OPEN SITE AND CINEMATIC EXPERIENCES: VOID METABOLISM, URBAN PARTICIPANTS AND THE URBAN LIVING ROOM

The narratives of openness and void metabolism are explored through interventions for a new understanding of 'museum' that foregrounds people and places. The focus on helping people reclaim ownership of the city they live in references Atelier Bow-Wow’s work and explores intimate experiences facilitated by urban interventions through the notion of a ‘living room’. This proposal creates different interpretations of urban living spaces for the community in two social housing complexes. The void metabolic ‘energy’ of the sites is designed though two entities, that of ‘static’ and ‘kinetic’. The Geffrye Estate, designated as ‘static’ contains the cinematic experiences, while Fellows Court, as ‘kinetic’, accommodates a miniature F1 remote control car race. These two contrasting urban experiences create readings of open site to bring people together to regain ownership of spaces between the buildings, as void metabolism suggests. The ‘museum’ is redefined as cinematic experiences, which forms the main focus of the project. This space creates a dialogue between architecture and cinema, community and ownership, built environment and voids. The mix of social and domestic spaces in this urban living room in which films and projections are experienced provides perfect opportunities to reclaim ownership of the voids through program, use and individual experiences.