Architecture - Honours

Muscari Hall of Democracy

Muscari Hall of Democracy involves connection between indoor and outdoor to prevent users from feeling as if they are in a sterile and mundane space. With greenery being visually seen throughout the entire building, users are provided with the sense of connection to nature, which allows them to watch nature grow and flourish around them, metaphorically like their growth of knowledge on politics.

JoEn So

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SITE CONTEXT

The abundance of greenery in this project draws inspiration from neighboring sites such as the Brisbane City Botanical Gardens, The Queens Wharf complex and hanging flora on P Block in Queensland University of Technology. Other than that, materials such as concrete walls is inspired by the concrete cubed effect from QPAC in South Brisbane. This in a way creates a connection between the surrounding context and the building giving it an identity to represent Brisbane as a whole.

about DEMOCRACY

The main democratic themes revolving around Muscari Hall of Democracy are flexibility, adaptability, and transparency. The connections to these main themes are unified and expressed throughout the building form. The form of the building has been dissected into separate sections that represent three human senses of sight, hearing, and touching. The combination of these processes is represented in areas such as the interactive space, the library, education hub, people senate chamber, and the computer lab. These spaces allow users to discover and learn through speaking or listening to public debates, interacting through technology, or viewing the live stream of the debates and political, educational, economical, health, and environmental news.

The democratic system envisioned for the Muscari Hall of Democracy includes flexibility to accept changes from around the world and adapt to positive international, national and local conditions. These changes can relate to environmental issues such as climate change, social issues such as inequality of ages, races, and sexes, education, and technological advancements. The principles of a flexible government through the inclusion of a people senate would be an organization that capitalizes on diversity dividend through the enabling of inclusion and acceptance of individuals.

This encourages flexible work, diversity of people, and spaces. Another principle would be transparency in the process of governance such as honesty in upcoming policies and open to diverse ideas, which in turn creates innovation through collaboration. By maintaining a flexible environment and having the ability to adapt to the rapidly changing world, the nation of Australia would be able to sustainably advance in the future.

exterior renders

MATERIAL

The use of materials such as concrete, copper, and cobblestone facades provides more raw materials that weather throughout the ageing process, creating a literal urban jungle within the city that connects people with their want to establish a robust, transparent, flexible, and adaptable form of democracy. This new form of democracy aims to establish a civic building for the community within Brisbane.

FLOOR PLANS

SECTIONS

ELEVATIONS

INTERIOR RENDERS

Within the interactive area, people would be able to view live stream debates, watch recordings, lodge votes, and encounter individuals with similar or opposing ideologies, which will allow them to form their own opinions. These opinions can be discovered and formed throughout the learning section of the building with educational and historical books within the library, or collaboration tutorials where individuals can share and form opinions on issues or policies discussed within the people senate debates. The process of growing and learning is represented through the abundance of greenery and vining plants allow the columns. As people begin to further engage within the democratic system, a more positive future will be sustained.

LUXFER GLASS

PHYSICAL MODEL PHOTOS

Technical Documentation set for this project:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1KEiTDZnRiYjp634uc6fRGoQZxQ8J5flu?usp=sharing

JoEn So

JoEn So is an architecture student doing construction management as a second major. She approaches every project with a creative and open mind because she believes flexibility is key to problem solving to achieve a beautiful space. With the construction management experience, JoEn enjoys understanding how buildings are put together and working on construction drawings.