A Hard Hat, A High-Vis Jacket, Boots, Gloves and Some Glasses...The New Art School.

Lots and lots seen at the New Build visit yesterday...very exciting! Will be good to finally get in there when it's all done. It should be great.

So, this might be a pretty long post, but I think it could be quite crucial in our design proposals, lots of spaces and contexts for work!

It's probably easiest to take a look at the design plans and stuff first...quite difficult to visualise it without.

http://www.artdes.mmu.ac.uk/newspaces/newbuilding.php

Thoughts, ideas, comments from the tour -

Linking Spaces. Chatham to the New Build. Linking spaces throughout the new design. Bridges, stairs, space in between, looking down from one level to the next.

Also, there will be horizontal framing to the old building (Chatham) and vertical framing to the new building. Contrast of old and new. Old School/New School.

Gallery space and Cafe area at front of building. Opening doors into working area. 

Square shapes in pillars for projectors. Possibile to project artwork or designs; use as a potential design proposal?

Seating possibilities in this area...there could potentially be three different chair designs. Sofas, "Wagamama" style chairs and circular metal chairs. Possibility to think about fabric covers or alternative seating?

Also, potential to think about seating looking out from the atrium's onto other levels, these are spaces that are free to all students, potential for them to sit and do work here. Might be nice to be able to look at other work going on, light shining through etc.

- Light beaming down through the floors is a crucial part of the design. From the "lanterns" at the top of the building, the light beams down horizontally through the floors.

- Potential to work really well with hanging fabrics, or other materials. Even on an overcast day, the light cascading down through the levels will be really interesting to work with.

- These "lanterns" also stick up onto the roof...work on the outside with them? 

 

Looking at the outdoor space...roof garden! This could be great for an outdoor proposal. There are plans for a planter, gravelled areas, and possibly astro-turf for us to sit on. This could be a great space for work with a view out over the city!

Further to the outside space on the roof there is also the already existing courtyard in Chatham that will be developed along with the the building. An area between the old and the new...linking up the two? A lot of space here...

On the Top Floor of the new build, is an extensive gallery space, along with lecture area (which can be folded away for more event space). With Big 7x4m doors separating these made of white aluminium and a drop down screen for projections, this top floor space has potential for lots of work ideas. Glass doors here also open out onto the roof garden. 

In many of the photos you may have seen little white rails running along the ceiling...these are hanging rails, for artwork, textile pieces. Over 500m across the whole art school. Many opportunities for hanging work.

In the above photo you can also see the patterned concrete column that Kate spoke to us about. Further to this, there are also other patterned walls in the building. Wood grain concrete in stairwells. (sorry about the quality of the photo here, a lot of zoom was involved, couldn't get close up!)

More wall related photos and info...

In the toilet cubicles there will be a wall that has no design or detail on it, meaning that it will be available for interchangeable art work...not sure if this will be work directly on the wall or those hanging. On the upper floors of Chatham there are some already refurbished toilets that can show you what they should look like if you fancy taking a look...as you can't see the wall in this photo.

Flooring has already been put in place for the ground floor design shed...where a lot of the workshops will be. A hard grey durable floor...although practical, I was thinking for other areas, such as the cafe and gallery spaces, a more interesting floor might be interesting, potential ideas?

So...hopefully this can be of some help to all of you. I've got quite a lot more photos, so may try and upload them to our group page on Facebook, so you can access them if need be without clogging up our blog - http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?id=776405522&tid=268437236569552&frecId=false&skipClustering=true&qn=1335901821&success=81&failure=0&set=oa.306001006146508

Also went round the new Business School afterwards, to get an idea of a brand new building with lots of space, linking stairs and lots of glass; which makes this building similar to the Art School, although with harsher lines and a definite business atmosphere...