living rooms
Part dwelling, colonnade, theatre, forest and city; ‘Living Rooms’ is a measuring device, a playground and a place of discovery. It has no permanent lines of enclosure, but offers an engaging and immersive experience. It is attuned to the impact of our bodies on the environment and spatialises our ecological footprint. It speaks to our past and present and invites us to contemplate our future. It is an instrument that registers climatic variation, and communicates this through oscillation between the haptic and optic. It anticipates a life beyond, through adaptation and reuse. It’s a place for children and the imagination.
Approximating the scale of a large house, the installation contains three spaces that correlate with the average area per inhabitant of a dwelling. The first two volumes offer visitors a direct experience of the expanding scale of our housing from a century ago to the present day. The third space – with an outlook to the garden – provides a setting to engage in dialogue and contemplate our future ecological footprint.
154 steel poles of 45mm diameter make up the field of columns that comprise the ‘Living Rooms’ installation. These are coated with thermochromic paint that changes colour with temperature fluctuation. The heat of direct sunlight or the imprint of a hand touching a pole* will temporarily register through dramatic colour variation. Translucent weather-proof fabric loosely suspended from the structure inscribes three volumes: the first is 6x4.5m – an open lightwell to the sky correlating with the area per person of an average house in 1920; the second is 10.5x7.5 – a compressed horizontal space which correlates with the area per person of an average Australian house today; the third is smaller again – this 6x7.5m space is open on one side oriented towards the garden. It forms a proscenium arch and offers a space to lie on the grass, rest, chat or hold more formalised events.
Offset slightly from the central bluestone paving, the installation is sited to create an expanded threshold between the existing hard and soft landscaping. The past, present and future volumes are positioned to correspond with the morning, afternoon and evening times of the day, while simultaneously forming a backdrop to the Kooning and Moore sculptures. A ground treatment of white river pebbles and fine granulitic filings allows open access from all sides. This change in surface material is modulated to gently encourage visitors to move in sequence from past to present to future, without following a designated path between each of the volumes. The proportion of the overall structure and incorporation of diagonal bracing establishes a dialogue with the NGV building reminiscent of Muir + Openwork’s ‘Doubleground’.
This design has been developed through a collaboration between an architect and a builder and fabricator who specialises in modular construction. A bespoke scaffolding system is proposed that conveys a sense of the provisional; illustrates the construction lifecycle; and is explicitly intended to be repurposed for future use. We have approached the Footscray Community Arts Centre to consider acquiring the installation at the close of the exhibition for ongoing future use as temporary performance and event infrastructure. Other materials – such as the river pebbles – can be returned to suppliers after use. The scaffolding system provides an additional benefit in minimising impact on the existing deck and courtyard garden. It is lightweight, requires minimal footings, is easily adjustable for variations in level, and distributes load evenly across the ground-plane. A prefabricated and kit-of-parts assembly approach has been adopted.The entire installation would be fabricated off site, shortening the bump-in period to approximately 5 days. A high level cost estimate has been prepared confirming that the design would be achievable within the project budget of $250,000 + GST.
*contingent on management of Covid-19 protocols
Project Team: Andrew Simpson, Melany Hayes, Dhanika Kumaheri
Collaborators: Jan Gyrn, David Fantini and Kumar Singh from Modscape