The site, though used and populated at certain times of the day and year, had little to engage the user. For most, it was merely a means of getting from point A to point B. The primary goal for this project was to create a space that people would actually use.

Initial attempts at redesigning the site used the dance path in plan and applied it to the site. Areas of the site were then pushed and pulled to create depth and interesting shapes. Unfortunately, the weakness in this method of sculpting the site through dance proved to be its literal application of dance to site. Although visually interesting, it failed to contribute to the site in more than a one-dimensional way.

REGULAR VS. STAGGERED COLUMNS

The design process was then approached in a more site-oriented way. When aspects of the ‘dance experience’ were compared to those same aspects in the ‘existing’ site experience, ideas for how the site could be improved arose. The intention was not to completely change the site, rather to see where the current configuration was lacking and to find ways to improve it.

The overall form for the new design arose from studies relating to tandem movement, specifically how the left and right sides of the body work together in order to walk.

Since the interior space was quite long and relatively narrow, one of the design goals was to widen the buildilng, allowing space for additional programming. The new scheme took the existing column structure that housed the dominant path and created a second row of columns to imitate it. However, inspired by everyday walking movement, this new row of columns was to be off-set from the original. This served to create a larger interior space, allowing for more room for programas well as a covered exterior space.

RECTILINEAR VS. TRAPEZOIDAL

The trapezoidal shapes that emerged from the walk analysis also found their way in to the design of the skylight that bridges the two rows of columns. Because the new design was now double the depth as the previous one, it was necessary to find a way to for sunlight to penetrate into the interior spaces