Models

1:20 Sectional Model of Pier and Walkway underneath

I made this model with the intention to show both how people will interact with these 2 spaces but also show the concrete construction which makes up the parts of the building.

I have also drawn in the lights which are there to represent the old piles that held up the Coogee Pier. These lights will project straight up looking like ghostly piles and will contribute to the overall aesthetic of the walkway under the pier.


1:200 Model 

This is a close aerial view showing how well the buildings blend in with the landscape and the surrounding context.  


East Elevation   

This birds eye view shows the fluidity of the landscape and subtlety of the buildings with their flat roofs. 

In this photo I took out a section of my model so that the interior of the gym can be seen as well as the quality of light that permeates throughout the building from the skylights and the windows on the North and South side of the building. 

This is the section that I took out, it shows the ribbed ceiling and the height change that takes place on the left of the dividing wall in the middle.

In this photo you can see the extension that I made to the back of the grandstand, the walkway with the feature wall, the grandstand and pier as well as the other buildings on the right.

This is a clear view of the entrance showing how it aligns with the stairs of the pier. The contours of the landscape are also visible showing how they engulf the gym building.

East Elevation without Context

North Elevation showing the interior of the gym. 

View from the street.

Final Submission - Drawings

Introduction

My approach to this assignment is to use the history of the Coogee Pier and the experience of the beach to the new community centre. But more importantly when viewing an I found a photo of Coogee's famous amusement pier I paid close attention to the amount of people visiting the beach and the pier, its linear shape and the landscape that created a nice backdrop to this photo. These three ideas formed the basis of my design precedent towards the new communty centre.




Deriving the Final Plan

From left to right the 1st drawing shows an array of Parti plans that helped me finalise my design proposal. The first parti plan and the rendered one point perspective drawing of the grandstand below it inform the initial design precedent that began the development of my final scheme. The Parti plan presents some of the geometry whilst the perspective drawing captures the wave-like form of the existing Grandstand. The reason why I included this drawing is to represent the destructive winter waves of Coogee and therefore became the starting point in my search into using the "destruction and linear shape of Coogee Pier and the experience of the beach" as the core influence on my design proposal.

I used the next parti drawing to show all the lines that influenced the geometry of where the major walls were placed and what views would be most important. The thickest lines indicate these two themes. All these lines were influenced by the linear shape of the Pier.

The third drawing indicates the final shapes of all solids and viods. The darker shade of grey shows parts of the buildings that are deeper within the ground. This drawing also helped me realise the two main pathways created, one was the entrance and the other is the route to the multi-purpose rooms under the pier and the change rooms at the back of the grandstand.

The last drawing shows all the contours of the grass hills and overall landscape that will be produced for the new site and engulf the new buildings further exploring the idea of Reciprocity as the dominance of landscape or nature over architecture and Threshold where an area of movement or change is introduced.

The first drawing on the 2nd page is the final plan at 1:100 showing my resolution to the brief in the placement of the different areas required for the day to day activities of the community centre. It also shows the final shape and where the influence to this shape came from with the use of an image taken in 1928 of Coogee Pier laid out in the same way as its linear shape and a 1:500 site plan that has the Pier drawn in with projection lines towards the plan as if to suggest its importance on the overall shape and scheme of the new community centre.

The overall schemes is made of 3 buildings with an extension to the back of the Grandstand. From top to bottom ,in the plan view, there is the Community kitchen placed near the entrance for its easy access to the public, the gym and the administration area. The first building to the south is the cafe with its open outdoor area and all multipurpose rooms are next to cafe. Behind the Grandstand I placed the workshop and its associated storage and on the level above is the change rooms, rub down rooms with access to the main stairs of the Grandstand that allow the players to walk down and along the pier to reach the oval. This would involve the community's involvement in cheering for the players and allowing them to use the new pier.




Sections and Elevations

Some parts of the building in section were influenced by the linear patterns produced in plan and because I didn't want to obstruct the views of the Coogee Pensioners Club directly behind my gym the buildings have flat roofs and are embedded into the ground or just above. I increased the scale of the drawings to 1:100 in order to show the new building and its context more clearly. All sections have been drawn in a Poch'e style to show how it is grounded and the context in elevation and section are there to show how the building blends in and what views are being influenced if any at all.

Another reason why the buildings are embedded into the ground is because it is to suggest that aspects of the pier are being dug up and out of the ground. A metaphor exploring the idea of death and life of the pier as if it were a human dug out of the ground with only bones remaining. This can be seen in the section drawing of the gym where the ceiling is made of concrete T beams that run across the entire 20m span to meet the structural posts.

The drawing on the bottom right of the second page shows a small shadow analysis taken in the mid- afternoon. It displays the shadows of the buildings located directly behind the community centre. These shadows wont affect the natural light that enters the buildings too much until it is late afternoon.



Sectional Perspective

This 1:20 sectional perspective displays the interior of the administration area that is covered by the landscape and the oval on the right. It visualises the different ways that people will interact with the architecture and the landscape showing the workers, how the light enters the building and the oval as well as the crowd that are there to support the players. This harmonious view of the interaction between the people, the landscape and the architecture is what I envisaged throughout the design of the new Coogee Community Centre.

The Concrete roof and ceiling can be seen more closely in this drawing but the reason why I chose Concrete and Glass for the materiality of this building is because both materials use sand, something that I have brought over to this site from the experience of going to the beach.

Perspectives

Each of these perspective drawings frame views from the most important areas of the new community centre. The middle drawing shows the view from the entrance looking towards the oval and seeing the grandstand on the right. The top left drawing shows the end of this pathway at the entrance with the outdoor area of the cafe on the right and gym on the left. The shadows in this image are formed by the steel mullions placed to hold up the sloped glazing that encloses this area. The array of concrete posts running down the facade of the gym also add to this play of light therefore enhancing this walkway and further exploring the idea of bringing life back into the design of this new centre.

The top right drawing is a view when standing on the pier looking onto the oval. The design of this pier is also different from a traditional pier, it has angled glass on the edges and steel posts that help hold up the glass.

The bottom left drawing captures the view from the entrance of the gym looking straight across to the North where the combination of Concrete posts and glass allow people to see out. There also 5 skylights on the roof in order to allow more natural light into the building.

Finally the drawing on the bottom right is a feature wall that I have designed using extrusions coming out and into the wall so that in certain viod areas images of the history of Coogee can be viewed. There will also be the use of lights to illuminate this area and enhance the quality of this open space.