The gallery can be approached either form the north or south ends of King Street and provides equal level of access due to its centralized plan.

Graffiti art is not limited in terms of drawing media, message, meaning, context or place. Even though originating from the streets as a means of rebellion against certain events, or just as a way of expressing ones views, elaborated works created in a controlled environment (the artist not working under the threat of being arrested, attacked or whatsoever, considering the illegal nature of graffiti)

can be equally impressive as some classical drawings in terms of intricacy, detail and feeling.

Black Conran

Above; Mixed media on wood

'Product brother can you spare a dime' ; mixed media on canvas

Black Le Rat; 'Product man who walks through walls';

Banksy - stencil; Israel.

The following images show how an old warehouse is turned into a graffiti art gallery, without extracting the works into sterile rooms, but preserving the urban context they were created for and on.

The atrium of one of the buildings in Jubilee Campus, University of Nottingham, UK exploits the idea of creating an inner street, a gathering place, protected from the elements, but still giving the feeling of being outside, of openness and space.

Steven Holl's Nanjing Museum was inspirational for me in terms of lightness and structure. It blurs the boundary between outside and inside through its fabric and slenderness, yet providing shelter.

Concept

Creating a gallery for graffiti art should consider the nature of the art that is going to be exhibited. Being a street art, graffiti belong to the urban context and should not be extracted from it. The art gallery should bring the atmosphere of the street inside and blend with it. Semi transparent and thin walls are to be used in order to create the link between inside and outside, letting the light and the noise to penetrate the building. The plan should be simple and intuitive, but in the same time it should control the movement, just as a street does; there should be directionality and certain pattern just as in urban planning. The gallery is providing not only exhibition space, but also a workshop to stimulate local artists.

The area is characterized by numerous graffiti, a clear indication of the young spirit of the place and the vivid community living there.

A more rigorous massing study of the location, clearly shows that in 2 blocks from the site no building is higher than 12-14m, which one more time confirms the top constraint i defined previously.

Site three is 16m in width which will be a major consideration for the design of the building having in mind the 12m restriction of the front façade. The neighbouring buildings are 8m and 12m in height, so this will be the top constraint of the proposed design.

King Street, Newtown, Sydney is a vivid area with a rich history and diverse culture. I chose site three, which can be approached either from the north or from the south by bus (373, 412) by foot (the area is famous for its shops, restaurants and caffees).

Works of the Strand Bridge (taken in the Year 1815).
Drawn by Edw. Blore. Engraved by George Cooke. Jan. 1, 1817

For inspiration I focused on architecture like Diller and Scofidio's 'Church of Solitude'

The structure of the proposed building is comprised of timber frame, supposedly some of which built with random materials collected by the inhabitant. The spherical structure of the main volumes is chosen specifically to resist the earth pressure and to provide maximum space without columns and beams. It also enables easy expansion, which is crucial for the way of life of the Old Drinker.

The site is located in an industrial area near the docklands of Nottingham, UK.

This location will provide the Old Drinker with constant supply of different discarded goods from the nearby docks and different opportunities for expanding his 'burrow'.

Room and Narrative

There he was staring at me with his watery eyes. His clothes were tattered, his face unshaved. His left hand was holding a shiny pewter jar, his right hand a snow-white Gouda pipe; sitting on his chair, leaning to the right on an oak cask, looking as, if he was not there. And ‘there’ was a strange place – a dark room, maybe a basement, maybe another world, with wooden walls and barely any decoration, except for an earthen jug and a small writing board, both hung on the wall behind him.

This burrow, he was staying in, was more like a retreat from the clean world above him, an escape from the condemnation of his being. An elaborate safe house, just as the one he was entering into, through the shiny pewter jar. But once there, everything was fine, no worries, no cries. A warm and welcoming place, where to forget all he didn’t want to remember, where to deprive himself from everything he didn’t want to know; hidden deep, where no one could reach him, where no one could teach him.

Built for him and by him, it was somehow strange and mysterious like his owner. A level further down reveals more and more spaces; tunnels leading to different sites and rooms especially carved in the earth for his needs.

An underground safe house, made by and for an old drinker – an expanding place, ever changing and ever growing with its inhabitant’s needs and interests.

Villa Muller - Model Pictures