This blog post was wriiten by Shape my City participant Martha Eustace
The session began with an exploration of the words ‘fun’ and
‘palace’. Some of the responses to the word fun included ‘letting go’, ‘being
childish’ and ‘laughing’. For ‘palace’, the words ‘grand’, ‘opulent’ and
‘secret tunnels’ came to mind. Following on from this, Scott spoke to us about
his artist practice, telling us that he is very much a public artist who
thrives on collaboration and interactivity with people in the work he produces.
We were then presented with our brief for the week: Design
your own Fun Palace. There was, however, an added element to this week’s brief,
that we were going to be able to actually construct our designs and display
them at the Architecture Centre’s 20th birthday party (a festival style
street party on the harbourside). Once we had been given our site, a space on
the harbour side opposite the Centre which included a bench and a bin, we set
about designing our palaces in small groups.
On the 24th of September, Shape My City met up
again at the Architecture Centre, and began to build our installation. This
involved an amalgamation of all our ideas into one giant structure that would
allow the public to interact both creatively and physically with our artwork.
After some discussion, the group decided on a long, triangular tunnel, which
would be lined with netting and bubble wrap, leading up to an enclosed area
where people could spend some time illustrating what their ‘Fun Palace’ would
be. We split into two groups, and one built the bamboo bubble wrap tunnel
whilst the other produced a series of cardboard and bamboo screens.
Finally, on the 25th of September, the Fun Palace
was constructed by the harbourside in front of the Architecture Centre. The
tunnel was transferred from the first floor of the centre to the harbour side
out of the window, as the screens were folded up and carried outside. Despite
the rain and wind, the Shape My City group managed to produce a net covered
bamboo tunnel, complete with bubble wrap floor and a string of lanterns and
fairy lights.
This led to a gazebo clad in our very own cardboard screens,
which encompassed a bubble-wrapped bin. We created a making space for children
and families, who helped embellish our fun palace structure. Throughout the day
we saw the playful interaction between people and our structure, and saw the
responses to our fun palace documented all over the cardboard screens. As a group we
managed to create our very first simple piece of architecture based on our own
models and ideas, and also learnt the value of creative public interaction to
architecture.
Reflecting
on the process artist Scott said: ‘I am so
proud of the young people. They worked so hard - collectively, imaginatively
and with great spirit - I was so impressed with their positive and calm
approach to the design and making of the Fun Palace, to their will to make
something special happen (despite the ridiculous - but amazing weather at
times) and in their warm encounters with the public - of which there were many.
It was really a most enterprising and inspiring experience for me’.
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