Week 10

Sense of Place

Memories
A way for users to interacts and appreciate a space is for them to develop memories about the space. This will create a deeper connection between the users and the space and give meaning to an otherwise ordinary space. This is what 'sense of place' is, its linking a certain place to memories held by the user.
The history of the area also creates an opportunity for the users to connect with the space, it doesn't have to be of big historical meaning (such as memorials etc) but can be just from the users everyday experience with the space.

Mirko gave a quick analogy of what Architecture really is in relation to 'dimensions'
Music - Mono-dimensional - sound, travels in one 'direction' (start to end) one dimensional
Painting - Bi-dimensional - visual, uses both X & Y axis, two dimensional
Sculpture - Tri-dimensional - Becomes 3D, users can walk around it and see if from all angles. three dimension
Architecture - Quad-dimensional, much like a sculpture, but can utilise another dimension, time.

Architecture is a way to understand time

A great deal can be said about a certain period of time by the architecture that was created during it. It's almost how we identify certain periods of time by looking at the building styles created during them. Another aspect that is usually caught within the built style is the values of the society, they are generally reflected in architectural style.

When discussing urban planning, we looked at how creating these public spaces etc, it means dealing with:
Society's memories
Peoples memories
History & Heritage

When tackling these sorts of issues, you have to think about how to manage the history of the place and how your 'design' will affect those who will use it or have previously used the space.

Tutorial


This weeks tutorial was fairly short but we spent the time thinking about our 'self negotiated' assignments and what we will be analysing. The general task of the assignment to to look at the relationship between one element within the city and the context it sits in. A great deal of the analysis will be on how the element (building, square, roads etc) responds to its context, and whether it influences its surroundings or has been influences by its surrounding environment,

FOCUS ON HOW THE BUILDING INTERACTS WITH THE CONTEXT

Since it is a self negotiated assignment, we have been asked to develop our own CRA sheet according to what time of assignment we will hand in (panel, poster, speech, model, video etc). We have been given a few examples on what we need to assess ourselves on, and our own CRA is to be done by Wednesday 11th.