Design Section

Using Archicad I have modelled a section through the building. It helps see how the spaces work together and how people will use the building. I have used this image as another key image on my presentation sheets

Exterior Lighting

Lighting the Piazza is an important part of the scheme as people will pass through or along side of the Piazza form the city to gain access to the theatre. The site must not feel foreboding at night and should be well lit. Lighting the Piazza will also discourage homeless people sleeping there at night, although security would patrol the area.

From entering the site people will be guided through to the piazza by lighting poles at varying heights. The lights will come on a different times and depending on the number of people passing through them all or some of them will shine.

The lights closest to the residential block will be taller and reduce in height closer to the piazza they get, to reveal the activities and Theatre. Similar lighting installations have been created by UVA united visual artists:

Volume @ V&A museum London

http://www.uva.co.uk/

Lighting on the piazza will be lighting cranes that will adjust in height to suit the activity on the site. At the base a fixed canopy will provide direct light and shelter to a bench. The high walkway will have lighting on the underside to light the path to the Theatre.

Exterior Spaces

Floating Performance
Above is the floating performance image rendered in Archicad. The image shows that many people can sit upon the steps and watch the floating performance without stopping entrance and exit to the theatre.


South Facade
A projection can be displayed upon the south facade to advertise shows within the theatre and display local artists work. The Projection will draw people in this way during the evening and night.

Welcome to the interchange

This is one of my key images for my scheme.
In the foreground the Leeds + Liverpool canal can be seen with a stepped seating area down to a terrace. The terrace is a spill out from the restaurant that also faces the Piazza. The bridge/walkway starts off at the canal bridge to enter the theatre at 1st floor level. It then crosses the canal basin with places to stop and watch narrow boats or the floating stage. When the Bridge enters the Piazza site it forms a canopy for people waiting for the waterbus before becoming a roof for the facilities/toilets and the Restaurant.
The walkway splits into two; one to slope down to the Piazza and one to bring people to a higher height over the site. Bringing people to a greater height gives people an alternative perspective on the site and when watching people.
Places such as York and Chester have roman walls that people like to walk on -although this is not at the same scale or historic reasons as the City walls, there is the same novelty of being raised up to view things from a different perspective. Children like to walk on garden walls, (so do some adults) whether this is to see if they can balance on the wall, see things at a different height or have a change of route I am unsure, but providing a higher walkway gives the audience a different route through the site, adding to the constanlty changing environment.

Night time views

The theatre will be used primarily in the evening so the image of the theatre at night should be protrayed. I've been concerntrating on a nighttime image for the past few days and this is what i've achieved.

Note to self. don't attempt a nighttime building again!

Larger image with timber materials on experimental theatre added 22/05/09

With or With Out- WITH OUT!

I have been looking at the internal staircase of my design and although it works nicely, that is all it is- nice. The space should be architectural and engage the audience within the atmosphere and appear to be a sculpture or a stage to engage with.

The above image shows how the stairs splay and provide informal seating. The stairs only give access to the first floor in a 4xheight space.

An idea to take the stairs up thru the space to a viewing platform on the glazed facade was developed. This would allow another viewing perspective across the site and several half landings with extra space to look down on to the entrance. Below shows the balcony over the entrance.

However this idea brings a number of issues, including fire egress and bringing the public in to private space. The balcony also interrupts the east facade and looks like an add on.



So this was removed but still left the issue with creating a architectural ground floor entrance.
After discussions with my tutor today the stairs will still have seats within them but be extra to the main staircase. Many options were worked through and discussing the issue gave me fresh views on the design.
The first run of stairs down from the 1st floor will be conventional and lead to a half landing. From this landing two runs of stairs will land in different places on the ground floor. One conventional and the second forming the seats and a place to display brochures and promotional items.
I need to work through this on Cad and will upload these soon as ive done them. Only 19 working days to go!

Northern Design Competition

I entered the Northern Design competition this week with two previous works, that also have connections to tourism and leisure.

Didim Store in Turkey

This project was designed whilst I was working in Istanbul. Didim store is a feasibilty study and sketch design of a new generation of cafe/bookshops in tourist areas. The client required flexible use for daytime activities where people would be coming in dressed in beachwear and also evening use, when the audience would be smarter and looking for a bar atmosphere.

The sheet represents a snap shot of the final product and a hint of the many cardboard development models I made during my time there.

The Box Office, Briggate Leeds

The Box office is an intervention that uses information booths to give tourist information from selling theatre tickets to finding bus times. The red booths can be used in different formations to be used individually, in groups of four to show a short film or in multiple to present an exhibition. The proposal is derived from the define and redefine group project on Briggate, where our proposal was to make Briggate a tourist and leisure destination, not just a shopping street.