Spatial Studio III

Urban Itinerary: Cinematic Space

Fort Lane, Auckland CBD

Aleks Fletcher

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LEARNING OUTCOMES

1. Initiate research into personal areas of interest across the spatial design discipline.
2. Research and synthesise relevant precedents, theory and contexts.
3. Critically develop and refine a project relative to a range of aspects of design realisation.
4. Communicate verbally, and with advanced use of relevant media.
5. Work professionally and collaboratively in both studio and industry contexts.
6. Critically discuss the role of ethics and values in personal design work.

Personal Aims

In undertaking this major project I hope to learn what point of difference I have as a designer and what makes my work unique from others. I’m excited to learn all about the cinematic world and every aspect involved. I hope to unlock my imagination even more and play around with the possibilities which this brief allows for. I hope to learn new skills and methods which may build my spatial design skill set. I hope to follow my ‘design hunches’ and expect the project professionally and at a high quality. For this I need to experiment with presentation methods, layouts, typography, imagery, style and aesthetic. I hope I gain a better understanding about the habits, lifestyles and routines of the public and critically analyze and provide a space which enhances public life whether this is done through evoking emotion or teaching them through artistic means.

What is important to you as a spatial designer? Propose a design intervention or temporary event which further develops Fort Lane precinct as a public place. In this design studio you will need to be inquisitive and curious, and to identify an aspect of the site that resonates with you. We want you to observe your responses to the site. What do you notice? What stands out? What do you overlook? What is hidden, forgotten, covered over? What is problematic, missing, or unseen?

This semester we will consider cinematic space. Your design project will explore the Fort Lane site (including the existing buildings) in relation to a cinematic concept &/or process, such as frame, projection, sequence, movement and transition.

Your proposed urban itinerary (sequence of spatial experiences) will result from contextual research into cinematic devices and processes, extensive site/situation research, re-scripting the site, generative concept drawings and surface
designs, revealing cuts (sections), and speculative designs. You will analyse, reimagine and invent Fort Lane and the activity that takes place there (script), the material narratives of the site (surface), and splice it into the site (cut / montage / rearrange). How will your design proposal contribute to this new form of urban itinerary?

Spatial design is always about the interrelationship between people and the environment. It is up to you as the designer to propose a specific programme (design intervention) to enhance Fort Lane as a public place.

Key questions include:

• How memory, site-seeing, and imagination mobilise seemingly fixed spaces of the city?
• How the affective life of the cinema might be productive in rethinking the city?
• How might a design process begin with consideration of transition (moving from one space to another)?
• How to engage with and invent spatial and material narratives of the city?
• How to create spatial assemblages which suggest an event in action?
• How the impact of new technologies on the traditional understanding of embodiment might unfold in an urban setting