Nicky Lobo + Sophia Watson explain how the design industry can take a que from the dance world, as with recent Dance House production, ‘Island’.
January 14th, 2015
Dance and architecture have long been linked through their shared use of space as a medium for creative interpretation. They are also closely linked through the way they both invite the audience to participate and immerse themselves within their environment.
This work entitled Island, brings the audience to the forefront of the stage – literally. Similar to the New York site-specific Sleep No More, the piece invites the audience to really take part in the performance.
With no designated seating, audience members are encouraged to walk amongst the futuristic constructs, lit by moving figures all in white and the illuminated floor highlighting the geometric nature of the design and the highly purposeful choreography of Batchelor.
By encouraging the audience to seek new perspectives, Batchelor’s choreography is given license to shift in size, orientation and reflection, allowing the surroundings to become a directing part of the movement, and the choreography to flow alongside the constructs.
This complex melting pot of influencers and inspirations is cooked-up by Batchelor Along with key collaborators, Architect and Designer, Ella Leoncio, Sound Designer Morgan Hickinbotham and fellow dancers Amber McCartney and Bicky Lee, to create an atmosphere that is distinctly eerie, engrossing and utterly hypnotic.
The main point we as designers and architects can take here is clear: Interactivity is king. Never has it been so important to promote opportunities for audiences – and more appropriately in our case, end users and general consumers – to participate within their surroundings and objects.
Look at any recent commercial project in the last five years, what is the common thread? Activity Based Working has exploded in the last few years, and why? because businesses are beginning to understand the impact working environments have on productivity.
As in the example of the Island dance performance, the success was largely predicated on the audience interacting with the space. The design industry could certainly stand to take a note or two.
A searchable and comprehensive guide for specifying leading products and their suppliers
Keep up to date with the latest and greatest from our industry BFF's!
Bidding farewell to mundane and uninspired office spaces, colour has transformed our workplaces into layered and engaging environments. So we sit down with Karina Simpson, Hot Black’s Workplace Lead, to talk about the influence colour has on the workspace landscape through the prism of Herman Miller’s progressive colour philosophy.
Natural forms meet technological sophistication to produce GH Commercial’s Pattern Perfect® Native Collection of carpets. Step inside the factory to see how local flavours inform the design.
The classic Broadway range from Woven Image is now available in 4 new colours.
There is a tremendous opportunity for practising architects, academics and postgraduate students to join the fifth six-day Master Class with Richard Leplastrier, Peter Stutchbury, the amazing Ian Athfield and Lindsay Johnston at Awaroa Lodge in the Abel Tasman National Park, top left corner of the south island of New Zealand. The event is again being supported by the Miles Warren Educational Trust.
The internet never sleeps! Here's the stuff you might have missed
Functional and concise, the designs of Noom are an exercise in craft and artisanship. Composed of simple geometric shapes, each piece is made in the designers’ Ukraine workshop.
The workplace has changed – and it will continue to evolve. With dynamism at the heart of clients’ requirements, architects and designers at leading practices such as Elenberg Fraser are using and recommending Herman Miller’s OE1 products for the future workplace.
In our own backyard, the Western Parkland City Authority is tasked with creating Sydney’s third city, the parklands city. We speak with its CEO, Sarah Hill, about what it takes to shape a city.
Timothy Alouani-Roby met with Richard Francis-Jones of fjcstudio (formerly fjmtstudio) to discuss his timely, provocative and, quite frankly, necessary book on architecture. In this first part of the book review, we consider the alienation and commodification of the profession, as well as its place in society.