Design Engine » Culture

Wessex Academy | Winchester

James Ferrero — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 15:58:22 +0000

The Wessex Academy is a dance-based alternative learning programme designed to engage, and reframe the attitudes and behaviour of young offenders and people at risk of offending. It is modelled on an intensive and demanding contemporary dance training programme set in a professional dance training environment.
While it is delightful when participants go on to further their dance education – as has happened – the main focus of the work is on the cultivation of transferrable skills and attitudes and a new sense of belief in self and others. It is the achievement of this shift in an individual’s sense of their own potential and power to change their lives that lies at the heart of Wessex Academy.

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.

UoW Arts Faculty Studios | Winchester

James Ferrero — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 15:08:37 +0000

This project, Design Engine’s fourth major collaboration with the University of Winchester, is a 11,000 sqft arts faculty building. Sitting in a natural bowl, the three-storey centre is linked to other parts of the faculty and consists principally of voluminous dance studios with break-out communal areas between them. The budget of £1.8m was a demanding one for such accommodation and the project was constructed through a design and build procurement route in six months; with Design Engine providing full information before acting as Employer’s Agent for the contract.

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.

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.

Hill Close Gardens | Warwick

James Ferrero — Sat, 01 May 2004 14:21:14 +0000

Won in national competition in 2002, this visitor and resource centre is set within the historically significant Hill Close Gardens in central Warwick, the site of Victorian pleasure gardens. The Centre will provide information on the history of the Gardens and will put their unique place in British society into context via creative educational programmes for adults and children alike. The project is part funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and it is anticipated that the gardens will form part of network of public open gardens in the region.

John Stripe Lecture Theatre | Winchester

James Ferrero — Fri, 04 Jul 2003 14:24:51 +0000

This project demonstrates the opportunities presented by even the most unpromising 1970s campus architecture through radical transformation. Phase 1 was a cost-effective remodeling and refurbishment of the auditorium, shifting the emphasis from theatre to lectures and conferences. Phase 2 involved the addition of a new first floor for teaching space and seminar rooms. The two floors are linked by an impressive new stair-well, daylit from a structural glass rooflight above. This punctures the grass roof over the new building, acting as a lightweight sculptural element when viewed from the upper terraces of the University of Winchester campus.

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.