TU Delft MSc Graduation Project | London, UK | 2007
The Dream Factory
Designed by Auzie Triratnamurti
The City and the Dream Image
Dreaming is the subjective experience of imaginary images. A dream image is a mental image constructed by imagination, which can be developed from reality, or being transformed from experienced reality.
The idea of my mapping research is to project the experience of urban reality into a construction of imaginary (dream) image. The research maps three street junctions of Central London: Tottenham Court Road, Cambridge Circus, and Trafalgar Square. They are common yet very specific places in the center of the city, which have the highest congestion of experiential social activities. They are interrelated in one linear line of a main street, yet they have their own different visual image and character.
From the visual image of these places, the reconstruction of spatial experience breaks down into layers of: the site, the built objects, the activity objects. Each layer of object is translated into different visual language interpretation, according to its special character. The visual images of the buildings are projected along the linear, curving, or conjunction geographical map of the site. This generates a dialectical image between the buildings and the site.
The Dream Incubators
The design project is derived from the mapping research by several points of view. The programmatic function of the building is obtained from the essential human activity in environment that insinuates the creation of dreams, that is, in forms of dream incubators. The activity of dreaming here is then closely associated to the process of rest, relax, rejuvenate, and amuse. These incubators are assembled into one assortment called the Dream Factory, a sanctuary for a retreat in the city, a building designed for public use of recreation and relaxation in the city of London. A place to discover a different atmosphere out of the frantic ordinary city environment for a quick or long break of self-indulging, without having to get out of the city.
The construction of the dream image from the mapping continued the process of retransformation and projection of the reconstructed geometrical image onto another area in London, Canary Wharf. This area communicates with the idea of the centre point of intersections, geographically and from the perspective of human interaction and activities. The spirit of the site located before the embankment of the Thames River gives the value of nature that becomes a power to heal and to recreate. As a centre of business, the area performs a dynamic activity that coincide the experiential social activities found in the three street junctions of Central London. The composition of the building and the site is developed by the tracing lines of the mapping and forms of the surroundings with the main orientation of a parallel line to the street and the river. The constructed dream image from Central London is traced and projected on this area that becomes another centre of London.