Whitehall Waterfront

As I visited the site, I observed the material closely of my chosen building. The exterior wall looked like beige concrete bricks. The stairs leading to main entrance was made of steel and the door itself was made of black metal. In between the concrete wall outside, there is glass covering the majority of the building. The interior looked unfinished; the first floor has a wood floor that has been placed temporarily to allow builders to work in the space. The wall inside is not rendered and in consequence the grey bricks are still visible. There are still pipe lines visible that looks like they need to be covered. From observing, the first floor looks approximately three metres and a half, and the ground floor looked much taller with an estimation of about four metre. The first floor contained beams that looked like strong wood painted in pink. It is however the first floor that looks more unfinished compared to the ground floor.

The building is currently under renovation by an architecture company called Erdy Mchenry Architecture. Their world is apparent on the ground floor which is half occupied by a company. The finished part of the interior looks modern with a gentle finish. The waiting and reception area is fully furnished with white painted walls, with steel stairs on the left leading to the first floor. In the first floor there is a meeting room with modern furniture and the same theme was evident as the wall was also painted white. The mood was very calming and it felt relaxed, but the same thing could not be said t the majority of the interior. The other side of the building is still looking rough as mentioned above. The space all together is very spacious and more than big enough to carry my major project design. 

Concept Model

For this concept design I thought about the flow of the forms in the interior. I wanted the space to have that unplanned and organic feel to it, which reflect on African indigenous architecture as mentioned in previous posts. The images below are preliminary as a starter to the bigger picture.

Preliminary Ideas

I talked about sustainability in my dissertation, and how many vernacular African architecture are sustainable. The idea of sustainability has inspired me to look into organic forms, which are unplanned, and the forms looks almost accidental. This is something that is visible in African indigenous architecture. The forms and shapes look unplanned in which the scale is impossible to tell from first sight. I have used organic forms to inspire my interior structure which is only preliminary.

Site Analysis

Sun Path

You can see sun position at sunrise, specified time and sunset. The thin orange curve is the current sun trajectory, and the yellow area around is the variation of sun trajectories during the year. The closer a point is to the centre, the higher is the sun above the horizon. The colours on the time slider above show sunlight coverage during the day.

Concept

For this Design the Concept that would determine the interior form is rhythm. This concept comes from the purpose of the space itself, because am designing an African school of music, I thought rhythm is the perfect concept because every music has a rhythm, but this concept is not just about the rhythm in music but also a repeated pattern in terms of life in Africa. The concept of rhythm will look at natural forms and organic shapes, the way they flow together to create a rhythm. Traditional African architecture rarely consist of accurate planning and measurements, just like nature, it has an irregular rhythm that does not follow a particular pattern. This is the idea behind the concept and I would be looking at organic forms and shapes in a bid to use them as a structure for the interior that would reflect on Africans way of life. When talking about irregular and non particular pattern in African architecture, it is safe to also say this idea is reflected on daily lives of traditional Africans in particular. During a trip to Uganda, I realised that many people did not follow a particular time, they were almost never on time for any meeting or appointments, there was not much sense of urgency or hurry. People would just show up uninvited, sometimes even at 5 in the morning. This is a testimony to the concept and the space will look to reflect on this idea so that it can best relate, and beside if we want to look at music literally as a concept, we can also say that an instrument contains various pitch and sounds that create a rhythm, and similarly to this proposed concept, it should contain various aspect of African culture that creates a rhythm.

Inspiration

In order to determine my interior space, I have firstly looked at the basic things that would be needed in an African school of music and education. I have done a bubble diagram of the most important things, and maybe through the process certain things will change but this is a starter to come up with a conceptual design. 

Secondly I looked at different images for inspiration that will determine the movement in the space as well as maybe the aesthetic but the important thing is to create a space that respond to the culture it is intended to, and an interesting experience for those who are not African. The idea is to replicate an African environment in a contemporary way that does not exclude African values but rather compliments it contemporary. The images below have been carefully selected because they communicate a very special theme that runs in most traditional African blood. The sense of community and unity, people are always together and in that sense we can say that there is an element of honesty which should be reflected in the architecture. Africans like to be in a community with other Africans, maybe an interior with lots of walls will be the opposite of this idea, maybe the space most contain minimal walls which would allow that honesty in which everything is visible even in ones own space. These images were selected because they communicate the African values and are going to be a starter in gathering idea for the interior space.