Open Philharmonic New Haven
Published in Retrospecta 38 - the annual journal of student work at the Yale School of Architecture
The semester-long project to design a performance space in New Haven unifies my understanding of performance - the varying mental projections of a performer’s different characters, well exemplified in the psychological thriller movie Black Swan. The architectural iteration of such understanding evolves into a play of reflection, extension and repetition of one idea in different languages. The concept design draws inspiration from trees’ rings and knots, which is then translated into the architectural language of circulation and light. A dialogue between artistic abstraction and functional consideration inspires and informs the final design.
Concept
Sijia Yang B.A. in Architecture Design
Landscape development
1
Performance Space
Yale School of Architecture Class of 2016
Concept Development In Black Swan, mirrors are frequently used to reveal a true identity from the subconscious. Drawing inspiration from Black Swan, this relief model unfolds an infinite reflection with layers of paper. The progression of rectangular cut-outs exploits the possibility of spatial depth within the three-inch limit of thickness. The structure of the relief model resembles that of a falling book and poses an interesting question: what is it that freezes the falling books in the air?
Relief Model - Black Swan
The material study finds the answer in wood: layers of paper are shaped to complete the circling of wood grain. Along the tree knot, burn marks on the paper exaggerate the traces of an external force piercing a solid space. Mostly made from tree, paper can also be read as a reflection of the wood block in a different character.
Material Study I
Sijia Yang B.A. in Architecture Design
2
Yale School of Architecture Class of 2016
For the material relief model, individual wood blocks are sanded along their tree knots to emphasize the visual movement of the wood grain, which further informs the undulation of surrounding paper stripes. The smoke connects the tree knots, revealing a second mapping of the imaginary force.
Material Study II - Relief Model
The study of tree knot is then translated into circulation and light in its architectural iteration, the vertical threshold model. The intersection of circulation, light and seating is a metaphor of how tree branches grow outward.
Vertical Threshold Model
Sijia Yang B.A. in Architecture Design
3
Yale School of Architecture Class of 2016
Landscape Design
The landscape design comes back to using wood blocks as the medium and imagines a landscape along the wood grain on an inhabitable human scale. Centering tree knots as the key performance spaces, the landscape interweaves the origin wood grain with the form of space. The height varies in accordance to the density of wood grains, layering a spatial mapping onto the reading of wood grain as a record of growth and time.
Sijia Yang B.A. in Architecture Design
4
Yale School of Architecture Class of 2016
Above and Below - Landscape Model
Sijia Yang B.A. in Architecture Design
5
Yale School of Architecture Class of 2016
The Playbook Museums, Reflection and Visitor Experience Based on my observation along the studio trip to Dallas, Texas
Beyond the various architectural configuration or nuances, one character shared by art museums is the provocation of “liminality,� when individuals can step back from the practical concerns of everyday life and look at everything in a new light. In this regard, the performance in museum is not one that happens step by step per its script, but an involuntary and reciprocal conversation between the visitors and their own reflections. At the Modern Art Museum in Fort Worth, such conversation happens with various manipulation of mirrors. The statue of Aulus Metellus, for example, is placed in a separate hall facing a mirror, so that when visitors walk around the corner to discover the front of the statue, they have no preparation for the immediate encounter with themselves also in the mirror. The installation by Jenny Holzer also exhibits an ingenious use of reflection. Running in a river of indigo text, Kind of Blue features seven channels of text flowing towards the floor-to-ceiling window. The reflection continues its flow all the way onto the water, creating a mirage that looks just so real. Top - The Statue of Aulus Metellus facing mirror, Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth Mid - Kind of Blue by Jenny Holzer, Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth Bottom - The Playbook
Sijia Yang B.A. in Architecture Design
6
Yale School of Architecture Class of 2016
The final playbook turns out to be a volumetric and cubic device - a mirror shell with three different modules. Using colored glasses, mirrors and light, it is both a playbook and a site. Each time two of the three modules can be placed in site. Viewers will see their reflections changing in multiple mirrors while they walk around it. The splendid mirage happens when you hit the Playbook with a laser pointer. In sheer darkness, one singular input will explode into a nebula, revealing the periphery of the site. I took a video recording what happens when the laser pointer transcends the site in a straight line. The photo overlaps hundreds of screen shots and gives a thorough account of the performance enacted on the site.
Top - Photos of the three modules from different angles Left - Synthesized photo of a hundred screen shots taken when a laser pointer cross the Playbook
Sijia Yang B.A. in Architecture Design
7
Yale School of Architecture Class of 2016
Performance Space Open Philharmonic The site is currently a parking lot surrounded by low-rise houses, located nearby Yale. The eccentric contour invites completely different experiences, from the winding north entrance to the open south court. To keep the site open and inviting, I envision one single building with a square footprint. After a simple twist, this square separates the site into three different courts with disparate characters. Drawing from the urban landscape’s contour lines, the vertical fins reciprocate the rhythm and density of the alternating context. These blades sever a solid cube into a ring of thin sections, portraying a negative spatial sequence penetrated by an external force. The inner contour of the fins encapsulates the double-story concert hall. The fins screen the light and sight. The horizontal profile envelopes the movement.
Sijia Yang B.A. in Architecture Design
8
Yale School of Architecture Class of 2016
This project proposes a synthesis of visual environment, spatial qualities and engineer structure. The fins not only serve a rational purpose, but bear an expression as well. Alluding to the skeletal structure, the fins generate and support varying levels of floor planes, stage, seating, aisles and stairs. The syncopated alignment of the fins gradates the otherwise binary partition of openness and enclosure. Such qualities are less defined by the preset density than by the incidence of light, which is never fixed during the day. What is bright and open in the morning may become murky and dense in the afternoon. The final design proposes a metaphor for the growth of tree branches as an inward disruptive process to create space. The vertical structure informs its horizontal topography, opening up a unique visitor experience of visual stimulation.
Left top - Site Strategy Left bottom - Final Model from south court Right top - Final model from above Right bottom - Final model from north court
Sijia Yang B.A. in Architecture Design
9
Yale School of Architecture Class of 2016
Quarter Inch Section Model
Final model - close up
Sijia Yang B.A. in Architecture Design
10
Yale School of Architecture Class of 2016