statement

How is modern life transforming the way we experience, design, and perceive the spaces we inhabit? We live in an age in which the boundaries are disappearing.


For awhile now, new spaces /building are being erected in which private spaces are becoming public. Looking at Perry West by Richard Meier- This transparency opens its inhabitant’s lives to passerby’s and residents of nearby apartments but also helps bring the outside in for its residents. As we spend more and more time indoors our spaces are transforming and boundaries are blurring. There is specific intention to this seemingly open spaces- they are properly framed, controlled and cropping our views both inside and out. The views are constantly in flux as the cities moves beyond the glass faced. The space between inside and outside and public and private are blurred. These buildings both serve the masses by being architecturally open and serve the individual.

The Prada store in Soho is another example of public and private areas blurring in an environment, yet these two spaces are overlapped within the envelope of the building- both occurring of equal importance in the design as the store aims to sell their brand more then the clothes inside. In an age when retail stores must become an experience instead of “just a store to sell a product” retail environments are becoming Hybrid spaces which blur between retail, museum and pubic spaces. Defining a sense of place is no longer a stable experience- there is multiplicity and choice- how does this overlap, blur? Is it well orchestrated?

By combining and blurring the lines between public, private, display, retail, etc,. I ask if we are becoming more vague about defining our experiences in space, instead of taking a clear position about function, program, definition. Do we loose the experience by blurring the lines or are our senses, tastes, perceptions becoming more sophisticated? As consumers do we expect more from our clothing brand, our residence, our hotels and restaurants? Is a good product or service no longer enough to satisfy our sophisticated tastes and is this a result of the ever growing consumerism that exists around the world? Are our spaces becoming so dogmatic and evasive that it excludes, limits, separates and consumes us?

How do these spaces we inhabit differ from the outside environment. As I walked into the Prada store you are transferred into a completely different environment- what, if any, is its relationship to the exterior environment? Has site specifity disappeared? Can anything be built anywhere? Does the Prada relate and could this store be placed anywhere in the city, the country, or the world? There a shift- a preference to larger groupings of interrelated programs.
“ Achieve critical mass and define a self-contained comprehensive internal order and experience that can exist independently of its surrounding” ( The Synthetic City”).

How does this disjunction between dissociated/blurred programs and boundaries effect each other in architecture- does it create a clear edge? rub against each other, or is there tension between them? How does it enlighten our experiences? How does this refusal to crystallize program and purpose define form, architecture and design? These new spaces are about “expanding notions and denying boundaries… as opposed to separating and identifying entities”.

How do we experience these new unnamable hybrid spaces? We walk on the busy streets and become transformed as we walk through the thresholds of buildings. No matter if is a Starbucks, Prada store, Hotel, restaurant, etc. as soon as we walk through the threshold we are transported into a world defining brand and image desired by the company. What if this process or more gradual? Could we eliminate the harsh transformation through a well thought out threshold? When we enter a retail experience such as Prada what information are we looking for? Are we looking for clothes? Shoes? Or are we just passing through the space to experience an extension of the city streets? As we move through these spaces we are bombarded with the brand image – how can we better experience this through space? Although with high end design the desire is not for a ‘real’ public space – can we achieve a ‘more’ public space to help strengthen the brand? In such a world of consumerism what is the new retail experience? Can we place a public space within it? How about a hotel? Bar ? etc. .. all supported by the brand experience? Instead of bombarding the customer with the excess of images what if this push was more subtle ? what if the experience also informed the customer about the brand? Its history? Its story? As we become more sophisticated consumers, we want to know more about what we support? Buy? Etc.

I am looking to create a space that looks at all the above in an intelligent way- possibly choosing an already established company and rebranding their image into a new experience which combines not only their product (probably fashion), but also their image, history, philosophy and creating a space that can be enjoyed on many levels. Does this store become a boutique hotel? A bar? A public area?

For my storyboards I will explore the blurring and the edge between these hybrid environments through formal studies of special conditions.

Any comments and thoughts from Marc or the rest of the class would be appreciated and I am still a bit unsure how my storyboards will develop.