Sunday, July 27, 2008

New Casino project in Catalina Island_04

Program and Partition

When I started this project, the first issue was the architectural interpretation about theater and ballroom of the existing program of Casino. These programs, the ballroom and theater, of Existing building were quite different from common meanings. For tourist, the ballroom and theater was not the space for utility, but the objects for tour course. The first reason was the original use was not apt for this recreation area, and the second reason was the architectural value as an old, well-decorated building. However, the ballroom and theater of new Casino building never can have the historical value. This means that new interpretation for these programs is needed to adapt to contemporary circumstance. I thought indeterminate space for the program. Indeterminate space means multiple use space. In the 21 century, existing meaning of Modern architecture for specific program is broken by new ideology of information society. The ballroom would not be the space for only dancing and performance anymore, and the theater would not be the place for watching the movies. In this sense, I placed several open spaces which are not defined by specific prejudice. Each space has specific name to identify each one, but the space does not have specific area divided by partition. Every space is connected by continuous pathway, so user cannot recognize the starting point and end point of the each space. The only method for dividing space is physical differences defined by columns, roof, and landscapes. For example, at the main entrance for this project area, people could feel the forest of bamboo expressed by tall columns and shortly spread branches. At the next step, tourists have to pass through the narrow stair covered with low roof. This phase is designed to make people feel the compression of space. Finally, when arriving the ballroom, highlight space, they will experience explosion of the space because of the great space toward the sea consisted of long span columns which have widely spread branches.


In result, the relationship between program and partition can be accounted by mutative column unit structure. The basic column unit is mutated as following variation of programs. This mutation is the method for distinguishing the programs from the others.

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