Conceptual Analysis - Design Intent

The major scheme behind this project lies with the concept of 'embedding'. After extensive site analysis I felt that when a building merely 'sits' on a built, flat surface it feels detached and impermanent.

When a building instead appears to 'grow' from the ground, it somehow reinforces and validates its place within that context as it is now married to an element we often associate with history and longevity - the landscape.

The building is then embedded not only physically into the landscape but hopefully also on a socio-cultural level, new meaning, use and life will be embedded into Coogee and the surrounding areas.

My design deals with the notions of 'site, landscape, building' in a very playful was. The theme of reciprocity is analysed further as I question and disrupt the traditional preconceived ideas that architecture is dominant and landscape is passive.

Coogee Community Centre - Final Drawings

A1 SHEET 1/5

Site analysis of site. Major theme established - that of 'Embedding'

Site analysis and conceptual sketch of proposed design.

Altered contours to create artificial hill on site.

A1 SHEET 2/5

1:200 plan of ground floor level rooms and grandstand.

A1 SHEET 3/5

1:200 elevation from Brook Street

1:200 plan of underground spaces.

A1 SHEET 4/5

1:100 Cross section and interior perspective sketches. Cross section from Brook strees facing the oval.

Each reinforced concrete block is revealed in drawings.

A1 SHEET 5/5

Interior perspective sketches and 1:100 cross section. Cross section reveals lower level large gymnasium, sloped corridor through the hill and upper level cafe kitchen on the left and cafe on the right.

Progression of spaces through the stairwell facing Brook street allowing a filtered communication between those in the building and those on the street.

1:100 Model Coogee Bay Community Centre

The main walkway plays with a tension between the buildings. There is a sense that the continuity of the building has been interrupted as it has been cut into by the sloped walkway.

The built up hill is designed to allow a more casual interaction between those viewing games and simply sitting and talking.

The sloped corridors embedded in the hill provide an intriguing passageway to the spaces underneath.

The rooms on the lower level house the functional, less used areas of the building such as store rooms, technical rooms etc. The gymnasiums and change rooms on this level allow players to run straight from the field to these areas.

This view, without the roof, reveals the large glass windows of the cafe area facing the oval and park off Brook Street. This brings the people inside the community centre closer to the outdoor activites around them.

The interior spaces are defined by the curved walls which are picked up in both wings of the building and juxtaposed with the vertical cut through the middle of the building where the main entrance walkway lies.

The landscape and the building interact in a very playful manner as volumes are pulled out from underneath the hill and negative spaces around cut into it and extracted.

The buildings stairwell, facing Brook Street is highlighted to passer's by through a double story glass wall allowing those inside to view the street, and those walking by to see what is happening inside the building.

The curved conrete walls allow light and shadow to playfully interact throughout the building. Horizontal cuts at eye level enable visual communication between interior spaces.

The building incorporates a balance of concrete whitewash walls with large areas of glazing where the building is extruded.

The idea of Reciprocity is questioned in my building as I place the landscape and the building on an equal level, dispelling preconceived notions of architecture as dominant and landscape as passive.

The ramped corridors break through the hill to lead players from the field down into the underground gymnasiums and change rooms.

This idea is evident in the way one can take the 'built' elements such as the ramps up to different areas of the building, yet at the same time, one is able to reach the same destination by walking up the built-up hill.

Precedences

Tulach a'tSolais, an austerely beautiful memorial designed by Ronald Tallon of Scott Tallon Walker Architects and the sculptor Michael Warren on Oulart Hill, County Wexford.

I find the way Ando works with conrete simply beautiful. He softens the material whilst still revealing the strength of it. The way Ando plays with light and shadow in his buildings is stunning.

I am inspired by the way Ando uses the concrete as a design feature as he leaves the large reinforced conrete blocks unrendered.

SUBMISSION 2 - 1:200 cross-section and plan