Photos of model

Just a few photos of my model

1:200 - Grey box board, white card, balsa wood, perspex, grey acrylic paint

Final Presentation Review

First of all, I would like to thank Paola, our tutor, for all her help, guidance and advance, and also being so patient with us all! I also thank my fellow 9 sights colleagues, we wouldn't have made it without the support from each other, and all the fun we had in class. I also thank my family and friends, and my partner for supporting me all the way!

Overall I am quite happy with my final year project, and also my progress throughout the whole year. I think the whole studio has shown a clear progression from understanding precedents, then an initial theoretical stage to conception to the final end product.

The comments and feedback that I got were very positive and constructive. I have taken note of a few things that could have improved my design. I totally agree that the design would be a lot better if there are cars being exhibited on the ground level public domain. The public corridor spaces at the moment are very empty and very big and does not really work because they would just be dead spaces if nobody goes there. It was said that it however, would not be a problem if the museum is located somewhere else with a larger population, perhaps in the city center. While I was designing the ground level plan, I have decided on the corridor spaces to be wide enough for cars to pass through, however I don't know why I have not exhibited any cars on the lower level in the end.

Other than that the jury panel was happy with what I have produced and thought I showed good progress from week 7 till now.

Guest Juries: Richard Johnson and Katrina Simons

Final Presentation!!

We had our final presentation last week! Five years of architectural studies are over!
Here are my presentation panels:

Open publication - Free publishing - More automobile


Design Intention:
I studied Sanaa's 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art and the Porsche Museum in Germany as my precedent studies. The reasons why I picked those was because I wanted to study different circulation paths in museums: one is quite controlled while the other is very free and uncontrolled. I was also interested in how the Kanazawa Museum appears to have a timeless character, its pure white boxes are completely different from the Porsche Museum's irregular and organic form.


From this study, together with the theoretical framework which I did during the first semester, it got me thinking about how and what I want to achieve in my project.


Automobiles and architecture appear to share a similar history of the increasing dependence of form over experience. With the advancement of technology, cars are able to attain a more superficial streamline appearance, and contemporary architecture seems to have followed a similar trend. Almost every car museum I studied have curvilinear forms and irregular in shape, which they claim to be inspired by the dynamic flowing form of a speeding car.


I think it's not just the looks or speed of a car that should be respected. Similarly, a building should not be judged simply by its external facade or form. This Automuseum aims at not only to showcase to the public car as an art, but also makes a statement about the conception of automobiles and architecture through personal experience. One should be given the opportunity to interpret and redefine their own perception of car and architecture.


We are always at the present of the timeline, and as years go by, the "present" will shift along the timeline, the "past" will grow and the future remains to be the years ahead. The car has gone through a lot of generations and a lot more yet to come. Therefore my intention is to design a museum that can accommodate this growth that allows for expansion and flexibility. For this to happen the building should also be "timeless", to adopt to the different periods of time. The simplicity of forms allows the building to be unbiased against either end of the timeline. This is how I came up with the idea of having a modular system of blocks, and adopting the Mat building typology. It then became a facadeless building with simple form, simple construction, materials and colours. 


Choice of Site:
The proposed car museum will be the first of its kind in Sydney. It is located within a public park along Bourke Street, Waterloo, forming a part of the Green Square Masterplan. The reason why I picked this site was because there are more and more car showrooms appearing around the Zetland / Waterloo area, so I figured it would make sense to be putting something of the similar kind within the suburb. 


Also the site just sits within the boundary of the Masterplan, and I can foresee the old warehouse and factory buildings on the opposite site of the road being demolished in the future, the proposed mat building type modular design can become a starting point of a new development of the surrounding suburbs. 


Design Language:
The next challenge I faced was to design each of the pavilions so they don't look like boring white boxes. Afterall all the pavilions have to be seen together as a whole, so it is important for each to relate to each other, and the idea of "shifting of planes' was employed while designing each space. I was also trying to make each pavillion distinguishable from one another so while one is walking through the building they get some sense of direction. The end result was to have a coloured feature wall / plane for each pavillion.


This idea of "shifting of planes" continues throughout the whole site and forms part of the landscape. My initial concept was to leave the park very open and accessible from all four sides, however while I progressed I thought it is quite important to have distinctive entrances to the park, so I created a few main entrance points, while at the same time keeping the site quite accessible from all directions via smaller entry points.


Carpark:
The carpark was actually one of the most important elements of the project. I have always hated the idea of just placing carparks in basement levels, which seems to always be the current trend of contemporary architecture. Being a car museum, of course the cars which visitors come in have to be respected as well. In the design, the carpark integrates with the landscape and also becomes part of the gallery, where visitors can park their cars and their cars become part of the exhibition. 

Journal Entry 10 - Design development

The most important feedback that I got from week 7 was again, not surprisingly, that my building blocks have not developed sufficient relationship with its context. At the moment it can sit anywhere on any site, which I totally agree...this has always been my major issue..

FAQs:

1) Why are you designing a car musem?
Refer to design statement....and why? Because I'm a car lover!


2) How did you decide where to place each block? Does it have any sort of relation to its surrounding context?
I started off by developing two grid systems on the site. One relates to the alignment of the heritage buildings, and the other relates to the alignment of other surrounding buildings. Those then became my formal and informal grids. 


I have certain grid lines that the building blocks follow, but while I was placing the blocks I sometimes offset or inset them, to create a sense of hierarchy, and to create voids. I would not deny that during the process it was somehow quite random, but in the end I am trying to create a place where one's journey is unexpected and self directed. If every block was placed accordingly to a grid system, wheres the excitement? One would always know where to turn..


Lastly my concept is to have a timeless building, one that allows for expansion and flexibility. Say, if some of the surrounding buildings gets knocked down, and my entire building was based on a grid system that was derived from those buildings, the building is no longer timeless...it has developed its own set of grid system that defines its placement on the site during a certain period of time. Each block to be added will have to follow its existing grid, thus no longer allows for flexibility. 


3) One suggestion from week 7 was that I already have two distinctive levels above ground, is there a reason not to  have another level/layer underground? 
No there is no reason not to, so this week I have considered the opportunity of having a third layer, which I consider to be the layer that connects the building to the landscape.


4) Why does my building have to expand outwards from the 'centre'? Why not have building blocks over the whole site?
Because the upper level galleries are connected by walkways at the moment, therefore they had to be be clustered together in order to do so. And by doing this, I would be able to create more of a 'maze like' structure to enhance the sense of 'self exploration' and 'self discovery'. Also, the site is still a public park afterall, therefore I would like to have relatively big portions of parkland to remain intact for public activities.


5) Are the upperlevel walkways necessary?
I tried to sink the whole building down one level, then eliminate the walkways on the upper level, so the top level/ground level then becomes the public domain, and private entry is one level below ground. The two levels then interact somehow by ramps or voids or lightwells, and....


IT DOES NOT WORK!


Considering the turning circle for a vehicle, and all cars are to enter the galleries on ground level, so most of the buildings are 6 metres apart. If walkways are eliminated one will just be lost within the building. Although self exploration is desired, some kind of direction should be given to the visitors. (Kanazawa Museum has corridors that are 3 metres wide so they actually work as walkways that guide people around.) The scale of an art museum and car museum is very different.

Journal Entry 9 - Week 7 Interim Submission

Attached are my week 7 interim presentation panels, and some photos of my study model:

Open publication - Free publishing - More submission

Model experimenting with solids and voids using lights

Comments and feedback:


1. Contextual: the project needs to look more closely at the existing grid and has to show more integration with the context. At the moment the project can stand alone in any place. 

2. Spatial: develop the fine grain of the project inside the exhibition spaces displaying large objects.

3. Spatial/Formal: explore ideas and consider the spaces you develop on the lower part of each cube within the walls of the solid/concrete lower part of each cube. What kind of spaces do you develop for the people working there?

Journal Entry 8 - Design Statement (Draft)

The proposed automuseum will be the first of its kind in Sydney, located within a public park in Waterloo, which forms a part of the Green Square Master Plan. The museum is sponsored mainly by the Bowden's Own Collection, who desires to showcase their family's collection of classic cars from the 80's, as well as several car companies which wish to have some of their cars exhibited.

The perception of automobiles and architecture appear to share a similar history of the increasing dependence of form over experience. With the increasing advancements of technology, cars are able to attain a more superficial streamline appearance, contemporary architecture has also adhere a similar relationship to its form and facades. The Automuseum aims at not only showcasing to the public automobile as an art, but also making a statement about the conception of automobiles and architecture through personal experience. In other words, one should be given the opportunity to interpret and re-define their own perception of the car, and architecture.

The re-defining process of a visitor involves several aspects which are incorporated into the spatial design of this museum:

• An uncontrolled circulation gives the viewer an opportunity for self-exploration and self-interpretation.

• Diverse ways of exhibiting automobiles allowing the viewer to view the composition of the exhibits and interpret their own hierarchy of importance.

• A simple, non-biased yet cohering nature of the building forms enables the viewer to have a neutral stance towards both the displays and architecture during exploration.

The initial state of the museum includes 7 galleries and other public facilities, which are divided across two levels where only the top level has access to the galleries and is ticket-required. The car collection of the museum is due to change constantly and at times expansion might be required to house more exhibits. The proposed museum therefore adopts principals of the Mat Building Typology, which are to allow for flexibility and expansion by having a modular organization. An uncontrolled / free circulation is also made possible by the modular characterstic. 

Journal Entry 7 - Completed Site Model

My site model has finally been completed!!

1:1000, grey box board