Music as Space - An Environmental Interface

Our final project of the semester in environmental studio was to design a musical interface for a space along Market Street at the edge of campus where the Music building resides. Using the topographical map  and building, we created an interface (a boundary between two entities) that was designed for several functions:

- it should physically engage pedestrians walking along Market Street
-it should visually engage motorists driving along Market Street
-it should be expressive of music in its relation to the Music Building
-it should act as an interface between UNCG and the Lake Daniel neighborhood
-it should reinforce the architectonic qualities and acoustic potential of the resulting space between the interface and the Music Building
-it should enhance those qualities of the architectonic space as an outdoor concert venue

We started this project with a visit to the actual site.

The view from Market Street, looking South.

Houses across the street from Market, some of the trees and the brick retaining wall.

The ideal acoustic spot for a stage. 

Note the topography of the space (from the edge of Peabody Park).

I started with a three-dimensional concept and a few words to provide focus for my design. I wanted to investigate line through space and how it creates space initially.

interaction

elasticity

flow

zone

compression

movement

shape

line

negative space

From there, I began to consider the use of the space in its entirety. I realized several obstacles to creating any sort of interface for the side of the music building, and primarily my biggest concern was attracting people to the space and keeping them there. The music building is set back from the rest of campus, and I found that on several occasions when walking back, I wanted to stop for a bagel and coffee on tate street, which was a little roundabout of a route back to studio. This realization prompted me to consider adding in usable space for a potential cafe and an area for gathering and relaxing as a destination site in and of itself. Additionally, I originally thought to put the stage down towards the Peabody Park tree line, but upon further investigation of the site itself, I realized the ideal location acoustically is actually at the corner of the two main Music building walls. This allowed for a redefinition of the space in its entirety, and suddenly I found myself redesigning my interface to allow for both an attraction and flow of people from Market St, but also an acoustic barrier to the traffic and the music venue itself. 

This process started with a few sketches in plan, and then the construction of a space realized in a three-dimensional form. 

I then looked to materials, keeping in mind that I wanted the roof of the space to contrast to the material of the actual wall itself. I proposed concrete for the walls and architectural mesh for the roof to allow sunlight to filter through while still providing shade.

an environmental interface: a Music Building topo

Starting with a topographical map in 1/8" : 1' scale from the UNCG facilities office, a 2' difference in elevation was determined between each line on the map above. The tan area is the footprint of the music building, and the gray area is poured asphalt.

 

 

Vivaldi's Spring in Bristol & Skewers

We are entering into the final weeks of the spring semester, and there will be a music theme running throughout. This week begun this unit with the exploration of classical chamber music (mostly Baroque) in four part harmony as the inspiration for a three-dimensional representation of a composition. The class broke into 8 groups and were assigned a classical piece. My group included Claire, Ana and Michael, and we were given Vivaldi's Spring from The Four Seasons to design from.

Using a "kit of parts" that consisted of 12 bamboo skewers and 12 white Bristol Board planes @ 4"x6" we had to individually create a  three-dimensional composition based on our group's analysis of the assigned music score, and then ultimately fuse our individual pieces into one larger group project for presentation.

We first created a "throw up sheet," which consisted of our immediate reactions and brainstorm session as we listened to the piece of music. We broke Vivaldi's piece into five major movements:

1. Introduction of the MAIN THEME: Spring!
-repetitive
-welcome spring - beginning of new life
-joyous
-easter season
-ode to spring
-trees, tulips, birds, bees, stuff
-opening of flower - sillhouette
-watercolors

2. FLUTTERING WINGS:
-butterfly and/or birds
-flowers singing
-bamboo wings
-bambi running through forest
-melodic
-bursting out of caccoon
-falling flower petals

3. FLOWING WATER:
-rain
-quieter
-peaceful/serene
-relaxing by creek in forest
-mosquitos (stay at the hilton)
-suns still out: warm

4. THUNDERSTORM:
-light rain -> downpour
-full blown storm
-bambi's running for cover - all under leaves
-lightening/crashing
-deep bass
-fern gulley: pixies heal forest
-oblique (high. low. both.)
-under leaves looking out, watching

5. Storm Over, SUNNY!
-rejoice, spring is here
-we have flowers & tree leaves
-back to welcome spring
-happy
-comfort
-bright colors
-first lines & last lines are the same
-part of life - cyclical
-delight
-function - joy of spring
-structure of piece is commodity. bass: I.I.I.I.I.I.I.
-rain still dripping, but the sun is out: compilation
 
Using our throw up sheet as a launching off point, we each worked on a portion of the piece. Working with the flowing water section, I made several smaller model attempts that represented flowing water. I also brought water colors to the group session on Wednesday, where we decided to use Michael's basic form with Claire's stylized birds together to represent movement. We then worked together to try several different options for combining the two, and ultimately settled on movement as a formal element by creating a mobile. We then suspended the birds above the earth or thunderstorm piece to create a spiral similar to what we hear in the piece.

Light & Color: A Box Experiment

The past two weeks we explored light and color. We started by observing several natural light conditions. The three I chose were:

sunrise through the trees, reflected off the snow

light gradation on the wall during sunset

light through the window on two different surfaces

We then chose one of our images to recreate the light within a 6x6x18 box. I first started with a brainstorming page and several smaller mockups:

My final design for the light box is below. I chose the angled viewpoint to emphasize the gradation of the light on the wall next to the interior angles:

This past week we started looking at color, using coloraid paper. We explored mixing several colors:

  

 

 On the last day, we combined our lightbox concept from the previous week with a color element from the current week. I chose to maintain a similar color palate to my diamond above, but creating new reflective colors within from yellow, pink and teal paper. This 4x4x12 box reflected both peach light and a deeper violet tone in different light conditions: