Experiments to find a new design perspective

The Interior Garden is a spatial design for a landscape garden on the Spree island in the centre of Berlin. Its design is based on the perception of the spectator. Unlike the views from above and from the side often used in design education, I employed perspective and drew on personal experience during the design process. In the search for a fourth dimension I developed a spatial model in which different sequences in time and space are visually bound together.

My final year research project steps off from a non-hierarchical space assembled from many layers, or networks, which are in fact linked by the spectator. At its core is the assumption that the centre of perception is actually the viewing point of the spectator, literally in the body. Aided by personal and spatial experiments I looked for a way of using the 'viewing point' during the design process, intuitively as well as along more rational lines.

During the design process I used a three-dimensional AutoCAD model with photos of the site. First of all I made perspective sketches of the design at eye-level, with the AutoCAD model serving as an underlay. These sketches then served as the basis for the first scale models. I further explored the 'flat' sketches, which themselves have a suggestion of three-dimensionality, in the scale models. The three-dimensional model enabled me to connect the different perspectives in space. I then developed the scale model (which gradually took over from the drawings) up to and including the materials. Lastly, I began making new drawings as the process drew to a close. These later drawings were necessary to flesh out the garden down to a small scale. Using sections, plans, elevations, details, a water plan and a lighting system, I created a garden design with a great physical cohesion down to the smallest detail.
In this project I have sounded out personal limits as well as those of the educational system. These dynamic times demand more than a static, linear approach to space.

Place of education: TU Delft
Specialization: architecture
Tutors: Oscar Rommens, Marc Schoonderbeek, Age Albers