My Studio Project And The Oslo Opera House

Snøhetta are concerned with the social dimension of architecture and this design imaginatively reinterprets the traditional opera houses that “conventionally limit their public spaces to exterior plazas or grand lobbies, often only accessible during opening hours.” What is striking here is that their Opera House succeeds in giving back to the city a public space. The sloping rooftop becomes a new public area: a recreation space and viewing platform that you can walk on, sit on, sunbathe on, even snowboard on. As a result anyone, whether interested in Opera or not, can enjoy the space. The building has been called "a social democratic monument” by founding partner of Snøhetta, Craig Dykers – and one can see why. In a recent television interview, Dykers went on to remark:

This article addresses how modern constructed public buildings are often unsafe. This is because most of them include big windows and large open spaces designed to inspire patrons of the building. Instead of fortressing these structures, this piece suggests renovating the entrances. This agrees with the essay in the way both stress the importance of front-end security. It gives many helpful tips at further improving entrance security. Atlas does mention not wanting to make schools

Public spaces are social spaces where social phenomena happens, different activities leading to different social relations and interactions. Spaces with own rhythms of use and regulations that one can discover or rediscover in different cultural context.10 steven To understand how architecture can activate public spaces through play to make social spaces, spaces for public life, this paper first investigates how architecture defines the nature of a public spaces with the possibility of engaging public into play. Then, the paper discuss how play can engage people to redefine spaces and find something that have in common with others. And finally, how people can obtain their freedom through playing in a space will be explored. To do so, the

Interior design and architecture are essential, and often overlooked, aspects of everyday life. In modern society people rely on function, durability, and visual appeal when selecting designs for their homes, businesses, and places of leisure. The way that a space is designed influences such things as mood, which, in the case of a business, can impact the productivity of employees and either draw or repel customers. In residential design, the design becomes very personal and, to be considered a successful design, must properly reflect the home owner while at the same time offering some practicality that makes the space livable. An effective design, for any space, must solve some problem, be it function, flexibility, or some other criteria. Simply solving a problem would not please the customer, however, unless it offered some visual appeal. Creating function with style is the real job of any interior designer, and is essential in a content society.

Stability and balance is also achieved through the incorporation of the vertical and horizontal planes. In the southwest facade of the building the vertical slits are balanced with the horizontal planes created by the cubes, cornice and the ornamental horizontal band that runs halfway through the walls. These vertical and horizontal planes further dictate a rhythmic continuity throughout the building. Building's scale is rather modest in comparison to its site and the surrounding landscape and the smooth texture of the facade helps its integration to the environment. (Figure 4)

Many stories of the floods that washed over the city have been told, speaking of the sorrow of the people who were forced to move from their lifelong homes, the struggle to rebuild. Then, innovators, engineers, architects and planners banded together. Ingenuity spearheaded the movement to drive Genoa, Italy and all of Europe towards the future. Easily accessible, comforting and natural environments found in public spaces will greatly boost happiness and contribute to good health of the everyday citizen. Public space is a very powerful tool and Genezon aims to achieve full potential. In the eyes of the people of Genezon, old or young, there’s always that spark of hope, the hope of the people with the firm ground beneath them and the stars above them. The future is now and Genezon is on that horizon.

The Dome of the Rock (688-92) is a building project which demonstrates a particular way of achieving uniqueness in architecture. Architectural uniqueness can be established by introducing the same building form and materials in a slightly different way, complimenting its surrounding. Again, this uniqueness can be achieved by having a completely different building vocabulary, contrasting with its surroundings. In this context, this essay will investigate what type of architectural uniqueness the Dome of the Rock possess and how this uniqueness has been achieved through various architectural elements.

The world has been evolving as quickly as the population has grown. As the years progressed, the habitual lifestyle has transformed from spread out house and land living to city and suburban occupation. Along with the living style, cities have progressed from just roads and buildings to multifunctional spaces with copious possibilities. Federation Square in the ‘heart of the city’ is an example of how a space in the city vastly contributes to the visual culture of Melbourne. Times Square in New York also displays how what was previously an intersection of roads, has been transformed into a visual landmark. Melbourne city had always lacked a functional public space ever since its birth.

West Des Moines holds a wide range of structural appearances that possess different purposes and stand for different ideas. Variation sets buildings and its surrounding areas that are privately owned apart from those that are open to the public. Although, the significance behind structures may go into deeper meanings. Some hold specific purposes that involve religion while others stand to serve on more secular grounds. If we take the time to look around, we can discover how interior and exterior design conveys distinct meaning. By entering into these buildings, we may discover the diverse functions they serve in relation to structural engineering and unique aesthetics. The framework for centralized control within different societal environments

Walking out to the South Plaza is very easy on the eye compared to the sharp linear lines that construct the interior of the center. The plaza’s main focal point is its circular lawn in the center. The space is relaxing and welcoming. It made me feel how a public government owned space should, like everyone and anyone can spend time in it. The change in topography throughout the space created vertical planes without any stone walls or fences. Raised berms on the perimeter of the three other sides held conifers. These mature trees blocked the wind and bustle from the street without restricting the sun. If it were summer I’d imagine sitting on the benches that were against these to be a great example of the prospect-refuge theory. Having a sort of curving back to lean against, and a wide plaza to look at would be very enjoyable. The two birch trees in the center are just enough to produce some summer shade.

From the observation tower the horizontal building’s three parallel bands can be seen that extend into the lush landscape. The architects’ concept was to immerse the museum in nature by creating a set of three bracketed pavilions under one roof surrounded by gardens. The roof can be seen as

With the help of public art, dull and tired environments are transformed to inspire the community of people working and living there. When the government pays an

The artwork previewed through a two minute fifteen second video that has various scenes from the first opera in Der Ring des Nibelungen, the Ring Cycle, Das Rheingold. The scenes selected have a variety of configurations of the set pieces and have various images and video projected onto the set pieces as they move. These set pieces consist of twenty-four rotating planks constructed from aluminum and covered in fiberglass that connect to two towers at the end and run off of hydrologic system. The projections onto the surface were also advance consisting of the images reacting to the performers body heat and change in the volume of the performers. This structure supported the physically at times with them moving across the plank and at other times the performers were flown around the set using as an interactive art piece. This video was also paired with music from the opera changing with the scenes to showcase the opera score’s relationship with the set piece itself. Another element of the production design in the video was the use of theatrical lighting. The idea of creating silhouettes and other shadows to focus and audience’s attention on certain areas while also given insight to details such as location, time of day, and the particular mood of the piece. The color and intensity provided through both projections and lighting also gives the information mentioned before as well as emphasizing certain elements, most importantly the ring in this case glows bright gold, to

The entryways of the building come from four different sides and meet in the middle. The overall shape of the building creates different views and facades. The building was not created just on the looks of it; it is made up of a three dimensional, stimulating, tactile human thing.

Finally, many tools were used to document our site visits that would used during the modeling of the buildings. As stated before, PlanGrid was very useful when viewing the construction sheets. PlanGrid was used on an iPad for easy access during the site visit. The iPad, as well as our phones, was used to take pictures of any notable changes or major features of the buildings. The pictures were used as references during the modeling portion of the project. A measuring tape was also used to take the dimensions of sections of the buildings that were not clearly labeled on the construction sheets. For example, the Architecture Annex’s terrance needed a measuring tape to measure its dimensions because the top-down view was absent from the