JIARONG LI
This project is design a spatial intervention that enlivens Melbourne’s Living Museum of the West. My design is an animal habitat, allowing the animals in the river to have a shelter to achieve coexistence with humans.
Antidote
-2022
Dolphin’s Return
Created by local artist Tom Bolland and commissioned by George Seelaf, the statue conveys a sense of inner closeness. It is believed that dolphins once frequented the river but left as blood from meat processing poisoned the water, but cruise ships and locals who frequent the river still see dolphins traveling on rare occasions. Ultimately, this statue was created to inspire people to care and protect the environment.
Sketch drawing
After some research I changed my design to a suspended building close to the shore. I designed it as a sphere to echo my model's closeness of heart. And on the bottom, I designed some artificial reef habitats that echo my model wreckage. However, there is a big problem with the size of the design. The buoyancy of the water surface cannot support the building and the design is too monotonous.After some feedback and suggestions, I changed my blueprint again. To try out more possibilities I designed two different shapes of buildings. The shape of the leaves is to echo the design concept of being close to nature, while the shape of the butterfly cicada chrysalis is to show a feeling of being embraced by nature. It makes people feel warm and close. The location of the two sketches on the riverbank is not close to reality and the artificial reef underwater does not reflect the design sense.
I modified the riverbank to the correct line and added a load bearing column to the water structure. But the place for the magnifying glass was too obtrusive so I changed it again. I split them up to make the underwater reef feel more like pieces. And also added pillars for birds to rest.
Digital model
After determining the basic design direction I started modeling in rhino. I first designed the pavilion for the water part. But I haven't figured out how to design the interior of the pavilion. I also need to add a door to the pavilion. And my load-bearing design seems very complex overall. At the beginning, I designed some complete artificial reefs and placed them on the bottom of the river without breaking them into pieces. But in order to better echo the design concept of the wreckage, I broke them up and scattered them on the bottom of the river.
Antidote
The very first design of my water building was a rectangle, which misunderstood the direction of the entrance and was not very aesthetic. Then I changed the whole building to a low-to-high slope design. At the same time, due to my problem with the calculation of the height of the river bank, the height of the whole building is very high and it is very far from the ground. So I adjusted the overall height again to make it more realistic. And for the sake of beauty and not occupying an area, the staircase is adjusted to a spiral staircase.
