Princess's proposal: TEA-CLUB

From previous project, site analysis, Pranakorn district is a very conservative district with many regulations and law of how to make any change on buildings. The program would challenge the law and regulation which is night club (very contrast to what it should be). The selected shophouses are the one that connected to the main road and also the back building (no one walk pass unless you live in the soi). The front building would function as a tea house which is very normal, but in order to go to the night club, you have to go to second floor which have a tunnel that connect you to the back building. 

Each floor of the back shophouse would function differently, lounge, transition area, and night club. Atmosphere will gradually change slowly.

I focused most on the night club, normally when you go to night club you will be less-conscious. Therefore, I would like to create that feelings to the extreme, which is to make planes around you become freeform. Walls and floor could act as furniture such as table and chair. The more you go down to the first floor (night club), the more you will be unconscious (according to the modular man, table and chairs will be really hard to use - too low or too high).

Overall axonometric

Front building

Tunnel to the back building

In the first building, material used would be like others normal shophouse which is wood. On the second floor is the entrance to the back building.

As you walk into the back building, third floor, it will be a lounge: stages of desire: curiosity, mystery, desire

As you go into the back building, the atmosphere is still very the same, it is a lounge. Material used would be in concrete cover with leather. Red colour from downstairs would make people want to know whats down there. There are also visual access that you could look down stairs and see some parts of downstairs too.

transition floor, second floor, stages of desire: want to know more

First half of the stairs is very normal but another half is quite hard to walk (need more concentration).

There are two ways to walk down to another floor, one is to another mezzanine and another is the first floor. Stairs that are in front of you as you walk down the stairs to the mezzanine is the one that make you waste time and have to walk back to another stairs to go down to the first floor (mezzanine: very close to the first floor but you can't walk down - hard to reach = want to go down more).

Materials would be hard foam and cover with leather, more soft.

night club, first floor. Stages of desire: unreachable, untouchable, and more desire

Unreachable and untouchable is another stages of desire, when you is on the mezzanine. On the first floor will use a soft sponge and leather which will is very soft and hard to walk or sit on - need lots of concentration. This is the stage of unconscious when you walk in. Stairs are different in height and also lots of curves. This floor will need most concentration on stay.

Exploded axonometric

Yellow colour represent visual access, red colour represent circulation. Stairs are different from each other, the more you are closer to the first floor is the more you need to concentrate while walk down the stairs.

Erotic illustration

Entrance to the front building, tea shop

There would be a red dot that is a hidden sign about the back building. Environment of the teashop would be very old, and traditional.

Entrance to back building, and lounge

 On the entrance to the back building, there will be a button of 'touch' and 'don't touch' (related to the installation). If you touch, the door will be open to the lounge in the back building. A red tunnel would lead you to the lounge of a white,, more modern and clean atmosphere.

visual access and transition floor

The visual access on the third floor (lounge) would make you curious about what's down stairs. Transition floor will have some parts of walls and floor that bulge out and become chairs and tables. Light from downstairs make you become even more curious and want to go downstairs.

Visual diagram showing about the mezzanine that you can't reach the first floor even you are very close to it

First floor, night club, unconscious

Wall, floor and ceiling are bulged out, freeform. The more you go in, the bulge out part is hard to be used (hard to sit, hard to put things on - unconscious (modular man)). Material used are very soft, need more concentration.

Rendered section show differences on each floor

Princess's site research: Pranakorn district

Presentation on Prezi

Princess's model behind the scenes

shophouse's exterior

shophouse's interior

Some photos of shophouse on both the interior and exterior

Columns, column and wall, joints, joints connecting with beam, stairs and floor

Joints and how things are connected.

Model on the final day

Princess's shophouse research: "Possibilities of shophouse spaces"

HR02 from Nattakritta Lertpunyaroj on Vimeo.

This research is focusing on how each area of the house could be use. Each area could function differently.

Princess's documentation and post-analysis on Be Gentle Be Rough

Reflection on the installation
Documentation and post-analysis

Reflection of the installation on the mirror

Bubbles filled with water

Overall, I am happy with my installation. It is fun from the process stage until presenting stage and see the reaction of visitors. By observing visitors' reaction inside the elevator, it is fun see how people react differently to my installation. Some touched them gently, some tickled them just to find out what they are or how bubbles are filled with colours, some squeezed them for fun and some did not react with them at all. This is what I was expected and that make me satisfied with my installation because the fun part and interesting part is to observe people. 

Bubbles with and without colours are squeezed as expected. Visitors see the reflection of the text and made up their mind of which side they are walking toward, be rough or be gentle. They also questioned and wanted to touch and find out what they are. Also, I found out that visitors had fun with my installation and play with it. 

However, due to some unexpected problem with the security camera, I could not get the video of how people react with the installation while I am not in the elevator. It would be wonderful if I had a chance to observe people when they react with my final installation. I still think that the reaction or responses from visitors would not be that different from the experiment. Also, it would be very interesting if the installation are allowed to stay on the site for a longer period of time, maybe a day? so that we could see many reaction from visitors or people who are using the elevator. The results might be surprising, and unexpected. 

Conclude Erotic Interpretation

People define the word ‘erotic’ differently. Most people would relate erotic with sexual desire or excitement. Erotic could also be defined as something that is attractive, passionate and desirable to you and do not have to be related to sex. Anything that is attractive enough to drag you closer and create feelings of wanting to ‘touch’ or find out what they are, could be considered as erotic. However, if those things are forbidden, or unable to reach or touch, it might increase feelings of desire, passion, suspicion, attractiveness to the maximum stage and make that become even more ‘erotic’.

My installation also started from this erotic concept. Bubble wraps, which most people would want to squeeze, are filled with colored water. It emphasizes each bubble and makes them become even more attractive. However, by squeezing them could be interpreted as ‘destroying’ them. Some people would decide not to squeeze no matter how much they want to squeeze them. Personally, I wouldn’t squeeze them because I would like to preserve them and leave them to be pretty as they are. The feelings of wanting to squeeze, but couldn’t is how I think it is related to the definition of erotic.

Princess's installation drawings: Be Gentle Be Rough

Position of the installation in the elevator

Feelings of visitors in different stage (waiting, walking in, staying in the elevator)
Erotic concept related to each stage

The installation was intended to be on the left and right side of the elevator. Bubble wraps are supposed to be the same size as the mirror since I want the installation to be part of the architecture too. They are stuck on the wall with transparent tapes because I want the installation to blend in with the wall as much as possible. Therefore, we could see red bubbles on the shiny silver wall of the elevator. From the experiment I observed, most people walked in and they would look in the mirror first so I used advantage of the reflection of the mirror too. This installation is supposed to reduce stress, kill time in the elevator, and make people happy (just like reaction from experiment video).

As visitors waiting for the elevator, they would feel very normal and steady, but as the elevator's door open I expected them to be surprised of the installation (expected that the visitor didn't know that there is the installation in there). From the experiment, people would look in the mirror first, they might realised that the text are reflected and will be readable from the mirror. As they walked into the elevator, there might be so many questions in their mind. Why? What? How? (Stage1 of erotic concept:desire, passion, curiosity, mystery) The stage when they are locked down in the elevator and waiting for their destination, they might 'want'  to look at them closer and make up their mind of which side they are walking toward, and find out what they are (Stage2 of erotic concept: WANT). I'm pretty sure that finally people would touch bubbles with colours and find out that water in leaking out as they touch them. Now, this is the stage that they have to make up their mind whether they are going to squeeze them or not (Stage3 of erotic concept: unable to squeeze)...

From the experiment, most people would want to squeeze those bubbles and this is the stage that we could observe the visitors (inspired by Marina Abramovic) (Stage4 of erotic concept: desire, passion, curiosity, mystery). Finally, Find out whether visitors are going to do what they want or not, whether they are going to 'preserve' or 'destroy' those bubbles, whether they want to squeeze what are allowed (be rough) or do what are forbidden (be gentle). All of these results are depending on each person, might depend on their experience, their personality and many more. To observe how people react is the funniest part!

Princess's installation development: Be Gentle Be Rough

Erotic and Medium

How I define erotic

 As I defined erotic as something that is unreachable or untouchable, I have to come up with something that is attractive to most of the people. Bubble wrap is one of the things that I think most people can’t resist of touching and squeezing. Others materials might also attractive too, but you’ll be satisfied as you touched it. However, bubble wrap wouldn’t, the more you touch it, the more you want to squeeze it.

 

Bubble wraps have very special properties, there are sounds effects after you squeeze it, and this might be another reason why it is fun to play with. Bubble wrap is firstly used for protecting things inside, but now they are developed in to something else too. It could reduces stress in you. From pictures above, there is an ingenious antistress station in a Milan bus shelter consisting of bubble wrap sheets in three stress relief dosages: 3 minutes, 5 minutes, and 10 minutes.

Site Analysis

Elevator's elevation and perspective

Elevator is the place where I hate in the faculty. I had a very bad experience about it. Being alone in the elevator is what I always wanted to avoid. Since bubble wrap could reduce stress and could create happiness, I would like this place to be the place where I feel fine to stay. It is also the place that you would have nothing to do, just wait. So, the installation could be something that you could play with while you are waiting.

Survey and Experiments

There are some experiment I did to find out how could I make the bubble wrap itself become more attractive and make people want to touch or squeeze.

Firstly, I surveyed people and ask for the bubble size they want to touch or squeeze most between 1cm and 2.5 cm diameter bubbles. Most people voted (30 people) for 2.5cm diameter bubbles because they are "rarer" and looks more fun to squeeze.

I found out that bubble wraps could be more interesting by putting colour into it since they are very plain. I came up with the idea of injecting colours into the bubble by inject needle in the top part of the bubble to prevent them from leaking (colours would come out if they are squeezed). This could make people do not squeeze them even they wanted to-erotic.

Injecting food colour 

Not every type of colours could be injected into the bubbles. I found out that after I injected water colour in, after a while they sink. I tried different types of water colour and finally came up with food colour which do not sink (totally blend in with water).

The First 'Reaction' Experiment

This experiment is mainly about colours, which colour is the most effective and what are reaction of people after seeing this experiment.

I injected each colour into one bubble in each bubble wrap (blue, green, red) and putting them side by side on the mirror in the elevator.

Left part of the diagram is before and after the experiment
Right part of the diagram is how people see the bubble wrap in the exaggerated way

Results, they are all squeezed

The results came out, all bubbles with colour (no matter what colour) are poked and squeezed already. Bubbles with no colours was squeezed too, but not so many. Since the video showed that so many people react with bubble wraps, this means many people touched, tickled, or squeezed them.

The Second 'Reaction' Experiment

This experiment is totally opposite to the previous experiment. All bubbles are filled with colour except one of them. I wanna know whether people are going to squeeze it or not. Also, I want to observe how people react to bubbles with colours.

Left part of the diagram is before
Right part of the diagram is after 

Result came out, bubble without colour is squeezed and other threes bubbles with colours are squeezed. Many people still react to it, but this one seems like people wouldn't want to destroy them. 

Observation

Observation from the security camera, people would react with bubble wrap most when they are with friends , and mostly do not react with it when they are with strangers.

Reflected Be Gentle and Be Rough

From these experiment, people decided not to squeeze bubbles when lots of them are filled with colours no matter how much they wanted to. So, I decided to fill lots of bubbles with colour 'RED' since I think it is the most 'erotic' and the most attractive for me (From first reaction experiment, people did squeezed any bubbles with colours).

Experiment of putting bubble wraps in the elevator
Bubble wraps' size is the same size of the mirror in the elevator

Reflection

In order for the installation to connected to the site - kissing architecture. I decided to put bubble wrap on left and right side of the elevator. People normally walk in and look in the mirror first so I would play with the reflection in the mirror. I decided to make left and right side of bubble wrap different from each other by putting the work "BE GENTLE" and "BE ROUGH" in. Texts have to be reversed so that it could be read easily from the mirror. Also, size of the bubble wrap would be the same size with the mirror because I want my installation to be part of the architecture too.

Making Process

Injecting colours in