Omar Shaikh
In this isometric perspective, the roof has been removed on the L-shaped warehouse building from Project x2. Here I chose to delve further into the commercial strip of the film commune. The focus was not only to imagine how the programming inside could manifest but also to think about its relationship to the other elements of the site. The programming itself was not inherently novel, but the challenge was to think about form and how to create a cohesive narrative that held the site together typologically throughout the different sections while still adapting to various usages.
This thought process led to taking the temporal nature of sets and movie-making created by backdrops and greenscreen walls and expanding that into the commercial space. The additional larger super furniture pieces in the cafe/library and the museum are resized and arranged set backdrops used to create these public spaces. Additionally the glass boxes around the corner theater as well as corner cafe/library were added to emphasize the ephemeral and enclosed nature of a film that creates a “reality” within a very bounded world. The experience for the presumed neighborhood public that would be experiencing these spaces needed to be unique to the film commune without necessarily being film-specific as the spaces themselves are typical programming of a semi-dense urban setting.
The use of the color red was a carryover from the previous project as well but used slightly differently here. In Project x2 the red had been used to signify the existing buildings of the site as well as the floating volumes that activated the post-production space. Here, the thought was to expand upon the red being the unique signifier that shaped the film commune to this specific site condition and use red again to signify the programming and activation of the commercial strip in each specific space. Through simple placement of incredibly basic forms colored red that are seemingly hovering in their austere white spaces, a theater, a museum/exhibition space, and a cafe can quickly be imagined.
This thought process led to taking the temporal nature of sets and movie-making created by backdrops and greenscreen walls and expanding that into the commercial space. The additional larger super furniture pieces in the cafe/library and the museum are resized and arranged set backdrops used to create these public spaces. Additionally the glass boxes around the corner theater as well as corner cafe/library were added to emphasize the ephemeral and enclosed nature of a film that creates a “reality” within a very bounded world. The experience for the presumed neighborhood public that would be experiencing these spaces needed to be unique to the film commune without necessarily being film-specific as the spaces themselves are typical programming of a semi-dense urban setting.
The use of the color red was a carryover from the previous project as well but used slightly differently here. In Project x2 the red had been used to signify the existing buildings of the site as well as the floating volumes that activated the post-production space. Here, the thought was to expand upon the red being the unique signifier that shaped the film commune to this specific site condition and use red again to signify the programming and activation of the commercial strip in each specific space. Through simple placement of incredibly basic forms colored red that are seemingly hovering in their austere white spaces, a theater, a museum/exhibition space, and a cafe can quickly be imagined.
In these closeup views, we can see more clearly the red activation forms which are purposely quite simple shapes. The idea was to allude to spaces using simple abstract objects such as prisms, cylinders and spheres that when taken in different contexts could mean very different things; however, when paired with the particular structural forms in white within each space would drive upon the human brain's natural tendency towards pattern making to fill in the gaps and create meaning from simple but particular arrangements of objects.
For example, if you take the Cafe/Library space on the right corner of the commercial space, it is currently activated with simple cylinders of different sizes placed amongst the larger super furniture set-like elements within the glass enclosure. It quite clearly represents a cafe or bar type setting with patrons ordering and milling about. However, one could easily replace those cubes with rectangular prisms of varying sizes arranged differently and suddenly the bar becomes a checkout or information desk and smaller rectangular prisms represent books/movies and reading tables.
The Watchmen/Vision superhero-like figures dominating these views along with the T-Rex are meant as a playful element to harken to classic Hollywood film making blockbusters that heavily define the American film industry.
For example, if you take the Cafe/Library space on the right corner of the commercial space, it is currently activated with simple cylinders of different sizes placed amongst the larger super furniture set-like elements within the glass enclosure. It quite clearly represents a cafe or bar type setting with patrons ordering and milling about. However, one could easily replace those cubes with rectangular prisms of varying sizes arranged differently and suddenly the bar becomes a checkout or information desk and smaller rectangular prisms represent books/movies and reading tables.
The Watchmen/Vision superhero-like figures dominating these views along with the T-Rex are meant as a playful element to harken to classic Hollywood film making blockbusters that heavily define the American film industry.