Week 11: Materiality

Entrance

I wanted to use a material that stood out from the minimal palette I was going for, because the entrance is the most important part of the space. It is the space where people first enter and leave the space. I was inspired by the existing gold relief at the Lorne Street Entrance, and wanted to keep this in my design, with a different material. Hence I went with brass, because it is resistant to corrosion, and can sustain weather conditions. Copper on the other hand, produces a green patina when oxidised.

https://www.industrialmetalsupply.com/blog/4-types-of-metal-that-are-corrosion-resistant-or-dont-rust

Wall

I don’t plan on doing anything particularly special to the walls, as it is not the focus of my design. Because I am playing with light, the walls will have to be painted white to portray the projection colours the best. White makes the space look minimalistic and does not clash with the other materials in the space, which needs to be considered as I have a variation of materials in the space.

Flooring

Because my general design involved light, I thought about how to accentuate this in my flooring. I decided that I could use polished flooring to reflect light, as I thought using mirrors was too straightforward and too intimidating to the space, whereas polished flooring would reflect only the light aspects as opposed to an entire image. I started to look at polished marble and polished concrete.

Marble or Concrete?
I first looked at reflective marble to see how that would transform the space, and although it looked nice, I thought it looked too much like residential property, like a kitchen or bathroom:

I then looked at concrete to see how that would look:

Conclusion: Initially I preferred the look of marble, as I thought it looked cleaner. But the concrete makes my design look more like an installation, as installation spaces are often held in galleries with this sort of material palette. There is a darker contrast as well between the walls and the flooring, which I prefer.

Walkway from Queen Street

I was thinking between using acrylic glass or acrylic plastic because I was looking for a transparent material that would project sunlight into the space. I decided for acrylic plastic because:

It is easier to mold and shape compared to glass
It is lighter than glass, which would be good due there being no “support” for the beams
It is also stronger than glass
It has more resistance to weather conditions, and because this surface is exposed to the outside, this is crucial
It will not turn into a yellow tint as easily as normal plastic
It is easier to clean and maintain, relatively less maintenance than glass

source from https://www.acmeplastics.com/content/advantages-acrylic/

Coffee Booth

Counter

I am going with corian, which is a white acrylic often used as the basics of countertops material. It can also mimic other types of materials but without the expensive cost.

Shelves

To keep the materials simple, I am choosing to use LED Tape, to bring some light on the walls (without installing a basic light on the ceiling).

Seating Area

I am going with acrylic plastic furniture, to create the illusion that the space is bigger than it is. Having transparent/clear furniture I believe will achieve this.

Pivot Door

Pivot doors can be made with a variety of materials: steel, glass, wood, steel + glass. They also can come with/without a frame. I wanted to use wood as it is a material that can either be light or heavy, as opposed to the other materials.

I have decided to stick to solid composite wood, as it is already a familiar material to a normal door. It is also heavier than using wood such as MDF wood, and it is thicker than plywood and MDF (my pivot doors are designed to be 200mm thick).