Enviromental Interface

Environmental Interface : Amphitheater 

 For our final project, we were given a proposal to design an Environmental interface/ amphitheater for outdoor performances behind the music building.  We had to take the building itself, the sight, Market Street that runs parallel to the sight and Lake Daniels and surrounding neighborhoods into consideration when designing the interface. 





The Music Building has an organ recital hall that has a circular shape seen in the top left picture.  My first ideas were centered around the circular shape of the recital hall as well as taking into consideration the different materials and layers in the music building itself.  The sight had a natural dip in the land so I wanted to take that into consideration as well when designing an interface/ amphitheater.  

  First Iterations

My first Design echoed the music building shape by creating a half circle out of two triangles and then attached them together with three braces to add layers and demention. This was my first proposal of an ampitheater.  My intentions were to place it in the naural dip in the ground so that it was nestled in the tree line facing the music building with the hill as natural stadium seating.  To add contrast, I chose to add an orange triangular awning to continue with the triangular shape and provide shade to the amphitheater.  All though I really liked this approach and design, it was not really an interface nor was it engaging with pedestrians or motor traffic that goes along Market Street.

 Another view of the sketch model of my main concept with the amphitheater off to the left and two smaller versions in the corner of the building and one off to the right to act as possible concession stands or more shade.  The drawings indicate a potential plan of the sight with a path that runs down the middle to create flow with benches around the outside.  There is also the stadium seating and awning shown. 

   Corner Elevation showing the music building with a smaller version of the amphitheater as a concession stand, pathway and bench. 

                  

 Final Model and Presentation

Final Presentation Model with Amphitheater, land topography and pathway

Work In Progress showing the Curvature and color

Model in the Making - Land Topography

After going to my Architectural History class and talking about art deco/ art new Vogue movement, I was inspired to take a different approach to my amphitheater.  I still wanted to incorporate layers,  and the circular shape, but I also wanted to interact the pedestrians and motorists driving by as well. So I deconstruct the previous model into different parts and took a more flowing approach.  The stage is layered in descending order as well as the columns supporting the wire layers bending around the structure.  Instead of using triangles to create the shape, I used metal layers that grew longer as they went down and curved to go near the sidewalk so as people walked and drove by they could get a glimpse of what was going on inside of it.   The metal layers mimic the music staff while the colors represent the notes intertwining and creating a motion of "music". The color also adds visual interest and creates movement along the structure with the gradation and highlights the curved shape.