//design project program

Thursday 31st of March

Today in the tut, as a group, we worked out what the program was going to be for our howard smith wharves design project.

Program:
Performing Art Centre (dance school)
- main performing space (500ppl)
- foyer
- theory classrooms
- studio's
- staff room
- toilets
- cafeterior
- outdoor spaces

//folie design

above is my folie design panel...

The story bridge is a very prominate overhead feature of the howard smith wharves site and therefore could not be disregarded in the concept design. When looking at a map of brisbane city you begin to notice the connectional possibilities in which the bridge offers. One of the main and most prominent connections is the linkage between fortitude valley and kangaroo point via the story bridge. The linear connections that are formed with the suburb adjacencies are the basis of the folie floor plan. 

I researched the suburbs further and found out the relative heights above sea level of each. Noticing some large height differences in some adjacencies, i thought this could be interesting and informative to show in elevation. The heights of the folie in real life are the actual heights above sea level at a scale of 1:10, the highest being 50m, which means 5m is the tallest point of the folie.

The design intent is to inform and orientate people within the city. The folie will communicate to people walking by at ground level and looking from above. The folie is also a place to sit and relax. By looking through the openings to the next directional line you get a sense of connection between the inner city suburbs (below are some diagrams explaining the concept and movement around the folie).

//walkshop and site analysis

Below are drawings taken from uni to our site: Howard Smith Wharves

Government House - landmark

Mangroves Boardwalk - path

 Goodwill Bridge - node

 Kangaroo Point Cliffs - edge/path

Story Bridge from Riverside - landmark/node

Story Bridge from below

Story Bridge elevation

walking up to Story Bridge

under Story Bridge

Story Bridge entrance

By using a combination of Kevin Lynch's approach ('The Image of the City') and Gordon Cullen's approach ('The Concise Townscape'), i have traced my way through the city with a series of sketches. Throughout the walk i gathered from my surroundings elements such as paths, nodes, landmarks and edges and documented each of them. Cullen sketched exactly what he saw although as if he were "to walk from one end of the plan to the other" (Cullen, 1996, p.17), this is what i have attempted to do in my sketches.

     -Cullen, G. (1996) The Concise Townscape. Burlington, MA: Architectural Press.

reflection...this week in the architecture and the city walkshop, apart from getting fairly burnt, i very much enjoyed walking to the story bridge via the back river side of QUT. by choosing the walking walkshop i believe we were at an advantage because we were actually able to walk the whole way which allowed you to stop and really experience all elements of the city and our site for our architecture design project. i believe Cullen's picturesque way of documenting urban design allows for a concise interpretation of the city and the site and the important elements within the city. although the plans are as important as picturesque images in urban design, the images do tend to appeal more to and are understood by the wider general public.

i think it is important to be able to understand project sites and there city's and the components with in them before you design architecture for them.

//what is a folie

so what is a folie??
here are a couple of examples i could find

this folie design is by Baumhauer

this is by Nox architects

more folie inspiration.....