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Alex Spremberg The Performing Arts Facility is located on the edge of the Esplanade Reserve and faces the wide-open space with the Swan River in the background. Behind the Facility the office buildings of the City of Perth, characterized by their steel and glass grid constructions, rise into the sky. They provide a strong contrast to the ground hugging, horizontal structure of the Performing Arts Facility. It’s design of rectangular shapes on the other hand, echoes and integrates it within the modernist design of the office buildings that tower behind it. The function of the facility is twofold. It is a place where the public experiences theatrical and musical performances, while at other times it functions as a focal point for other recreational activities. My proposal for the two walls continues the emphasis on the horizontal and vertical grid. However it introduces a colour scheme that is at once more joyful while simultaneously referencing the surrounding colours of the city and its natural environment. Each of the walls would be painted with two columns of stacked horizontal colour bars that will boldly frame the stage and accentuate the inherent symmetry. This design references the elongated architectural shape of the building, as well as the horizontal steps that elevate the entire facility. This upbeat colour scheme will lift the facility out of its more subdued background and would announce it as a site of altogether different activities than the commerce-dominated world behind it. Every performance, that takes place there, creates its own atmosphere. The painted walls will declare this as a place of many colours. The facility is a site of communication where performers and musicians enter into a dialogue with the audience. The duality of this dynamic interaction is echoed in the design on either side of both walls. The back of the walls, visible from the city street only, will show a variation of the design suggesting a continuation of the coloured bands from the front. The painting will be
executed with Dulux weather shield paint, which has a guaranteed
lifespan of ten years. An anti graffiti coating of silicon wax emulsion,
which has no shine, will provide a matt finish that not only seals
the walls but also makes them easier to clean. |
