Hi all!
thought I’d just cut to the chase and put my thoughts out there, or I’d be pushing my pen around on the butterpaper forever.
Memory Bank
Memory creation: 1. Encode. 2. Store 3. Retrieve.
If ‘Melbourne’ had a Facebook that you could inhabit, what would it look like?
Why put a Memory Bank at the Cathedral?
Memorial plaques line the aisle walls – what if this ability to commemorate people/events in a respectful place was extended to Melbourne and her populace?
Even though the cathedral is a singular entity, St. Paul’s has a continually evolving identity. Architecturally/culturally/socially it is a ‘work in progress’. This applies to Melbourne as a whole. The cathedral can and should reassert its prominence by seeking to establish a repository for Melbourne’s collective experiences at the entrance to the CBD.
What exactly are you proposing to design? What are your de factos?
Close is transformed into the Memory Bank – a centre where people submit images and video recordings of their doings in and around Melbourne
. The collective audio-visual data will create a constantly evolving digital projection. While the on-display installation will be continually replenished with new footage to document the ‘now’, the ‘past’ will be digitally stored. When people wish to visit the Memory Bank to revisit old footage, the data can be retrieved and projected in the theatrettes that flank the main chamber. I envision people developing a relationship with this special place, like starting an ‘account’ with the Bank, wherein their footage can be stored and viewed for many years to come.
Small de facto could be the memory ‘booths’ - the recording apparatus/studio that would be sent out to any of the major events/festivals around the city. People record their feelings/reactions/attitudes at these festivals within/around these booths and then that data is sent back to the Mem Bank. The small de facto could even be a Smartphone app!
How are you architecturally realising this vision?
Partially submerging the Memory Bank underground so that it links with the Melbourne information centre across the road at Fed Square and to the future Metro underground = reinforce its position at the heart of the city for tourists and Melbournians alike.
Memory Bank = tapestry of our experiences. So maybe its materiality could take cue from the many textures around the cathedral and Fed Square?
Urban_est
Why?
Cathedral = place of refuge/sanctuary
Architecturally = fortified stone base and discrete openings close the Cathedral off from the public. How to make the place/institution more inviting/open to the public?
Nest = place that supports/protects/sustains.
So:
Reinvent the close as an urban ‘nest’ = a hub that welcomes, protects and cultivates people and their ideas. I've divided the purpose of a nest into two functions: cradle/cultivate and support/sustain.
What?
The advantage that
the close has over Fed Square is that it’s public space on a more intimate scale.
I propose to transform the close’s ground level into an outdoor amphitheatre that could ‘cradle’ public forums/performances. I see this as being the first level of the ‘nest’ in that it provides a great place for people’s ideas / talents to be nurtured, seen and heard.
Underground, the second layer of the nest will contain functions that support and sustain Melbournians. I’m quite vague at the moment about what will actually be housed there – whether it’s a soup kitchen or a café… any suggestions?
The satellite de factos are 2 or 3 nest ‘pods’ placed along Birrarung Marr. I envisage them being like large scale public furniture – like cubby houses that have various openings, providing different outlooks/vantage points. Ideally I'd position them so they view the cathedral spires. The small de facto therefore relates to the close by virtue of its function - a smaller scale object that provides shelter.
How?
Steven Holl’s Cite de la Surf and Thomas Heatherwick’s Blue Carpet piece providing interesting precedents for literally pulling the ground up so that it could ‘cradle’ an event.
CITÉ DE L'OCÉAN ET DU SURF - Steven Holl
Blue Carpet - Thomas Heatherwick
Also, I found a great little structure called the gucklhupf, designed by Hans Peter Worndl - an experimental pavilion that has a number of openings, allowing a variety of a spatial configurations. I'm using this as the guide for the satellite nests.
