Interior Design
Design Theme: Social Affordance – Oxford City Centre
”People are the starting point in our work – the focus is to create cities for people...”
David Sim (Creative director at Gehl) - Soft City: Building Density for Everyday Life (2019)
Social affordance requires complementarity relations between people and their environment, which can be enhanced when an architectural programme is based on a social strategy whilst affecting the phenomenology of a given environment.
Thus, the purpose of the different design briefs this year was to increase social affordance in Oxford by proposing a series of subversive manipulations of its physical environment, articulated by a programme of inclusive activities to allow people to participate and experience the city differently.
In Oxford city centre public space is currently dominated by shopping and entertainment activities, set between austere university buildings. The liminal edge of Oxford’s central area was questioned, using principles adopted from the Slow-City Movement, by which local communities should engage with modernity without being unjustifiably influenced by globalisation and strive for a future of sustainable quality for their inhabitants.
The year 3 cohort engaged with the existing Oxford Playhouse (Live Project), by redeveloping the foyer and creating new community spaces at the rear entrance on Gloucester Green, in a modern reinterpretation of the spaces and functions of an Agora and its Theatre.
Sem 1 – Urban Scale: Design Strategy and Context Analysis / social identity
Sem 1 – Furnitecture Scale: Individual participation / shared cultural infrastructure
Sem 2 – Design Resolution: Hybrid typology - Performance, Culture, Community Space
Leading tutors:
Andrea Placidi, Orit Sarfatti, Phoebe Gresford
Students name:
Gamze Akdag, Mohamad N Bin Mohd Fhauzi, Caris Crouch, Laura Elliott , Jemima J Ellis, Mencia Esponera Orozco, Phoebe Gale, Jacqueline German, Caitlin M Mills, Mariam Mostafa Abou El Nasr, Laura R Sebastino, Harriet Taylor, Edward Whittingham
Visitors name:
Caterina Frisone, Hester Ward, Jo Jenkinson (Office principles) , Thank you to West Oxford Community Centre team and Zeb Turner Johnson from Oxford Playhouse
Jackie German - Institute of Traditional Performative Studies
Mariam Abou El Nasr - Oxford Third Theatre
Eddie Whittingham - The Oxford Student Association
Phoebe Gale - A community for Makers
Laura Sebastino - Modern Circus Oxford
The Performative Arts Research Institute
Caitlin Mills
The Performative Arts Research Institute covers a variety of installation and performance art. The institute provides a range of spaces for research, craft, curating and learning for all levels of experience within the world of art in Oxford City Centre.
Axo - The Performative Arts Research Institute - Caitlin Mills
Internal View - The Performative Arts Research Institute - Caitlin Mills
Common Ground Student Centre
Eddie Whittingham
Oxford’s new CommonGround Student Centre will provide the students of Oxford and the general public a new social gathering space of music, theatre, and education. It will generate a new urban space for young adults and a stronger sense of community within Oxford’s student population and enable social connection between Oxford’s two Universities.
The entrance to the main auditorium - Common Ground Student Centre - Eddie Whittingham
Main Gloucester Green Foyer with cafe and bar area - Common Ground Student Centre - Eddie Whittingham
New balcony area above the Students Association Room - Common Ground Student Centre - Eddie Whittingham
Oxford Community Incubator
Gamze Akdag
Oxford Incubator is a performing arts center dedicated to make education fun for mature students of Oxford. Incubator enables students with different talents to connect, engage and effectively learn in the interior spaces. The modern and industrial architectural style allows the building to be functional, yet stand out by bringing modern architecture to Oxford.
Sectional Perspective - Oxford Community Incubator - Gamze Akdag
Oxford School of Theatre Performance
Harriet Taylor
The Oxford School of Theatre Performance is a performing arts school and apprenticeship programme for disadvantaged young people. The school offers a programme combining the three main aspects of theatre; physical, theoretical and technical giving students a more rounded education.
Viewing of a Performance - Oxford School of Theatre Performance - Harriet Taylor
Night view - Oxford School of Theatre Performance - Harriet Taylor
Foyer - Oxford School of Theatre Performance - Harriet Taylor
Oxford Centre for Traditional Preforming Arts
Jackie German
The Oxford Playhouse will be transformed into Oxford Centre for Traditional Performing Arts, it will strive to re-educate how the arts are approached and perceived today, by reconnecting with traditional performing methods, primarily influenced by Elizabethan and Jacobean theatres and the traditional performances of Shakespeare.
Night view - Oxford Centre for Traditional Preforming Arts - Jackie German
Section - Oxford Centre for Traditional Preforming Arts - Jackie German
Axo - Oxford Centre for Traditional Preforming Arts - Jackie German
Circus based theatre
Laura Sebastino
Circus based theatre will offer a unique new addition to the existing traditional theatre scene in Oxford. The proposal offers three theatre spaces; a traditional theatre space, a space for circus and alternative
Exterior view - Circus based theatre - Laura Sebastino
Section - Circus based theatre - Laura Sebastino
Aerial view - Circus based theatre - Laura Sebastino
Oxford Third Theatre: ‘A Reverse Urban Scene’
Mariam Abou El Nasr
Oxford’s Third Theatre encourages people to understand the power and social role of theatre. Mainly through using theatre as a medium to expose the act of reclaiming and reactivating spaces as platforms of expression. Following the ‘Third Theatre’s’ agenda stressing that theatre can happen anywhere, the theatre blurs the existing threshold with the city. Creating a reversed urban scene, transforming the theatre into fragments of the city. Demonstrating that any space can be a place of expression.
Foyer Space - Oxford Third Theatre: ‘A Reverse Urban Scene’ - Mariam Abou El Nasr
Primary Preformance Space - Oxford Third Theatre: ‘A Reverse Urban Scene’ - Mariam Abou El Nasr
Oxford Centre for Preforming Arts
Noah Fhawzi
A proposal for the refurbishment of The Oxford Playhouse Theatre. Proposing the building as a single center for multiple performing arts (theatre acts, music performances, dance performances) as well as an academy.
Section of spaces - Oxford Centre for Preforming Arts - Noah Fhawzi
Furnitecture Strategy - Oxford Centre for Preforming Arts - Noah Fhawzi
Live Band at the Perfoming Centre - Oxford Centre for Preforming Arts - Noah Fhawzi
The Oxford Playhouse ‘A community for makers: Artists, Installation and Practice’
Phoebe Gale
The Oxford Playhouse provide a creative workspace for Oxford locals and professional businesses. The building aims to bring back the traditional ways of making things then exhibiting these creations whilst being educated on the processes and skills.
Foyer Sectional Perspective - The Oxford Playhouse - Phoebe Gale
Wood Workshop - The Oxford Playhouse - Phoebe Gale