Performing Arts of Form Forming

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The Performing Arts of Form Forming is a new dance school and recording studio part of a media campus put forward by the government to keep up with the increasing media industry within London.

Site Plan:

The new campus will inhabit a heterogeneous continuous mat, which embraces the left side of the Greenwich Peninsula. The urban mat will lock into the existing and upcoming network proposed within Terry Farrell’s master plan for North Greenwich. The mat maintains the themes walkway and cycle path but also creates new areas along the river which open out towards the bank and Canary Wharf, these points also continue and form pedestrian favored routes west to east across through the site and tube station to meet the other side of the Peninsula. The heterogeneous mat provides continuous blurred public access over the whole site with variation in geometry and space, due to the nature of the heterogeneous formation the user can quickly understand the geometry of the entire mat even though every area may be different to the next.

On this mat the facilities for the new campus begin to emerge. Each plot acquires the geometry specified by the urban mat, new programme is introduced and it is this new programme that adopts the mat as its public ground where all public facilities related to the programme above sit. The programme above will then affect the public realm below interrupting its geometry and forcing new inhabitable areas to emerge over the ground. The public ground blurs public movement over and around the distortion of the mat affected by the allocated programme. This begins to form a figure ground relationship with internal space and external space where the mat is the ground in which different figures of programme begin to emerge creating a variation of spaces to inhabit.

Ground Floor Plan:

The Performing Arts of Form Forming will takes on this geometry and uses it to place all publicly used facilities, the auditoria, bar, café, practice stage and lecture theater all inhabit the heterogeneous mat and begin to form different new areas where the users can sit and watch an informing performance if they wish or while drinking their coffee. The café and bar both look on to the river and take advantage of the generous space given to the public, it is here where students can informally practice during the summer months and the public have a position placing them in an orientation as if they were seated within an auditorium but instead they find themselves in the bar or café.

Lower Ground Floor Plan:

The programmes from above and below begin to affect the public ground above distorting and blurring the movement of the users. Below are where the recording studios are found taking advantage of the obscure landscape above forcing the ceiling of a recoding studio to be ramped as this helps with acrostic control, also found below is the set design and workshops with close access to the main stage and service entrance.

Unfolded Truss 1:

Unfolded Truss 2:

The dance studios above begin to fold down and interrupt the public ground below, in order to maintain a clear continuous public realm the upper floors are constructed within a truss system, this then achieves the large spans and reduces the interruptions on ground. There is a point in which the upper floor folds down and merges with the public ground, it is here where the student can make their way to the studios above The continuity is maintained within the upper floors by introducing the main programmatic elements and forcing them between the floors. This begins to fold the floors so that they touch and maintains a sense of continuity within the upper mass. These folds do not only maintain continuous access but it also provides for break out spaces for the students during classes. A fold gives the student a place to sit and rest, or the class can sit and attend a seminar given by the tutor or even passers by can sit and watch a practice taking place. The fold is emphasized on the façade of the building and takes on the concept of blurring movement as the students can use the folds to move from floor to floor or even sit and relax.

First Floor Plan:

Second Floor Plan:

Third Floor Plan:

The upper floors inhabit the entire truss but not only does the truss provide for structural purposes it also provides for segregation. The dance studios bleed through the truss and there is a point when entering a studio the user is presented by the truss, and it is here where they can place their bags and the lockers are also located within this area. The corridor above also bleeds through the truss creating a place where the pianist might be located within a dance studio but then above that it also provides a point in which students can practice during classes if they need to step out of the room. This space is juxtaposed over an unrelated dance studio. The façade is also brought in pass the truss to allow for light to enter more central parts and to provide spaces where students can sit out side.

Section CC: