This is a time-lapse of me modeling the pavilion over the last few days.
I usually build a model, take parts apart, re-build it, take it apart, re-build it and so on. So, at the end of the day (or days), I have a model and scheme that is derivative of the process, rather than a lot of smaller models. By using time-lapse, I’m hopefully capturing the experiments as they happen.
The Receptacle is a temporary architectural intervention into the urban environment of Perth, Western Australia.
The Receptacle is the name for my Independent Design project for my Higher Award in the Master of Architecture at the University of Western Australia. This website will document the process and development of the project as it happens, from initial ideas to final product. My hope is that you, the reader of this website will take interest and interact with the project, both online and in the real world.
Thanks for reading!
- Kukame McKenzie, March 2009
Architecture and buildings make up solid, slow moving urban landscapes. Buildings are designed to last 30 years, 50 years, 200 years. There is solidity, a permanency in the existence of architecture and the built environment. Cities do not change overnight, they evolve over time. Often, this change is in-perceptible to the user or inhabitant of the city. It is a part of the subconscious, the change only recalled through photographs, moving images, stories, and, the mind.
Reflecting upon this, it becomes apparent that cities themselves also become repositories of memory. As the buildings and urban form experience time, they also record it. Paint jobs, renovations, additions, subtractions and demolitions all mark moments of history within our urban environment. In a city such as Perth, shaped over time by a boom and bust cycle, there is often an erased memory – the old buildings are no longer standing. They are remembered as images of the past, stored in libraries and books. Thus, the collective memory of what the city once was fades over time. This temporary exhibition pavilion can be a source of memory, a place where people stop, look inside and see what the city once was.
My interest is to see what happens when the life-cycle of a building or a piece of architecture is shortened. Instead of being built to last 30 years, what happens if a piece of architecture is built to last 30 hours? Instead of being considered “permanent”, what happens when architecture is thought of as “temporary”?
Does a temporary building question the relationship between inhabitant of urban space and their environment? Is the fact that the building exists for a short period of time a catalyst to spark the consciousness towards inhabitation of a built environment?
Can a temporary building actually awaken the city dweller, heightening their sense of awareness of the urban environment in which they live? Can its temporal existence cause the user of the city to step back, look at the city, and, perhaps, consider their relationship to it? The fleeting presence of an architectural object as an urban intervention could spark interest, activity and conscious thought about the urban realm. The temporary building can exist as a moment, a brief performance, a memory of the urban environment that passes us by.
Capable of exhibiting a small photographic or equivalent display, the exhibition pavilion will be initially designed and developed at UWA in the architecture workshop. Once developed, the pavilion will be installed into the urban environment of Perth, in the public space adjacent to the Perth Town Hall. Whilst in the urban space, the pavilion will display historical architectural images of the city, specific to the site it occupies. There is the potential for the pavilion to also showcase architectural images of proposed developments, ideas and thoughts about the architectural future of the city of Perth. The pavilion will be designed to encourage contributions and interaction by the public regarding the content and development of architecture in the city of Perth.
The exhibition content will be developed concurrently to the development of the pavilion, and may use historical images from collections such as the Battye Library, UWA library, the City of Perth and other databases. There is also the potential for the pavilion to showcase images, sound and video streaming of the development and installation of the object into the city, and user reactions to this.
The pavilion will inhabit the urban environment for a fixed time, up to a week, after which it will be removed from the city. Following the removal of the object from the city, the pavilion will be re-assembled and constructed at the UWA Cullity Gallery or ALVA courtyard, where it will showcase published images, audio and video of the architectural process that created it.
Exhibited within the pavilion, a photographic and historical survey of the project site will be developed over 100 days. This survey and exhibition will document and display the ideas and theoretical approaches driving the temporary piece of architecture. The exhibition will be specific to the site, and in a larger context, the city of Perth, with images and text of the city and urban environment that once existed at that place displayed.
The exhibition will be a visual display and documentation of the ideas and theories driving the temporary piece of architecture.
The inhabitation and occupation of the urban environment will be developed and exhibited as a ‘live’ site analysis. Images and analysis of the project site will be carried out prior to the installation of the pavilion object. These images and analysis will then be compared and contrasted with ‘live’ up-to-date images of the occupation of the site and the project throughout the installed timeline. This comparison will provide a real-time display of the impact, interactions and reactions to the temporary piece of architecture.
The site analysis will be recorded and displayed in the pavilion at the conclusion of the project.
The complete design process and development of the object will be documented and available through tools and methods associated with architectural development. These will include models, one-to-one prototypes, drawings, images and text.
These objects of process will be virtually exhibited online during the development of the project. The objects will also be exhibited in the pavilion at the conclusion of the project.
The project will be delivered and published online throughout the process. This documentation will chart the process and development of the project, and will include photographs and text, audio and video of the design, development, construction, installation, and inhabitation, plus the deconstruction process.
These documents will be collected and developed over the course of the project. At the conclusion of the project, the project data will be exhibited in the pavilion itself.
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Hi Kate,
I think that perhaps I was a bit obscure when I wrote my comment about the building being viewed ‘in the round’. The Town Hall is originally designed this way, which means it was designed to be viewed as a singular object in an urban landscape. As in, it doesn’t have any immediately adjacent buildings touching it. For decades, this was not the case with the Town Hall, and it is only relatively recently that it has been restored to be a singular, stand-alone building. So, that’s the history.
I guess what I was trying to allude to perhaps isn’t expressed so well through the photographs or videos I’ve put up thus far. But, when looking at the model in person, the building has quite a different feel and look dependant on which side/vista you are looking at it from. This might not actually be ‘in the round’ as I suggested, but some other description. Thanks for picking me up on it!
Hi Kuks,
Great work!
Can you explain what you mean by the idea of a building/object being experienced in the macro, but not the round? Do you mean that the Town Hall is experienced in the round because you have a sense of the whole building wherever you are in it? How does your project differ from that?
At the moment, the ‘experiments’ that I’m considering are mostly spatial and formal investigations of the pavilion, especially in relation to the site and adjacent Town Hall.
I am paying attention to the scale and ‘parasite’ like quality of the pavilion, and its relationship to a human figure. I am developing the ‘shape’ of the building based on a linear, folding methodology, attempting to wrap or enclose the viewer as they walk through and perhaps occupy the pavilion. The linear wrap also allows a literal moment where my building touches the existing building, before folding down onto the ground as a plane, then folding up again to create the space. I am envisaging that the ‘wrap’ will potentially have text, images or textures on the surface, which could provide a literal narrative of the pavilion, or the history of the site, or something else.
As far as the method behind choosing ‘good’ from ‘bad’ – I pay careful attention to the angles, form and enclosure-like qualities of the pavilion as it develops. At times this process is intuitive and free, but it mostly responds to the parameters I’ve outlined above. I do see the pavilion as an object however, and it should have contrast and juxtaposition to the surrounding site, and built urban environment.
Another idea I’m playing with is attempting to make the pavilion an object that is experienced in the macro, but not necessarily in the whole, or ‘the round’. This is in contrast to the Town Hall itself, which is designed and built to be experienced in ‘the round’. So, the pavilion folds out of the facade, wraps around the user and is visible only as a window or opening to Hay Street.
I’ll photograph the model from a number of angles in the next few days to try and demonstrate this and some of the other ideas that I’ve outlined above.
That is fantastic, the experiment is captured but I have a question for you? What informs the decision making part, how can you tell when something is good or bad. An experiment by its nature is a process which tests a given hypothesis? What is it? Speak to you tomorrow! r.