Tuesday, May 6, 2008

The Music School - Final

The main goal of my extension was to keep the entire school on one plot and keep it connected. The school itself is for children from ages 5 - 15 so it's always full of life and I wanted to the new building to reflect that. While the outer walls walls are relatively restricted and angled, the inside spaces are transparent, playful and bright. One of my main inspiration was music itself, because no matter how playful or happy a piece is, it's always under a very strict rhythm. I hope the building demonstrates that, albeit subtly.



I didn't want to copy the style of the old French Hospital, but intead make a whole new form based on the old building. I.e., I extended angles and lines from the French Hospital and its surrounding to create the forms in my new extension. It's mainly apparent in the ground plans, so to make the connection stronger in actuality, I made some references to the old building with material choices. The wood has the same terra cotta red as the wood in the Hospital and the music hall's stone wall is made of the same stone as the base in the old building, although stacked in a more delicate way.



In these plans it's more prominent how the schools actually connect. There is a glass building between them with a glass bridge that connects the upper floors. It's a nice place for kids to wait for their parents to pick them up, or wait for teachers. I also put a pavilion there to make this more of a square. This can be used as a venue for all sorts of musical events or simply for kids to play around.



I realized that I didn't want the extension to be basically halls with practice rooms to each side, but rather make a star diagram, i.e. with an open space in the middle and have entrances to each rooms go from there. So I placed an enclosed atrium in the middle, where children can wait while being picked up to class or make their homework. I chose to have it closed off with a glass ceiling, because although it sounds very nice to be under a clear sky, Icelandic weather simply doesn't allow it. The school is open during winter and the atrium would be full of snow and rain most of the time, so I think it would be much more useful to keep it closed off.



Here one can see better how the middle atrium connects to other classrooms and the music hall itself. The music hall is made to be multifunctional, both to have concerts or simply practices for the band or kammer groups. It can also open up into the atrium if it needs more space or simply for a more open event.



The moss wall behind the concert hall is also prominent in this section. If one sits there and faces north, the window opens up to the moss wall behind. This is also another entrance into the school and probably more handy if people are coming to see a concert or simply if kids are coming from that direction. Here the windows on the music hall is also apparent, but they were put there as a reference to musical rhythm.



These last two pictures show well the inside spaces. I put bright and fun colours inside, because this is first and foremost a children's building. The classrooms are open and transparent. Here one can also see how the upper floor connects to the atrium, but there's just a metre high glass wall so people can look down in the atrium.



1 comment:

Snorri Þór Tryggvason said...

fyrsta og síðasta eru gullfallegar!