There are certain rules in the world, in the universe, stars are following a certain rule of movement. In an electric wire, the electron are following a certain rule of movement. In Grand Central terminal of New York City, people are walking  in a certain path, too. The travelers are exploring around, and the busy person are rushing straight into the terminals. In the project, i am focusing on the various stream of people and their movement. The main aim is to invite  and join those two groups of people, but at the same time not interrupting their original path. The Story Booth, where one or more people can share their stories, brings people together. This project is based on this concept and create my own story booth.

I started my project with observation in Grand Central Terminal. Through the  observation, I found two main groups of people- the rusher and the explorer. The conceptual models are created based on these two kinds of people.

 

 

Conceptual Model 1

   In the first model, the abnormal triangle shaped panels represent the busy person who want to go straight to the terminals. And the the curve battens represent the travelers who usually disturb the formers walk.

Conceptual Model 2

   The second model shows how people are joined and separated by the entrance and the gate. The middle point is where the gate locates. When people go through there, they are joined. When they leave there, they get separated again.

Conceptual Model 2

   This model is based on the sound. Sounds inside and outside of the Grand Central are overlapped on each other.

  Based on these conceptual models, I created my first model. I adopted the geometry shape that I used in the conceptual models. I was interested how light appear on the model.

   In the next step of this project. The construction, material and the function of space are my main concern. I focused more on the open space than the close space ( which is the story booth). The open space is for cafeteria, performing space, book store, information area and cashiers. I seperate the model to two floors. The first floor is where the cafeteria, book store, information area, cashier and one Story Booth located. There is a balcony between second and first floor, the whole balcony is for the performance area. The second floor has two story booths and offices.

   There are two staircases connected to the second floor. One in the front for enter and one in the back for exit. The only stair case to the balcony is on the second floor, for the purpose of exploring. The performance on the balcony can attracted people to there, and they found there is no way to there on the first floor, so they have to go to second floor. This seems to be like forcing people to go a certain way, but actually bring them to a great view both on the stair and second floor. The front staircase are supported by several pillars on one side. Between the pillars, there are glass panels. Thus, the space under this stair is actually a semi-close space, this space is for information area and cashier.

Front Stair

Second Floor

Second floor Story Booth

Balcony-Performance Area

Back side of the main wall

   About the material, the main material of this architecture is wood. Wood is light and easy for modeling. The black part on the back side of the main wall is felt, because felt is a good sound-absorbing material. All the Story Booths have double glass walls with air in between for also the purpose of sound absorb.

  The following are detailed hand drawn plans.

First Floor Plan

Second Floor Plan

Long Section

Short Section 1

Short Section 2