Vincent Pu Zhang - BIG NOISE BALLOCH
The project identified four main areas to focus on in response to the client, users and public: 1) Tackling spiritual crisis, bringing faith and spiritual fulfilment. 2) Developing a sense of identification and personal identity. 3) ‘Retreat but advance’, putting art at the service of society and making it more accessible rather than for just elite people. 4) Encouraging equality and inclusivity, adaptable to any background, class and culture. Findings show that Balloch has acted as a place of transit, in-between and boundary. The design is set out to reflect this significant piece of history of the site, the pier, embodying a line through which the highland boundary fault passes, separating two distinct tectonic terrains, the highlands and lowlands, a line on which the old railways used to sit to reach the steam- boats, bridging the two. The masterplan and the design of this music centre is committed to embodying and emphasising this direction, as we call it, the sacred journey. This project investigates and experiments the use of carbon fibre for building structure in an alternative scenario. Learning the consequences, it explores both the possibilities and impracticalities of this material, developing and projecting a thesis, or an antithesis.
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