SPACE

Considering the reading that went with this brief, about considering the feeling of a place, and based on my Thrashold design of bringing people together, I have chosen my space as the corridors. These spaces make the individual feel like they are on forced pathways. Where they are trapped by this movement of people and rushed to continue onwards where this especially happens downstairs. The red paint on the wall emphasises the need for students to be quick and hasten their steep. It almost feels like being forced to do something, go somewhere or make decisions because one chose the wrong path. There is even a tunnel effect with some of the main doorways, and its always trying to reach that destination.


You are continuously walking past the people around you, never stopping to greet people, or to simply pause, even when the corridors aren't empty. They feel like they should not be occupied. In the upper levels, red is not used, however their are black walls that are either rounded (usually near the atrium) that guide a smoother path for the individual, or harsh angular walls that force a decision out of you once you have become entangled in the labyrinth of corridors. The corridors even look the same. More than once you get the feeling that you have walked down this path before.




I would like to create an intervention that encourages (not forces) people in the corridors to pause, to feel the need to stop, and maybe even go against the flow. In the majority of the corridors (especially downstairs because of the large number of students)people even walk on one side of the corridor, like they drive down a road, driving past friends and stranger alike.

This intervention would ultimately bring people together. For them to stop, chat, and observe with other people, creating chance opportunities to bump into people whom you haven't seen for a while or make new friends. In the downstairs area, students are almost encouraged to move faster, but why? So students can get from one lecture to the next, so they can stick to their routine? Why not create an intervention in this building which just from the exterior view imposes the idea of power and leaders of the future, and make them take a breather. An intervention to bring them closer as their hierarchies are significantly split.

The grand atrium makes one feel small, insignificant and not apart of the building when looking up from the bottom of the stairs. This is because of the height of the building, the fact that i am a student, not a lecturer or tutor, and that I can't reach those stairs that would propel me to those higher levels. This is part of the hierarchy that needs to be broken.

From here I will video camera each of the corridors at different time periods to monitor the flow of people and to analyse why some people (very few) choose to stop, considering how i can bring people together.