-- CHOSEN THEORY 2: SURREALISM --

The surrealist movement can be described as being over the top, out of the norm, weird, wacky and wonderful all at the same time. It deals a lot with the surreal (obviously) and makes use of strange colour combinations, awkward scales and fascinating representations of everyday things in a warped sense of reality. 

The chosen precedent study that accompanies this theory is The Mondrian South Beach Hotel. The designer, Marcel Wanders, is well known for his outlandish furniture and his methods of execution in his projects. The Mondrian has an air of mystery, a sort of whimsical and luxurious approach to Alice in Wonderland... The designer played a lot with scale and proportion, as well as levels and materials to get the right atmosphere and allow the gusts to really have a unique experience in this exclusive hotel... 

 

-- CHOSEN THEORY 1: ADAPTIVE REUSE --

Adaptive reuse is the theory which focuses on reusing existing buildings and giving them a new function and a new identity... More often than not, nowadays at least, due to the world pushing for more sustainable and eco-friendly design to lessen the carbon footprint etc, existing buildings are renovated and altered accordingly to save costs on building from scratch as well as being a sustainable way of building due to the fact that the architect is not excavating more land to build a new building when an existing building can house the same function... The precedent studies I have chosen to accompany this theory are: 

The Selexyz book store in Maastricht in Holland, developed by the architects at Merkx + Girod. They have turned a 13th Century Dominican Church into a book store... 

The Lingo Construction Services headquarters in Oklahoma City, developed by Elliot + Associates Architects. They have reused a 1930 historic masonry and steel Sharp Auto Supply building into a contemporary office space. 

The Red Bull Headquarters in Amsterdam, developed by Sid Lee Architects. They reused three sheds located at the Media Wharf office complex and turned them into a contemporary office space. 

-- PROJECT 2: BUILDING AND DESIGN ANALYSIS --

For this submission we needed to take a look at the site and the building and evaluate aspects such as the orientation of the building, wind direction, sun direction and other factors that would influence our design.

-- INTERACTIVE MUSEUM DESIGN --

This is what I call INSANE DESIGN!! A definite must see! This will definitely be one of my precedent studies! The interactive aspect, as well as the lighting, interior design and circulation through the space is some of the best I have ever seen - this place has definitely been added to my bucket list! 

Check out their website: http://www.themindmuseum.org/

-- LOGO DESIGN & PROPOSED BUILDING --

-- LOGO DESIGN --

I had a lot of considerations when designing my chosen logo, namely what colours to use, what to name my planetarium and cosmic museum and how to make it immediately understandable for children when they read the name... 
Thus I decided to call it the Stargazer Planetarium and Cosmic Museum, due to it having a literal connection to the internal functions of the space as well as being universally understood as being a link to space and the planets/stars.

The chosen colours are grey, blue, white and black. This makes for a sophisticated look to a potentially childish logo, as well as being easy to read. The colours were chosen due to their associated meanings:

Blue: Associated with depth and stability; wisdom, confidence, intelligence and heaven; beneficial to the mind and body; linked to consciousness and intellect. 

White: Colour of perfection; light, safety and simplicity - suggestive of high-tech products.

Black: Power, darkness, elegance, and mystery; associated with the unknown (black holes), prestigious colour and gives the feeling of depth and perspective.

Grey: Intelligence, maturity, practicality, and solidity. Used in excess, it can cause a feeling of isolation and lonliness (the feeling of being lost in space)

Below is the final logo design:

So, the site and building planning stage of my BTech begins! Here's some insight into the beginning stages of my proposed design:

-- THE BUILDING -- 

 The chosen site, or building, is going to be a proposed "Phase B" of the existing Nelson Mandela Bay Science and Technology Centre which is situated in the CBD of Uitenhage, in the Eastern Cape, a mere 30 minutes outside my hometown, Port Elizabeth. 

The building has a very interesting history.. The whole site consists of a cluster of buildings which used to be the Old Railway Workstations, where they used to make and repair trains in the late 1800's. The first issue this brings about is the fact that the building is well over 60 years old, which makes it a historically significant building. Not only is it significant due to its historical background, but also because it has a lot of cultural, scientific, social and architectural value in the area. 

Original aerial photo of Old Railway
Workstations taken in 1950 (Terblanche, 2004)

Photo inside the Workstation from 1950 -
production of parts (Terblanche, 2004)

Existing MNB Science and Technology Centre in Uitenhage - portion of the building on the right is half of my proposed site (Roofless)

The building as it currently stands is derelict, abandoned and in need of some serious TLC. The portal frame structure of the building is very old and comprises of the original cast iron and steel columns, trusses and clay clinker bricks. Due to it being a heritage building (according to SAHRA - South African Heritage Resource Association), the structure may not be changed unless permission is given from SAHRA themselves. 

Below are some photographs of the site as it currently stands:

View of the roofed area of the chosen site

View of the uncovered area of the chosen site -
in the process of being restored by the UDDI (Uitenhage and Despatch Development Initiative

View from the back wall of the covered warehouse

View from the front wall of the covered warehouse

Existing/original steel portal frame system
with structural columns 

Existing/original clay clinker brick wall with arched
doorway and window 

Existing/original cast iron channel
column on a concrete base with the
original clay clinker brick wall behind it

The building is in desperate need for a revamp, and because it is directly linked to the existing Science Centre, the proposed function of a Planetarium and Cosmic Museum (with astronomy being an integral and vitally important part of the field of science) makes the location and position within the building cluster very feasible. 

I did an analysis of the building in order to really understand the site and the building itself. Below are the drawings I analysed:

Locality analysis and surrounding areas

Site analysis and factors influencing proposed design

Building analysis and surrounds

-- DESIGN: CONCEPT AND IDENTITY HAND IN --

This is the first hand in for Design this year - the basic conceptual approach to our BTech proposal and developing an identity and logo for the space we are designing.... Still working on layouts though... It has proved to be quite a difficult task! 

-- CONCEPTUAL APPROACH --

So, I have managed to narrow down my concept to one word: ANOMALOUS. By definition, an anomaly is something irregular, abnormal or a deviation from the common order (According to the Oxford dictionary). 

In space, things don't work as they do on earth due to many different factors, such as the lack of gravity, sound and air. Thus, if a ball was to be bounced in outer space, it would react differently than it would on Earth. 

Using this as the foundation, my design will ultimately have that idea at its core, by having everyday things like light switches work in a different, abnormal way - like switching on the switch in a downward diagonal direction for example. 

As sub-categories, for the actual exhibition design, I have used inspiration from the phenomena which occur in space like the Pillars of Creation and Butterfly nebulae. The forms (shapes), colours and textures of these phenomena will form the basis of the exhibition design inside the space and will serve to veer away from the typical sources of inspiration, namely the spherical or round nature of the planets. 

Planetary Nebula Mz3: The Ant Nebula.
Expelled gas streaming away at 1,000 kilometres
per second create a strange ant shape.

Comet Hyakutake made a close approach to earth in
March 1996. Highly visible even in daylight, the comet put
on an amazing visual and photographic spectacle.
The comet’s remarkable tail is 360 million miles long,
the longest known for any comet.

The tortured surface of Saturn’s moon Enceladus and its
fascinating ongoing geologic activity. The south polar terrain is
marked by a striking set of “blue” fractures and encircled
by a conspicuous and continuous chain of folds and ridges.

A twisting  ribbon of glowing gas marks the point where
the expanding blast wave from a stellar explosion
(supernova) known as SN 1006 is sweeping through.

The unusual shape of the Cartwheel Galaxy is likely due
to a collision with one of the smaller galaxies seen on the
lower left of the picture several hundred million years ago.

A spectacular view of Centaurus A that shows the effects
of a supermassive black hole. At the center of this
nearby galaxy, a central black hole powers jets and lobes
that flare against a background of stars and stardust.

The destruction of a massive star in the
Large Magellanic Cloud, a nearby galaxy,
resulted in Supernova 1987A.

Pictures above are sourced from http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/07/24/stunning-space-photography/