Interventions in interview rooms

One of the main problems identified in our analysis is the sense of confinement within the interview rooms, in which clients are likely to spend between 1 to 2 hours, before which they might attend a group session for a further hour. The majority of interview rooms have no natural daylight. We have drawn inspiration from the works of Dan Flavin and James Turrell to experiment with different lighting compositions, to create an illusion of expanded space and openess. We feel that it is imperative to address the cramped conditions of these interview rooms to truly make an improvement to clients' experiences of the centre.

"The Light Inside" James Turrell

OMA Serpentine Pavilion 2006

Thinking back to OMA's Serpentine Pavilion, the seating arrangement was extremely flexible and free, allowing for the user to make use of the foam blocks as they please during seminars and talks. In this particular photo, someone is actaully eating his lunch off a foam block (demonstrating the full versatility of the system!). The material choice of foam has potential to be transferred into the probation centre waiting area, it is low-cost, lightweight, and somewhat malleable, reducing the possible danger of causing physical harm to others.

Bishopsfield Housing Facade, Essex, 1994

The repair and modernisation of existing 1960's public housing blocks originally designed by Neylan and Ungless Architects. The functions of the window have been deconstructed and form separate elements of the façade, ie. views, ventilation, shading are split between the various panel types on the complex curtain wall.

It is an example of how function dictates the splitting up of the facade, something which is particularly relevant to my current design direction.

Immovable furniture

Thomas Heatherwick's interior for Longchamp, New York.

The installation of the staircase makes fluid transitions between wall, staircase and floor. Currently the seating in the waiting room is bolted to the floor, for reasons of safety, preventing the throwing of furniture. The concept behind Heatherwick's stair as a more sensitive solution to immovable seating as usage and configuration also becomes more verstatile, giving clients the option to make decisions about where they sit or how they occupy the space instead of this being dictated.

Further Façade ideas

Split-flap display in rotation:

Solari departure board at Gare du Nord, Paris:

Split flap display section:

Split-flap displays are a great example of a mechanical method of data display, the pixel of the analogue age. It would be interesting to combine the mechanical action of the flap display with a digital element of interaction e.g. what if the façade were to transform in synchronisation with your movements. The "flap-pixels" can allow for a multitude of combinations of alphanumeric/graphical displays. Transparency can be achieved by installing transparent flaps throughout, a software script would need to be devised to determine the visual output.

Existing Facade

The existing facade to the probation centre's waiting room. Opaque glass fronted to obscure views in and out of the waiting room, giving privacy to clients inside, however preventing any views out. Lou suggested we take a look at the new Biochemistry building by Hawkins/Brown near the Pitt River's museum to see how they dealt with privacy and shading issues.

Hawkins/Brown incorporated Rorschach patterns into the glass to add transparency to the otherwise opaque glass façade. The link between Biochemistry and Rorschach patterns is a mystery to me but the building was received to quite some success as it won a RIBA award in 2009.

Façade ideas

Digital billboards are fast replacing/have replaced the tri-vision billboard, heralding big brands such as these for the digital age. Although the potential for digital billboards is virtually limitless, most tend to show the same few adverts as their mechanical predecessors i.e. data output remains the same. Maybe call it futureproofing.

The relationship between billboard and brand is identifiable to everyone and could be curiously explored by way of Oxford Probation Service as Brand. The mechanical action of each rotation always evokes a sense of yearning and anticipation from the viewer in a borderline hypnotic fashion, often turning to display a vacuous marketing directive/political incentive that often makes watching the mechanical action far more appealing than seeing the uniform whole. The juxtaposition of posters contrasting in implication could be used in a very provocative manner, or a success-story narrative could reside on the rotating pillars. Messages could be changed on a regular basis, although the laborious method of application perhaps needs to be developed.

The following artists have taken the billboard as object and attempted to embody it with meaning beyond that of the superficial.

Jennifer Marmant & Daniel Borins "In Sit You" 2006

Michael Elmgreen & Ingar Dragset "This Place Can't Be Yours" 2006

The collaboration between Levi's and artist Stefan Sagmeister is a reinterpretation of the trivision billboard.

The notion of facade as data projection, shelter, brise soleil is I believe, systematically close to that of billboards, which do indeed project data and can easily be reimagined as brise soleil. And thoughtful extrusion in the third dimension could possibly provide an element of shelter...