ARCHITECTURE DESIGN STUIDO: EARTH S1, 2017 SUBJECT STUDENT BOOK Thomas Huntingford 835306 Elizabeth Watt
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CONTENTS 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3
T H R E E R E L AT I O N S H I P S Point/Line/Plane Mass Frame & Infill
2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3
HERRING ISLAND. A PLACE FOR KEEPING SECRETS Site Analysis Conceptacle Design Development
3.0 Final Design 3.1 Final Design Model 4.0 Reflection 5.0 Bibliography
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1 . 0 T H R EE RE LAT I O N S H I P S “Point, Line and Plane.” “Mass.” “Frame and Infill.” Three tectonics central to the creation of architecture in its purest form. The three tectonics have been explored through a series of compositional exercises during the course of the semester. Each demanded the critical analysis of an architectural system which must then be interpreted into a composition in relation to a concept drawn from research. These concepts and forms where then to be considered when conceptualising a response to the brief of ‘Secrets.’ 7
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1.1 P OI N T / L I N E / P L AN E The first tecto n i c ex p l o res th ree f u n d am en tal el em en ts o f arch i tectu re. Po i n ts wh i ch are jo i n ed to f o r m l i n es , l i n es wh i ch are ex tr u d ed to f ro m p l an es an d p l an es wh i ch are ar r an g ed to create s p ace.
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PRECEDENTS Bowali Visitors Centre, Troppo & Glenn Murcutt The Bowali Visitors Centre by Glenn Murcutt and Troppo architects has a strong emphasis on horizontal planes. The building responds to context by elevating itself above the flat, red dirt immediately creating the first layer of planes. The long timber walkways connect the various pavilions, defined by rammed earth walls, with the negative spaces left as void allowing the user to experience three layers simultaneously. The earth, the walkway and the curved roof.
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Brick Villa Project, Mies van der Rohe The Brick Villa Project by Ludwig mies van der Rohe utilises a rectilinear orientation of walls which when viewed in plan create an elegant pattern. The lines of varying length loosely define the spaces of the house while seemingly defining the centre of the building or a point in space.
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COMPOSITION “No man ever built a building worthy the name architecture who fashioned it in perspective sketch to his taste and then fudged the plan to suit.” -Frank Lloyd Wright The concept of an abstracted point articulated by lines and planes was one I developed in plan in accordance with Wright’s notion from In the Cause of Architecture. I attempted to articulate an abstracted point using only a language of rectilinear lines which I visualised being extruded into planes and therefore forming the prescribed hierarchy of Point, Line and Plane.
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The model articulates in three dimensions a point that expands equally in all directions but that can only be articulated orthogonally. Hence in plan the point is articulated though perpendicular lines extending out from an invisible centrality which when extruded form vertical planes that overlap and intersect each other. Additionally, this arrangement sits upon a podium of horizontal, sliding planes that interact through voids that have been cut into them.
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Having received feedback on the model it was decided that the point should be expressed not only in plan but also in elevation in the final drawing. Hence I used a single point perspective to compose a drawing showing vertical and horizontal planes emanating from and alluding to a point. Consequently the composition is no longer sedentary but is one of dynamism which can be viewed equally in any orientation. 16
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1 .2 MA S S The creation of space through the use of dense, non-linear elements. Monumentality through a sense of gravity. Darkness.
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PRECEDENTS Phillip Island House, Denton Corker Marshall The Phillip Island House by Denton Corker Marshal demonstrates impact created by the absence of mass. The apparent removal of a square section of the earth creates a profound form that is bold while simultaneously blending into the landscape. In addition, this building demonstrates the inherent ability of a mass building to deceive, as the dominant form of the building is completely at odds with the small internal spaces that dictate its program.
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Jewish Museum, Daniel Libeskind Daniel Libeskind’s Jewish Museum conceals a complex program with its massive exterior gestures but also creates carefully choreographed spaces using light, or the lack thereof. The controlled ingress of light into dark spaces is used to both mimic the experience of incarceration and to encourage reflection and emotional connection while viewing the museum’s collection.
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In my initial sketches, I explored the ideas of the subtraction of mass to create monumentality, space composed of multiple levels within a mass and the interior vs exterior of a mass. This culminated in the larger sketch shown on the right which explored a complex set of spaces set within an undefined exterior mass while also playing 24
with the monumentality created by being beneath a subtracted mass. However, the spatial arrangement in this drawing seemed unsatisfying and arbitrary so while I continued to explore disparate interior and exterior forms, a common characteristic of mass architecture, I decided to express it through simpler less obvious spaces.
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The final drawing explores the idea of creating an optical illusion as well as the divergence of the interior and exterior forms and the ingress of light. To create the desired formal disparity, I decided to use a scalene triangle as a counterpoint to the rectilinear interior forms. The lines from each apex were brought into a central point and this was used to create a false perspective for the interior space while also creating a sense of interplay between the two forms. The optical illusion 26
is created through this false perspective as it is unclear if the triangle is receding into the page or protruding out of it and even more unclear is the effect this has on the interior geometries which recede further into the page. Finally, I fracture the exterior mass to introduce a pure shard of light in order to both reveal and further confuse the interior forms as this too seems to recede and become incommunicado within the interior volumes.
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In the reconfiguration collage the intention was to augment the optical illusion making it clearly perceivable in two differing modes. To achieve this I separated the external form into its constituent geometries and rearranged them around the original interior space. Through using both the positive and negative space as mass a secondary interior volume 28
is suggested that is spatially more complex than the first. Thus, these two spaces can be viewed in isolation or conjunction creating multiple perspectives within a single composition.
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1.3 F R AME & INFILL Frame; a formal organisational system providing structure and clarity. In its simplest form it is fundamental, evocative of the most basic structures and vernaculars. Infill; fleeting and changeable infill is communicative it tells the story of function, materiality, culture and place through its form.
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PRECEDENTS House NA, Sou Fujimoto The House NA is a loose collection of planar elements that turn an open plan, split over several levels, into a navigable landscape in accordance with the residences’ nomadic tendencies. Fujimoto’s use of framing and horizontal infill makes the depth of the building visible from almost every elevation creating apparent complexity out of a relatively simple tectonic.
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Contra-Construction Project, Theo van Doesburg & Cornelius van Eesteren This series of axonometric drawings demonstrate Van Deosburg and Van Eesterens’ manifestations of Piet Mondrian’s Neo-Plasticism into architectural form. The definitive language of flat primary colours, black and white are used over asymmetrical planes and lines to create a relatable physical environment in accordance with the De-stijl ideal that life and art, and therefore architecture, be indistinguishable from each other.
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In plan, I derived my frame and infill composition from the most basic allowable frame, that of the 9 square grid. With the intention of creating a framed perspective through the left elevation I began shifting the elements of the grid to create a sense of layering from left to right an idea stemming from my observations of the transparency and visible layers of F&I buildings. 35
This composition explores the idea of the framed view, formal planning on a grid and the visual hierarchy given by the layering of frame and infill elements. The first screen in the hierarchy consists of only framing elements which follow a pattern inspired by the Fibonacci windows of Le Corbusier. In the centre row the framing begins to decrease in density as infill elements are introduced adding to the complexity of the overlapping moirĂŠ-like effect. In the final row framing decreases significantly
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while infill inversely becomes more prominent making the overall aspect more opaque and defining a more definite sense of space. Thus visual preference is given to the first layer while the subsidiary layers add complexity and slowly enclose the viewers perspective. The use of colour in this composition is in accordance with NeoPlasticism and Piet Mondrian’s assertions that the visual world both real and imagined can be expressed through rectilinear forms and the primary colours.
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2.0 Herring Island, A Place for Keeping Secrets The Island in the middle of the river; its prow splits the water, directing it down one of two paths, the new or the old. The build-up of river silt that is Herring island is a man-made incursion on the natural landscape and the history of the river. It forges a new, straighter, more human path for the river to follow, just because it’s convenient. An interesting distinction is made and a dialogue exists between the past and the future. Is history’s long and winding path worth following? Or is it a side track, irrelevant to the forward movement of development? Can this disjuncture be resolved? How? The prow is the leading edge. It is visible to all. Does it represent pioneers and progress or greed and selfish conquest? It is a question of perspectives. 42
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2.1 Site Analysis
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In my initial look at site I became interested in the views into Herring island from the river and banks. From here a glimpse of the secret would be had, not to confess it but to announce its existence. As is there really a secret if no-one knows it’s being kept from them?
time frame for which it could be observed. Additionally, the Melbourne grid from nearby suburbia was overlaid onto the site giving an underlying organisational system. I also did a brief appraisal of the major shade trees on the site and the affect this would have on sunlight.
To map this I observed the traffic on the roads, river and footpaths around the island taking note of where each was busiest. From here I mapped the major aspects of the site taking into account the clarity of each view and the
From Left, River traffic, Pedestrian traffic, Vehicle traffic, Overlaid grid and Views into site.
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2.2 Conceptacle In my conceptacle, I combined into a single object the most prevalent ideas from my work in the three tectonics. The entire object is contained within a black cube, this allowed the creation of a framed view of the interior composition, an idea carried over from my Frame and Infill model, and for the controlled penetration of light, from Mass. Inside is a regular grid as, like in F/I, the arrangement was planned on a 9 square grid within which are several infill panels. When viewing the object through the forced perspective given by the housing the infill planes are seen to converge into a small black cube. This stems from the idea in my Point/Line/Plane composition of articulating a point. However, in this model the point is broadened into a visible space which when the housing is lifted is seen to dissolve as the planes are separated by void, thus creating a type of illusion like that explored in Mass. In addition, the illusion of mass itself is created by the black interior that has no clear boundaries and helps to give the planar composition a sense of weightlessness. The space that doesn’t exist has connotations of a secret that is observable, that broadcasts itself and creates intrigue and yet is never tangible. It is the manifestation of a secret kept totally and that is perhaps beyond comprehension. This is a concept that can be linked to many unknowns that either are or seem undiscoverable with current technologies and can be applied to history with the retrospective knowledge of a secret kept from past civilisations. Furthermore, the concept can be applied to ethical or philosophical questions which have no answer and are therefore unknowable. In which case the secret keeper is also beyond comprehension.
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The
Jew
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The ‘Between the lines’ planning strategy of the Jewish Museum is derivative of several exterior forces relating to site and program. The overarching form is an abstraction of the star of David with the exact direction of the distortions given by plotting the homes of important Jewish Berliners on a map and drawing those lines into the site. Furthermore, the basement level contains three major axes the Holocaust axis, the axis of exile and the continuity axis that runs as a straight line through the entire building. These represent the limited pathways open to a Jewish Berliner during WWII as well as the constant forward march of time.
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Indian Institue of Managment and Yale University Art Gallery, Louis Khan The works of Louis Khan including the Indian Institute of Management and the Yale University Art Gallery use mass and its relationship to shadow to create a sense of monumentality and emotional gravity absent from many modern buildings of the 20th Century. The strong geometric forms associated with Khan manipulate what little light enters his buildings accentuating elements of the often repetitive patterns and drawing attention to their subtle beauty and materiality. Thus his buildings develop a sense of space that is focusing placing function at the top of the visual hierarchy.
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Notre Dame du Ronchamp, Le Corbusier Notre Dame du Ronchamp sits on a site of strong catholic significance and pilgrimage that prior to WWII contained an ornate church destroyed by bombing. In an attempt to shed the decadent perception of the catholic church Le Corbusier’s replacement is focused purely on space and is not adorned with any traditional religious art or ornament. This puts the obligatory expression of a religious space on the form of the building and the light it conducts. The mass of the building gives way to pin points of light that filter in through carefully orchestrated openings creating monumentality through absence of light and relating to the universal experience of the night sky and thus transcending the religious association of the reflective space.
Glass Video Gallery, Bernard Tschumi
Designed to display pop-music videos Bernard Tschumi’s Glass Video Gallery is the antithesis of the architectural typology of a cinema; that of the black box. Instead the building is completely transparent and highly reflective muddying the distinction between the real and the virtual. Additionally, the idea of instability is explored through the sloping floor and its impact upon movement through the space.
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2.3 DESIGN DEVELOPMENT To develop the design I established a clear my proposal, the sculpture, the immediate connection to place by connecting the site and the broader context of Melbourne. emotive and spatial qualities of the site to the stories told by the landscape around it. The sculpture present on the chosen site told a story that could easily be linked to the history of the island and Melbourne as a whole. Thus I sought in my design process to articulate a connection between
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Water
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Journeys
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Knowledge
My interpretation of Steerage is a story of settlers arriving in Melbourne via the Yarra river and their journey and aquistion of knowledge in a foreign land. However, this interpretation has connotations of the ignorance of the settler in comparison to local Indigenous people upon whom they imposed their way of life. Subsequently the early contact period was fraught with conflict which has never been fully resolved. Thus due to the prominent location within the river and the profound impact the island has had on the river landscape the story of the river through the eyes of the white settler seems like a fitting program for this site.
Steerage, Jill Peck This artwork by Canberra artist Jill Peck takes the form of a granite boat that sits on the western most point of the island as a place for contemplation. The piece itself is a metaphor for water, journeys and knowledge and the ‘prow’ of the boat points directly to mouth of the Yarra river grounding it firmly in its context. 57
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Upheaval
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Journey
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Violence
Tunnerminnerwait and Maulboyheener were Tasmanian Aboriginal men who experienced the brutality of the white settlers first hand during their short lives. In Van Diemen’s Land they experienced massacres, the murder of family members as part of an open conflict in which settlers hunted Aboriginal people. To escape the violence the men and their family group were transported by their ‘protector’ to Victoria. However, It became clear to them that although the Victorian Indigenous people were not being openly murdered their land and their way of life was being stripped from them. Consequently, Tunnerminnerwait and Maulboyheener escaped. along with three women they were hunted as they made their way to Wilson’s Promontory where perhaps they sought passage back home. The constant threat of being shot on sight bore down on them and eventually resulted in the murder of two white whalers. The pair were subsequently captured and sentenced to execution in Melbourne. Charged as common murderers with no consideration given to motive, their deaths were witnessed by thousands of eager Melbournians; political killings and the first executions in Victoria. There is no memorial to these men who were among the first to fight the greed and the cruelty of the white settler. They were buried in unmarked graves on the site of the Victoria market, where they remain. Their story is characteristic of the early contact period and of great significance to Melbourne but is scarcely known, a secret.
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Water
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Violence
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Perspective
The story of the site on the western point of Herring Island can be distilled down to the influences of Water, Violence and Perspective. The river and its physical form have been shaped by the island constructed from the silt of the riverbed, permanently altering the watercourse, creating a dichotomy between the past and present. The past brings fourth stories of occupation, upheaval and violence that are embedded in the flow of the river. While the future is dependent on perspective; the way in which we perceive the past and the channel we choose in the present. The diagram to the right draws all these influences into site. The run of the river, to which steerage is orientated, is drawn in along with the site of Tunnerminnerwait and Maulboyheener’s execution (red) and their final resting place beneath the Victoria Market. Finally the perspectives into the site are drawn from my site analysis.
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Plan Development I developed the building in plan through giving the various influences formal attributes within the site. I experimented with many arrangements on butter paper before arriving at an axial plan with the line of the river and the connection to the site of Tunnerminnerwait and Maulboyheeners’ execution as the two main axes. I then arrived at a three-part arrangement in accordance with the three-part narrative and finally justified each element within the organisational system of the grid. 62
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Plan Geometry Having developed a basic layout, I experimented with the geometries of the plan and began to extrude the shapes to create the desired effect in each space in accordance with the narrative. I solidified these forms in this geometric drawing inspired by El Lissitzky’s ‘proun’ series.
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3.0 Final Design The final design explores the concept of secrets through the story of the white settler in the early contact period of Australia. This narrative is rich with secrets from the unknown that was the continent of Australia and the exploration of a strange and foreign land to contact with a culture beyond the comprehension of a white settler. A secret that is held to this day as the history of an ancient culture is forgotten and unrecognisable to many. Leading to the final secret, the future and how we will choose to approach it. Can there be restitution? This pavilion carries the intention of being a thought provoking, unsettling journey through the consciousness of the white settler. It hopes to bring the inequality that exists in local and national history to the forefront of public perception by demonstrating the flawed mentality and referencing a single example of its lasting impact, the story of Tunnerminnerwait and Maulboyheener. It also aims to deal with the future and be a place for the discussion of ideas on how our national psyche and subsequently our national identity can be changed to truly accommodate the traditional custodians of the land.
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I
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Anticipation
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Conflict
Violence
III.
Resolution?
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Journey
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Fear
Upheaval
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Act I, Apprehension Act I begins before even setting foot on the island, the tower and the roof forms are visible from all sides, a curious mass discernable from all perspectives advertising its secrets through the play of shadow. Once on the island it is discovered that the carved grid form has no ingress, it is only when the user is drawn to where the past and present flows of the river meet at the prow of the island that the hidden entrance is uncovered. The ramp gestures openly downstream but is totally dark and inhospitable within. There is a sense of fear on the threshold that only grows when the
user descends into almost complete darkness. All light is absorbed by the dark, rammed river-silt walls and even other figures become unperceivable as a lonely sense of curiosity or greed draws you down further. Left, Perspective charcoal drawing of entrance ramp. Right, Roof plan.
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Act II, Hostility As the user approaches the foot of the ramp a red glow becomes apparent emanating from a cross axial corridor. Still engulfed in a red tinged darkness the user steps off the entrance ramp only to stumble as they encounter an incline in the reverse direction. Turning to look along this cataclysmic axis they truly enter the second act. The floor slopes upwards in two directions to the South and to the East representing destabilisation and upheaval. The red corridor is overbearing and entirely uncomfortable yet the pure red light at the end of it beckons. With difficulty, the user forces their way
up the incline towards the vivid light the building itself creating conflict. Left, Perspective drawing of the cross axis. Right, Floor Plan.
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Act II, Hostility Upon reaching the end of the corridor the floor slopes into the foot of a pure red volume that is the tower where the user stops in the refuge of the easy passage. Looking up the outside world is dimly visible and audible, red tinted. This connects the conflict, anger and violence perceived through the red light to place and encourages reflection upon what might be hidden within the Yarra landscape. Left, Perspective drawing of the upward view in tower. Right, Section A.
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Act III, Proposition Returning to the main axis of the pavilion an opening that may have escaped notice before continues the corridor of the ramp through into a lighter space. When viewed on axis a black cube is perceived in the centre of the space but as the user steps down onto the elevated central platform it disappears becoming a series of screens inspired by the brise soleil of Le Corbusier or Oscar Neimeyer. This is the idea of the illusion a type of secret created by the misconception of our own mind. It renders a space that does not actually exist representing the perceivable but
not yet tangible notion of resolution following colonisation. As the user steps forward into the space they are instantly placed at its centre, on a raised platform, this is the notion of the inverted chapel plan where the space is entered via the alter. This instantly places the onus on each person who enters to provide their perception on the future and the direction of the present. Backtracking, steps take the user down onto the floor of the secular chapel proper and they find themselves no longer under obligation but free to discuss ideas with people who have
shared their experience. The gridded ceiling varies in height confusing the boundaries of the dimly lit space and creating a sense of monumentality through the small shafts of light permitted to enter. The pews of the chapel are replaced by movable benches with no back allowing people to face each other in conversation and an audio-visual room projects onto the Western wall to enable the space to be used as a regular community hall. Left, Perspective drawing of chapel space. Right, Section B.
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3.1 FINAL DESIGN MODEL
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4.0 Reflection The first three exercises involving the three tectonics I found highly instructive in developing an approach to quickly analysing an architectural system and exploring the ways it can convey multiple ideas. I found this process to be very open as we were enabled to take the tectonic and push it in any way we wanted provided it had conceptual grounding and could be clearly identified as the given tectonic. I thoroughly enjoyed the breadth of possibilities given by the three very different tectonics explored in a short period of time and see it as an extremely useful way of generating contrasting and complimentary ideas on mass. These concepts became crucial when attempting to solve the problem of ‘a place for keeping secrets’ as they provided direction to what was otherwise a very open brief. Having generated ideas surrounding some of the most basic principles of architectural form the site analysis allowed for an opportunity to view the
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formal and conceptual possibilities that existed already within a given area. It was unfortunate that Herring Island became closed to the public early in the semester as it is a very interesting context for a building due to its place within the city as a whole and further exploration may have helped refined the subtleties of my design. Despite this my analysis gave me ample conceptual basis to propose a pavilion that contains meaning and a strong connection to place on Herring Island. I believe that a design can always be refined further however projects such as this tend to be improved by smaller and smaller amounts as time goes on so it is perhaps fortunate that time constraints limit development somewhat. I have found this subject to be a highly enjoyable first studio. As expected the work load was high however I think this is necessary to get the best out of each student and I look forward to the challenge of future studios.
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5.0 Bibliography Van der Rohe, M. Brick Villa Project, 1964, Ink on illustration board, retrieved from https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/16/24/d3/1624d389794fe4f0f09a61c358733bd4.jpg Murcutt, G. & Troppo Architects, Bowali Visitors centre, 1993, photograph, retrieved from http://www.troppo.com.au/bowali/ Libeskind, D. The Jewish Museum, 1999, photograph, retrieved from http://libeskind.com/work/jewish-museum-berlin/ Libeskind, D. The Jewish Museum, 1999, photograph, retrieved from http://images.adsttc.com/media/images/5037/ed61/28ba/0d59/9b00/04cc/large_jpg/stringio.jpg?1414219265 Denton Corker Marshall, Philip Island House, 1983, photographs, retrieved from http://www.dentoncorkermarshall.com/projects/phillip-island-house/ MOMA, Contra-construction Project, T. van Doesburg and C. van Eesteren, 1923, retrieved from https://www.moma.org/collection/works/232 Fujimoto, S. House NA, 2012, photograph, retrieved from http://www.archdaily.com/230533/house-na-sou-fujimoto-architects Khan, L. Indian Institute of Management, 1974, photographs, retrieved from http://www.archdaily.com/83697/ad-classics-indian-institute-of-management-louis-kahn Le Corbusier, Notre Dame du Ronchamp, 1954, photograph, retrieved from http://www.archdaily.com/84988/ad-classics-ronchamp-le-corbusier Jewish Museum Berline, retrieved from https://www.jmberlin.de/en/libeskind-building Tschumi, B. Glass Video Gallery, 1990, photograph, retrieved from http://www.tschumi.com/media/files/01915.jpg Rawlinson, Clare. Melbourne’s Invicible Indigenous history, 2015, retrieved from http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-07-06/an-invisible-history-of-melbourne/6587162
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