Design Engine » Competition

Greyfriars Theatre, Ringwood

James Ferrero — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 13:43:50 +0000

This formed part of a submission for an invited competition. The scheme offers transparency towards a potentially revitalised civic space between the Library and new Arts Centre. This unites two public cultural entities for Ringwood and turns an area given to servicing and inefficient car parking into a pedestrian priority area where the activities and achievements of the new Centre can be showcased to the public. The space can be seen as a level, accessible plaza which could host community events and markets as well as providing a more welcoming location for the Mobile Library. Conceptually, the indigenous red brick of Ringwood (with particular reference to the Georgian splendour of Greyfriars) is moulded from a ground plane into the theatre ‘crucible’ itself. A support wing acts as an activity and sound buffer to the neighbours, whilst a semi-transparent skin envelopes the theatre to allow total flexibility and free movement internally.

World War II Museum, Gdansk

James Ferrero — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 13:32:02 +0000

Our entry for the international WW2 Museum competition was designed in collaboration with Heyne Tillett Steel (Structural Engineers) and Grontmij (Environmental Engineers). Visitors descend into the exhibition space from a new public forum in a controlled way and in preparation for the experiences ahead. The main exhibition is a black box, where artificial lighting and sound effects will play a significant part in the visitors’ experience. A single connected rest zone allows access directly from the exhibition rooms, and visitors using this space can also re-orientate themselves by looking up through the glass ceiling to the oversailing roof above. The west end of the rest zone includes large steps, allowing people to sit, relax and contemplate, but these are also a direct reference to the West Platte bunker steps. The roof dominates the site, acting as an ‘umbrella’ and ‘parasol’ to the unique public space, harnessing energy via photovoltaic cladding. This space is completely open and free to be used by any resident or visitor to Gdansk. The space is deliberately uplifting and in total contrast to the exhibition rooms housed below your feet. The roof design is interpreted from the lost streets and buildings on this site. The remains have been mapped and, through a series of 3D manipulations, leave their impression on the underside of the canopy. Thus, this huge soffit offers the Museum a memory of the people lost from the area and the ground it is built upon.

Salisbury Marketplace | Salisbury

James Ferrero — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 14:33:59 +0000

Salisbury District Council’s competition brief for the redesign of the historic Market Square inspired us to propose a lookout tower as part of the landscaping treatment of the space. The tower would provide a new tourist information centre at ground level and the opportunity for the public to view the city from a different perspective; by providing far-reaching views over the existing rooftops of the city. This was a short-listed entry in association with landscape architects, Rummey Design.

Cricoteka | Poland

James Ferrero — Sun, 05 Nov 2006 14:30:41 +0000

In 1955 Tadeusz Kantor founded the Cricot 2 Theatre; initially located in the Artists’ House and later on (after 1961) in the medieval cellars of the Krzysztofory Gallery. In 1980 Tadeusz Kantor left Krzysztofory. The City offered him the premises for the archives of his theatre at 5 Kanonicza Street. The Cricot 2 Theatre never existed as an institution.
In the years 1955-1973 Kantor presented successive performances strictly connected with the stages of his artistic activity as a painter, and the source of topics were mainly Witkacy’s plays. The first performance – “The Cuttle Fish” was prepared together with Maria Jarema. On subsequent productions he worked alone, adding theoretical comments to them. The characters and plots from Witkacy’s plays were merely a pretext for showing the important idea of art defined by Tadeusz Kantor in his manifestos: “In a Little Manor House” (1961) – the Informal Theatre, “The Madman and the Nun” (1963) – the Zero Theatre, “The Water Hen” (1967) – the Idea of a Journey, “Lovelies and Dowdies” (1973) – the Impossible Theatre .
In 1975 the premiere of “The Dead Class” took place – a production which was to become a legendary one. The theoretical explanation of its underlying idea could be found in the “Manifesto of the Theatre of Death.” For the artist it was the beginning of the theatre of memory. Tadeusz Kantor described his artistic work as a ‘Great and Dangerous Journey into the Unknown’. In “Wielopole, Wielopole” in 1980 he revived on the stage the time of his childhood.
The fate of his dead relatives and friends became interwoven with the figures and events from the Bible, which completed the memories of the past. In 1985 his theatre, which he called a ‘Fair Booth’; presented another performance: “Let the Artists Die”. What could be seen on the stage was the process of dying, the functioning of memory, the act of creation, the fate of the artist and of the work of art.

Art Box | Global

James Ferrero — Tue, 14 Feb 2006 14:29:17 +0000

At it’s simplest, this project is about encouraging our enjoyment of the Visual and Performing Arts. Major galleries and theatre spaces in our bigger cities struggle to influence and involve a wider audience; and especially in provincial and rural locations. At Design Engine, we have brought together our collective experience in mobile building technology to develop one possible solution. Through its materiality, it is our intention that the users of the Art Box (developed with Newenham Mulligan and Associates) participate in its expression and evolution. We have set ourselves the task of providing a potential Director, Curator or Events Organiser with a column free double height volume canvas, capable of a number of controlled internalised or externalised configurations.

River Hull Footbridge | Hull

James Ferrero — Thu, 05 May 2005 11:58:19 +0000

An opening footbridge over the River Hull, linked to the proposed regeneration of the East Bank. The design draws inspiration from Hull’s unique condition as ‘a city on the edge’ and from the natural drama of the site itself. The development of the form was guided by the metaphor of the bridge as a ‘found-object’, shaped by nature, like a piece of driftwood or a whale-bone deposited by the sea in a foreign context . The bridge consists of two ‘wings’, one being the deck, the other the counterweight mast. Like the legs of a gymnast on the bar these two wings are always perfectly balanced. As the deck rises the counterweight mast rises with it, ensuring the centre of gravity is always directly above the pier.

Linz Theatre of Music | Austria

James Ferrero — Thu, 28 Apr 2005 14:35:58 +0000

The proposed Music Theatre was a competition Design Engine entered in 2008. The theatre was to occupy a pivotal location in the city of Linz. The infrastructure surrounding the site presents sig- nificant challenges but we challenged ourselves to overcome these. The new building was designed to be a gateway to the city, seen on arrival and de- parture from the Hauptbahnhof and to create a new landmark on the city skyline. Extensive landscaped public space of the Volksgarten would complete a visually continuous open space, including the St. Barbara-Friedhof cemetery to the south.

Gdansk Theatre | Poland

James Ferrero — Mon, 23 Aug 2004 14:28:01 +0000

This competition-winning design provides a new interpretation of the Elizabethan Theatre; using new building technology, environmental systems and auditoria design to complement the inherent familiarity and intimacy of the old scale and proportions. The building provides a strong and clear narrative of our understanding of the history of Gdansk and the memory and importance to the city of the Theatrum in particular. Using a contemporary architectural vocabulary the building re-presents the essential symbolism of the original theatre to a 21st century audience.

Armed Forces Memorial | Alrewas

James Ferrero — Fri, 20 Aug 2004 15:15:37 +0000

A new ‘Millennium Avenue’, conceived as a ‘time-line’, presents a new hard landscaped surface and provides a chronological history of conflict involving the British Armed Forces since the Second World War. The floor of the Memorial itself is located at the end of the Avenue and is elevated above the adjacent landscape plane. An exit plateau provides a space from which the landscape can be appreciated and provides a platform for speeches and commemorations in front of large groups gathered in a purpose made-clearing.
During special occasions it is envisaged that the National Memorial Arboretum will need to accommodate in excess of 2500 visitors. The chamber is the container for the four principal elements forming the Armed Forces Memorial experience. These are the names wall, the sculpture, the shell and the message wall, which are revealed in an ever-changing relationship to each other. The message wall is positioned to provide the visitor with a piece of evocative writing upon exiting the chamber. It is proposed that the piece of text will be commissioned especially for the Armed Forces Memorial from Professor Jeffrey Wainwright who is an eminent writer of remembrance and memorial pieces.

Hardwick Hall Park | Durham

James Ferrero — Thu, 10 Oct 2002 14:22:57 +0000

Set within the grounds of Hardwick Park, this proposal for a new visitor interpretation centre provides a welcome departure from the generic. The form is designed using lessons learned from bridge-building technology; each skeletal sector being clad in corten steel cladding for a naturally protected ‘rust’ finish. A series of Victorian follies are located on strict geometric lines from the House and, in order to avoid ambiguity, the new centre sits as a ‘found’ object in a wooded site, imitating the natural forms such as a seed pod.