A Cloud of Synchronous Encounters

design folio architec ture for a move towards

progressive performance in the modern age

James Feng BDES3027 Studio 3b C ATHERINE L A SSEN

Semester TWO 2016 DESIGN IN ARCHITECTURE

I lean over you, your equal, offering you a mirror for your perfect nothingness, for your shadows which are neither light nor absence of light, for this void which contemplates. To all that which you are, and, for our language, are not, I add a consciousness. I make you experience your supreme identity as a relationship, I name you and define you. You become a delicious passivity.

M a u r i c e

B l a n c h o t

A SPONTANEOUS EXPERIENCE OF PERFORMANCE?

J

orn Utzon’s thinking behind the Sydney Opera House is layered: meticulous; ambitious; rigorous in structural exploration; refined in programmatic relationships; celebratory of the human scale. Similar motivations are adapted to the project site east of the Sydney Mint with a focus on the intrinsic, synchronous aspect of public performance.

This project is an in-depth investigation into the public yet personal experience of interaction with busking performances.

An individual’s accidental, spontaneous interaction with street performances is

unique to the moment of sensory interaction, random yet often meaningful. The evoking of raw emotions by connection at an intrinsic level with such performances are well known amongst busking communities. This is one of the major motivations and drives for many buskers to continue to refine their crafts via this platform.

The investigation frames the seemingly formless, random interactions in parametric, architectural terms, aiming to simulate spatial relationships through exploring geometric arrangements in disorder/alignment paradoxes.

An intriguing conceptual framework was adapted from Carl Jung’s concept of Synchronicity. Simply put, it deals with an individual’s ‘meaningful’ encounters from a series of seemingly random events.

Can a form posses potential to be both ordered and chaotic? How does an individual’s moment of spatial experience of clarity relate to the experiences of a Piranesian labyrith within the same space? In what sequence does this occur?

I aim to create a loose narrative, allowing also the public to dictate the emotional art they experience in their lives - allowing both the architecture and the performances to create dialogues with the people.

james

INDEX

1 st

/

verse

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

pr e l i m i na ry s t u di e s

establishing relationships

2 ND

verse

/

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

A sy nchronous for est

disorder | alignment paradox

3 rd

verse

/

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

The progressive performance p l a t f o r m s

i n

t h e

c l o u d

1

st

verse:

g h scriptin g

Establishing relationships _Preliminary studies

CIRCUM. DIVISION: 36.00 10 DEGREE WAVELENGTH A LT E R N AT I N G 2 3 | 1 6 R A D I I D I V I S I O N R E A S S E M B LY O F F R A G M E N T E D PAR AMETRIC GEOMETRY DATA S O R T I N G : F L AT T EN ED L I S T

SOH shell tile tessellation imitation, abstracted to break symmetry

SOH major hall long section, ceiling heights mapped and rate of change analysed

Connecting nodes of performance centres within Sydney CBD and surrounding precincts as an experimental form generation method

Grasshopper script generating forms from a ‘0-1 domain’ bitmap input, forms can then be inversed, manipulated and according to different criteria

CIRCULAR QUAY

MACQUARIE PLACE PARK

WYNARD

MARTIN PLACE

PITT STREET MALL

QUEEN VICTORIA BUILDING

HYDE PARK (NORTH)

DARLING HARBOUR

mapping of licensed busking sites in Sydney CBD, Circular Quay & Darling Harbour

busking site typologies mapped and abstracted

adapting the grasshopper script from the Utzon study, generic forms such as squares can be used to generate cavernous masses with complex three dimensional symmetries

sections sliced from generated forms may help inform intensities centres and/or ways of spatial divisions.

These images depict a process of implementing contextual conditions into complex forms.

Firstly, the Z-depth of the context is mapped (height of buildings and terrain), this is then blurred in the direction of architectural gradient, intensity centres are added in white, site map lines then applied on top to add noise to a smooth bitmap.

Once again this bitmap image generates forms that opens up in the direction of the domain while also catering to intensity centres, under/around which performances occur.

sky Performance Cloud Structural fog program

2

nd

verse:

A Synchronous Forest _Disorder / alignment paradox

strategy begins by subdividing the available site in 1mx1m grid

every 4th point kept, the rest culled

every 4th point kept

every 5th point culled to create pockets of open spaces (reason outlined later)

1:500 site plan with superimposed grid

1:500 site plan with superimposed grid

1:500 site plan with superimposed grid

1:500 site plan with superimposed grid

cull every 2nd

half row (hr)

cull every 3rd

(2,2 | 2,2)

cull every 4th

(1,1 | hr)

effect of culling patterns on resulting spatial arrangements

cull every 5th

(4,4 | 4,4 )

cull every 6th

(2,2 | hr)

cull every 7th

(6,6 | 6,6)

effect of culling patterns on resulting spatial arrangements

cull every 8th

---

cull every 9th

---

cull every 10th

---

effect of culling patterns on resulting spatial arrangements

cull every 3rd

cull every 4th

effect of culling patterns on resulting space pocket arrangements

cull every 5th, (optimal distance between adjacent and opposing neighbouring space pockets)

cull every 6th

effect of culling patterns on resulting space pocket arrangements

moments of alignment, parallel projection, ground panels (rotating iteration cull no.5, as previosuly chosen). dashed : hospital road

moments of alignment, parallel projection, ground panels (rotating iteration cull no.5, as previously chosen). dashed : hospital road

moments of alignment, parallel projection, ground panels (rotating iteration cull no.5, as previously chosen).

moments of alignment, elevations, ground panels (rotating iteration cull no.5, as previously chosen) - one revolution - part1

moments of alignment, elevations, ground panels (rotating iteration cull no.5, as previously chosen) - one revolution - part2

perspectival revelation, effect of arrangements invokes curiosity, ‘seek and you shall find’

perspectival revelation, effect of arrangements invokes curiosity, ‘seek and you shall find’

material densities of program specific spaces verses ground panels, testing variations

material densities of program specific spaces verses ground panels, testing variations

varying panels’ degrees of transparency achieved desired effects

combined opaque and translucent panels

- opaque -

- translucent -

3

rd

verse:

Progressive Performance_ Test formulating the Cloud

cull every 3rd

cull every 4th

cull every 5th

Culling pattern exploration for secondary hung panels and its relationship to ground panels

cull every 6th (desired degree of density vs openings)

cull every 8th

cull every 7th

cull every 9th

Culling pattern exploration for secondary hung panels and its relationship to ground panels

sculpting individual member lengths using organic surface

4

2

2

2

2

1

1

N

3 5 1 - double height gallery space 2 - office spaces 3 - archive 4 - cafe 5- toilets

1:500 basic ground floor program layout based on path division slice through site

7

9

6 - single height gallery 7 - kitchen 8 - shop 9 - meeting room 9

8 6

6

1:500 first floor program layout

panels’ uni-directional orientation results in open view lines in one direction and moderate obstruction in another

‘cloud’ structural member thickness exploration, subtle differences can have multiplied effects, above thickness at 100mm.

ground interior test render - undefined ceiling

4

th

verse:

Reformulating the Cloud _ Program Integration

5

th

verse:

Refining the Cloud _ Dissolved Ground