MY FINAL ANIMATION

Here is my final animation, a story which explores the difference of experience and perspective of the red centre. It aims to make the point that from the inside stairwell of the red centre one has a panoramic view of the university experienced via the architecture. The story and perspecctive of the outside character shows how this stairwell area becomes a tiny part of the whole red centre as a building, which is a giant looming mass in the landscape. The yellow balloon links these two experiences and shows their potential interaction.

ARCHITECTURE IN MOTION

The third workshop I have chosen to do is architecture in motion, the animation course. It involves us as students to create a fully fledged animation of the red centre telling a story about the space or how the building is used. We have to create the animation by hand drawing the sequences, scanning them and placing them into a program like imovie in order to animate them.

I have decided I wish to explore a particular part of the red centre, and its interaction with the outside environment. The area I wish to explore is the staircase on the building closest to Anzac parade, where one can look out along the university promenade.

MY ANIMATION CONCEPT

In my animation I want to explore the sense of sheer height and drop at one point within the red centre. ( The landing/staircase between level 4 and 5) I wish to convey the sense that the experience of this space from outside does not give a sense of its height, and the panoramic view it offers when looking out on the university. From outside this part of the building merely becomes another element within its whole as a looming geometric structure. I wish to explore how a play on perspectives can change a sense of the magnitude of the space.

My animation inspiration was an advertisment for coca cola called "Cokeheist" in which a group of bugs steal a bottle of coke from a sleeping picnicer. It shows a wide range of different perspectives and a sense of the magnitude of space for the bugs.

FINAL ASSIGNMENT- material Modelling

The final assignment for material modelling was based on taking one of the exercises that we did in one of the previous weeks and exploring it further using an intergration of a poster which explored balsa wood techniques along with either sketching or photos, and a model which was completed in class.

This poster shows all the sketches I did based on the word 'destruction' and how they potentially express different ideas about how destruction can be represented. One may view destruction as one form incroaching or destroying another, as something which is happening in the moment like an explosion or in terms of what happens after the destruction has occured, the effect or aftermath.

In my experimental balsawood model I decided To use just two of my destruction sketches in conjunction with the balsa to explore the idea of destruction, and try to integrate the two mediums. This poster to me is interesting because it could potentially be both a plan view or idea of destruction or an elevation of sorts.

The model I did in class explored the idea that destruction is something which is time based, and each stage of destruction can express a different sense of space and evoke unique emotions. So I decided to show this very simply by creating 3 cubes, each in a stage of destruction. While the first cube is relatively in tact the second and third show further disintegration.

THE CITY

The second week of material modelling involved spending a little time in the city centre exploring the urban landscape and our individual understanding and response to the space as well as an element of the urban environment that struck us as interesting. I chose to do a study of a set of stairs at circular quay, which are very historical and old and explore the contrast between the historical elements of the city centre and their interaction with the modern urban landscape. I ran with the argument that the historical fabric of the city clings and hides, is wedged and interwoven into the more dominant modern landscape.

My poster uses an integration of photos and sketching to give a sense of the materiality, presence and history of the old historical stairs while showing the potential of the clean modern landscape beyond.

I chose to rip up and reconfigure some of the photos to show a sense of the materiality of the stairs which are hand picked sandstone. A small part of the 'official opening' plaque of the stairs is shown to show that sense of history.

MY TEXT

The city to me is a very eclectic space in many ways. By day it bustles with life, the early morning and lunchtime buisness crowd pacing feverently in their dark suits, scurrying between the jammed traffic, spilling from the underground into the sparkling concrete maze of skyscrapers. The flagstones click melodically from the thousands of pounding shoes, this sound only rivalled by the roaring and hissing of the traffic. The buildings are so giant that the people only come into contact with their monumental bases. They mill in the hard edged lobbies and courtyards amongst towering public art pieces that almost seem out of proportion compared to the ant- like organisms crawling beneath. It seems to be nothing more than an efficient machine, a vessel of commerce, trade and economics.

Though within this madness, the city's historical presence is a constant echo of another time and dimension. Within the green parks or sandwhiched between its space age counterparts one can find hand crafted sandstone buildings and wooden sheds, each piece a hommage to the people who crafted them. These buildings cling onto the modern city, or hide amongst it, inherently sewn into the fabric of its culture.

A flight of stairs cut through the concrete maze, the stones so worn and smooth from time that they butterfly slightly at the point of contact with the foot. The rounded balustrades are rough and flaky, each pick within its surface the point of human contact from which the piece was born. The sandstone has flaked in places, revealing the raw sandy layers beneath, and at other points is dull grey or mossy green. These stairs smell of dampness, salt and urine all at once. they are small enough to be a cut through passage from the street behind, to the waterfront, yet quite grand and gestural, stretching over several metres with a lamp post at mid flight. In descent one can move from noticing the most intimate textural detail to the spreading futuristic landscape before them, they speak of this relationship between what is old and what is new, what was and what has evolved.

As soon as the sun sets it immediately begins to get cold and strangely quiet, except for the sound of your feet echoing on the footpath. Each bus that passes brings a cold rush of air and within a second the lag of its droning engine. This bus is strangely comforting, a reminder of human life in the now vacant landscape.

The model I did in class attempts to express both the materiality of the clashing worlds of historical and modern as well as the idea of the historical built forms of the city as growths which cling to or emerge from the modern landscape. My playdough imprint was of the sandstone/balustrade wall of the stairs to express its materiality and history.

MATERIAL MODELLING- Sketching exercises

The First Material Modelling class involved doing 20 minute sketches in class which explored the spatial and architectural ideas behind certain words. I chose to use charcoal to do my sketches as it creates bold and expressive drawings and this particular material can be manipulated to achieve a number of different qualities.

TERROR

DESIRE

ANXIETY

TERROR

CONFINEMENT

MEMORY

DREAM