Mary (May) Poole: Final Submission for Experiment 2: Communia

Final Submission for Experiment 2:
//Communia//

Welcomes to Communia, the tram stop designed for bring people together in a simple, functional and beautiful way.

Communia was developed with the concept of being a 'mechanism for marrying community, form and function' in mind. This is an electroliquid aggregate sentence that was created by combining 'marriage of form and function' (a concept developed in response to Jorn Utzon) and 'mechanism for gathering community' (a concept developed in response to Richard Leplastrier).

//Development//

We began by developing 10 simple axonometric drawings that abstractly reflected some of the concepts that were generated in response to Jorn Utzon and Richard Leplastrier, both as designers and people.

These 10 axonometrics were drawn with the particular concept of 'marriage of form and function' in mind.

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One of the axonometrics was then developed in sketchup

And then in Lumion

Following that exercise, we started to combine two different types of axonometrics. One of the featured axonometrics would be altered with the subdivide + smooth tool, this is when we can begin to see the inception of the idea for Communia's 'arms'

The axonometric in the top right-hand corner was developed into the Lumion model you see bellow, can you see the arms yet?

Now that we had finished with much of the macro development of the tramp stop, it was time to focus of the micro details. To commence this process we created 6 sets of 6 textures that were gradiented from DARK to LIGHT.

Three of the textures were then chosen for be placed into the final product of the tram stop proposal

Dark

Developed from my electroliquid aggregation sentence, this texture depicts the macro purpose for my tram stop: to show that form and function can harmonise and create a space that is perfect for gathering the community, even if it is in a small way.

Light

The simplicity of this texture is what made me want to use it on my tram stop, partly because of the brief proposing that architecture can be developed from simple forms and partly because it clearly shows the 'rope' shape.

Medium

Because this texture was developed as an abstraction of something that is designed to protect, I thought this texture would be befitting on a structure that is designed to shelter.

// Final Product //

The upright ‘arms’ of Communia enclose patrons, shelter them and provide seating one side of the stop. The ‘rope’ texture applied to them means that at certain angle the arms appear to form a single arch or tunnel.

Communia’s bold but comfortable lighting increases the safety of patrons at night by ensuing all aspects of the tram stop are lit. They are a clear example of our electroliquid aggregation concept - their function is to illuminate at night but be discrete during the day, their form is sunken into the many surfaces of the stop and they bring community together by creating a safe place to gather.

A mechanism for gathering community should encompass all members of the community, that is why this simple concrete ramp was added to the structure. Dominating the left portion of the image you can also see stacks of wooden crates suspended by metal supports - these were to replace some of the walls in of one of the block structures from the initial axonometrics. The thought behind them was that they could be easily recycled if they we mechanically put together and our client Richard Leplastrier would appreciate this.