BOWLING ALLEY/BLACK BOX THEATER
[GraduateDesign 1, Instructor: Ginis]
Under construction...
The conflating of the bowling alley with the black box theater was to provide an exercise in reconciling two very different, almost conflicting, programs. Although very different, the two share an underlying connection in the act of performance. The rub lies in the spatial qualities latent in both acts of performance.
The bowling game is a strictly linear strip of space with zones along its length designated for watching, performing, and mechanistic repetition. The black box theater is most often a centralized space with an act happening around which an audience watches. Varying degrees of spontaneity ingrained in the experimental theater associated with black boxes means that there are often setups which disrupt the audience/performer dichotomy, although the centrality is most always maintained.
The project aimed to use the linearity (the strict formal regulation that bowling equipment carries with it) and modulate that to accomodate the more malleable theater. The result is a series of folded and woven linear planes which compress and expand relative to where program requires it. The extended planes of the bowling alley allow the black box to nestle above the social area of the alley's bar, acoustically separate, but formally integrated. The entries are segregated, although voyeuristic glimpses of both activities are given through varying opacities on the skin of the building.
