Project 3

...Art gallery...

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Precedent - Lyon House Museum

The part of the Lyon housemuseum which inspired my design was "boxes" which contain the two main gallery spaces. It has two boxes - a "white box" which contains atwork and - a "black box" which is used for video presentations.

My design contains a single box and a darkroom which is not in the form of a box.
I also liked the way people could look down into the white box from the walkway on the second floor and incorporated this into my design.

Painted site model

The reason I made this mini site model was so that I could see the context in which I was designing the Gallery. I also felt that I needed to see colour and decided to paint the facades of the building. After this I returned to the site and walked the streets for an hour or so because I wanted to discover what I could add to the site and surrounding community to achieve a sense of decorum. I strongly feel that a building should add to the completion of the context in which it resides in a manner that is approprate for the particular project.

Introduction to my design

This brief part aims to introduce the reader to the main concepts in order to understand the successive posts.
In this project I really wanted to connect to the site and the community.
Firstly I wanted the gallery to communicate with commuting citizens and I went about this by opening up a large courtyard at the front of the site, onto King street.
The courtyard has trees and is flanked by an arcade with steps which people can sit on. There are trees also and a competition mural (explained later) which ca be viewed fom the footpath.
The arcade leads to the main entrance and continues through the building when open to the public. It leads to the Large sculpture yard and out onto the narrow road which intersects Eliza St and more importantly opens up this street which was previously used as a parking area.
The main building is structured around a central cube gallery space which I was inspired by the Lyon Housemuseum, though it does not relate to the precedent in any ohter way.
The appartment is placed at the back of the site which is private and recieves north facing sun.

The Martin Luthor King Mural - My inspiration

This mural was painted in 1991 by the NewZealand-born Canadian Artist Andrew Aiken.

It depicts the African-American civil rights leader Martin Luthor King and the campain for civil rights for Aboriginal Australians.

This is a beautiful painting and inspired the Anti-Racism theme thoroughout this design.

The Deisel Wall and the design competition

After deciding to connect with the site and community through Newtown's history of street art, I found this Diesel Milan design competition inspiring and wanted to add this component to my galley design. The idea is to promote the themes relating to the artwort being exhibited in the museum, starting from the relevant anti-racism issuse raised by the close by mural of Martin Luthor King. The competition help advertise the new museum and connect with the people on the street, giving people who don't usually look at art the opportunity to have a look inside and experience more thoroughly the art which they tasted while walking past.

The Artwork

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The artwort and the galleries which exhibit them

Cai Guo-Quiang - Inopportune: Stage One

This sculptural work by Cai Guo-Quiang in 2004 is to be exibited in the Main cube Gallery (Large gallery) and will hang from the ceiling as it did in the Guggenhein museum.
As can be seen, the suspended cars are peirced by illuminated coloured rods as if they are exploding in mid air. The artist manages to portray this terrific event as if beautiful.
It does not relate to the Anti-Racism theme but I wanted to display this work to lighten the atmosphere.

Regina Jose Galindo - Confesion

Using video as her medium in this work, Confesion looks at a form of torture called Waterboarding, involving the immobilisation ofthe victum while water is poured over thier face into their breathing passages. She uses her own body to demonstrate these acts in a moving and compelling performance. She aims to raise public awareness of this form of human abuse.
I have created a dark room for these videos.

Sun Yuan and Peng Yu - Hong Kong Intervention

In Yuan and Yu's work they asked the subjects to place a toy grenade somewhere in a space of their choice and then they had their photo taken while turned around.
These people are phillipino housekeepers woking in Hong Kong and this artwork was of a playful nature. Although these workers serve others and are constantly away from their families, they are treated well in the Hong Kong homes.
It will be exibited in the Second gallery space.

Plans and Sections

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Site plan - 1:500

Ground floor plan - 1:100

First Floor plan - 1:100

Long sections

Cross Section

Poche Renders

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Section - Poche

This (ink) poche render shows the sectional cut through the main gallery space (the cube).

Plan - Poche

This is the Poche of the Cube gallery space (Gallery space 1) which depicts the way the natural light may come in from the windows on the bottom left and the roof and then filter through the space. The render was pinted with black ink.

Interior Perspectives

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Small sculpture yard

This interior perspective shows the passage which when open leads through the building, to the sculpture courtyard and onto the narrow side street which intersects Eliza Street.

The space in the picture looks at the small sculpture yard at the foot of the stair.

Hallway

This is the hallway connecting the gallery space which contains Sun Yuan and Peng Yu's work and the Dark room for videos. On the wall on the right hand side artwork can be displayed, while a horizontal window on the left allows visitors to view the cars haning from the ceiling in the main cube gallery space.

First floor - Sun Yuan and Peng Yu exhibition

The way the the walls are positioned for this temporary exhibition is sparse and disorderly.
The people in the photos were asked to place a toy hand grenade somewhere in a space for the artwork and the placing of the walls reflects the potential chaos which the bomb stands for.

Facade + Canvas

This watercolour depicts part of the gallery's facade but more importantly the white spot on the wall will be the canvas for a design competition against racism. It can be seen from the street.

The Model

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Function room/shop

This room starts with the entrance lobby in the top right hand corner. People can leave their jacket at the counter on their right as they walk into the gallery and see the shop infront of them. The shop includes the counter at the bottom of the picture and the wall space behind, including the wall adjacent to the stair.
The longer counter at the entry continues and has a kitchen behind it for making coffee and for functions while there is a table and chairs behind the wall and stair for people to sit and watch people in the street.

The stair leads up to the second gallery space from the function room/bar/shop

Large gallery space - Cube gallery

The arcade can be seen leading through to the top half of the cube and under the building.
This gallery space can be entered by the bottom left corner (although i forgot to cut an entrance in the model) near the main entrance and can also be accessed from the first floor.
There are windows on the first floor which allow visitors to see in to the space.

Appartment and office

On the left of the central walkway is the apartment (which would have North facing windows) and to the left are the Office/workshop rooms.

Stockroom and toilets

These rooms are connected to the function room. The two front rooms are toilets and the backroom is the stockroom which can be accessed by the shop.

Second gallery space - first floor

Inside the cube - first floor access

Central walkway

Experiment 2: Room and Narrative




"Lonley journalist struggles to maintain his professionalism despite temptations in the workplace"

Office at night

About the painting

Edward Hopper's inspiration for this piece occured while travelling on the train at night. He claimed that he would get glimpses of such scenes when the train passed by these illuminated office buildings.

The painting shows a male sitting at his desk, focused on his work and a lady, probably his sectetary, who is standing near a filing cabinet.
While he seems to be concentrating on the task at hand, she is looking down. Maybe she is staring at him but its more likely she is staring at the peice of paper lying near the desk.
That peice of paper lying on the ground between them suggests a disorderly space.

The family functions to contain the biological impulses of reproduction, however, often this spills into the workplace. Here it threatens to subvert the orders of rationalized production.

It is quite clear what this painting is suggesting but what are these two coworkers thinking?

The Sectetary may be wondering what could happen if she kneels down to pick up the peice of paper. Will he move to pick it up at the same time? Will their eyes meet?

The man on the other hand is in the authorotive role, he can either maintain his professionalism and resist temptation or give in to the forbidden satisfaction.

Narrative

Similar to Hopper's painting the narrative is also set inside an office.
The subject is a solitary Journalist who spends most of his time working in his office and has little contact with the outside world. He has hidden himself away into the darkest place in his office with the arrangement of the bookcase and the curtain and can only see light seeking in past the books and the slated window which hides the kitchen.
In this story the temptaion no longer takes human form. The smells coming from the kitchen and the natural light coming from the well glazed kitchen will catch his attention.
The light at the end of the hallway reveales a flight of stairs to a hidden room will make him curiously want to wander down.
But the slanted cieling of the hallway will force him to crawl on his knees to reach the stair. This gesture intends to breach the professionalism that he is so intent on maintaining.
As in Hopper's painting the subject is confronted with a choice.......

The site

The office is located inside a cliff overlooking the ocean. The picture was taken at Coogee Beach but it could be located on any similar site.