architecture as a celebration of the product of its function
REGENT ROAD ART & GRAPHIC DESIGN SCHOOL, SEA POINT
3rd Year BAS
initial concept sketches
Enrich social dynamics
Mapping exercises of Regent Road, Sea Point, provided an in depth analysis of the area. This revealed social imbalance, with street users consisting predominantly of adults and senior adults. The choice of site was influenced by the objective to enliven the day and night life of Regent Road to attract a diverse range of users of varying ages and intentions for using the street. The street lacks buildings that serve an educational function. The introduction of an art and graphic design school with student accommodation creates a hub of idea sharing, discussion and inspiration, as well as an attraction of youth into the area, creating a more balanced social structure.
Orientation and Identification
A further mapping exercise on the use of signage in Regent Road showed that signs were necessary in order for the majority of street users to locate themselves in the street. The area therefore requires the creation of a sense of orientation and location through the introduction of a central node of interaction and stimulation.
Blurring boundaries between building and street
An important design intention was to have the street enter the building and this was achieved by carving out the lower levels of the building, allowing an extension of the street to cross its boundaries. The space created at this blurred boundary encourages pedestrian pause and engagement.This is further supported by the intention that the building should share with the street - the architecture is a celebration of its function. The design of a bar and restaurant at street level encourages public interaction with the artwork produced within the building. This is maximised through the use of a projection screen and art display area forms perpendicular street with its nature of easy access. The screen, creating a vertical connection between the public space and the school, displays work produced by the art and graphic design students and becomes an expressive system for the building that is used to tell a story about activity and mood to the public. Its constantly evolving facade gives the building an unpredictable nature, offering surprise and delight to street users. It transforms the building into a beacon, providing an important mode of 'way finding' in the street.
The building aesthetic correlates with its function, inspired by compositional cues from art and graphic design. This is achieved through use of structure and choice of materials. Sustainable technologies are integrated into the design, particularly through the double skin system, where design intent and sustainability are synthesised.
Residential Floors
Studio spaces were treated as blank canvases. The spaces have an industrial quality with screed flooring and bare concrete walls, allowing for a focus on the light quality diffused through the polycarbonate skin. These spaces could be brought to life by wall murals created by students of the school. In areas where a more intimate, liveable atmosphere is needed, laminate timber flooring is laid and timber cladding is added to some walls, providing a contrast between the stark concrete and wa
The glass box on the north east side of the site called for a contrasting architectural expression through a lighter structural system. This was achieved through the use of steel column and beam construction. Emphasis was on creating a light, delicate glass structure that stood in strong contrast with the vast amount of concrete opposite it, seen clearly in the Regent Road elevation. This was done through structural glass assembly. 1000mm wide structural glass panels are butt jointed together
Ground Floor The building consists of two important structures, one a concrete column, beam and slab construction, largely in filled with glazing and wrapped with a polycarbonate double skin system and another steel structure supporting a structural glass box constructed on a pre cast concrete slab. The difference between these two structures is most noticeable in the elevation of the lower levels where a dense concrete plane sits opposite a delicate glass structure.
