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The site is on Oxford St, Darlinghurst at the corner of Verona St. Orginially, it is the Berkelouw Bookstore. This proximately 5m x 20m rectangular 3-story building block is attached to a resident building. Across Verona St, it's a slightly higher 3-story commercial building which can block direct sunlight from the North in the afternoon. It creates an natural advantage for the lighting of the gallery which is clearly shown on the sitellite map above. Locating between the National Art School and the College of Fine Arts brings attention from the same field. Moreover, Oxford St as one of Sydney's most bustling streets is famous for its open-mind style. So lots of young designers and artists have set up their shops and galleries there. The Verona St corner is which I think the perfect spot for the gallery I'm building because it's not isolated or disturbing from the rest.
Vermeer considered this painting as his self-portrait (though the painter in it is not himself).Let's take a close look at the two figures in the painting, the young woman and the painter. Judging by the book (possibly Thucydides) and trumpet she's holding and the laurel wreath she's wearing, there is a very good chance that she is the muse of history, Clio. Which makes her a goddess. It's acturally not hard to tell from her body language. The painter on the other hand is unrecognised which is just like Vermeer himself. Superficially, the perspective tells us the focal point is towards the young woman, but the using of darker tone on the painter's cloth acturally emphasised him. As a painter, Vermeer worked slowly and with great care, therefore, he's 'relatively unproductive'. This reminds me the life story of Van Gogh (who lives after Vermeer's time) who died in early ages and not appreciated untill after his death. Vermeer was a young talented painter when he produced this painting. Combining the life story of Vermeer and this portrait, it inspired me of a narrative: A young talented painter seeking for recognition and appreciation by the public.
For Villa Muller, it is identified that Adolf Loo was trying to balance symmetrics and assymmetrics, complex level changes and rigid structural rack, service space and main activity area for the families. These three parti diagrams work as a set without further demonstration in words which we were taught how successful partis worked. So I was putting efforts towards that direction. However, allow me to repeat here. First one up on the left-hand side shows the main supportings of the villa, aligned by the edges of balconies and centred, moreover, three out of four were hidden in walls. Next one on the bottom is showing how the circulations of the site and the interior levels go. Villa Muller was located in a very advanced position, surrounded by great views towards the city and the castle. From the landscape to the inside, the levels went up slightly and spirally around the "spine" which is shown in the top parti. -It is also a great experience for myself to work out all the tricks in Villa Muller through group model-making and individual analysing.- The rest of the four partis clearly illustrated the main contrast between the service space and the living space, the access stairs and the rooms, seperate located staircases for different functions and the interelationship among all of the above. We all know that Villa Muller is the most complex building out of those villas. What I was trying to achieved here is to draw the 3-D within the 2-D. With a bit of rendering of light, it gives us an impression of how deep the rooms and the corridors are, how thick the walls are.
