Art Gallery

This site was chosen due to the current ill-fitting building; it neither added to the strong cultural aspect of King Street nor did it keep with the aesthitc nature of the facades along the street.

Aims:
- To enhance the cultural identity of King Street through architectonics/contmporary art
- Create metaphor of discovery through design [contemporary art is the act of journey for the viewer as the artist ask them to question social and personal beliefs]
- Use altering and developing view ponits throughout the gallery to enhance to act of discovery and journey
- Final design should engage with the local community in a number of ways


Key Concepts:
Engage
- retain 'Books on King' [fundamental to the cultural integrity of King St]
- encourage local graffiti art
- inform residents of local history
- 24hr installation space to allow gallery to remain open throughout the night when King St is at its busiest, therefore larger numbers can view artwork

Journey
- numerous view points thoughout gallery encorpourated with circulation resulting in a metaphorical journey through the gllery spaces
- complex voids and extrusions
- flexible gallery spaces


161-163 King Street - Seduce & Books on Kings


164 King Street - W.N. Bull Funeral Service [opposite site]


Stephen Street


Victoria Street


Rose Street


Site Analysis







The 1:2000 site model I constructed informed the geometric shapes I included within my design. All floor plans derive from the town plan consisting of interconnecting volumes - cubes, L-shapes, voids, recesses etc. I felt it was the voids that made the built shapes so appealing.

Drawings




*journey*

Ground Floor

Viewpoints:
- a very wide but short window at the far end of the bookshop allows those reading in the quiet end to view the sculpture within the courtyard
- the gallery street entrance frames the courtyard sculpture
- from both within the bookshop and from the sidewalk the 24hr installation can be viewed

The bookshop and 24hr installation space act as a transitional aspect to the design; the veiwer or reader can catch glimpses into the void at the heart of the gallery - the beginning of thier journey


Level 1


Viewpoints:
- after entering the gallery the viewer finds themself within the pod, its key functions are circulation and to aid in diffusing direct northern light into the building behind. Again a low, wide window by their feet gives the viewer a glimpse of the sculpture below.
- all windows from the office and w.c. give views onto King St.

- painting/drawing exhibition space looking out onto courtyard a receiving abundant light

Level 2

Viewpoints:
- the pod opens up on this level and allows full view of the courtyard below along with a bridge to connect to the main gallery space
- a right turn from the stairs, a small alcove displays a solitry piece of work possibly something teh viewer may miss until returning down the stairs

- main gallery space/function area looks right out to the rest of the building with possible views through the bookshop and entrance onto King St

Level 3

Viewpoints:
- the diffused light of the bathroom cube is stronger on the exterior walls than from within the apartment

- top gallery space has little natural light accept for the mezzanine area looking down through level 2 and 1, catching glimpses of the courtyard at certain angles

Sectional Model










Graffiti found within the sites vicinity






*enagage*

The abundance of graffiti found along King St informed the inclusion of a large blank wall joining the alley behind the site. This wall along Victoria Street acts as a blank canvas inviting local street artists to add to the wall. This aims to get the local community involved in the art gallery and will become a continually evolving artwork. Another feature of the back wall is a wide, shallow window allowing those walking along the back st to get a glimpse of the inhabitants inside the gallery.


My main concept with the site began by attempting to incorporate historic elements into my design. I wanted to recreate the original facade and so set about trying to find either plans of photos. After a thorough search of Sydney Library and Archives, Newtown Library and Archives, and also the Internet I was unable to locate such a document. I even contacted W.N. Bull Funerals who have been located opposite my site since 1800's but their archive didn't contain an image of 161-163 King St. While at the Sydney Archives at Town Hall I made copies of the "Sands" directory which gave me the names of occupants of my site from 1800 to 1950. In my final design I have turned my original concept for the facade on its head, as there are no common horizontal lines of the facades either side of my site I have designed a texture to be printed onto a glass facade. Although the facade doesn't visually complete the original facades it does in fact contain a great deal of culture and local history - a contemporary answer to recreating the past.

Plot Sale Records


Extract from Sydney Directory "The Sands" from 1920 listing occupants of King Street


Texture made from "The Sands" incorporated into facade

Edward Hopper

" A married socialite requires a surreptitious void to rendezvous with her lover"



Concept




The main concept from this project was the symbolism of a complete circle - UNITY. The image above represents the female figure within the painting; she feels fulfilled only when she has both her husband and her lover. To discard either of the two entities would create an incomplete circle and therefore the woman would remain uncontent and feel broken.

My design aims to encorporate these separate yet interconnected peices to create an architecture that although vital as a whole, individually they are at unease within eachothers presence - a tension between the two shapes reminiscent of the tension within the painting.

Functionally the married space must be in a prime position, possibly incorporating a sense of monument, to portray the married couples public, socialite life. While the affair must be kept underwraps, away from the light of day. The lover may know about the husband but the husband must be sheilded from the lover. Their should also be a sense of journey to reach the rendezvous, secrecy is difficult to maintain.

Project 1: ARTIFICE - Le Corbusier's Villa Savoye

Artifice: 1) Technical skill; art; workmanship; the making of something by art and or skill. 2) Mode or style of workmanship. 30 Skill in designing and employing expedients; adress, cunning, trickery. 4) An ingenious expedient; cunning trick; a device, a contrivance. 5) A work of art. 6) The products of human skill as opposed to what is natural.

The New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, 1993 Ed.