Found Youtube video

Quite simply; stunning. Especially given now I know just how hard it can be to get your stairs just right.

Sketchup 2nd draft

The Stair ideas

For the aboveground I wanted to have the effect of falling, like water running down a cliff. For the underground I want a climbing out effect, so I used slotted stairs inside each other, only one of which is necessary for actual climbing the other is aesthetic and structural. The staircase will then curve around the shell of the building.

Google Sketchup Two words (First ever sketchup)

I got my inspiration from a natural growth with roots "aggressively" digging in to support the "unstable" winding tree above. It is quite definitely linked to the sketch underneath, but I still expanded on the ideas and let the design simply follow.

I was initially baffled as to how to translate a seemingly non connected sketch into 3d. However, after some thought I simply decided to create the gallery space at the zero of the X plane as the ground floor, and so underneath is treated almost as an entirely different building.

What I haven't included in these models, but would be in any further extensions of this design, but would be a central skylight piercing from roof to floor possibly allowing in water as well as light. The water could then be allowed to flow down features of the artists designed for the very purpose. This would create a similar space to an Ancient Roman atrium, and would serve to inspire and provide a space which the staircase could then wind around. To this purpose I have already created the roof leaning into the central point.

This is by far my favourite drawing with unstable on top and aggressive underneath. This is also the drawing I used for the google sketchup.

I like it because the harsh lines are defused so "naturally" through the unstable and tree like growth above. Were it to be built above ground would be light curves spreading out from a central core, then as one proceeds underground the harsh lines of a cave like structure are there to meet them.

Above and Below Ground Sketches

These are the drawings I compiled for the task of above and underground. I definitely think I understood the task better towards the end; as the drawings reflect.

Also this task surprised me, as I was surprised by just how long it took to think of a visual representations of such potent words as attacking and Unstable.

Client's art works Goodwin

Richard Goodwin "Exoskeleton"

Extension

Reaching

Unstable

"Gallery Richard Goodwin", http://www.richard-goodwin.com/public_html/gallery/gallery/02_Public%20Art/08_Exoskeleton%20Tower%20Reach/slides/Exoskeleton-Tower-Reach_01.jpg, accessed 5.3.2010

Client's art works Swallow

Ricky Swallow "Staying Behind"

Death

Waiting

Contemplative

"Ricky Swallow: Sculpture", http://images.artnet.com/artwork_images_424460285_441797_ricky-swallow.jpg

Client's art works Piccinini

Patricia Piccinini "Hug"

Confronter

Attacking

Aggressive

"Fry Museum New Patricia Piccinini", http://fryemuseum.org/images/ exhibition_images/hug_piccinini_01.jpg

accessed 5/3/2010

"Boy in a mask", at Musee d'Orsay (photo:Christof C, October 2008)

This is attributed to Bartolomeo Coeraceppi, and unfortunately I don't think any photo does it justice due to its fully 3d nature. The statue is of a very young boy holding a Greek tragedy mask, from the back the boy's face shows an idyllic relaxed expression, perfectly juxtaposing the mask he is reaching. The statue, to me at least, seems to perfectly depict the blissful ignorance of childhood and the urge, despite the bliss, to be older.

Plaza de la Maria Pita, Town Hall (photo:Christof C, August 2008)

This is the Town Hall of La Coruna located opposite a statue of Maria Pita, the patron Heroine of the city, crushing an Englishman. I chose this building and the Plaza de la Maria Pita as a whole because despite being little known and its nineteenth century construction neither unique or definitive, this Plaza nonetheless defines the city.

The people in the picture all utilising this space for time with friends or family, like the forum of Ancient Rome this simple clear space creates and enhances the sense of community. The building houses the local government, it's architecture as culturally influenced and indivisible as the city itself. Taking Celtic, English, French and of course Spanish influences from its long history of European trading.

"Shoes on the Danube", (photo:Christof C, December 2008)

This photo is one of the favourite of the thousands I took on my gap year and hence probably the best creative work I have ever done. It shows the public artwork of the "shoes on the Danube", an artwork by Gyula Pauer and Can Togay. The artwork is a string of sixty pairs of cast iron period shoes along the Pest side of the Danube. It commemorates the Jews massacred by the Arrow Cross party.

I think the photo works because it captures the insitu nature of the memorial. A memorial that uses its simplicity and subtlety to convey the loss of the Hungarian Jews. Unlike other Holocaust memorials of Europe "shoes on the Danube" doesn't denominate the landscape and would be very easy to miss.