central “courtyard” also provides the possibility of retreat, or perhaps even leisurely circling and looking in on it from the outside.
We thought that further development of our concept could include repeating modules that attach to create a more dynamic shape for both the passages and the courtyard within. These forms would have a variety of arrangements to be assembled in and could be changed as needed. Mass production of these forms is also easier than creating different shaped components.