Abstraction, Metaphor & Scaling: Concept Design

After conducting site analysis, the next stage of the process was concept design, the week started off with a lecture on 'Abstraction, Metaphor, and Scaling,' prompting much thought about our Folie design.  From the lectures' contents, 'Metaphor' resonated personally, as the example of identifying built objects with places was discussed. Examples included those of London's red telephone booths, and locally, Brisbane's hand painted traffic signal boxes.

This kickstarted my thought process - what, apart from the traffic signal boxes, form's part of Brisbane's visual identity. It took a while, but the answer was obvious; the Brisbane City riverside pathways and walks. They exist all throughout the Brisbane city along the river's edge - linking St. Lucia to Milton, Northbank, Botanic Gardens, Kangaroo Point, Brett's Wharf and New Farm. The New Farm extent had been destroyed in the 2011 floods, but it makes sense to renew the walkway, and continue it within and beyond the HSW site.

Another objective very clear as part of the lecture and brief is the need for a learning space.  But in order to address this we need to consider; what is learning? and what do people need to learn? Brainstorming with group members came up with two schools of thought; learning through being taught and learning through adaptation.

These thoughts were developed in response to the abstract presented at the beginning of the unit theme 'Beyond Representation.' The abstract, taken from O'sullivan  (2006) discusses objects of recognition and encounter, with the first representing something we are familiar with and know to exist, while the latter challenges us, "With a genuine encounter ... our typical ways of being in the world are challenged, our systems of knowledge disrupted."Part due to this abstract and group brainstorming, we formed our definition of learning; 'learning through adaptation.'

This concept resonated with the entire group as we discussed the what exists as the modern day built environment and how what is now produced is so different to what has existed throughout history. We questioned why this was the case? Why do we no longer have to adapt to our environment? And if we are no longer required to adapt, then are we challenged by our built environment, and if  not, how does this foster learning? In short, we agreed, it doesn't. This made our concept stronger, we knew that we wanted to create a Folie that challenged its user, created an object of encounter rather than recognition, in order for those experiencing it to become aware and learn about the built and surrounding environment.

Once the group had agreed on a definition of learning we were then faced with the challenge of how we were to apply this to our Folie.  We knew from the lecture and readings that a Folie was an architectural installation, an activator of space, opposed to a sculptural object, defined by Bernard Tschumi (Bure. 2008).  Brainstorming produced the following diagram:

At this stage, we had analysed the site and it's surroundings, defined learning, had an understanding of the concept of Folie, however the question remained; what can be done to activate space within the HSW site in a way that encourages users to learn through adaptation? How were we to translate concept to actual design.

References:
Bure, G. 2008. Paris / La Villetter. In. Bernard Tschumi. ed. G. Bure, 47-73. Birkhauser: Basel. P60.
O'sullivan, S. 2006. Art ENcounters Deleuze and guattar: THought Beyond Representation. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. P1.