Space and Materiality: Inhabited Space Project

The aim of this project was to build a model for an outdoor recreational activity for a community. One important function of this was to create a rainwater rooftop for the building.

We were asked to build this model by keeping a place in mind. I decided to build something near my community back in India. There are a lot of dance classes and dancers where I live. I used to be a part of it too. However, we didn’t have a place to showcase our talents. We use to have one indoor hall where we did our performances but recently it has been shut down.Therefore, I decided to create an outdoor dance theatre for dancers from different dance classes to come showcase their performance. A lot of people in this urban community are interested in performing arts. Constructing this would bring together people and get them involved in cultural activities like music, dance or art. Building it near a park where a lot of people come for recreation would attract more people.

We started off by learning how to use the drill and creating mechanical connections to join sheet metal, plexiglass and wood. We all had to create one cube to practice these skills.

This was followed by creating a color palette for our designs:

Later we created cardboard mockups of our designs. Below are pictures of the process:

I decided to build the rainwater rooftop collecting by building inverted pyramid like structures that would connect to the walls of the building that are green walls. The water that is collected will be used on the green walls and the floral floors on the sides. It will also be used on the water walls that serve as a background for the stage.The interiors would consist of a stage and rows of seats for people to sit.

After building the model we had to draw a two-point perspective drawing of our model and add patterns to it.

I decided to make the roof transparent red so that when light enters through it, red light reflects on the interiors and acts like spotlight. I decided to change the background of the exterior and the ground later. This was because the ground pattern looked to zoomed in and the exterior is too simple and I decided to use bricks instead.Patterns of water droplets were used to show moving water and a different variety of grass patterns were used on walls and the bottom. I also added a red and gold mango shaped pattern which is called ‘kairi’ in Hindi. It is a pattern that is a very common Indian motif used in their dresses and cultural designs.The color red used in several places connected the entire model.

Below is the in-process work of the model:

Making of the rooftop pyramids: These were laser cut and then connected with wire