Wyndham Proposal Week 12 ADS 3: Air

WYNDHAM CITY GATEWAY The project has asked us to broaden our minds in producing an entrance, welcoming travellers into the Wyndham City area along the city bound Princess Freeway. This installation must be exciting and eye catching, something that inspires and encourages further reflection on the design after the first glance. When considering our design the elements we considered are the flat wide landscape, high speed traffic movement, sense of pride to local community, aspiration intent to creating a new discourse and enhancing Wyndham City’s place on the cultural map.

Our proposal for the Wyndham Gateway is that of a bold iconic shape that will stand out and resonate with the viewers. It represents a changing, developing and expanding community of Wyndham. It is adaptable to different times of day and has the potential to appear different each time it is viewed. The boldness of the form marks the entrance to a community that is making its mark on Melbourne, and thus is placing Wyndham on the cultural map.

ON-SITE-INSTaLLATION

Due to it’s size, in order to build this structure at full size, framing and metal cladding construction would be the best option. As shown in provided vector diagrams each singulr triangular metal form provides a truss like structure which can be easily clad with metal sheeting. Perspective shots are used to show the section that is detailed in construction diagrams, indicated in red.

From these icons we produced silhouettes to base our design on. While looking into precedents we came across a design by Herzog and De Meuron called Vitra House (SEE IMAGE BELOW), with its extruded and cantilevered masses, using parametric modelling interconnecting with each other, we were inspired to follow the idea of creating a sign post for Wyndham. To follow on the path of this idea we began by lofting and extruding our shapes and stacking them like blocks using parametric designing techniques we were able to adjust the rotation around a central axis and limit the extrusions with a Boolean grasshopper definition.

Our design is an abstraction of a ‘signpost to Wyndham’ using stylised symbols of some of Wyndham’s key attractions. The symbols point in the general direction of the attraction and create a dynamic effect as you move past.

The highlighted red triangle indicates one triangle truss which would be created by the welding of metal framing individually and transported via truck to site.

SOURCE: http://www.archdaily.com/50533/vitrahaus-herzog-de-meuron/

Our further design process began by taking inspiration from the attractions of Wyndham and creating iconography as a visual Sign Post for the city. This piece of architecture should be reflective of the style of Melbourne freeway art that exists and also represent Wyndham in a new and dynamic way. We identified some of the main attractions of the area, such as the Werribee Open Range Zoo, the Point Cook Wetlands, the Werribee mansion and also the Chiryu sister city in Japan.

After researching the symbols associated with these attractions we picked out what we believed to be the most recognizable icons to design with. We experimented with many different shapes and the end result was a giraffe to represent the Werribee open range zoo, a boat to represent the regions association with water, as represented in the symbol for Wyndham, reeds to represent the Cheetham wet lands, the silhouette of the Werribee mansion, and also a symbol for the Japanese sister school.

IMPORTANC

site plan IMPORTANCE OF ICONS: The Werribee Open Range Zoo is located just a short 30 minute drive west of Melbourne’s city centre, on the Princes Freeway and is a key attraction to the city of Wydnham.

The Cheetham wetlands lie on the western shores of Port Phillip Bay, close to the expanding City of Wyndham. The artificial lagoons and natural lagoon, which make up the wetlands are Ramsar listed and support internationally significant populations of seven species of shorebirds.

The Werribee Mansion is located 30 minutes west of Melbourne at Werribee Park, ‘the mansion’ is described as a living, breathing postcard of the 19th century and a must see attraction for visitors.

The City of Wyndham and the City of Chiryu in Japan signed a formal Sister City agreement in 2000 to promote cultural and educational exchange and explore business opportunities between the two cities so we found that this would also be a key icon to represent.

JULIA KOUTROULIS 350577, NICOLE LINDLEY 391457, JESSICA WOOD 389652