Project Description
This project calls for the redevelopment of a currently derelict fly tower in Dundee into an aerial dance studio and community centre. A grid pattern was extracted from interpretations of Julie Merriman’s ‘Disruption Rolandwerft I’ in week 1, which was abstracted into planar geometries and contextualised through Dundee’s street plan and King’s Theatre’s urban situation. The importance of movement to promote well-being as we age was instilled through workshops, and the fluidity of dance and movement was explored as an inherently ‘anti-grid’ and abstract art.
A grid is often inherent in urban planning - for function, aesthetics and order. Contrastingly, ‘anti’ implies disorder, chaos and conflict - not words you might often associate with successful urban design. Dundee is currently undergoing a vast urban regeneration programme, which focuses extensively on connecting the city and its streets through a simple hierarchical street layout. Yet beyond this immediate order, lies an intriguing duality - a hidden disorder that emerges at the juxtaposition of street blocks and projected urban plans. This project finds its foundations in the clash between function and form, where street grids meet to form a wider ‘anti-grid’.
The building’s redevelopment is based on a series of extrusions, defined by where this ‘anti-grid’ intersects the existing site plan. These extrusions form a choreography through the building that guides the user up to the community hall, encouraging movement and well-being. An architectural interpretation of Dundee’s street plan is represented through concepts of anti-grid movement, driven by explorations into ‘active ageing’ and weathering well’
