CHASING PHANTOMS

Chasing Phantoms draws upon the experimental representation of light and sound to develop an architectural methodology to understand social atmospheres.

Located in Hastings, the project synthesises two programmatic functions: a luthier and a telescope-making practice that will predominantly result in a workshop. Using each professions’ shared focus on instruments to decipher sound (luthier) and light (telescope-making) as a primary link to develop, this project seeks to develop its own instrumentation to understand the equally intangible nature of social dynamics. Passively, the characterisation of such phenomena will be utilised to curate an architectectonic considerate of both users’ nuanced personas, habits, and routines, while also actively engaging its inhabitants to cross-contaminate ideas, intertwine unexpected discoveries, and maximise the potential of both fields’ independent and shared qualities.

A Glimpse into the Workshop

The manipulation of light and sound permeation into and beyond the shared workshop facilitates shared knowledge in an intertwined workspace.

Ground Floor Plan

Programmatic spaces are organised with an emphasis on varying transparencies to delineate ambiguous territories, producing neither entirely private nor public regions.

Experimental Projections

A series of projections using light distorted through vacuum-formed pools of water was developed as a drawing method to interpret the social atmospheres of spaces.

Understanding Projections

The projections were repeatedly spatially analysed to generate a complex network of possible social agendas which prompted the design considerations of each programmatic region.

Short Section

Varied ceiling heights, roof shapes, and skylights serve to softly shape territories by playing on the perceptions of changing light characteristics and room compression.