1st ProofTitle: BA: Architectural Design
Job No: PD0710-67/3184Chapter 3 final (3.2)_.qxd:layouts to chapter one 7/24/10 7:42 AM Page 102
The design projectSite, context and placePlaceStudents began to make initial proposals for their projects
at two different scales. By looking at a very specific and
local level, a designer can find the perfect site to observe
the sun setting. By looking at a very general and global level,
a designer can consider the journey of the theatre-goer
from their home. This ensures that the designer reaches an
understanding of what makes that particular place special
and also has ambition for a project by seeking the potential
for change on a larger scale.
U Ieong To on making sketches to record activity on site:
Sketches of the site are always my appetisers. They are
sometimes what I see on site, and sometimes they are
representations of what I feel on site. The sketches are
also clarifying my intention and what I am actually thinking- they are transforming my perception of the site (which
I see as a subtle matter) into something solid on paper.
The challenge of this project is to design a theatre
responding to the play as well as the context of the site.
You just have to be an observer who studies everything –
from the path of the ants on earth, the relationship between
the trees and the birds, the atmosphere of the site, the
behaviour of the people on site, the distribution of the trees
to a wider context such as the topography, the flow of the
people, the geometry of the site.
Rodolfo Acevedo Rodriguez on the potential of the site to
provide the basis of an architectural concept:
There is a scene taking place where stages, characters and
everyday objects can take part in a particular event that has
the potential to be related to another. With connections we
build narrative, linking one element to another. A building
has the possibility of ‘marking’ a place, just like the leaf
that decays on the ground, being there in the present and
changing over time. A drawing is slightly different, it is
regarded as a representation of what could be there in
the future, but it is also a stain on paper, an evidence of
a physical reaction that has taken place before.
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1st ProofTitle: BA: Architectural Design
Job No: PD0710-67/3184Chapter 3 final (3.2)_.qxd:layouts to chapter one 7/24/10 7:42 AM Page 102