w h e r e y o u c a n b e a n y t h i n g . . .
Location: 18 North Terrace, Adelaide SA 5000
n a r r a t i v e
upon my visits to 18 north terrace, i felt overwhelmed by the blandness and ugliness of the site. there was a strong lack of colour and freshness, and the site was dominated by gravel, concrete and an uninspiring building. whilst everything around it seemed to be moving at a fast pace as contemporary architecture was taking over the area, this one portion of the site seemed to fall behind.
i felt like even the radiant sun, which sought to illuminate the space, struggled to uplift the mood of the site. it was as if the sun was, in essence, raining on the site.
architecture is all about making things better. but what if we can take inspiration from the very things we wish to improve?
what if we can look at something at face value and use it’s lack of aesthetic quality as the central creative driving force to design a concept that would improve that very thing?
i decided to use the so called “ugliness” of the site to remedy itself, and to create new beauty. i took inspiration from the rough, harsh elements on the site as well as the vibrant energy that is present in the area and abstracted these qualities to create a structure that aims to dominate the local skyline and capture the imagination.
during my visits to 18 north terrace, i collated a number of site impressions based on how i felt about the site. i allowed the emotions triggered by the atmosphere of the site to spill out into abstract artistic creations. after creating a collection of artworks over multiple visits to the site, i completed these three final art pieces.
c o n c e p t
dreamhouse represents everything that exists within your dreams, and outside of your natural world. it is a place where people may go and experience a life that they can only dream of as part of a daily experiment. for one day, any person may enter the building, leave their life at the door, and assume an identity or role that differs from their ordinary. they could be a ceo, or a president, or a chef, or a cleaner, or a boxer, or a parent or any other career or personality that they may dream of. for a 24 hour span they will reside within the dreamhouse eco-system and will contribute to its society as their character would. as a result, their actions will affect other people, and they will experience all the emotions and consequences that come with every decision they make.
dreamhouse is a research centre, where scientists can study how people adapt to new environments, embrace a character other than their own, and their subsequent reaction to their experience. is the grass really greener on the other side?
there will be three types of people in the building; staff, participants and visitors. staff will work in the building and will include scientists, whilst participants will be the people who take part in the experiment. they will spend 24 hours in the building, and will have accommodation within dreamhouse for the night. visitors (the general public) will have an opportunity to walk through the building and observe the experiment firsthand.
i began to break down and extract key elements from these artworks, and proceeded to merge them together to create a structure that featured both modular and non-modular elements.
from the initial structure, i pushed the design further by extracting sections from the structure and combining them to create a new section drawing.
finally, this section drawing was used to create a rationalised module that would form the basis of my building. the module consists of a series of simplified extrusions of the section, with clearly defined walls and spaces. these unconventional extrusions vary in depth. furthermore, the lineworks from the section drawing have been used to wirecut the module at certain points, creating an interesting and unique shape from every angle. the module is stacked as shown in the diagrams to create the final structure. the materiality of dreamhouse reflects that of the original abstract model from the site impression.
