“Choreographers and architects often say that dance and architecture share the same concern, and the shared concern is space; dancing bodies and the architectural built environment manipulate space.”
(PRASADA, De Montfort University and the Centre for Dance Research, Roehampton University. (2006). Dance, architecture, spatiality: Dance – space – architecture. Retrieved August 16, 2010, from http://humanitieslab.stanford.edu/49/75)
This project will be examining the connections between dance and architecture, generating a performance space in the existing site. The design will explore the relationship of the inside and the outside, heightening the building and it’s surrounding environment, and allowing the community to form an experience with the past and present of the site. By pushing the performance of dance outside the traditional theatre space into a public realm, invites passer-bys to come across the performance piece and become audience members or ‘participant observers’. This direct interaction formed with the public encourages the audience to physically experience the site along with the dancers.
Light will be a primary element, functioning as a visible guide that will draw the visitors to and through the building. The choreography of light and movement evokes a feeling of letting the outside in and the inside out.
Site
The Prague Crossroads, formerly St. Anna’s Church, situated in the capital of the Czech Republic, Prague. St. Anna's is an important landmark in the cultural heritage of Prague and is a protected building.
“Prague stands at the crossroads of history, where past and present converge.”
- Vaclav Havel, President of the Czech Republic
(Splarn. H. (2006). Journeys to Glory...Prague. Reality Magazine, 19. Retrieved September 1, 2010, from http://www.sol.com.au/kor/19_02.htm)
Program
The time, the place, the socio-cultural setting, the dancers, the audience – all are factors which influence the making and performing of dance.
Dance is communal; when the audience participates, together it is in a position to strengthen communities experience even more of the site and the act of dancing. By following the dancers and moving within the environment with the dancers, it entices the audience to feel physically and emotionally invested in the piece, as well as being more aware of their role in the site and creating an understanding of the community. There is a process of rediscovery, where the spectator questions their previous perceptions of the site and develops more consideration about their connection to the space.
By utilizing multi-levels with stairs and ramps, it is not only enlarging the space and quality of events, but also slowing down one’s movements through the space and occupying the visitors with denser experiences.
The following various spaces should be considered:
_The public (front of house)
_The audience (performance space/s)
_The technicians (back of house: technical zones)
_The performers (stage/s: dressing rooms etc.)
Project Requirements
_Evidence of research and of making in response to this; evidence of a process, a body of work developed from week 1 to final week is to be displayed at your desk during the project.
_Images + plans, sections or sectional perspectives, and details [parti plans, sections/ scaled drawings @ 1:500,200,100,50,20,5,1] of your intervention in Prague Crossroads, formerly St Anna’s Church, Prague.
_Establishing how the intervention structures the building in relation to the spatial idea and program; inhabitation, intention, how bodies engage with the space.
_To be digitally archived in a concise manner and placed in the 352studio dropbox and uploaded as a PDF or Powerpoint to stream, making sure you compile to the SD file naming standards.
Learning Objectives
_Research and investigate theatre architecture.
_Develop a spatial language into an existing site; integrating materiality, construction, structure and theoretical concerns.
_Advance an understanding of involved and varied programs and space.
_Express and present your intervention through a variety of means and media with a high level of craft and in a way which extends the spatial language in the mode of representation itself.
Assessment
_Richly researches; site, program, planning, performance design and spatial typologies and translate these into spatial designs.
_Makes evident a strong and cohesive design process which shows development from an initial spatial idea to a developed scheme, and through details, materiality, construction/structure, planning and program.
_Method of expression of the project, which is related to, derived from the found text, spatial idea and program, which is convincing, evocative and well crafted.
_Evidence of research and makings at your workspace in studio.
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