COMMA

Prologue

Sometimes we think too much about the past and the future that we forget about the present. If we think about a pendulum, it is similar to human’s life cycle, moving back and forward constantly, mimicking our repetitive life. If we think about Newton’s Cradle, swinging five metal spheres instead of one, the metal sphere will physically clash to the next ball, to the next ball, to the next ball... and move back and forward just like a singular metal sphere.

Though the motion is the same, having five metal spheres engaging with each other shows the process of how each individual action contributes to the collective motion of the greater whole. When focusing on the centre sphere, it will visually remain in pause, however it actually contains the maximum kinetic energy. We, and our surroundings are in constant motion, however we often do not notice the activity transpiring around us

““Everything the Power of the World does is done in a circle. The sky is round, and I have heard that the earth is round like a ball, and so are the stars. ... The sun comes forth and goes down in a circle. The moon does the same, and both are round. Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always come back again to where they were. The life of a man is a circle from childhood to childhood, and so it is in everything where power moves. (Black Elk)”

Aim/Objective

Comma is an architectural proposal to draw attention to the most seemingly still moments, the forgotten moments to deliver a message of awareness of the present by offering unexpected moments in the heart of the city. By being placed next to Toronto’s Old City Hall and the New City Hall, this proposal situates itself amongst the city’s historical past yet aims to disrupt our repetitive daily lives and draw us into the possibility of the present moments.

The idea of this thesis proposal is to connect people to the forgotten moments, the present, and offer a chance to be conscious of what is happening now from the scale of the neighbourhood to the global world.

Narrative Development

The narrative of the project was inspired and developed from a film, Snowpiercer. This film carries speculative design narrative consisting of extreme climate change, a post-apocalyptic ice-age, and faces the last hope of humanity in a supertrain. The tail section is where people with no power are gathered. For freedom, people from the tail section fight to move forward to the head section in order to control the Sacred Engine.

“There is something I look at every New Year. A crashed airplane buried under the snow. All I saw 10 years ago was the tail. Now the body and wings are peeking out. Less ice and snow means... (Song Kang-ho).”

During the movie, there is a scene where the actor, Song Kang-ho, looks out the window. Here, as the snow levels diminish outside and the body of a stationary airplane is revealed, he reaches the realization that survival is not dependent on gaining control of the engine, but can now be actualized in the external environment. 

This thesis asserts that people/commuters move throughout the city inattentively like the trapped people in the film, unaware of the surrounding environment, and proposes that an unanticipated architectural intervention rouses people back into the present.

Target Audience

Considering the type of commuters of the surrounding environment, this thesis proposal targets three groups of people: Random passers by voyeurs, inhabitants of the surrounding building looking out, and the users - unexpected learners

Engagement

People who are randomly passing by may meet unusual moments, such as the sinkhole, where you can see the underground park and people levitating from the lift.

For those who engages with the building, the building becomes a space for those to collectively engage in current issues around the world. Comma provides an opportunity to create conversation, share ideas and learn from the diversity that our city holds and to hear stories from the colourful lives of each individual. The main programs of the building that allow for these engagement to happen between users are from:

The Pop-Up Orb –environmental response retail shop, the Adventure Orb – where ideas and information are shared, the Creative Orb – an exhibition space that shows and displays different approached to global issues and the Observation Orb – a space which deals with the immediate environment.

Comma Organization

The proposal consists an adaptable program that deals with current issues and will be run through a hypothetical organization called Comma.  The responsibility of this organization is to carefully review the activities that occur in the adaptable spaces of the building to ensure public safety. The current proposal is imagined as an environmental proposal.

Pop-up Orb

The first orb is the Pop-up orb. Briefly, it is an environmental response retail pop-up shop. The space of this orb is imagined to be filled by a selected team or company that deals with the current environmental issue. From a design perspective, the space is entirely empty and is visioned to be designed from the selected company and the organization, by discussing the design together to offer consumers to not only to buy products, but also educate the unexpected learners where the product is coming from, and what is happening around the world.

Adventure Orb

The second orb is the Adventure orb. The adventure orb accommodates an auditorium, public lounge/hologram and an outdoor platform where it meets the hot air balloon. The purpose of the space is about sharing and exchanging information. The auditorium is designed for the public where performances and speeches (such as TED Talk) from multi-disciplinary that responses to the current environmental theme. The idea behind is that the structure avoids to hold a stance, but leaves it to the users to observe and listen to diverse perspectives of the current theme.

The centre section is an open space where the hologram plays a strong role. The hologram projects a globe, and as the user approaches it and clicks or points a certain space, it projects information on the curved wall of the specific place speaking about what is happening at that space responding to the current theme.

Creative Orb

The third orb is the Creative orb. It cannot be accessed directly from any of the tube that meets the ground level. In other words, it is designed with a purpose to be allowed being entered after you meet one of the experiences of any of the orb. Before the exhibition space frames one’s idea, the creative orb is designed for prototype exhibition space that responses to the current theme with hypothetical approaches.

Observation Orb

The orb on the very top is the Observation orb. The observation orb deals with the immediate surrounding of the site. Furthermore, the hot air balloon will be introduced here. The observation orb is an immediate response of the surrounding site. In other words, it is an immediate simulator of the future landscape showing the two objective perspective of the current theme.

The hot air balloon is similar, but slightly different. Every 15 minutes, when the Old City Hall rings, the hot air balloon will come back from a loop, where the journey of the path will dependent on the current theme. While on your journey from the hot air balloon, you will be given a goggle that is programmed based on data that is collected from the Comma organization. The goggle will simulate a measurement of the current environmental issue, such as the air quality of the immediate surrounding.

Comma Tube Lift

The structure has multiple entrances to allow the dramatic experiences for unexpected learners. The lift is considered to offer equal and special opportunity of moments for each individual with no discrimination. The lift is inspired by an existing lift designed from Korea, called Neri-go Lift. Comma Tube Lift speculates an advance version of the existing lift that simply responses on the user's weight by stepping on the platform which allows you to move and circulate around the structure. The purpose of the lift is evacuating from emergency conditions, such as fire emergency by being free of any power, not requiring electricity.  The project imagines a building with no fire escape stairwells (not accessible) and relies on Comma tube lifts (accessible) to evacuate the structure during emergency situations.