Shifting Planes
Dance Practice Spaces For a K-Pop Dance Company
RISD ARCH 2101, Making of Design Principles, Fall 2020, Project 2
This structure conforms to a grid system created by the lines converging to the Providence Performing Arts Center (PPAC). These converging lines shift whenever they intersect with the imaginary lines derived from four streets between the two sites, creating shifted planes in plan.
Left: Ground Level
Middle: 2nd Level
Right: 3rd, 3.5, 4th Level
Program
Thresholds
The shifted planes create thresholds that inhabitants go through to enter or exit out of spaces.
Threshold 1
Threshold 2
Threshold 3
Threshold 4
Privileged vs. Unprivileged Views
The shifting also happens in section. The shifted planes in section manipulate privileged and unprivileged views from the interior. These shifted levels create little slots that introduce only the light into space from the Southwest side of the structure where the structure has unprivileged views of the parking garage. Whereas on the Northeast side of the structure, apertures extend to the full size taking advantage of the privileged views of the river.
Full-sized apertures on the Northeast side for the privileged views
Slots and opaque channel glasses on the Southwest side for the light
Light from the south entering the rehearsal space through the slot
"Slot Canyons"
Leftover spaces in between programs on each level are for circulations and communal uses. They provide experiences of slipping through shifted planes.
Where Does a Space Start and End?; Undefined Boundaries of the Spaces
The boundary and the limit of spaces remain ambiguous and undefined in this structure. Unlike any other conventional buildings, this structure sub-divides spaces by shifting planes rather than dividing them by building solid walls on the boundary of spaces.
