Summary
Project: Urban pavilion proposal
Location: Alexandria, Egypt
Year: 2012
Client/host: Bibliotheca Alexandrina (The New Library of Alexandria)Type: Urban installation
Scope of involvement: Co-designed in partnership with the founding teammates of 'Encode' studio
Contribution/Responsibilities: Significant role in research, design brief, concept development and schematic design. Assisting in liaising with the client/host, design realization and model assembly.
"Frozen Tone" is an urban pavilion proposed at the plaza of the library of Alexandria. This artistic installation merges architecture, music and mathematics in a solid form, yet interactive with the public.
Music and architecture are two faces of one reality where both lead people to experience the journey of life with time as a main factor in discovering them. Both express values like rhythms, hierarchy and proportions using two different languages. "Frozen Tone" challenges the separation of the two fields by exploring the common mathematical logic embedded in both sides.
The design depends on a mathematical logic that translates musical tones into three dimensional formations, materialized to shape the pavilion. It allows passersby —who will be dragged to inspect the pavilion by its inviting, everchanging form as well as threads of distant sounds coming from integrated built-in speakers— to experience (feel, listen to, and think about) the blended flow of music and architecture.
The materialization of tones was realized by developing the hidden mathematical order of a music "harmonograph" into a solid state via a special programming language that can be used by architects and musicians to generate forms and melodies. This path could lighten up a meeting point for collaboration between architects, musicians, artists and more.
In this way, the project does not only foster and extend the value of multidisciplinary collaboration between architects and artists, but also explores and reinforces the interrelationship of digital design tools with fabrication and assembly methods.
The project investigates the undiscovered potentials of the plaza as an inviting point to interact with the flow of people during a proposed event. It encourages everyone to roundabout arts, swinging with the activity of musicians, artists, vendors and street performers. By creating an informal dynamic and attractive space for people to gather and chat, it unveils the importance of the urban context and emphasizes the significant role of the plaza as a vibrant public place that promotes culture, history, architecture and music.
A model of the pavilion was featured at the 2012 'Design is a Verb' exhibition in Bibliotheca Alexandrina, as one of the items of the booth assigned to display the works of our newly established studio by that time, Encode. The aim of this exhibition, which I also helped set up, was to offer an opportunity to discover and support future artists and promising Egyptian talents, who would enrich the artistic movement, and to bring the companies searching for new creative and innovative designs together with these talented designers.
The model of the project was exhibited in 'Design is a verb' exhibition, held at Bibliotheca Alexandrina in 2012
