Reflective Journal by Xion Lin

Reflective Journal ARCH 7201 Research Studio Zhixiong Lin 3092236

Content

Expression of Interest

Literature Review

Precedent Studies

Precedent Critique

Site Analysis

Site Interpretation

Sketches

Conceptual Design

Expression of Interest

The following section consists of the initial expression of interest submitted prior to the confirmation of studio groups. This is an independent studio thus it is important that the basic project outline is stated clearly to give direction to self directed research methodologies and key issues dealing with the subject in focus.

Project Outline Architectonics: Iconography, Technology and Surface The name of the project is Architectonics: Iconography, Technology and Surface. The project will be an automotive showroom. Depending on the ambition and site, the project can extend into several other related programs such as workshops, event spaces, administration hub, associated restaurants and café etc. The interest of the project as the title suggested is in the architectonics; the translation of ideas into built form from inception to realization. Built in this sense refers to the general construct of a building and the realization of a ‘concrete’ structure. The project will focus on three main topics namely iconography, technology and surface:

Iconography

In recent years, there is an increase of new showcases being built for modern mobility all over the world. International car manufacturers are increasingly keen in creating an architectural identity for their brands. Especially in recent times when consumers have become more demanding and with a greater choice of brands available worldwide, manufacturers are eager to strengthen their brand awareness and position themselves well for the future. An automotive showroom gives the manufacturers a great opportunity to make a statement about their brands. Therefore it is crucial that any design of a showroom to articulate and develop the means of conveying brand-specific languages. It is also equally as important that the built is bestowed with a appropriate sense of iconicity; the level of communication with the public beyond the conventional realm.

Surface

In architecture, the design of a building is based on a multitude of elements including spatial articulation, proportions, natural lighting, circulation etc. In fashion, it covers a broad range of aspects such as colours, patterns, materials, tactility etc. However, no design industry is akin to automotive design in the fact that it places strong focus on surfaces. The surface to a car is more than a protective layer. It is functional and expressive; functional in the shaping of form that assists in aerodynamics and expressive in the visual aesthetics of the form. The design should take up the similar design methodologies of multivalency in essence and surface to be explored as part of the architectonics. Surfaces in automotive can be also associated with the ergonomics and comfort of the design. It can also be extended into the tactile quality of different materials. All these aspect is to be considered in the design of the showroom in order to have a successful outcome. Automotive design is considered as front runners in the design industry. The design of cars dictates and influences other fields of design, forecasting what is to come in the future. Last but not least, the design of the automotive showroom should therefore also have the ambition to allow for futuristic and avant-garde concepts.

Technology

Automotive design and technology evolved simultaneously. It is perhaps the only design industry that requires designers to keep up with the latest technology in order to survive in the competitive fields. For a building that represents car, it is essential to have the same ambition as automotive designers. The proposal should seek to explore new and advanced construction techniques. This includes both structural and technical. Due to large spans required over display space, the design should actively seek to provide innovative suggestion to structural solution. Likewise regarding technical aspect, the design should aspire to a sustainable future. This could also be seen as a step in improving the brand’s image in public relation as the awareness of environmental issues continues to increase. Technology in the industry of car design also involves the use of new materials, such as new metal alloys that are lighter and stronger. In a sense that is the same case in architecture where architects and engineers look to invent, discover and utilize new materials that allows for new expression, flexibility, durability etc. Therefore it is also important for the design of the showroom to consider the use of new materials.

Literature Review

The following section consists of a literature review discussing the history of automotive, the current trends, and potential future development in the industry. This was done as a preamble to the project proper. It was aimed at encouraging the student to understand the subject and the context in which their design is based on.

Content

Automotive Architecture: Past, Present, Future.

Automotive Architecture: Past, Present and Future

Introduction

Design Rationale

Programmatic Accomodation and Spatial Articulation

Structure, Material Use and Formal Expression

Endnotes and Image References

Introduction

In the past decades, there had been a marked increase in the development of automotive architecture. International car manufacturers are seemingly keen to employ established architects to design automotive showrooms and plants that would give the brand an architectural identity. One factor for this phenomenon is the increasing demand for automobiles. In addition, with a greater choice of brands available worldwide, manufacturers are eager to strengthen their brand awareness and image in order to position themselves in a good stead for the future. The imminence of global warming and the concerns on excessive carbon emissions often promulgated automobile as adversarial to the environment. Furthermore, modern cities are conceived with the dimensions of cars as underlying guides yet ironically it is the very conception of automobiles that is more than often considered as “destroyer of cities”1 and “an enemy to tradition architecture”2. Likewise, urban planners accustomedly consider automobiles to be problematic in the way it dehumanize the urban context, removing the people from their cities. Under these intensified opposing voices, automotive architecture gives the manufacturers a valuable opportunity to reverse these antagonistic views on their products and realign their brands with a healthier image for the public.

Despite the recent pageantic development of the field, automotive architecture had derived from a humble origin. This article will discuss the history of automotive architecture and its associations, specifically in the context of industrialization. The discussion will also extend to contemporary developments in the field in order to establish dialectics between these differing periods. The article therefore aims to decipher the progressive shift in the differing thinking and realization of automotive architecture between past and present, endeavoring to propound possible future directions for architecture of the automobile. The different aspects detailed in the discussion will include the design rationale, functional accommodation, spatial articulation, structure, material use and formal expression.

Design Rationale

The first building constructed that was in any ways associated with automotive was an automotive factory. The construction of automotive factories development helped shape the developments in Industrialization as automobile manufacturing was one of the largest manufacturing sectors at the end of the 19th century. In fact, a cursory comparison between an early factory of mill construction of the late nineteenth century and a 1920s automotive factory would reveal a dramatic shift in thinking in that short time. One significant methodology that was introduced in the early 20th century was Fordism. Fordism was a methodology utilized predominantly in the automotive industry to improve productivity. It is “a model of economic expansion and technological progress based on the mass production: the manufacture of standardized products in huge volumes using special purpose machinery and unskilled labour”3. Henry Ford, the owner of Ford Motor Company, through the use of this method was able to rationalize production of automobile and made it cheaper and hence accessible to the general working class. Henry Ford employed Albert Kahn as the architect to design majority of their factories. This was a perfect marriage of client and architect as both Ford and Kahn shared the same vision. “Ford was not in search of an artist who builds him a celebrative image of economic potential… he

wanted only a designer capable of responding concretely to specific demands of mass production.”4 On the other hand, Kahn himself often consider architecture to be 90% business and 10% art.5 Kahn ostensibly perceives design works more in the practical sense of an industrialist than in the intellectual sense of an architect. The Packard Building No. 10 (completed in 1905) and Ford Motor Company Original Factory Building (completed in 1909) are a great early examples of factories designed by Kahn that abide to his design inclination. It was widely promoted by many architects during that rapidly changing period that factory should be designed like a machine that reflects the very process it houses. It is perhaps as Louis Sullivan famously formulated that “form ever follows function”6, the mechanization of production processes should also be resonated in architectonic terms. However this was not the only trajectory of thinking during that time. Some are convinced that industrialization, with its cheap mass production of functional items, is detrimental to the any creation of artistic nature. Industry is considered as the antithesis to art. “Art is freedom individuality – industry is compulsion and mass; art is the unique and eternal – industry the thousandfold and ephemeral.”7 This is where Peter Behrens depart from

Design Rationale

Figure 1. Packard Building no. 10.

Figure 2. Packard Building no. 10. interior.

Figure 3. Ford Motor Company Complex, 1909 - 1918.

Figure 4. Ford Motor Company Original Factory Elevations.

Design Rationale

the ideologies of Albert Kahn. Though Behrens admitted that the real interest of the industrial age nevertheless presided with technology, art should not be neglected. The design philosophy of Behrens is manifested in the Turbinen-fabrik (Turbine Factory) designed for the Allgemeine Elektricitäts Gesellschaft (AEG) between 1908 and 1909. Peter Behrens was not the only architect concerned with the corrosive effect of rapid industrialization on culture and arts. In fact, the Deutscher Werkbund (German Work Federation) was formed in 1907 to specifically deal with these concerns. The Werkbund was conceived as an organization that promotes the integration of traditional crafts and industrial mass-production techniques, in short between traditionalism and technology. The architects involved in the Werkbund not only include Behrens but also other notable architects such as Bruno Taut, Hans Poelzig, Henry van de Velde, Mies van der Rohe and Erich Mendelsohn. Modernity had long been associated with industrialization and mass production. However Terry Smith questioned that assumption when he proposed that “Is not mass consumption, rather than mass production, definitive drive of modernism?”8 If that is the case, then of all the notable architects, perhaps only Erich Mendelsohn and Bruno Taut are able to anticipate the forthcoming of

Figure 5. Henry Poelzig, Milch and Company superphosphate chemical factory.

Figure 6. Bruno Taut, Glashaus.

the 20th century consumerism. Though the latter did not participate much in industrial or automotive architecture, he too demonstrated in his design for the Glashaus that it dealt with more than just a rational modernist approach. The Glashaus was an exhibition for the Deutsches Luxfer Prismen Syndikat and Taut utilizes the prismatic glass from the company to construct the building. Upon completion of the Glashaus, Taut manages to create a spectacle and instill visitors with an arresting and powerful image of the Deutsches Luxfer Prismen Syndikat. Although Taut’s theory was largely on the dream of the crystalline community centers, his works indirectly lay down the foundation for consumerism and iconography. In the same way, Mendelsohn celebrated rather than disguised mass consumption in modernism. He firmly believed that though the primary element in architecture is function, without sensual contributions, function remains as mere construction. Mendelsohn “equated industrial imagery with a utopianism just as passionate as that expressed in Taut’s dreams of crystalline community centers”9 His1914 drawing on the project for AEG factory evidently demonstrated this utopianism which sets him apart from his other more strict rational contemporaries. Mendelsohn was definitely ahead of his time. He was in a period when there was neither the

Figure 7. Glashaus interior.

Figure 8. Sketch for AEG factory project.

Design Rationale

technology nor the support to realize his visions. Despite often finding his contributions to modernism devalued at his time, his works and ideologies could now be appreciated for the dynamic idealism it bestowed upon modernism. Late 20th century had seen the wide propagation of consumerism. Automotive architecture no longer restricts itself to the domain of industrial factories. As a matter a fact, if we were to examine the development from the inception of automotive architecture in factory form, we will notice a dramatic shift of attention. The focus of automobile manufacturer had transfigured from mass production to mass consumption. The introduction of robotic mechanisms that replaced human labour in certain areas of assembly had rendered the necessity of large space obsolete. The advancing technologies had dismissed the commitments towards new solutions in factory design, however the industry was facing another problem; the intense competition between different brands had set the challenge for the manufacturers to rethink their commercial position and the way their brand was represented. This is in reality a new contemporary phenomenon that required architects to look at things very differently than they previously did. All the previous methodologies had proved to be

Figure 9. Sketch for optical instrument factory project.

Figure 10. Reintepretation of Ricola Logo.

inadequate; no longer is the modernist conception of ‘form ever follows function’ enough to deal with the myriad layers of complications of the automotive industry. Architects who had reviewed the ideologies envisaged by Mendelsohn and Taut achieved varying degree of success. One such example is the design of the Ricola Europe Factory and Storage Building completed in 1993. It manifested symbolic yet speculative visual representational of branding. The ubiquitous use of printed plant motif on the polycarbonate panels, being the preoccupation of the design, undoubtedly has strong connection with Ricola’s logo. Though the use of iconography in this case might not have been aberrant, however it would have seemed more accustom to associate factory design with more rational agendas. It is as Robert Kudielka suggested that “the gap between the plan and execution of a building seems too great, the purpose too practical, and the appearance too physical to associate architecture with spontaneous satisfaction of perception”10. It is due to this very hypothetical irony that the Ricola Factory heralded possible subsequent developments in automotive architecture.

Figure 11. Ricola Europe Factory and Storage Building.

Programmatic Accommodation and Spatial Articulation

Programmatic Accomodation and Spatial Articulation

Automotive production factories preluded any other programmatic requirements in the development of automotive architecture. Industrialization was the one of the main factor that resulted in this occurrence. The demand for automotive factories comes naturally as a result of favourable political environments for industry and commerce, abundance of cheap materials, low-cost skilled labour and more efficient production processes. One factor that drove the later consumerism was absent at the beginning of industrialization; that is the availability of an extensive selection of brands and hence competition. This explains the stagnant advancements in other programmatic accommodation in the field at that time. Ford Motor Company was one of the leading automobile manufacturers in the early decades. Henry Ford was responsible for the construction of a series of factory complexes in Detroit in the early 1900s with the help of his architect Albert Kahn. Kahn’s design was informed by Ford’s own ideology of Fordism discussed earlier. This technique requires the strategic placement of different processes in sequential order to decrease time taken for mechanical transportation and to ensure productivity.11 The spatial arrangement of the factories is thus determined by the positioning of the processes and is a by-product

Figure 12. 1918 extension to the Ford Motor Complex.

Figure 13. Interior of the1918 extension to the Ford Motor Complex.

of the function. However, that is not the only determinant of the spatiality of a factory. Architects also need to designate for the need of ample daylight for the workers to perform their tasks. Both these unique restraints resulted in the conventionality of the long undisrupted interior space. The Ford Motor Company Factory Complex built between 1909 and 1918 consisted of mostly elongated buildings with strong linear expression in the interior. The linear undisrupted spatiality is not limited to just the Ford examples. Other example of Kahn’s design includes the Plant for Lady Esther Ltd. (1936), the Chevrolet Half-Ton Truck Plant (1938) and Burroughs Adding Machine Company (1938) etc. Despite having different philosophies to that of Kahn’s, other European architects designed factories in a similar vein. One famous example is the Turbine Factory designed by Peter Behrens. It has a width of 25 metres but extended to almost 5 times its width to 123 metres. But by far the largest development that maintained this linearity was the River Rouge Plant. The entire plant consists of configuration of concrete structure of 12 metres high and three-quarters of a mile long (approximately 1.2km)12. The enormous complex “was born of a total programmatization that included the cycle of production from the extraction of raw material to the finished product”13.

Figure 14. Burrough Adding Machine Factory.

Figure 15. Chevrolet Half-ton Truck Plant.

Programmatic Accommodation and Spatial Articulation

The introduction of new programs into automotive architecture was a particular slow process especially when compared to the rapid rate of industrialization. The Fiat Lingotto Lingotto Plant, designed by Giacomo Mattè-Trucco and completed in 1923, was perhaps the first to introduce any additional function on top of that of the production. It included a track on the roof that allowed newly assembled vehicles to be tested. Being of an engineering background, Mattè-Trucco’s design in many sense draws parallel to Kahn’s factory design in the way the building strips to bare essentials bar the test track on the roof. Le Corbusier declared it to be “one of the most impressive spectacles of industry”14. It also resonated with the long linear spaces of contemporary industrial buildings; one suspects that this is due to the daylighting and not processes as the production sequence operates vertically rather than horizontally. The Lingotto is neither a search for a new architectural language nor does it concede to the styleless aesthetics, but an adaptation of mechanical process.15 The Lingotto Factory did not survive the harshness of post industrial society. It was deemed to be obsolete and was eventually closed in 1982 but was revitalized several years by an architecture competition won by Renzo Piano. The rebuilt was completed in 1989 and it transformed the factory into a

Figure 16. Fiat Lingotto Spatial Planning.

micro-city consisting of shopping arcades, concert halls, conventional centre, hotels, university and offices. Despite the dissolution of the original function, the transformation of the complex offers architects an opportunity to speculate on future automotive development. The late 20th century could be recognized as the manifestation of consumerism in the field of automotive in built form. Mass consumerism gained momentum as an industrial society draws to a close. The conception of large scale industrial factories was discarded for the more fanciful showrooms and to lesser extent museums. There was no longer any specific guiding principle for their spatial articulation. Nor are they restricted to any functional restrictions of processes. Their only real requirement is to facilitate the sales of products and brand awareness. In a sense, a showroom could be seen as a stage and the products the performers. A prime example of a showroom designed for this purpose is C42 Citröen Flagship Showroom designed by Manuelle Gautrand. It is located on the famous Champs Élysées in Paris. On street level it becomes the exhibitionist stimulating passer-by with its dynamic form and colours. In the interior, the showroom transforms into a stage celebrating the excellence of the product displayed. The design took literal cue to the expression ‘stage’

Figure 17. C42.

Figure 18. Audi Lighthouse Terminal.

Programmatic Accommodation and Spatial Articulation

through the placement of eight circular display platforms. The recently opened Audi Lighthouse Terminal expressed the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;stage the automobilesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; in a different way. The building is conceived as spaces carved out from the subtraction of the rectangular box. These voids are orientated to the passing automobiles on the highway. Despite the superficial differences, both projects tried like what many contemporary automotive designs tried to achieve, the essence of consumerism architecture. Since 1923 example of the Lingotto Factory, architects and manufacturers alike had been keen to introduce new and different programs into the field of automotive architecture. The Cockpit in Acoustic Barrier designed by ONL in 2006, apart from being a showroom, is also as its name suggests an acoustic barrier for the noise created by cars on the highway. The BMW Central Building designed by Zaha Hadid is essentially a centralized building that connects three existing disconnected production buildings, the fabrication of the raw bodies, the paint shop and the final assembly hall. The building serves as a connection for both the stages of production and the employees. The most explicit example of the urban integration in the field of automotive has to the Beijing International Automotive Expo in China, designed by Henn Arkitekten. It is a mixed-use development that

Figure 19. The Cockpit and Acoustic Barrier.

centres on an automobile museum. It is currently still under construction although the completion date is anticipated to be in 2010. It is designed to be organized around an empty space in the middle comparable to the arrangement of the Forbidden City. It is not only a showcase for cars: it also contains shops, offices and apartments and is intended to become a lively quarter of the city. The automotive related functions include exhibition, sales, services, financing, repair, licensing. It is the realization of the combined vision of Bruno Taut and Erich Mendelsohn. The automotive museum (industrial imagery) becomes the focus (crystalline community centre) which allows the integration of the city to materialize.

Figure 20. The BMW Central Building.

Figure 21. The Beijing International Automotive Expo.

Structure, Material Use and Formal Expression

One of the most important innovations of the automobile industry was the invention of reinforced concrete. The system was championed by Albert Kahn’s brother Julius Kahn who took out a patent on his system of reinforced concrete. The use of reinforced concrete enabled architects to reestablish the fundamentals of façade treatment. The post and beam construction of reinforced concrete construction removes all structural loading from the façade, thus providing the means for architects to address the daylighting issues in industrial factories. The advancement in concrete also aided the development of glass in architecture. As Siegfried Giedion suggested, the elimination of structural walls “naturally leads to a progressively bolder (ie. wider) opening up of the wall surfaces which allow rooms to be much brighter.”16 Although the use of glass pervaded architecture of the early 20th century in the modernist movement, it was in industrial buildings where the modernist theories of light, air and space were fully manifested. The two buildings that evidently demonstrate this are the Packard Plant Building no. 10 and the Fagus Factory designed by Albert Kahn and Walter Gropius respectively. The 1905 design of the Building no. 10 was avant-garde in its use of concrete and glass. In fact, before the design of Building no. 10, the first nine buildings designed for

Figure 22. The Kahn’s system of reinforced concrete.

Figure 23. The Packard Building no. 10 elevation.

the Packard Plant was of traditional structural materials of iron, stone, and brick.17 The dimension of the building is 18.2 metres wide and 98.1 metres long. Kahn’s design managed to remove all but one internal column, hence achieving a span of 9 metres in each direction which was considered as an extraordinary achievement at that time. The Packard Building no. 10 was the first step to the revolution of architecture thinking. Architecture “was no longer merely the study of a shell to dress the underlying… but was the creation of a building which expressed the complete harmony of these two elements.”18 The Fagus Factory took the Kahn’s innovation one step further by introducing the curtain wall. The building demonstrated that the greater importance glass was assuming in the different areas of amenity in architecture such as light, ventilation and visual aesthetics. Repetition of structure was often the overused expression in industrial architecture. The repetition however reflected more than just a lack of design intent. It echoed the functional purpose of the construction and is a re-interpretation of the tendency of mass production. Mass production of industrial production in turn resulted in the standardization of construction. The use of repetition is apparent in the Turbine Factory, which was discussed earlier in the article. The modus operandi

Figure 24. The Fagus Factory.

Figure 25. The Turbine Factory.

Structure, Material Use and Formal Expression

of the factory was given a symbolic impression on the street front facing Berlichingenstrasse. This vigorous flow of identical form of modern material (in this case steel members) suggested to the eye an analogy to a sequence of mechanical movements.19 Unlike the Turbine Factory, which had an asserted expression of mass production, the manufacturing house of the Luckenwalde Hat Factory designed by Erich Mendelsohn on first impression rejected that notion. It is composed of angular concrete roof massing with trapezoidal shaped skylight. Yet the primary reason for the sporadic expression of the manufacturing house is to discern its differing function to the boiler houses. Likewise, on closer inspection of the manufacturing house, the interior gives evidence of the machine like repetition of the structural ribs. Similarly in the Fiat Lingotto Factory, the repeated structure was conspicuous along the 500 metre-long façade. The radiating rib structure of the two spiral ramps that were added later in 1924 was a product of the engineer’s archetype thinking. The repeated radiating ribs of the ramp dealt with the loading of an automobile turning the corner. Despite the repeated motifs, it had transcended mere rationality and signified the prospective development in automotive architecture.

Figure 26. The Luckenwalde Hat Factory.

Figure 27. The Luckenwalde Hat Factory interior.

There is no doubt that under the circumstances, the reoccurring theme of repetition is eloquently articulated in early automotive architecture. However, the mobility and speed automobiles were never quite explored in these industrial buildings. The myriad examples of automotive factories represent only stagnant processes of production. Many tried to formulate theories to capture the movement in time and space but perhaps the most pertinent of these ideas came from expressionism and futurism, from Mendelsohn and Marinetti respectively. Mendelsohn suggested that “Modern man, amidst the excited flurry of his fast-moving life, can find equilibrium only in the tension-free horizontal.”20 Mendelsohn’s own sketching for the competition entry for the design of an office building is a manifestation of his theories. Later interpretations of this ideology could be seen in the BMW Central Building in Leipzig. The preliminary sketching of Zaha Hadid on the Central Building design drew uncanny resemblance to the one done by Mendelsohn. The final resolution is able to capture the multitude of contextual forces and movements. The various demarcations on the horizontal surfaces of the façade maps the diagrammatic flows of the project.21 Marinetti suggested that “objects in motion multiply and distort themselves, just as do vibrations, which indeed they are,

Figure 28. Mendelsohn’s sketch for competition entry for high-rise design in Berlin.

Figure 29. Zaha Hadid’s sketch for BMW Central Building.

Structure, Material Use and Formal Expression

in passing through space.”22 Despite the precarious relevance of Marinetti’s analysis to architecture, it serves as a vehicle with which architects could reexamine the meaning of the mobility in automotive architecture. Repetition and standardization might have been suitable for the industrial age but is no longer the adequate solution to the dynamism of modern mobility. The modern age of consumerism is not about mass production but the availability of greater choices of products. Correspondingly, architecture with commercial agendas such as an automotive showroom should be endowed with the appropriate expression of structure. Taking Marinetti’s interpretation as a point of departure, one would arrive at the notion that in order for architecture to represent motion, there shouldn’t be duplication. Duplication or repetition should be replaced multiplication. If one were to apply this to automotive architecture in the past century, one will come to the conclusion that instead of being repeated, structure could be ‘multiplied’ and ‘distorted’. The recently completed BMW Welt, an automotive showroom in Munich, exhibited this idea of multiplication and distortion. The double helix structure, which holds the exhibition and event space, is composed of hollow steel members of different lengths. It is an exemplar of the dynamism created by reinterpretation of the theory of

Figure 30. The BMW Central Building.

Figure 31. The BMW Welt double cone.

Marinetti. The BMW Welt therefore paves the way forward for conception of a structure for mobility. The history of automotive architecture consisted of a series of buildings of differing typologies. What had started out as strictly industrial architecture had evolved into the extremity of urban integration. Manufacturers, architects and urban planners alike should not underestimate the impact of automobile in modern life. At the same time, automotive architecture design should be geared towards how design rationale, functional accommodation, spatial articulation, structure, material use and formal expression could provide solution towards social, political and artistic issues, on top of fulfilling their commercial agendas. Recent designs such as the BMW Central Building, BMW Welt, Beijing International Automotive Expo and many others had aspired to represent the Zeitgeist of contemporary architecture and the future of automotive. If the recent developments are a judge of what is to come, we know that there will be immense activities within the field of automotive. Architects only have to reflect on the past theories of architects and philosophers for inspiration; at no time should they stop asking the question, what is automotive architecture?

Figure 32. The BMW Welt double cone interior.

Endnotes

Image References

1. Dirk Meyhöfer, Motortecture: Design for Mobility (Ludwigsburg: avedition, 2003): 8. 2. Ibid., 8. 3. Steven Tolliday and Jonathan Zeitlin, The Automobile Industry and its Workers: Between Fordism and Flexibility (New York: St.Martin’s Press, 1987): 1-2. 4. Federico Bucci, Albert Kahn: Architect of Ford (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1993): 39-40. 5. Ibid., 39. 6. Louis Sullivan, “Tall office building artistically considered” in Form and function. A source book for the history of architecture and design, 1890-1939 (London: Granada Publishing, 1975): 13. 7. Tilemann Buddensieg, Industriekultur: Peter Behrens and the AEG, 1907-1914 (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1984): 242. 8. Terry Smith, Making the Modern: Industry, Art, and Design in America (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993): 19. 9. Kathleen James, Enrich Mendelsohn and the Architecture of German Modernism (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997): 4. 10. Robert Kudielka, “Speculative Architecture: On Aesthetics of Herzog and de Meuron.” in Herzog and de Meuron: Natural History (Montreal: Canadian Centre for Architecture): 279. 11. Lindy Biggs, The Rational Factory: Architecture, Technology, and Work in America’s Age of Mass Production (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996): 77-78. 12. Federico Bucci, Albert Kahn: Architect of Ford (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1993): 54. 13. Ibid., 54. 14. Terry Kirk, The Architecture of Modern Italy, Volume II: Visions of Utopia, 1900 – Present (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2005): 61. 15. Ibid., 58. 16. Dennis Sharp, “The Fagus Factory and the Dessau Bauhaus” in Bauhaus and the Fagus Factory (Tokyo: A.D.A. Edita, 1994): 3. 17. Federico Bucci, Albert Kahn: Architect of Ford (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1993): 33. 18. Ibid., 58. 19. Tilemann Buddensieg, Industriekultur: Peter Behrens and the AEG, 1907-1914 (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1984): 142. 20. Kathleen James, Enrich Mendelsohn and the Architecture of German Modernism (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997): 93. 21. Zaha Hadid, Zaha Hadid: BMW Central Building, Leipzig, Germany (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2006): 129. 22. Siegfried Giedion, Space, Time and Architecture: The Growth of a New Tradition (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1982): 444.

1. Federico Bucci, Albert Kahn: Architect of Ford (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1993): 35. 2. Ibid., 35. 3. Ibid., 44. 4. Ibid., 40. 5. Kathleen James, Enrich Mendelsohn and the Architecture of German Modernism (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997): 86. 6. Kai K Gutschow, “From objects to installation in Bruno Taut’s exhibition pavilions,” Journal of architectural education 59 (2006): 64. 7. Rosemarie Haag Bletter, “Paul Scheerbart’s Architectural Fantasies,” JSAH 34, n.2 (1975): 90. 8. Kathleen James, Enrich Mendelsohn and the Architecture of German Modernism (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997): 3. 9. Ibid., 27. 10. “Herzog & de Meuron.” Architecture d’aujourd’hui 1995, no. 300 (1995): 47. 11. Ibid., 47. 12. Federico Bucci, Albert Kahn: Architect of Ford (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1993): 46. 13. Ibid., 47. 14. George Nelson, Industrial Architecture of Albert Kahn, Inc.(New York: Architectural Book Publishing Company, Inc., 1939): 47. 15. Ibid., 85. 16. “Renzo Piano Building Workshop: Lingotto Factory Rehabilitation,” A+U: architecture and urbanism 315 (1996): 62. 17. “Manuelle Gautrand: Citroen Communication Center,” A+U: architecture and urbanism 315 (2007): 81. 18. http://www.caradvice.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/audi-image40166_b.jpg (accessed: 22/04/10). 19. http://blog.lib.umn.edu/yuanx072/architecture/oosterhuis1.jpg (accessed: 22/04/10). 20. Zaha Hadid, Zaha Hadid: BMW Central Building, Leipzig, Germany (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2006): 96. 21. http://blog.hemmings.com/wp-content/uploads//2009/09/847_1_1000-Henn-Beijing-rendering-night.jpg (accessed: 22/04/10). 22. Federico Bucci, Albert Kahn: Architect of Ford (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1993): 35. 23. Ibid., 35. 24. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/19/Fagus-Werke-03.jpg (accessed: 22/04/10). 25. Tilemann Buddensieg, Industriekultur: Peter Behrens and the AEG, 1907-1914 (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1984): 279. 26. Ruins of Modernity: Enrich Mendelsohn’s Hat Factory in Luckenwalde (London: Architectural Association, 1998): 8. 27. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/01/Luckenwalde_HatFactory_inner_view.jpg (accessed: 22/04/10). 28. Kathleen James, Enrich Mendelsohn and the Architecture of German Modernism (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997): 91. 29. Zaha Hadid, Zaha Hadid: BMW Central Building, Leipzig, Germany (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2006): 25. 30. http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3116/2852239003_628e4b65e8_o.jpg (accessed: 22/04/10). 31. http://www.bmw.gotik-romanik.de/BMW%20Welt%20Thumbnails/BMW%20Welt%20von%20Thomas%20 Rieger,%204.jpg (accessed: 22/04/10). 32. http://www.aktuellekamera.de/images/20071021162138_bmw_welt_4.jpg (accessed: 22/04/10).

Precedent Studies

The following section consists of the precedent studies. The precedents researched in this studio are not limited to these examples. However, this presentation is a carefully selected range examples of precedents that would provide direction for future design development. It consists of a brand specific example and two local examples.

Lexus Showroom, Perth Architect: Cox Architects & Partners

The Showroom

The Workshop

The Administration Hub

Programs

Circulation

Enclosure

The Showroom (Public) The folded form embraces the showroom space with glazing to its perimeter to maximise exposure to passing traffic. The material palette and building detailing is restrained but crafted and aligned with the aesthetics of Lexus motor vehicle design.

The Showroom (Public) The circulation of the used cars showroom space on the outside addresses Scarborough Street. The circulation of the showroom is hung off a central spine or corridor. Public and private circulation feeds off the spine.

The Workshop (Semi-Private) The workshop facility is a robust ‘container’ element with a physical and visual connection to the showroom deliverately exposing the clean, efficient workshop operations.

The Workshop (Semi-Private) The circulation of the workshop is privately accessed by the private corridor. The flexible open space has a free circulation.

The workshop and administration hub are both conceived as enclose boxes. These two enclosed boxes become the backdrop that frames the showroom. The glazing is focused in the eastern corner side facing Scarborough street. The glazed strategy the showroom provides a strong visual connection to Scarborough Beach Road. Thus glazed facade allows the vehicle product to dominate the overall impression of the centre.

The Administration Hub (Public / Private) The extruded administration ‘black box’ is located adjacent to the main showroom and houses all administration staff and facilities.

The Administration Hub (Private) The administration hub consists of a main corridor where all the offices and meeting rooms feeds off. The public offices for negotiation are placed along the public central spine as it addresses the public.

The Centre has the flexibility for the showroom facility to convert to a function space for launching new vehicles and promotional events. A private showroom adjacent to a client cafe area allows the private delivery and handover of new vehicles. This comes in the form of the third box adjacent to the entrance.

Audi Lighthouse Terminal, Sydney Architect: Johnson, Pilton & Walker

Enclosure The showrooms of Audi Ligthouse Terminal can be conceived of as spaces being carved out of a volume. The â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;carved outâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; spaces of the showroom takes up the corners of the building volume and acts as stages for the product to the cars along the highway. The other programs are located in the solid left behind by the voids of the showrooms. The opacity of the other spaces brings out the transparency of the showroom spaces.

Structure The structural system ustilized in the Audi Lighthouse Terminal is reinforced concrete post and beam construction. Two reinforced concrete cores run the whole height of the building. Two systems of column grids are designed. On the northern showrooms, the columns are set back from the glazing to intensify the transparency of the void. The same strategy cannot be carried out on the southern showrooms due to the location of ramps.

Geometry The rectangular volume of the Audi Lighthouse Terminal is designed with square being the primary geometry. The plan can be derived with four squares. The height of the building is set up in such a way that the same square is reflected on the facades. Likewise, the column grid is aligned with the square geometry. The rectilinear built form juxtaposes with the soft curves in the interior to heighten the dynamic effect of the curved walls.

Concept

Realization

Standard

Stratification

The concept of the Audi Lighthouse Terminal is having curves walls framing the space for the showroom. The showrooms are conceived as stages orientated to the highway.

The design is realized as a solid box with voids carved out from it. These voids are cut out with the curved walls which express subtle sense of organicity in what is a regular box.

The standard pracatice of an automotive showroom are programs laid out on a horizontal plane and seperated and differentiated along that plane.

The design of Audi Lighthouse is a stratification of the different programs vertically. These programs are link by ramps which is crucial to the connections of different programs.

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Program

Apart from acting as a flagship showroom for Audi, the Audi Lighthouse Terminal also acts as the head office for Audi Australia. It consists of various programs such as workshops, Audi shop, new cars showroom, used cars showroom etc. The stratification of programs allows the cross interaction between different range of staff.

LEGENDS

&ORECOURT .EW #AR 'ALLERY %NTRANCE (ALL 3ERVICE 2ECEPTION $IRECT 3ERVICE 2ECEPTION #USTOMER 3UPPORT :ONE 3HOP #AR (ANDOVER 2AMP %NTRANCE TO "UILDING #USTOMER %NTRY "ASEMENT 2AMP 6ILLAGE 3QUARE &UTURE -IXED USE $EVELOPMENT .EW !CCESS 2OAD

NEW CAR GALLERY

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

SHOPS

CAR HANDOVER

BASEMENT ENTRY RAMP

OUTDOOR PARKING

CAFE AND LOUNGE

14 WORKSHOP PARKING 15 STAFF PARKING

DEALERSHIP OFFICES

16 CARWASH AND CUSTOMER PARKING

USED CAR GALLERY 10 USED CAR BREEZEWAY GALLERY 11 SERVICE WORKSHOPS 12 WORKSHOP OFFICES 13 HEAD OFFICE

BMW Welt, Munich Architect: Coop Himmelbl(au)

Reinforced Concrete Structure Columns Steel Double Cone Structure Roof Outline

Structure

Double Cone Structure

The space is enclosed on top by a seemingly â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;floatingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; roof. The undulating roof is held up by 3 elements: reinforced concrete structure, columns and the double cone. Only a total of 11 columns (8 on the ground floor) are required to hold up the roof. The structure utilized the structural capacities of the reinforced concrete structure of the forum, tower and lounge, and the stiffness of the trussed double cone to buttress the truss system of the roof.

The double cone is conceived as a double helix form consisting of horizontal rings and two diagonals forming a total of 900 triangulated surfaces. All the steel used to construct the structure are rectangular hollow sections. The designer of the structure sized the spacing and the thickness of the structural elements in order to achieve a columnless space.

TRANCE

ALTERNATE EN

TE NA

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FORUM

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Constructional Section of Main Facade:

1. Roof space frame 2. 260mm steel tube 3. Sliding connection 4. perforated stainless steel sheet 5. 320/120 mm hollow-section steel 6. 200/ 80 mm steel rail 7. 50/ 60mm steel glass retainer 8. 16.8mm laminated safety glass + 16mm cavity + 10mm toughened glass 9. 10mm toughened glass + 16mm cavity + 16.8mm laminated safety glass 10. heating circuit steel tube 11. 80mm height adjustment bar

Circulation Circulation works around the free space formed by the main functions blocks. The main circulation spine meanders around the double cone, tower, premiere and forum from the entrance. The main entrance is located at the street front where the double cone is located. There are a total of 4 entrances in all directions of the building. The secondary circulatory paths branches off the meandering spine into the seperate functions.

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Program The Hall The Hall is where the exhibition and assembly occurs and is where the most used public space of the building. The Hall serves as the main circulation for the other functions. The Premiere The Premiere is where the the main purpose of the BMW Welt occurs, the delivery of cars. It also consists of the exclusive lounge and customers lounge.\ The Forum The Forum is a seperate event area that can house up to 1200 pax. It consists of associated shops, small conference rooms and theatres.

LEGENDS The Tower The Tower is the public interaction area. It includes restaurants, shops, junior campus and exhibition. The Double Cone The Double Cone is the event space coupled with exhiting function. It serves as the iconic element of the building.

PARKING

TECHNOLOGY CENTRE

DAILY CAR STORAGE

SHOPS / OFFICES

VEHICULAR PREPARATION

EXHIBITION / ASSEMBLY

FORUM / AUDITORIUM

RESTAURANT

JUNIOR CAMPUS

10 PREMIERE (CAR DELIVERY) 11 CUSTOMER LOUNGE 12 EXCLUSIVE LOUNGE 13 EXCLUSIVE DELIVERY 14 GROUP CENTRE 15 BRIEFING CENTRE 16 BRANDING ACADEMY 17 BUSINESS CENTRE FORUM 18 FORUM TERRACE

Precedent Critique

The following section consists of the precedent critique. Following the precedent analysis which was non-critical analysis of the different elements of typology, the critique is a way to identify the weakness in the examples and ways of improving them. It is a proactive way of anaylzing precedent and considering design methodologies.

BMW Welt Although the double cone express the dynamism of the mobility, the interior consists of an exuberance of differing geometries and formal expression. The simply expressed dynamism of the double cone is lost in the interior with the chaotic combinations of curves and non orthogonal expression. The project could benefit from the same juxtaposition of rectilinear and curves as the Audi Lighthouse Terminal project.

line of demarcation

Lexus Showroom The very concept that defines the showroom space resulted in the insignificance of the wokshop and administration hub. The two projecting walls becomes lines of demarcation marking out and seperating the spaces. In order to integrate all the programs as a more complete whole, it is important to dilute the expression and physicality of these projecting walls whilst not encroaching the definition of the showroom.

South Dowling Drive

Audi Lighthouse Terminal It is the architectâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s intention for the showroom to act like stages for automobiles. These spaces are orientated towards South Dowling Drive and addressed to the passing cars. This finesse of this expression is affected by the solid block on the northern end. Not only did it intrude the display function of that showroom, it denies it the anti-gravitational expression of structure other showrooms had achieved.

Site Analysis

The following section consists of the site analysis. Research is carried out in terms of studying the existing masterplan. The analysis also includes studying existing context, the built form and material use. This section is a summary of the analysis which includes includes a series of explanatory diagrams illustrating several key points.

Cooper Placev

O’Dea Avenue

South Dowling Street

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Airia Apartments

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Audi Lighthouse

Nest Apartments

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Central Central Park Apartments Lighthouse 13 9Eco Nest Lighthouse 2 AudiPark Apartments 26 Audi

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Nova Apartments Nova Apartments Apartments 14 10Arc Apartments Apartments 3 ESP 37 ESP Prominence Apartments

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Tote Park

South Park 12 8Centric Site AiriaApartments Apartments 15 Proposed

Form Apartments

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Central Park

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Nova Apartments

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Form Apartments

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Site The site is located in the corner of South Dowling Street and O’Dea Avenue. It is part of the Victoria Park precinct which consists mostly of residential development. There are three main open spaces namely Central Park, South Park and Tote Park. The site is chosen on the merit that South Dowling Street is one of the busiest street in Sydney and will receive great amount of exposure. Zetland is also an area where many other showrooms are located.

E G E N D

Proposed Site

1 Propos Airia Apartments

Audi Lighthouse

2 Audi L Nest Apartments

ESP Apartments

3 ESP Ap Prominence Apartments

Form Apartments

Tote Park

South Park

5 South Centric Apartments

Central Park

6 Centra Eco Apartments

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Form A 42

3 4 6 5 7

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Airia Apartments

Nest Apartments

Prominence Apartments

E G E N D

Proposed Site

1 Proposed Site Airia Apartments

Airia Apartments

Audi Lighthouse

2 Audi Lighthouse Nest Apartments

Nest Apartments

ESP Apartments

4 Form Apartments 11 Tote ESP Apartments 10 Prominence Apartments Prominence 3Apartments

Form Apartments

Tote Park

South Park

5 South Park Centric Apartments

Central Park

6 Central Park Eco Apartments

Nova Apartments

7 Nova Apartments 14 Arc Apartments Arc Apartments 7 Nova Apartments

E G E N D

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Audi Lighthouse ESP Apartments

Form Apartments

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Commercial Uses - High Visibility / Noise Frontage

South Dowling Street

Allows for Future Links Potential Future Landscape Links on Site

Commercial Strip Acts As Acoustic Barrier

Links to Moore Park

Civic Space Accomodates Future Links

Civic Space Central Open Space Focus

Future Extension of Roads and Open Space Network to South

Central Park

South Park

Links to Future Extension Tote Park

Link Green Spaces Through Site

Integrate with Existing / Future Road

Possible Extension to E-W Link

Signalized

Future Link to Waterloo Park

Possible Future Road Extension

O’Dea Avenue

Allows for Future Links

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on Av enue

Link to Mary O’Brien Reserve

Site Overview

Landscape Continuation

Traffic

The site is located along the busy highway South Dowling Street. The masterplan stated that the strip fronting this highway is to act as a acoustic barrier to block out noise to the residential development. The highway frontage is delegated as commercial spaces with showroom as the recommended program because of high visibility. The site is set up in a way as to allow for future extension to the South.

Victoria Park is planned for landscaped area to continue throughout the site. At the same time it is planned for future extension into new Southern development. Central is the central open space which the other two open areas branches off. There is a possibility to continue the gesture of the masterplan by extending green landscaped area through the site proper.

The only periphery signalized entry to the site is located on the intersection of O’Dea Avenue and Delfries Avenue. There is a direct entry from South Downling Street in the form of Cooper Place. The roads are designed for flexibility of extension to the South to the future E-W Link.

to UNSW to City

Future E-W Link Open Spaces Residential

Existing Public Transport

Primary Streets

Commercial / Mixed Use

Future Public Transport

Local Streets

Retail

Shared Way

Activity Strip

to Redfern

Possible Bus Stop Location

to Green Square

Land Use

Access

Public Transport

The site is mainly residential development. The commercial/ mixed used areas are located along the highway. A future civic or public space is planned in the North of the site. It is therefore important to consider how any furture development on the site proper should intergrate with this. Another significant aspect is the activity strip which is located along part of Delfries and Gadigal Avenue.

There are three primary access streets which are Cooper Place, Delfries Avenue and Gadigal Avenue. All the other local street branches off these main streets. Gadigal Avenue connects Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Dea Avenue through the site to Joyton Avenue in the West. The only shared way is Leyland Street which cuts through the Centric Apartments.

The existing bus route travels along the periphery of the site. There are two routes, the North-South routes connects the city to the surburban areas and the East- West link goes to Redfern and UNSW. There are plans to extend the bus routes through the site. The Green Square train station is within 1km from Victoria Park.

Site Interpretation

The following section consists of the site interpretation. This is carried out after the site analysis. It is a different approach to interpreting the site. The site interpretation is a conceptual approach to analyzing the site which maps out â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;contextual forcesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; of the site in order to generate a design. It re-invents site mapping by including relevant subjects to the typology of the design.

Conceptual Framework

Scale

Roads, traffic, instersection are tightly bound to conceiving a car. Cars have to deal with these issues, likewise, a design associated to cars should exhibit the same. In the conceptual framework, connecting lines are drawn from intersection on the periphery of the site that cuts through the site. This forms the initial conceptual framework that shapes and generates the design

There are two sets of perpendicular change of scales to consider. One from the highway to the pedestrian; the other from the main road to the main street. Crossing of the two forms a gradient diagram illustrating the apex of the scalar diagram located in the corner of South Dowling Street and Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Dea Avenue.

Frontages

Noise

Every site has different frontages. The design has to deal with the vastly different frontages of the site chosen. The frontages of Cooper Place and South Downling deals with commercial aspect of ‘promotion’ and ‘competition’. The frontage facing Delfries Avenue has to address the human aspect of the residential development. The frontage of O’Dea Avenue address the stark change from new development to old industrial buildings.

As analyzed in the preliminary site analysis, there are clear indication that there would be noise problems associated not only to the highway but also from O’Dea Avenue. The design therefore has to deal with such issues and act as a buffer for the rest of the site and also for more intimate programs of the design.

Natural Landscape Slope

Site Axis

In order to intergrate the design into the site, it is important to consider the topography of the site. There is a 3m drop from the North East corner of the site the the South West. This creates a chance for the design to create an open space using the natural slope that serves the future civic space located West of it.

Apart from the conventional understanding of the site axis, the interpretation extends to include residue forces of these axis. The abruptly ended East West axis of Wesley Grive is imagined to extend out cutting the site. The majestic curve of Gadigal Avenue is imagined to reflect itself from it and deflect itself onto the site.

Torsion

Velocity

Torsion refers to the intense tension applied to the roads by the abrupt change of velocity of traffic. The two in question are the Cooper Place-South Dowling intersection and Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Dea-South Dowling intersection. The first being the change from highway velocity to local street velocity, the other is a signalized intersection stopping the flow and ending the highway.

The velocity diagram maps out the velocity of the South Dowling Street. It uses studies done on the traffic condition and observation on site visit to map out a planimetric interpretation to these datas. Two sets of information from two directions are overlayed into one to form the diagram. This will be used to generate the facade solution facing South Downling.

Sketches

The following section consists of selected hand drawn sketches done in the personal design sketch book. It consists of sketches done throughout different stages of the research studio. Although they are presented in a chronological order from the time which they are drawn, they are not meant to be read as a whole or in any sequence but as a way to capture different fragments of ideas considered and explored.

The initial concept is to explore the concept of a courtyard typology that is pervasive in the architecture in Victoria Park. The U-shaped form reflects the building addressing the different frontages of the site. The idea of repetition and duplication is explored dealing with both the concepts of ‘mass production’ and ‘mass consumerism’.

Initial exploration of possible program provokes the possiblity for green farming to be integrated as part of the design. It is idealized as a box lifted up to allow visual connection to the showroom yet allowing the green farming to shaped the image of the brand.

After analyzing the different precedents of automotive showrooms, I questioned if a showroom should be a built form instilled with dynamism or should it be of regular form endowed with subtle notes of organism and dynamism.

The idea of the showroom as a stage is explored. Multiple planimetric diagrams are overlapped to illustrate how it brings about a sense of mobilit. Circular platforms are conceived as stages where the cars are displayed.

The conceptual framework is superimposed to draw out limitation to the ground floor plan. The form is sensitive to the change of scale from the highway to pedestrianized streets. It is from this diagram that further development is proceeded.

Similar to the diagram before, however this one explores the possiblity of introducing a ramp through the centre of the building thus concealing it. After studying Audi Lighthouse, it is foreseen that in a multistorey automotive showroom that the ramp is an important element to get right from the start.

The facade is conceieved as a skin. The contextual forces pushes against this skin transforming it into a continuous folded plan form by the planimetric contours lines.

The two illustrations show how the twisting of plan would look like. Two tubes run along the facade which contained the circular platforms. â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Tension-freeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; horizonal is thought to run along the facade and highway exuding speed and movement.

The planimetric diagram shows how the ramp could be incorporated in the centre of the building. The idea of wrapping the ramp around the lift forms a space which could be utilized for services. This is the base plan in which the two element twist.

A section sketch showing how the ramp is inserted into the building. It dissects different floorplates forming different spaces of difference heights. The idea of the movement of the car shaping the interior is played out in this section.

Here are some sketch diagrams exploring different options of articulating the placement and shape of the ramp. There was consideration breaking away the rough edges of turn of the ramp with smoother transission of curving ramps.

This sketch explores the potential of different material and facade option. Questions asked at this point: How to use structure to emphasize the horizontals? How to manipulate image of brand through a building like that? There is a possibility of using green belt to emphasize the horizontal whilst using large span steel element to express the innovative engineering aspect of BMW.

Studies were done on the are needed for displaying of cars. Initial measurements are based on the idea that the circular (in this case eliptical) platforms form the main display area. It is also dependent on the sizing of the ramp. Therefore, the scale and form of the building is directly affected by different elements related to automotive.

The initial idea of the showroom as noise barrier is illustrated in these images. It is conceived that the noise barrier continues from the facade skin of the building wrapping along the site. There was consideration of utilizing this barrier as a tube that becomes the ‘premiere’ car delivery program of the BMW Kolben.

The idea of forming organic and dynamic curves without using curve elements is shown in this perspective of an conceived interior of the ‘premiere’. Steel elements can be used to form a spiralling interior which expresses speed and movement through the tunnel.

Attempts are made to thinking about the movement of the floorplates in more than one direction. Using the constraints of the site intepretation, several options was tried out and conceptualized. This involves sliding floorplates, twisting at different angles and scaling of forms.

Question was asked like before, should the reverse happen? Should the exterior form be a dynamic skin that wraps around a relatively more regular interior space akin to the dynamics of a car with the skin playing no direct relations to its interior. Here it is conceived that two element twists and wraps around a interior box.

Instead of a continuous skin, it is considered possible to break it up with a stratification of horizontal forms. Does this express the movement and dynamism of the built form more than a continuous skin?

At this point, I decided to take another approach and re-interrogate the site interpretation I did. The first diagram illustrate the drawing of ‘imaginary’ contextual forces of the site to shape the built form. Other consideration was considered to integrate the building more into the site than having a single sculptural element on the site. The ramp is removed from the core of the building, thereby allowing the building to be more slender and expressively more akin to a acoustic barrier.

The section shows the main body of the building seperated from the atrium like display space facing the highway. The ‘premiere’ is attached to the the skin and becomes a continuous element wrapping around the curve of the site. There is a 3m drop from the highway to the pedestrianized street, thus there is a possibility of allowing the ground plan to become the public plane.

.The pragmatic becomes expressive The expressive becomes pragmatic Walls become ceilings Ceilings become walls Structure becomes surface Surface becomes structure

Here’s a section illustrating the tube like ‘premiere’ delivery program acting as not only a vehicle transfer route but also become the ceiling of the area below. The idea of multivalency relates back to automotive design where skin is both expressive and functional. Protective and aesthetic driven. In a way different elements here works in the same way. Walls become ceiling which wraps up to become the floor for the platform above. Pratical element acting as the ‘premiere’ becomes a light well to allow daylight to penetrate at the same time becomes a expressive element of both the interior and the exterior.

These sketches explores the idea of the structure being the subject of spectacle. It is imagined that the drum consisting of the circular ramps could become the iconic element of the building. Different ways of articulating the structural diagrid is explored. The drum is both removed visually from the rest of the building and continued physically from the facade of the building.

The frontage facing the highway provokes an interesting question; whether it should be expressive and spectacular to express the product it is housing, or should it be minimum and transparent to best display the products. This will be a continuous question asked along the design process to make sure the priorities are right when conceiving the design.

Conceptual Design

The following section consists of the conceptual design that is result of the accumulation of all the studies and consideration carried prior to it. It is by no means final interpretation of the myriad information collected. It forms the basis in which different design approach could be tested out upon.

Site Overview from South Dowling Street

Site Overview (Delfries Avenue)

‘Premiere’ Car Delivery Tunnel

Underground Technology Centre

Exploded Axonometric (South Dowling Street)

Exploded Axonometric (Delfries Avenue)

Site Plan

Site Plan (Vehicular Access)

Site Plan (Pedestrian Access)

Site Plan (Building Entry)

Underground Level Plan

Underground Level Plan (Circulation)

Ground Level Plan

Ground Level Plan (Circulation)

Ground Level Plan (Vehicular Access)

Level 1 Plan

Level 1 Plan (Circulation)

Level 2 Plan

Level 3 Plan

Level 4 Plan

Level 5 Plan

Level 6 Plan

Level 7 Plan

Sectional Perspective