This week was the Interim presentation which an informal presentation by the four tutorial groups whose focus is the Digital aspect of architecture. After unsuccessful attempts to model my ideas in Sketch-up and through sketches I decided the only way to explore my idea further was to make a physical model. I also looked at my theme and put together a presentation that explained to people who had not seen my design before, how I had arrived at my concept.

This week I began bringing my ideas together and explored how I might bring this feeling of ‘leaping into the void’, fear and the sense of the unexpected into reality. I looked at works from Salvador Dali and M.C. Escher and began sketching ideas. I tried to explore these ideas in Sketch-up but as a group we found that the program had some limitations and my limited knowledge meant my idea could not be fully expressed. Our tutor suggested we all learn Form Z, another 3D program would help us to better express our non-conventional ideas for this cliff-hanger.

After sharing my ideas with the group and my tutor, it was suggested I visit the Royal National Park in the south of Sydney as there were cliffs which were dramatic enough to match my ideas. I was looking for a cliff which evoked fear and had a steep, sharp and vertical face. The cliffs I found in the national park after a 20min walk through bushland produced exactly that response and I found the perfect site, a precarious outcrop with a sense of the dramatic. Fear is overwhelming when you explore the cliff top and realise you have been standing on a thin sandstone ledge over the ocean.

The first week of the semester has been an introduction to the theme of the project, which, for four of the tutorial groups, is ‘Cliff-hanger’. The studio is based on the exploration of ‘an architectonical problem where gravity, horizon, vertical/horizontal, space and volume are challenged another way’.

The task for the first week was to start considering this theme and to derive some inspiration which could then be used to develop an architectural solution. I visited some cliffs around Sydney; Mona Vale headland, Long Reef Headland & North Head but none provided me with any real inspiration. I then looked at images, artworks and architecture looking for a direction. What caught my interest was the photo ‘Leap into the void’ by Yves Klein. This image immediately provided a direct emotional response and inspiration.

The other part to this studio is the Digital aspect. Our group did not need extensive prior experience with 3D programs, so the other task for the week was to begin to learn Sketch-up. I made some simple 3D models to begin to understand the software.