Gallery Design Presentation

Yesterday i presented my finished Gallery Design Project. My design focused on the journey from the street and through the building, allowing people options and in certain spaces changing the behaviour of how art is viewed. In places my design has been direcctly influenced by alot of the research presented within this blog, whether it was researched for the purpose of my project or not. In particular the social value and the spatial psychology research has directly influenced my design desicions and spatial requirements of the interior spatial development of my design.

Gallery One
From the street the design chanels you towards the large glass front door, on the way you pass tall thin cut out windows that allow you tiny glimspes of the interior experience, teasing you before the space is revealed. Disconnecting certain wall connections by a few centimeters and added voids in the first and second floors allow natural light to create interesting shapes within the space, and also builds a connection between the three floors and the different spaces within these floors, previewing and pulling you into the building.

 street view  Goldsmith Street

street view elevation

entrance render

entrance render 

whole building exploded view

 first floor render

 

section - south 

second floor render

 section - west

 double height gallery space (with second floor viewing deck) render

 presentation 

 pinned up in the forum in the new newton part of the city campus

The Psychology of Space

As im currently working on a gallery design project i have become interested in the psychology of space. One of the problems ive found throughout this project is that the physical environment has to be a backdrop and that the art or content is the main feature of the space. I found stripping back and designg purely for the building journey and not for astetic purposes a re-freshing challenge. Previously, durring my under-graduate studies and beyond i have designed spaces that as well as obviously serving a function also look aestetically pleasing. This is not to say that art galleries cant be beautifully designed, as my previous research shows, but that the interior architecture of a gallery can be limited. Focusing my design on the journey or the emotional spatial experience rather than the astetic i started researching the psychology of space and found a lecture series by a Professor Tim Stock of Parsons New School For Design. The professor released his lectue on The Psychology of Space on Slideshare, below i have featured some extracts of the lecture which i found to be of particular interest and would help me in moving forward with my gallery design. I have also included the link to the whole lecture slideshow as i found the entire thing of great interest even if not immediately directly relevant.

http://www.slideshare.net/scenariodna/the-psychology-of-space-design-research-methods

Sources;

Tim Stock. (2010). The Psychology of Space (Design Research Methods). Available: http://www.slideshare.net/scenariodna/the-psychology-of-space-design-research-methods. Last accessed 12/1/2015.

The Curious Incident of The Dog In The Night-time

At the begining of January I went with my family to see 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nightime' at the Gielgud Theatre in London. The book to stage adaptation follows the story of a young boy with asperger's-like symptoms and the mystery surrounding the death of a neighbours dog.


When we reached our seats high up in the theatre i didnt know much about the story and felt quite aprehensive about what to expect and whether i would enjoy it. However once i was sat down and looking at the stage i was intrigued and eager to see what was to come. The stage looked like a gaint grided cube, like something from Tron or the inside of a computer. Imediately this changed my perception from the pesimistic outlook on the ensueing experience i walked into the theatre with, to one of excitment. I was looking forward to seeing the stage in action, and it didnt disapoint, you could say the set literally stole the show.

Never changing its ohysical state from a giant grided cube, the stage transformed time and time again throughout the whole performance, through lighting, clever computer graphics and the actor themselves it was easy to imagine the not only the physical setting of the scene being played out but also the mental state of the lead character. The production design not only served the purpose of aiding the story in a physical way but also gave across a snese of atmosphere and emotion when the main character was placed in different situations, you were able to understand almost what was going on inside the characters head through the set. The link below is to a BBC webpage where a short clip of an interview with the production design team talks about the 'design elements'.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01jydtx

The short video discription given of the video contents reads..."Director, Marianne Elliott, explains how the design had to be imaginative and creative, to represent Christopher’s mind. The design had to be non-naturalistic, instead light and agile. The designer Bunny Christie explains her reasons behind the designs.

Footage from the show demonstrates how the design ideas were realised in performance. As time and place jump around in the story, the set had to accommodate this. The design reflects Christopher’s mind being a ‘laboratory’. The lighting designer, Paule Constable comments on how the lighting was cool, white and controlled to represent how Christopher saw things. The lighting is as busy as Christopher is, with lots of changes. The use of a model box in the design process is explained."#

In all i was pleasently suprised by this play, the whole thing including the performance and story were fantastic and i would definately recommend to anyone to go and see it. I think, briefly, in places as with many stories (even though overall i absolutely loved it) the story did get a bit slow which i only realised once id thought about what the experience would have been like had i seen the play in a more realistic traditional physical stage setting. However this was something i hadnt noticed thanks to the ever present stimulus of the very modern stage design. Having previously only seen very traditional style plays where built physical sets were used as aids, this imaginative space clearly reflected the modern digital climate and made for a broader more exciting experience.

Sources;

BBC. (2013). 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time' - design elements. Available: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01jydtx. Last accessed 10/01/2015.