Sunday 20 October 2013

The Great Gatsby reading room concept

My concept for the brief to design a 'reading space' for the project started with my drawings of the 1920s people. Using ink and water to capture the way their clothes flowed and were tailored. This naturally led me to explore form through material, way of tailoring, pleating, folding and experimenting with materials that had an elastic quality. I decided on creating a room/space that would be raised above all the activity going on downstairs. It represent's Gatsby's constraints in his mind about trying to repeat the past, him living in this delusional world thinking he can do so. This is shown by the elasticity of the material wrapped around the room as if trying to contain the storyteller and the listener. The space focuses down to one point, so if you are the listener you only just about fit in the space while the reader can stand anywhere comfortably. This also shows how the material is wasting space and constraining the area when there is plenty of room left, which is reflecting Gatsby's decadence and ego. There are also quotes in the book where Gatsby is peering out a very high up room in his mansion house, watching people coming and going like moths attracted to light. This led me to create the space into a secret room, isolated above, while there are people dancing and socialising below in contrast. By using lace, a rather delicate yet decadent material, I explored how light filters through and how shadows are created. When the story is being read, there would be constantly changing lights coming from above, so at different parts of the story, the shadow angles and colour of the light would change.



Concept models progression

Final model




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