W4 & 5 INVESTIGATION

Ad.ap.ta.tion is the specific theme group I was placed into along with 2 people I'd been working with for the last few weeks in the tutorials. It made sense to again come together to form the group for Project 1. We were still a little iffy about what we had to ultimately produce for the final project.


The following points were outlined in the W3 lecture as to how to approach the task:
- We are NOT to replace or rebuild Parliament as a whole
- nor Parliament's internal functions
- However we may re-design or add to existing aspects of the building. The task is more or less to contribute to the building by designing a nessessary layer.



The blackboard page for this theme group explains the word Ad.ap.ta.tion to mean "an alteration in the structure of function of an organism to any of it's parts that results from natural selection and by which the organism becomes better fitted to survive and multiply in it's environment".



This group was specifically assigned the following brief.

• The aim is to look at adaptive skins and roofs to cover (a section of) the parliamentary hill that can change and morph shape, color and transparency to react to reprogramming of the building blocks underneath. The elements under will be like transformer blocks that reposition to respond to new requirements but all sheltered under a prominent outer skin.

Dictionary meaning of flexible:
1. capable of being bent, usually without breaking.
2. susceptible of modification or adaptation.
3. willing or disposed to yield.

Our proposal aims to:
- give greater voice to the people by
providing a faster link directly with parliament
- provide a multi-use facility for parliament staff
& members of the public
- provide a high level of security &
privacy for the users
- portray an architectural form that is both
sypathetic to the origin design & contemporary.
On the other hand currently parliament house resides
atop capital hill in central cenberra.
When in or around the immediate area it is
undeniable what the focus in the town is truly about.
almost like a beacon it sits upon the hill, loud
and inspirationally proud.
The symbolism that surrounds this building is indisputable.
one word immediately springs to mind, hierarchy.
As a member of the commonwealth we have formed our government
on previous archetypes of it’s past. the model we utilise was taken
from the current british system.

Form based characteristics to represent in our proposed insertion:
- mimic the curvalinear external facade
  to create a visual link between old & new
- utilise similar colours as currently exhibited
  to again create visual coherency
- create light & almost transparent
  installations that portrays an almost
  transient feeling
- source & use matching materials
  present in the current building