Project Description

Rhythms of Control is about how the discipline of architecture can alter man's emotions to turn what could feel like being trapped into one of absolute freedom. My final project wasn't really about architecture as structure and as a place to spend time in; it was about architecture as psychological machine that controls how one moves and feels through a carefully orchestrated progression. This journey progresses from tight control to monotonous repetition, to breaking apart via distortion and finally through breaking into an openness to freedom.

It starts by walking into the small concrete halls; the heavy concrete makes one feel as if they are confined in a cage and this shows a controlling rigid system that makes all citizens behave according to one law. Following the journey inwards, the perfectly straight walls begin to crack, twist and bend, this represents the breakdown of the controlling system and the freedom it's losing. The materials used also convey the feeling that one may experience. These were a heavy, raw concrete and dark steel to make the space feel intimidating, cold and strong. Also the use of dark smoked glass was to keep the sense of looking outwards, to create loneliness and confinement.

At the final part of the space the heavy concrete roof cracks in a sharp, fractured manner, opening to expose light and revealing mist which has accumulated on the floor within the space creating a transition from a stark, solid concrete room into something of a free flowing, bright sanctuary. Therefore my project is showing that one can't just discover true freedom but a long, overpowering process that can only be realized after a complete system of control and entrapment has shattered.