Power on Space
BRIDGE 1
Description
In Bridge 1 we focused on rethinking spaces that we often, subconsciously, associate with feelings. Working on groups allowed us to develop the imposition of design vs. our expectations and purpose on the environment. The group of four helped on making everyone the field in which they were good at and had more skills.
The process of presentation had to be made by a visual board, a compilation of sketches, material research, technical drawings, and maquette. Every decision we made as a group had to be focused on our concept: power. The implementation of it was based on a big open area interrupted by a monumental sculpture. Throughout the project, we had to have in mind that our individual expectations of the space had to be equal as everyone else’s as our design of the space and its function was primarily a space that evoked power.
From the start, we wanted to make our sculpture interactive with the public. Making a sculpture that is bigger than two floors would noticeably make the spectator feel very little or insignificant, then there’s where the idea of building a fist and a face emerged. Knowing that the scale of the sculpture was going to be big, we decided to make stairs attached to the fist. Getting to that high wasn’t only to feel accomplished, powerful, and skillful by the adrenaline of climbing around six-floor, it would also allow the spectator to look directly to the eyes of the face, which would look right back to him.
We took inspiration from ancient temples when designing the spiral stairs. Almost on every temple, extremely long stairs were placed before reaching the temple, usually, the main entrance opposing the stairs. We wanted to replicate this rigorous journey which inspired us to just rely on stairs to get to the top. We wanted the sculpture of the space had to resemble a human, yet had to be androgenous and lack of a human skin tone as both of those factors could mislead the spectator from the real purpose of the space. The distance between the hand and the head is enough for the spectator’s vision of a big empty atmosphere.
My responsibility in the group was to make the 3D model of the sculpture in the space, to scale. Then measure the radios of the main part of the face made out of styrofoam and the hand that was made out of would, the measurements had to be accurate as the orthographic sketches had to represent the real, proportionate height in a 2d sketch.
Reflection:
Designing a space that evoked power, acknowledging the materials, dimensions, and how society would react to it, taught me a lot of things. On this project, I had to make sure communication between the members was equal, in a way everyone on each other even though the process of developing each part of the space was completely different. The research on materials and the measurements of the technical drawings relied on what materials, colors and the height of each element on the model, while the mood board had to be visually synchronized with the sketches. This taught us a group to solve problems while others gave ideas. Throughout the project, I learned the different skills everyone possed, some of them were related to their major while others such as being organized or perfectionist came when we sat all together to check on each other, rather than a group we had to be a team. The challenges we had to face as a group was to fit time on every schedule of us, in order to meet and catch up in every element of each’s work. Because of our classes scheduling the reunion for Sunday gave everyone the chance to work at the same rate but on their own time.
