Feedback from Schematic Submission

Tutor 1:
Good to see you have an understanding of the experiences of the user.
Need to work out which is the Pit Garage that is best spot for the race, as this is where most people will likely congregate. This Garage will most likely have the winning team.

Catering for these events is a huge logistics problem, you'll need to really consider this within the final design and how it will work of such a large building on multiple levels.
Perhaps placing your building on the corner would give you greater freedom over the architecture of your building.

Tutor 2:
Should investigate how VIP's get from you VIP room to the Pit Lane, and how does this journey make them a VIP
Start to solidify your ideas. You've shown me many differing options and its good to see that your project is evolving, but just remember that at some point you need to stop design.

Tutor3:
Good to see that the museum is now reconnected within the race track, however can this be taken further, can the race track go through the museum, can ytou witness both old and new side my side.

Tutor 4:
This building is not one that is seen from the outside. It is internally veiwed and as such, you'll need to consider more finer detailing of the internal parts and paths of the building. Does this change the way you view the building?
I think you need to ask yourself
What do I want?
What can I get?
What am I getting?
I can see why you have done certian things, however in doing something you may be creating a problem elsewhere, either for yourself as the project develops or for the building.

Pit Lane - Schematic Submission

My Submission for Schematic was presented in front of the class and 4 tutors, Only 2 of whom has seen my work before. Within the Presentation we were allowed 3 minutes to put forward our ideas, with the aim being that of selling our idea to a group of Architects for peer review, Not Client review. 

The challenge lies in how can you put forward an idea that you've been thinking about for 6 months in 3 minutes and make it make sense.

I think I did ok, but will have to check the feedback when I get it.

 

Hi, I'm Neil and I'll be presenting my project based on Phillip Island. A project for Motor Racing. In particular, I'll be looking at providing world class facilities for the largest sale motorcycle events in Australia. The MotoGP and World Super Bike Championship.

 

 These events are only held ONCE a year. They attract a TV audience of over 350 million people, with a further 500, 000 people traveling from around the globe to Victoria to watch the events.

These events are colourful and exciting. 

Its important to note that these events happen only once a year, meaning that spectators, racing and staff spend months or even all year preparing for the races. 

" only 29 more sleeps till the island"

 

Spectators love their sport, they have a passion for it. The smells of fumes, rubber, fuel, the noise of engines either screaming or thumping around the track, and seeing how fast these bikes can travel in the flesh all make up the experience.

As architects when presented with grand vistas, we tend to break it down into smaller elements. We provide frames in which smaller portions can be seen in isolation. 

The concept behind this project is one that intents to remove senses that are associated with motor sport and increase the levels of anticipation felt by spectators for their event.

When spectators arrive at the gates, they can see onto the race track. There is no surprise to see what bikes are racing, or who is coming first.

All this can be seen from the entrance gates.

 

 A further problem with how the facilities are currently organised is that the focus is on the straight. Little views are given to those within the facilities to the rest of the track, apart from those that are provided on TV that are dotted through out the building. 

The Museum, filled with race cars and bikes is separated from the track. VIP's have no view to the wider circuit. 

What advance does being above Pit Lane hold? 

Getting a birds eye view of one small portion of the entire spectacle that is Pit Lane doesn't seem like my idea of a VIP view.

By reworking the basic construction of how these pit lanes facilities are designed, we can provide better views to a wider landscape. Reconnection of the museum back to the race track and provide greater appreciation for the entire event.

  Currently the first glimpse of the race track occurs when you approach the entrance gates located near the access road. 

I plan to remove this view and have done so by the installation of objects. 

This object will offer you only one path, one that you will be uncertain of, but still a path to your event. 

Your race. 

 Without these objects on the landscape the view is unframed. Nothing is highlighted. The rider has no more significance than the background.

 

My object will provide small framed sections of the view as you enter. Not allowing them to see the entire track, or event until they have completely arrived.

Spectators will hear the bikes from the other side, but will be unable to witness it.

This frame will be achieved by the use of deep slits that will offer a teasing view.

The speed on the riders will blur this image into something that is unrecognisable

As you continue down the corridor, the slits get closer together, offering more sight, A reflection of the increasing excitement the users feels as they get closer. By now, you are as close to the track as you can be the track is on the other side of the wall, you can hear the crowd above, you can feel the vibrations. Think of sitting inside Leiberskins Holocaust Musuem and hearing people outside having a party that you cant get too. 

 Its at this point that you are forced to turn away from the track and walk in the opposite direction. 

The notion of confusion and disappointment.

Did you come down the right path, you were so close before?

 

 As you enter deeper into the heart of the building you cant see or hear as much of the racing. Until you start to climb up back towards the track.

 

I’ve started to implement the Principles of a Whispering Room here, the shaped panels gather and direct sound onto one spot. 

 

This entry. 

A deafening roar of racing is your welcoming note. Its here, at this elevated landing that you are presented with a view of the entire track.

  

The Eastern side of the building is sounds, the entrance. The western is sight. In between are the museums each offering a varying degrees of sight and sound. The history of motor sport museum and classic car collection will have noise from outside, but only at a minimal. Sight to outside will also be minimal. Isolating the element, the bike or car, from track, without completely removing it.

 

The World Super Bike Museum will be silent, You will be able to watch the bikes go past, but the associated noise has been removed giving this live event a mute button.

 

Appreciation of sound is what I've given the user. 

Within stadium design a problem exists when a large number of people crowd the front rows. People towards the middle of the room can no longer see.

 

So by tilting this portion of the room down towards the track you can gain not only better views of the straight but also better views out into the landscape beyond.

The final part of Racing is the Podium Finish. 

This design will elevate and present the winners to the crowd gathered within the building. I’ve created a space in which people muster, both on track, inside, outside and under as their champions are presented to them within an outstretched hand, an offering. 

This podium is located on the sight portion of my building along side the most important thing to see at a track. The finish line.

Schematic Teaser

The progress a user makes as they enter my building. A building of anticipation of the event. To only reveal what I want them to see. To let them hear only when I allow it.
To cover, protect and suspend the activities until it is finally revealed to them.

This is the entrance.......This is the journey.

First Renders

OK.....
So here's the first few renders of my building.

The 'C' shaped building will be the race control, media, medical with the area closest too the spectators being the podium, suspended above the track.

The grandstands are staggered to break the building into undefined forms, refer to the images in older posts regarding blurring from speed.
The entrances in the museum and viewing galleries below are taken from an overlay of the curves onto the building then defined by the lean angle a bike would be on in that corner.

The VIP facilities above the spectators has a large sloped window to give ultimate viewing of the entire track and pit facilities.

The grandstands are broken up to allow for large outdoor areas were spectators can gather, also other activites can occur in these space like product displays and functions.

Entrance Sketch

I've been a little concerned about how my building looks from the public roads and a little further away from the site.
I drew this up today to just see how it works, I'm really liking the blurring effect,  see previous posts. The materials for the roof structure will be timber or various sizes which will help with the distortion and sense of speed for the user. It will be glassed in at both ends to help provide warmth in winter and reduce the effects of the strong winds, blown in from Bass Strait.

I can envisage a ramped grass entrance into the main grandstand and VIP facilities with sections removed to gain entrance into the museum below.

So here's a quick sketch to show you how I see it.

Section Design

So working on the theory the by raising the track to sit on top of the Pit Garages and by moving the VIP facilities to sit above the spectators here's a few ideas for how this could look in section.

 Section 1 shows the relationship between the gallery / entrance space under the curved roof and the spectators and VIP facilities above. The curved roof was formed from an analysis of the front fairings on motorcycles and how this related to the curved form of the fuel tank. The landscape can be treated in a way as too allow for direct connect with the museum, see the sketch below.

Under the grandstand would contain the other facilities that are required during larger events, like cafes, bars, stalls and shops and toilets.

Section 2 shows how the light well / slash roof support can be used to draw light down into the museum space below, highlighing naturally the cars or bikes on display. This section also shows just how close the Pit Lane now is to the Spectator in the museum and the grandstand, and clearly shows how the VIP will gain a views that are currently not available on the site.

Phillip Island Analysis

The traditional method of organising Race Track Facilities is flawed.

Spectators at Phillip Island are removed for the landscape due to Pit Lane and VIP facilities blocking the view to the rest of the track, the amazing landscape that is Victoria and the ocean views beyond. The excitement that happens at Pit Lane is hidden due to the distance from the viewer and relies upon huge TV screens to blast images of what is happening around the track and in Pit Lane.

From the second floor of the VIP facilities, located directly above the Pit Garages, you are closer to the action.........Too close in fact. The viewing angle means you see very little of the Pit Lane, except for the garage you are over, in which you get an eagle eyes view. They face into the North Western Sun, making it harder to see the track during afternoon events and they turn their back on the rest of the track, and the views. They too rely on TV screens around the room to help them view what is happening.

So what about the rest of the track?
When did only being able to watch the Straight / Finish line be a good thing?

I feel that remodeling how Race Facilities are designed is needed, and the perfect precedent for it is the Theater or Sporting arena.
The idea is to see the extents of what is happening.

By moving the Museum closer to the track, you can allow spectators to see into the Pits. To press their faces against the glass and see their favorite drivers.
Raising spectators to sit on top of the Museum would allow them a safe vantage point to see into the Pits, a lot closer then they would normally get, and also see other parts of the track in the landscape.

VIP's are now raised higher giving them a view of the entire track as well as down into Pit Lane and onto the Race Track.

The Pit Lane Facilities dont need to be a barrier segmenting the view and limiting the experience.

The passion that drive us.

I was recently asked.
"Why would you watch motorsport......why would you pay to watch it.....when you could get the same thing sitting beside the highway?"

 The difference is Passion.
A passion that those have that sit above tracks with cameras ready.

A passion that those have that choose to sit, waiting, watching to see something rare or different.

A passion may not be understood but is no less there. This passion can not be judged, nor questioned nor understood and deciphered.

You either have it, or you dont.

theater for Motorsport

The big question that I want to ask.....is what is the difference between the theater and watching motorsport from the grandstand?

I dont think there is much difference.....
The audience is different yes, but they are still there to watch a spectacle.
To watch trained professionals do something that we the average person can not.
There's no real difference between those  actors in this practiced and rehearsed movement that entertains us.

 

 The audience may differ in economics, social status, clothing or attitudes. however they all have a passion for what they are watching. and due to these similarities.....should the architecture of Pit Lane reflect the defined architecture typology that is theater? 

We could arrange the pit lane to be like that of a stage.....with the audience surrounding it. However, unlike Pit Lane. the stage does not have height and its this height that stops the audience from being able to see all areas. An important part of stage and set design.

Perhaps looking at the Pit Lane as not the center of the stage, but as an important part that is to played within the overall production that is motor racing, we start to see that the Pit Lane can be sunken, like that of an Orchestra Pit.
This could give views out over the track that would have been blocked before by the building. it could provide an individual platform for which the spectacle of Pit Lane can occur.
VIP's could look further a field due to the gained height of their rooms, above the spectators. like that of the wings of an auditorium.

 

 In doing this we can start to redefine the architecture that is Pit Lane.

All in a nights work

For those of you who wanna know what an architecture student does on a Saturday night.....heres a good example.

This is also a sectional perspective through my building, really gives you a sense of the speed at which the building is viewed.

The start of race the race track and Pit Lane Structure

Pit Lane Complete and Grand Stand, Starting the Super Structure

Half way through

Now to add shadows and depth

Complete.....I think it sells the idea

Populate

Photoshopping

OK.....
So heres a couple of images that are very crudely Photoshop-ed and it really gives an idea of scale from this project. Its going to be massive and I love it.

The idea is not to just provide a building for the Pit Lane but as a concept why not provide a space for all the buildings to take place. Grandstands, maintenance, offices, management, race control and pit lane
.
I'd love to know what it feels like to enter that building at speed, and moving down the straight with the light  changing as you go down. it would give the spectators a visual cue to understand how fast current and future race cars would travel. 

Modeling

Here's one of the models I'll be tabling in the up coming Concept Presentation on Monday. Photoshopping to come later tonight

Remember the idea is that the building is blurred.

Abstact of form

Question:
How you do give something the feeling of speed without moving it.
You change the way in which it is viewed.

The idea is to represent a sense of speed within a stationary object. Car designers need to design a car that looks fast stationary as this is when most people will view it, because if its a fast car, they will only see a blur.

Thats the same idea that I'm running with here. My building needs to give the veiwers (Spectators) a sense of speed. The same speed that the riders are feeling as they lean and twist into the corners.

To create a building in which you can see the bikes / cars wizz past, a building that accentuates the speed by blocking out some parts, forcing you to focus on when the vehicles are visible.

When you travel fast, you start to see things not in colors or shapes, but light and dark. On a train you notice how fast your going when the light is cut by trees and as you move along, you gain that sense of speed from the shadows that are being projected through the space.

Light dark light dark light dark

Your perspective changes when you travel fast. so this building looks vertical when viewed from the front however when you approach it from the either side, you notice that its warpped. You can see it leans in and out, like that of the riders. In a rider view, the building starts to climb into view, then leans into you, pushing into your space, then pulls away, a linear representation of the corners they are about to take. The building tells a story of the track.

Now to draw it

Conceptual Conception

1. What is the basic building blocks of the Pit Lane.....and does it need to be more than what it is?

 The pit lane ran alongside the track. Vehicles move at differing speeds.
The most important line is the Start Finish Line....Celebrate it.

2.Application of the curves taken from the track.

I've traced the tangents of the curves onto the building to help define the shapes and form.

3. Tangent 1.

I played with the idea of adding something to the building where these forces acted and pushed the building to respond to the site to generate the form

3.Tangent 2

The basic blocks of the building was cut, using the curves and a form is generated. Perhaps taking away from the building is a better approach.

4.Occupation of space.

First ideas of possible functional layouts. Museum of motor sport on the right, offices, cafes. Race control and the podium projected out over the track. corporate facilities located building the main building, with VIP rooms on the left.

Possible winners podium.