CASE STUDY: MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS MUSEUM

source:http://aztecstrings.com/wp-content/uploads/Musical-Instrument-Museum-MIM-Phoenix-Arizona.jpg

This museum is located in Phoenix, United states. Its type of exhibitions include historic musical instruments and other related objects to music. Although its architectural representation of materials and structure are quite impressive as the indian timber finish was made to represent the stirations of the Arizona topography and the rythyms of musical composition. I am particulary interested in the layout and organisation of the exhitbition spaces and how the historic musical instruments are a part of a bigger story as people move through the spaces.

http://www.ryancompanies.com/upload/Musical%20Instrument%20Museum%20Int%202%20LG.jpg

One interesting thing that may well be a source of inspiration for the musical theatre that I am proposing is the engagement of people with the exhibits. The historic musical instruments in the museum are from my own view not allowed to be touched therefore, in order for people to engage with them, headphones are provided  so that people can have an idea of what these instuments would sound like if they are being played. The image below illustrates this. The same I feel could be proposed in the intervening in the city project with historical musical instruments of Nottingham.

http://www.motherofalltrips.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Exhibit-Musical-Instrument-Museum.jpg

DESIGN DEVELOPMENT

The two models above are development sketch models for the music theatre I am proposing for the site. The biggest block is the theatre hall itself while the connection(bridge) and smaller block is for exhibition of historical musical instruments and it starts from within the theatre block and then continues through the bridge and to the long stretch of the second block. The design intent is for the two blocks to delicately open up and create a courtyard space in the middle where the main public space will be located. The public space is given  a sence of place by defining the route to castle road with slightly inclined curved hard landscape dwarf walls or level changes and the function of these spaces include outdoor musical performances and a cafe.

The ribbons that wrap around the main theatre are placed at different heights/angles to be able to get some degree of natural light into the building if needed otherwise this would be completely shut by blinds. There existence is also to have a colourful effect especially at night when each ribbon could glow in different colour and the changes in the colour could occur in synchrony with the musical performances. 

BOOK: PUBLIC PLACES, URBAN SPACES

THE DIMENSIONS OF URBAN DESIGN

                                                                                       
                                                                                       (http://www.rudi.net/node/6584)

Matthew Carmona, Steve Tiesdell, Tim Heath, Taner Oc

This book more or less like a design manual for the creation of urban and public spaces and places. It breaks urban design down to six dimensions namely morphological dimension, perceptual dimension, the social dimension, the visual dimension, functional dimention and temporal dimension. It suggests that these dimensions have critical roles to play in the thinking process of urban design.

In relation to the intervening in the city course, I think this book could be a relevant resource to inform our designs of public spcaes within our interventions that can relate well with the urban context of the broadmarsh area.

There are two dimensions of urban design detailed in this book that I found interesting. They are:

The Social dimension:
In this section, the authors discuss  the relationship between the physical and social environment. Firstly the understanding of Human behaviour and their basic needs. which are stated as follows:
-physiological needs
-safety and security
-Affiliation needs
-Esteem Needs
-Self actualisation needs

An important issue raised was that of environmental determinism where the " physical environment has a determining influence on human behaviour" also with related variants such as environmental possibilism and probabilism.

"rather than determining human actions or behaviour, design can be seen as a means of manipulating the possibilities of certain actions or behaviours occuring"


The Perceptual dimension
It is important to consider place creation and how people will relate and percieve those spaces. This is linked with what kind of activities take place in the space, its image and environment (physical).
Here are a few case studies of public places.

                                                        Federation square Melbourne

http://m3.i.pbase.com/u14/melbob/upload/41711493.FederationSquareMelbourne.jpg

                                                       Soeuls Cheonggye waterfront

http://www.blogcdn.com/www.gadling.com/media/2006/01/Cheonggye001.jpg

For more case studies, here's a link to see to latest innovative ideas for public places that I think create a sense of place.
http://www.designboom.com/architecture/designboom-2012-top-ten-public-spaces/