Some more site analysis

Following the release of the specific brief, I decided to do another brainstorm.

I attempted to keep each of my consideration close to the parameters I set for myself. Sound of the city and boundaries don't really link all that closely... however environmental considerations  and boundaries, and the sound of the city and environmental considerations are intertwined, as the brainstorm revealed.

 The site includes the fabulous sandstone cliffs, which are of great beauty. The cliffs are a boundary, but could that boundary be broken, and the building work its way down the cliff?

A series of spaces interconnected, weaving their way down the clifface?

 Or a giant escalator!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Maybe not so practical?
I then started to think in more real terms about the educational experience. I thought about Interactive, Informative and Idealistic... and wondered whether I could relate some of the expectations of the learning experience to each of these.

Idealistic is fairly self explanatory. This could be a display (including live birds) that shows what we should aim for the city to be like in the future.

 Informative: just what was the city? What did it look like? What did is sound like? What was it like to live here, the benefits etc.

Interactive: What might the city be like in the future if we don't take good measures to preserve it? Will we still hear and see birds and other animals. Perhaps visitors could virtually create their own future?!

The River is another advantage of the site, particularly the fact that its a natural boundary that may be more easily utilised than the cliff. Visitors may enter off the River, and leave via the River, but through a different entrance? The diagram below considers this. 

Theme Specific Tutorial 2

This week's tutorial was an opportunity for us to cement our ideas regarding our core concepts, continue with the site analysis and receive the tutorial-specific brief.

Whilst waiting to speak to Dan, I decided to explore more ideas about learning, thinking specifically about my core parameters of THE SOUND OF THE CITY and BOUNDARIES.

To begin with, I decided to look for some definitions: These definitions come from searching in Google using the 'define:' shortcut:

Barrier: A fence or other obstacle that prevents movement or access
- A circumstance that prevents communication or keeps people apart.

Boundary: A line that marks the limits of an area, a dividing line
- A limit of a subject or sphere of activity

Concentrated: Wholly directed to one thing; intense gathered in one space

Dispersed: Distributed or spread over a wide area
- Go or cause to go in different directions or to different destinations

Escape: Break free from confinement or control (verb)

From here, I discovered that I could put them all together....

"A BARRIER keeps people apart; it confines and controls. A BOUNDARY is the edge BARRIER. BARRIERS may direct to one thing or cause one to go in different directions or to different destinations."

It is interesting to note that the words boundary and barrier are interchangeable. 

From here, I started to think about learning. I am a gymnastics coach, as well as an acrobatic gymnast. This means that I spend a large proportion of my time around children, teaching them, working with them to learn and achieve goals. Specifically, I started thinking of the kindergym program that we run.
Kindergym is for children aged 2-4, and it includes learning fine motor skills, colours, shapes, sounds and so on. Much of the kindergym program is about LEARNING THROUGH PHYSICAL EXPERIENCE. Specifically, if a child is having difficulty performing one task, we challenge them to try again, slightly differently. Essentially, this is how EVERYONE learns. So that got me thinking, what if the entire centre was a giant play pen!.... Yeah, no.

Anyway, I started to diagram as below:

The first image shows a process of questioning one's prior knowledge. When faced with dead ends in every direction, one might turn back. But, what if... the wall isn't really a wall, but an illusion?! You push through and... BAM you are through.

Learning and problem solving at its simplest: One is faced with a space they cannot just walk straight through, as it is too narrow. 

So they turn to the side in order to fit through.



One is faced with a wall too high to climb over, so they slide through the low gap.

From here, we received the brief, and there is a lot of work to do from now on.......

Panels from Assignment 1

These are the panels from Assignment 1, finally small enough to be able to be uploaded.

Week 5/6: Core Concepts and Site Analysis

Having found it difficult to produce core concepts in tutorial, I decided to try the exercise at home. Below is my brainstorm map:

The core concept for our Folie was the sound of the city. We were heavily inspired by the sound of the traffic over the Story Bridge when we walked underneath it. This influenced both the Folie's location and form. It got me thinking that the sound of the city is different depending on where you are. How does this relate to the site? Directly under the bridge = definitive, constant and clear traffic sounds, and at the base of the cliff the sound is more dispersed, more like 'noise'; background stuff. Is the sound of the city only traffic related? Well, it could be argued that it is the sound of traffic that makes up the most of the sounds, but there are other factors, like human noise (talking, laughing), construction noise and the sounds of animals.

Not only is the sound of the city dependent upon where you are, it is something that changes over time. It changes over the course of a day: in the morning and evening peak our the sound of the city is loud as people move around. At midday it is loud, but not to the level of the peak periods. At midnight, the sound of the city is relatively quiet. The sound of the city also changes by year, particularly with the increase in population. Increase in population = increase in car ownership, especially with the lack of public transport infrastructure in the city.

From here I came up with the concept of concentrated vs. dispersed.

Then I decided to analyse the function of our Folie. Primarily, it was just supposed to be a space where people could come and relax, listening to the sounds of the city.

A Folie was to act as an ESCAPE, an interruption to a journey or a DESTINATION. A DESTINATION =ESCAPE.

Could my learning experience be about physical barriers and boundaries, and trying to escape?

What about a giant maze...

These concepts then informed my specific site analysis. As I did the site analysis for the Folie project, I already had a good idea about the site, specifically the areas under the bridge. But I decided to look at the site as a whole, considering the boundaries/barriers, where the sound would come from and the access points.

 This first image shows the boundaries of the site, and the fact that there are existing structures of historical significance. I believe these have to stay.

 This second image shows where the sound comes from. The Story Bridge produces concentrated sound. The River and the rest of the city produces dispersed sound.

 The River provides ample entry opportunities. Cut off this image is the Boundary Street entry point. The River is both a boundary and an entry point... this is an interesting point.



Week 5: First Theme Tutorial

This week was the first of our themed tutorials. We began with introductions and other formalities, before moving into some specific exercises based on our theme 'through the eyes of a child.' We took a wander into the Botanic Gardens, removing ourselves from the studio environment in order to focus on our memories. We were challenged to think back to our first learning experience...

My earliest memories of learning are of my grandparent's property in Beerwah on the Sunshine Coast. It could not strictly be classed as a 'farm', more a smallholding where they kept chickens, had a worm farm and grew vegetables. The property was bordered on two sides by a large macadamia plantation, and I have distinct memories of my brother, my cousin and myself running up and down the property, stealing macadamias that had fallen over my grandparent's fence.

Some of the key words I came up with in my two minutes of thinking were:
* every smell - fresh - sounds of animals and freedom
* hiding in the chicken coop - chasing the chickens, running away from them and looking for their eggs
* trying to find macadamias, occasionally climbing the fence to get the best ones.
* riding in the trailer on the ride on mower, up and down.

This is sketch I produced.

Clearly, it is of me chasing a chicken.

I can remember being fascinated by the worm farm and the chickens and their chicks. I was also fascinated by the plants and flowers in the garden.

We would travel to Beerwah almost every weekend.

We would also travel to Nambour Hospital almost every weekend.

My grandmother was very ill with bowel cancer, and spent a lot of time in hospital. When I was six years old, she couldn't fight it any longer.
I can remember the funeral quite clearly. I was six, and I didn't really understand what was going on during the ceremony. A child does not really understand death, all they understand is that the person is not there anymore; where are they? But, when I walked out of the ceremony, I burst into tears. I still think, to this day, that learning about the lifecycles of plants and animals on my grandparent's property made me realise that Grandma wasn't coming back.

In the second exercise, we were to think back to primary school. The first memory that popped into my head was Grade 5 camp. This was the first time that I was properly spending time away from my parents.

Some of my thoughts:
* Being away from mum and dad for the first time - not scared, excited.
* couldn't wait to try new things, with friends
* couldn't sleep, was too excited, everything was new
* so much build up

This event was one of the happiest times in my life, where I truly could just escape and enjoy myself. I think I learnt much about friendship on Grade 5 camp. It was one of the last times my best friend and I could spend really easy and happy times together. In the following years she got very sick with migraines, and we drifted apart, because I couldn't be alone all the time.

The campfire we made at the camp - enjoying how beautiful it was with my best friend - this is still one of my fondest memories.

From this exercise, we returned to studio and shared our experiences. Many of were of school excursions to the museum or similar. Then from here, we were challenged to pull the core concepts - parameters - from our Folie project to then become the parameters for our Folie to Building project 2. I found this quite difficult in the tutorial!!!