The ceiling of the chamber is designed to allow a grand powerful feeling for the debating chamber mode and a more intimate feeling for the brainstorming mode. I thought a good way to do this would be to have movable rods or shafts in the ceiling that go up and down individually to create any configuration needed. Some of the would contain lights, when these come down they could be used as task lighting during brainstorming. Some would contain other things like speakers and fresh air vents. In the chamber mode a ring of shafts could be left down providing a backdrop for a projector, showing the person who is talking below or any video that needs to be shown, or voting tallies.
Brett mentioned in the tutorial that my megastructure design needs a sense of connection with the existing parliament house. My idea is to pull down the mid points on either side of the structure so they flow into the skylights of the house of reps and the senate. This would not just literally connect the spaces (providing a viewing area for people above to look down) but it also symbolises the ideas generated in the Citizens' House flowing down into the houses of parliament, a passing of ideas down from the people to the government.
Desks recess into floor and are covered for protection
The tiered seating levels out to a flat floor
The floor of my chamber needs to quickly change from a large debating chamber to spaces for small groups of people brainstorming or discussing.
Initially I was going to do a concept similar to the Ron Arad furniture in the first image, although the blocks would slide up and down as needed. I did a few variations of this but realised that the citizen parliamentarians will also need proper furniture, like comfortable chairs and desks in order to work effectively. This didn't seem possible so next I looked at set tiered benches which could retract and stack up against the outer wall, leaving the floor flat, similar to a theatre. With the circular shape of my design this would also not work. The third option shows tired benches that can be raised and lowered. The desks also lower inside the benches. Normal work chairs would be shifted around by staff while this was happening, and the citizen parliamentarians would have an opportunity to take a break, have a chat and refresh their brains outside.
After talking with Brett I realised that rather than only looking at what furniture is used in different situations, I need to focus more on what activities are done in those situations, how people feel, what should it sound like, what outcome is needed etc. Looking at this instead of just going from a situation to a furniture layout will allow for a much better designed space.
The spaces used for the Citizen's Parliament will be inside the holes left in the megastructure. Some options I have for these spaces:
Fill in some holes as needed with a permanent Citizen's Parliament space. These spaces could still be removed later and new spaces added in if the structure of the government changed for some reason. The spaces would be very rapidly flexible to cater for the different ways the citizen parliamentarians will use them.
Rooms appear when needed. Perhaps stored in the megastructure and come out when the space is needed. This would need a lot of infrastructure for a space that is probably not used often enough to justify it.
The spaces are permanent but are moved around the megastructure where needed. Again this is a LOT of infrastructure for the amount of use it gets. The existing houses in parliament are almost 50m x 50m, it would take a lot to move this around.
Spaces are built with a kit of parts as needed. This would require a lot of manpower and would most likely just not be used as it would be too much effort.
Of the above options, the first is most feasible. The Citizen's Parliament is only used for 5 days every 3 months, therefore the spaces need to require a minimum amount of infrastructure and be very quick and to configure and not require much effort from the users to configure.
My concept for the roof is based on the megastructures I looked at earlier.
Why I chose the shape?
it is iconic and will be recognisable
it allows light to pass through to the lawn and buildings below
it is symbolic of a landscape that has been slowly changed over time
it remains aligned to the features that were important in the design of new parliament house
Giurgola's concept sketch for new parliament house showing important axis
Using a megastructure will allow for an extra level of flexibility. I intend to make the Citizen's Parliament spaces rapidly flexible, but the megastructure also allows for flexibility over a longer period of time. The spaces in the structure can be changed over time, maybe as the structure of the government changes or as more or less space is needed, new structures can be built or removed while the megastructure will remain.
I went to the Asia Pacific Design Library at SLQ to do some research into emerging technologies that can help make my design flexible. I was especially looking at ways I could make the same space accomodate one different use after another after another.
A Touch of Code had some great ideas that I may be able to adapt to architectural solutions/different scales in my design.
Siftables by Sifteo - small computers with motion sensors, neighbour detection, graphic displays and wireless communication. I could adapt these to movable partitions or furniture that could communicate with each other depending on how they are placed in the room.
Level Green by Art+Com - interactive displays. They also did an interactive table at the BMW museum.
Plan B Digital City Map by ORIKO - a kind of GPS for blind people that uses small round balls like pixels to make a tactile map of the persons surroundings. I could actually use this in a completely different way as a way to change furniture or room layouts.
Colour Chaser & Sound Chaser by Yuri Suzuki - sensors allow the train to follow a line, when it meets a different colour it makes a different sound. I could almost imagine people drawing a room layout on the floor and robotic partitions following the lines. Sound chaser works the same way but follows broken sections of old records.
In The Bubble by Simon Marxen - computer sensors track the movements of people inside the bubble and and raise or lower to change shape. A ceiling like this could be used to convert a large space into smaller private spaces as uses in my design change from presentations to small group discussions.
Some quick concepts/approaches that I can taje to the design. I'm currently developing a few/combination of these further and i will see where it takes me.
