ARCH 1201 Studio Submission 3 - Final Submission + Design Approach

For my final design I looked further out at the surrounding streetscape to see how that responded to the cliff that cuts through Potts Point. As the curving rock face clashes with the city grid it creates a number of seemingly random but interesting spaces. I wanted to incorporate this in to my final design by getting the two apartments of the art collector and artist to juxtapose one another much like the city grid and the rock face. The resulting negative space forms the space for my galley. By not actively designing the gallery space and instead letting the surrounding architectural articulation do all the work, is to me the purest form of adapting to the site.

The articulation between the artist and art collector’s apartments was guided by the thought of mutual collaboration. The Arts collector needs the artist to supply works of art for his gallery, but artist needs the financial supports of the arts collector. They are in a sense dependent on one another and their lives revolve around the gallery. I therefor positioned their apartments in a supportive posture around the gallery, where the architectural articulation appears to be sheltering that space.  As the artist and the arts collector are so reliant on one another, the architecture is designed to support both apartments. This is illustrated in the structural design. They both enter through a common staircase that bares the load of the eastern side of the building. On the western side of the building, a structural element from Rem Koolhaas Maison á Bordeaux has been added to support the weight of the building but still have the feel of it floating above the gallery. Although the apartments are of different size, where the art collectors is the bigger, they both sit at the same height, giving the assumption that they are in a sense equal and dependent on one another. 

The lowest floor houses a public garden the ground floor the gallery space, office small display room and storage.  The first floor an intermediary space partly glazed in from shoulder level and upwards which allows the inhabitants to respond to the street but still allows for privacy (like walking around naked if one chooses to). The third floor houses the lower floor of the art collector’s residence featuring a kitchen, dining area, lounge room and balcony. The fourth floor houses the sleeping quarters, laundry and bathroom of the arts collector but also the artist residence. 

The program goes from public in the lower garden, to semi private in the gallery, to a higher level of privacy in the intermediary floor to fully private in the top floors. This compartmentalization is essential in all of Koolhaas designs.

Ceiling heights is something Koolhaas very subtly uses to control space. In the ground floor, the ceiling height is very low to enhance the feeling of moving underground into the mountain. Light in this area is provided by a light well facing the street. This works well in responding to the surrounding buildings, as light wells are an old a common way of getting light to the lower floors. This is design is also found in the buildings surrounding the site. As we move upwards in the structure, ceiling heights successively grow to provide a more airy and light feeling.

The circulation is managed through a series of ramps that respond to the neighboring buildings. Through those ramps, you can access the lower public garden and the semi-private gallery. To further explore the building, you in a sense have to be invited in by the owners, as the three upper floors can only be accessed through the galley space. Having both the arts collector and artist enter and leave by first transitioning through the gallery space adds to the quality of life for the inhabitants as the artist can supply fresh works of art in the morning that the arts collector can enjoy on his way to and from work.

Something that I really wanted to incorporate in the design is Koolhaas was of controlling views. For my design I wanted the view of the Sydney skyline to be restricted from street level forcing people down the ramp to be able to access it. This also provides privacy as it shelters the inhabitants from insight from a westerly direction. This way of stepping down to access a view relates to the stepping down motion behind Victoria St towards Woolloomooloo where the site is located. This is also apparent in the upper two floors. In the art collectors’ residence, he first has to step down to the third floor to be able to access a view of the Sydney skyline and the gallery space below.  In the artists residence the skyline and gallery space below is visible due to a higher ceiling height and a large glazed window, but by looking down he is also awarded a view of the art collectors lounge room, dining room and kitchen. This sharing of views exposes their personal lives to one another and suggests a very intimate relationship between the two, which I believe can only better the artistic exchange. This is further reinforced by the shared staircase and laundry facilities. However, this level of shared privacy forces the arts collector to carefully consider the personality of the artist I residence.

ARCH 1201 Studio Submission 3 - Week 4

For week four I reverted back to more of a Koolhaas inspired design. The building is compartmentalized into public, semi private and private on three separate floors. The two lower floors are connected by a staircase that mirrors the articulation of the neighboring houses. The lowest floor housed a public garden and the artist’s residence. The middle floor houses the glazed in gallery and the upper floor the art collector’s residence. This design very similar to Rem Koolhaas Maison á Bordeaux in terms of program, but features a more interesting articulation instead of the standard box stacked on top of another box concept.

The problems found with this design is that the gallery needs be better encapsulated and sheltered from direct sunlight. The artist’s residence however receives far too little sunlight and must either be fitted with massive skylights or moved to a better location.

ARCH 1201 Studio Submission 3 - Week 3

This week I truly wanted to think “outside the box”. What happened if I extended my building out from my designated site? How would that affect the neighboring houses? My idea was based on a wing design that stretched outwards, hovering freely above the 30 foot drop and the garden space below. The curved articulation was to provide a stunning direct view of the harbor bridge. The gallery was to be placed furthest out on the wing, allowing a dramatic backdrop for the art but also ample light conditions. The artist residence was then placed right behind it allowing views to the gallery at all time. The arts collectors’ residence was placed above the wing allowing him a massive open area drenched in sunlight.

The problem with this design was that it was too intrusive towards the neighbors, depriving the closest one of almost all direct sunlight in the morning. When placed in the site model, I also discovered that the view I wanted of the harbor bridge was blocked of by a neighboring building. Although this exploration in “thinking outside the box” was not successful it provided me with a better understanding of the surrounding streetscape and how that would impact my final design.

ARCH 1201 Studio Submission 3 - Week 2

For week two, the design is further refined. The garden that was previously located in a southerly direction has been moved in a northerly direction to provide better lighting conditions. Balconies have also been added. The gallery has been pulled in slightly and a supporting structure placed underneath to explore what happens if the entire building floats above the ground.

This week we did a site visit and when bringing the model to the site, I realized the stepping down articulation of the building wasn’t great enough. The cliff face was a sheer 30 foot drop into a small garden space. The neighboring building handled this drop by way of a vertical facade spanning three floors. This vertical space was interrupted by two upper floors having set in balconies and the lower floor a balcony that was set out from the façade. This existing articulation works well in responding to the cliff face weaving itself through the site.

ARCH 1201 Studio Submission 3 - Week 1

For this project we were asked to design a double house in relation to a carefully constructed landscape or garden. The building was to be lived in by two people. One being an art collector who runs a small gallery for contemporary art, the other an artist in residence. The challenge is to understand how the architectural relationships bear on the lived experience between the people sharing the building in multiple ways. We are to use the knowledge gathered in project one and two where we studied Rem Koolhaas Maison á Bordeaux as a starting point.

For this first week, we are only given a simple plan and a brief run-through of the area around the site which sits on Victoria St in Potts Point, Sydney. What is fascinating with this site is that it sits just above a large cut in the landscape. Just below is a long cliff face that stretches in a north/south direction and actively divides Woolloomooloo with Kings Cross. This design plays with the idea of the landscape dropping down. The building is also divided up in to two and separated by a common meeting place. The art gallery is placed right up on Victoria Street to allow easy access. It is also constructed in such a way that the apartment above appears to be floating on top of the gallery’s glass construction. The lower part of the building has been set into the ground which creates a contrast to the upper part which appears to be floating. One problem that came up was the arrangement of the glazed areas which only let sun in in an east/westerly direction.