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.