Mickey and Minnie In the Box - Walt Disney Studio
Course: 2GA STUDIO
Year:
FALL 2018
Instructor:
JENNY WU
DEVYN WEISER
A BOX for many distinct PARTS: This design is an addition to the Walt Disney Animation Center located at 500 South Buena Vista Street in Burbank, Los Angeles. The 51-acre campus contains the new sound stages, a back lot, and the Disney corporate headquarters. The design starts with a series of distinct building parts chosen from different architecture projects such as Frank Gehry’s Winton Guest House, Louis Kahn’s Dominican Motherhouse, and James Stirling’s Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin. These selected parts, which are composed of primary figures such as rectangle, circle, and triangle, are randomly dropped into an imaginary box which resembles the shape of the site (Image 1). The box is shaken a little bit, then sits still. The parts become a whole by a compression force. Let the force inside the box figure out the situation and composition of all the parts – playing against typology. It is trying to be a formally singular object composed of a wide array of diverse architectural forms. Quoting from Andrew Kovacs’s writing,
“ While architecture is always trying to be a formally singular object, ... ... architecture can be a singular object composed of a wide array of diverse of architectural forms. This continual accumulation of forms in extreme proximity produces a new totality.” ( Andrew Kovacs,
HOUSE ADDITION, 2015
) Both the pieces of objects and the space between them are valued equally as parts in service of the assemblage of the new totality. These parts are compacted and merged in a contiguous manner to produce a new conglomerate. Operating within a logic of compaction and friction, each part is the result of the adjacency of multiple objects that are fused together with their distinct geometry to produce a new totality (Image 7).
1.How Are The Parts Coming Together?
2.Configuration 1: Slide In Place
Each shake of the box will produce a different configuration of the parts inside the box, like a kaleidoscope effect - with each rotation of the kaleidoscope, comes a different configuration of colour patterns. Each shake produces a different massing configuration. The 1st configuration (Image 2) centers the cluster of different pieces as a continuous volume. Then the cluster is mirrored up-side-down to produce a layer of negative space in the center. The roofs of a piece now perform as the floor, and vice versa. It allows volume to intersect and conjunct but also retains the diagram characteristics of each piece. New typology is made when a new form emerges from the union of different pieces. In the 2nd configuration (Image 3), the pieces present within the boundary of the site give a clear indication of the rigid site edge. The slightly disorganised placement of the internal pieces contrast with the rectilinear edge. The parts are flipped to produce a “cave” situation in the center and different “cliff” edge conditions at the site boundary. This configuration focuses on the connection, orientation, and attachment from piece to piece, which allows a single part to form a unified whole. The 3rd configuration (Image 4) centers around a mirrored lower floor plan and upper floor plan, producing a “sandwich” with 2 layers of bread (solid) and 1 layer of meat (void) in between. The pieces are linked vertically so that the bottom and top layer are touching to produce a layer of “fusion” volume. Parts are selected based on abnormality and regularity. They are repeated, scaled, and rotated to produce new typologies. The GROUND is particularly important in this scheme as some parts are inserted and sinked into the ground, producing not a full 2-layers of solid but a 1.5-layers of solid. Configuration 3 is selected for further development.
3.Configuration 2: Cave and Cliff
4.Configuration 3: Not A Full
Sandwich
5.Final Configuration of Parts In The Box
6.Program Distribution
The design consists of three main elements, including offices and studios, education and research, and entertainment and visualization. The offices and studios are a work space for 50 research incubators. The education and research component will accommodate a research library, exhibition space, and production stages. The entertainment facility will host a world class 300-seats theater and more intimate screening rooms. The public spaces and the lobby is used to connect to the existing Disney complex and surrounding city. Studio, Education/Research programs such as library, production stage, auditorium are clustered on one side (Image 6). Offices, research/development incubators, exhibition space, and multi-function space are clustered on another side. Entertainment programs such as theater, screen room, and lobby are placed in the middle cluster. The program distribution is based on how tightly and loosely the pieces come together, retaining their iconic character and complementing its functionality in the program.
The massing strategy centers a cluster of different pieces combined into a continuous volume that is flipped up-side-down to produce a layer of negative space in the center. The fusion of adjacent parts slit open the original geometry, creating an irregularly shaped cracking, allowing parts to penetrate into each other. The matrix of distinct "fusion" volume (Image 7) shows not only the formation of a blend of distinct components into a super compound but also the diminish of each geometry’s identifiable periphery and iconic edge condition. The end result is a new irregular space which creates thresholds, connection, and circulation. The intruded boundaries become walls which enclose space for different program functions. The cracking created by the fusion cut open the parts, creating vertical circulation such as staircase and ramp.
7.Matrix of Clusters With “Fusion” Volume
The
main objective is to investigate elemental spatial constructs and organizational systems as response to site condition, program distribution, and MASSING WITH SITE CONTEXT organizing systems. It will remix architectural types, tropes, and devices to manifest the idea of type through a compositional approach in the context of objecthood. The nooks and creaks created in between and at the elevation on all sides act as entrances from all sides of the site. This brings a unique character to the project allowing new ways of approaching the center where the central atrium/lobby is located for the next level circulation. The ground floor has 10 entrances, with 1 located at the central atrium, 3 located at the side lobby, and 6 located at different program volumes. There are also 4 elevators located in the different lobbies. On the second floor, the education/research program such as Auditorium, Production Stage, and Studio is inter-connected. All the other programs are interconnected, and can link to education/research programs through the Central Atrium.
8.Ground Floor Plan
9.Second Floor Plan
10.Section Through Multi-Function Space, Screen Rooms, Commercial Space, Lobby, and Library
11.Section Through Commercial Space, Lobby, Office, Exhibition Space, and Screen Rooms
12.Second Floor View
13.Physical Model
14.Physical Model
15.Physical Model
16.Physical Model Showing Production Stage, Central Lobby, Research/Development Incubator, Theater, and Commercial Space
17.Physical Model Showing Facade of Commercial Space, Lobby, and Library