Domain Performance Centre
Undergrad Graduation Studio (BArch)
The brief for the Performance Centre encompasses spaces for exhibitions, performances, seminars, events and a contribution to public amenity. Sited between Macquarie Street and the Domain the project explores programmatic resolutions through creating links between public landscape and the city.
Sited amongst the most significant historical institutions of Sydney, the Performance Centre sits as a muscle strained between the Barracks and the Mint. The limbs of the Performance Centre are constantly awaiting an opportunity to transform themselves to take up a new function and to adapt to a new circumstance. The muscle responds to conditions in the built environment and the ever changing programme of the performance centre.
The architecture of the centre mimics and extenuates the built characteristic and behaviours typical of the spaces between Macquarie Street and the Domain. The spatial sequences typical within the Macquarie block can be described as patterns of compression and release found in tight passages, alleyways between Macquarie Street and the Domain with an occasional interior releases to a courtyard or garden.
Characteristic of the Domain are temporary structures, which are erected in the park multiple times in a year and cater for large music events, festivals and cultural celebrations. These temporary structures are then disassemble and removed thus returning the site to un-programmed, open landscape. The project takes inspiration from the impermanent architecture of the park to devise an adaptable cultural institution jammed between the park and the city.
LANDSCAPE // When the interior is unused the structure lowers down, forming an externally inhabitable extension to the landscape.
MEETING // The section is pulled up to an intermediate height of 4-5 meters for conferences, conventions and events.
PERFORMANCE // The section is lifted upright to form a 12-16m high space, allowing the suspending of props, acoustic panels and lighting.
The muscular system functions on tension and balance. The main theatre’s section is raised and lowered by the tensioning of a steel cable system. The network of steel cables responsible for the lowering and lifting of the theatre are furled onto drums located underneath the upper ground floor slab. The skeletal system forms the primary structure of the design. The connection between each member allows for the transformation of the whole. The structural members are a composite of timber and steel, depending on the structural forces exerted onto the members, the structural members utilise the qualities of both materials on different sections of the member. The joints are expressed so that their potential for movement can be deduced, whether it be a rotational pin joint or a ball and socket connection.
The physiology of the Performance Centre consists of a tripartite composition of skin, bone and muscle which interact and function together. The skin pattern originates from a tessellating origami pattern which has the level of flexibility, movement and skewing needed to fold radially, linearly, rotate in section and skew in plan. The translucent skin is made up of individual panels consisting of a waterproof membrane, insulation, and an acoustic curtain. The skin can be peeled back between the bones to expose the theatre to the sky and at night the light and activity of the interior glows and can be seen from the outside.
Roof Plan
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