Jonathan Michael DaviesBDesArch(Allied Arts in Architecture)(Hons1 + Medal)

IndexCentre for Hydroponics - Venice3DS Max, Photoshop + AutoCAD. Semester 2, 2008.

Campus Redevelopment - APHS, ParramattaArchiCAD, Photoshop + physical modelling. Semester 1, 2009.

Accommodating Permaculture - WoolloomoolooArchiCAD, Photoshop + physical modelling. Semester 2, 2009.

Re-Naturing Spaces - La PerouseArchiCAD, Photoshop + physical modelling. Semester 1, 2010.

The Misplaced Piano - MelbourneFinal Cut Pro. Semester 2, 2010.

Theatre of the Experiential - PragueArchiCAD, Photoshop, photography + physical modelling. Semester 2, 2010.

eye of the beholder confronting the silhouette embracing the void vivisection programmatic axonometric exploded axonometric Scout Hall Redevelopment - North Epping ArchiCAD, Photoshop, physical modelling. Semester 2, 2010.

annotated structural model constructional detail The Seagull - Chekhov’s Existential Sobriety and Experiential SubjectivityArchiCAD, AutoCAD, Photoshop, Rhino, photography + physical modelling. 2011.

interiority site plan development of St Michael’s College studies of illumination interior of the chapel the path of the ‘knight of faith’ circulatory axonometric unfolded section of the intervention

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Centre for Hydroponics - Venice

The nature of this project was such of programmatic freedom; provided with a city for context, one simply had to justify one’s choice of brief. Identifying an absence of arable land and low levels of local agriculture within the context of Venice, I chose to direct my project along sustainable lines. To re-engage Venetians with a form of permaculture suited to their city, I proposed the development of a hydroponic centre that would simultaneously grow fresh produce and filter the lagoon’s water.

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Site plan.

South elevation.

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Site section.

Campus Redevelopment - APHS, Parramatta

Redeveloping a high school campus involved consultation with staff and students to ensure the precedent of social sustainability: to respond to the real needs of the school, we had to establish a dialogue with its population. Identifying the library as a potential academic and social hub for the campus, I developed a design proposal for the library space articulated a strong entrance to the school campus. Centred around a courtyard, a tree planted in its middle, the library was to be a volume which functioned as a repository of academic materials and a flexible teaching and social space.

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Ground floor plan.

First floor plan.

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Second floor plan.

Library section.

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Accommodating Permaculture - Woolloomooloo

This co-housing brief demanded the integration of a useful community space into a residential development accommodating three families with very different needs. Thus, a primary consideration in my programming of the site was the introduction of communal allotments and a space that could be used as a toolshed or market space constructed from earth excavated during the construction process. Applying a hyper-rational approach to form derivation, the design is a direct response to the physical conditions of the site.

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Re-Natured Spaces - La Perouse

Presented with a site that was both culturally sensitive, a sacred site and graveyard to indigenous Australians, and unspoilt by human habitation was a challenge of contradiction: that it should be developed to service a golf course (with an existing, perfectly adequate, clubhouse) was insulting. Convinced the brief was inadequate, I - with the encouragement of my tutor - developed my own response to the site.

The emphasis was to be put on the journey of an individual from land to ocean, from the security of the manicured artefact of the golf course to the ferocity of the ocean. A path was mapped that would draw golfers from their clubhouse, quitting the course and crossing the dunes; traversing rocky coastal cliffs, the path suddenly descends into a crevasse. Amplified by the structure inserted into the fissure, the crashing of waves on the rocks bellows through this narrow passageway.

The structure itself contrasts the cliffs: a continuous plane of concrete, treated to appear chalk-white, it glows against the black-stained sandstone. Suspended from the artifice, the pathway goes on; hugging the wall of the structure, waves crashing below, it continues into a precarious cantilever that projects over the tempestuous sea. Circulation folds back on itself, the path to the entrance cutting through the structure and skirting the cliff face on the opposite side before delivering patrons to the interior. Every motion has been conceived to emphasise the powerful beauty of the ocean and the unsuitability of this land for development.

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The Misplaced Piano - Melbourne

A courtyard, rigidly defined by the red brick walls of early campus buildings, opens to the tranquil sky above. The humble brick, witness to a century of city life and stoic protector of generations of students, pays homage to the earth from which it was formed. Unwelcome, unasked for, a monster of concrete and glass crashes through the diagonal.

Half is greedily consumed by the neophyte, the other limps on. Forgotten, a mural of hope serves as a surreal backdrop to the scene that unfolds before it. Builders’ aggregate covers the ground; a crippled piano huddles against a transparent wall and the ubiquitous hacking of smokers occupies the incapacitated quadrangle. Once a place of intimacy, now solely one of recognition - a marker in one’s journey, the destination of the socially ostracized, familiar yet unknowable - this space has definition without meaning, is an enclosure without volume: it is a volume without occupancy.

Our video mapping focused on this perceived discordance, combining vdisparate elements - the acoustics of the crippled piano’s haunting melodies and the visual of an ‘interrogation’ of an individual - to create a multimedia response to the task of mapping.

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Context plan.

Theatre of the Experiential - Prague

My concept was the process of dissection as a form of reconciliation between an individual and mass; a device to reveal unknown secrets about one’s own body by association with the corpse of another human (formerly known as ‘being’) rather than purely objective scientific study of dead tissues.

Experiential demands dictated crafting moments, constructed scenes of intimate interaction, that facilitated a projection of one’s self into the dissection. Through these architectural interventions - an entrance that passes through the silhouette of the cadaver, timber scaffold that simultaneously demonstrates the individual and the collective structure, mirrored glazing that visually places one’s self within the mass - one is confronted by the anonymity of death and the loss of individuality.

The architecture of the spectacle thus allows for the play between the anatomy of the individual and the mass, the definition of unique bodies and aggregate forms, of elements and constructions. It choreographs human interaction and creates a theatre in which one can experience the anatomical, the confrontational, and the philosophical.

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Scout Hall Redevelopment - North Epping

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The Seagull - Chekhov’s Existential Sobriety and Experiential Subjectivity

“All I wanted to do was say truthfully to people: ‘Have a look at yourselves and see how bad and dreary your lives are!’ – the important thing is that people should realise that since, when they do, they will most certainly create another, a better, life for themselves.” - Anton Chekhov

Born from a fascination with Russian literature, my Honours project derived from The Seagull (1896), Anton Pavlovich Chekhov’s first ‘mature’ work as a playwright and selected as the archetypal example of his personal beliefs. Critically analysed as a fundamentally existential text, Søren Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling (1843) used to build my knowledge of early Existential thought, The Seagull was interpreted as the confrontation of the individual with choice.

Following research into Chekhov and the analysis of his works, including his personal letters to acquaintances and relatives, it was concluded there was evidence to support the supposition that Anton Pavlovich had been an Existentialist. Concerned primarily with the redemption of the masses he believed that the answer lay in the potency of the individual and their ability to affect change. His dramatic works, composed as examples to the audience, simultaneously demonstrate the ridiculous nature of mundanity and the extraordinary potential of the individual.

Belief in the potency of the individual is an extension of the redemptive function Chekhov catalyses through comic processes, presenting the inertia of normalcy: this informs individuals of the necessity of overcoming the trivial distractions that might prevent their happiness. Nina’s struggle through personal and professional anguish reveals the strength of her character and enabled a reconciliation with reality that Konstantin cannot comprehend. Unable to, or perhaps incapable of, determining the source of his dissatisfaction, too compulsively aware of his intellectual vanity to allow constructive introspection, Konstantin commits suicide because he despairs at comprehending his own existential position.

Nina is able to overcome adversity through her position as a ‘knight of faith,’ one whom Kierkegaard identifies as possessing faith and being able to act on the strength of its absurdity. Konstantin’s failure is because he is a ‘knight of eternal resignation,’ unable to truly believe and thus condemned to inertia.

As analysed in Fear and Trembling, a leap of faith is required of those who would believe, a physical manifestation of faith not to demonstrate to any Absolute their resolve but so the individual may overcome all remaining obstacles in their path. It matters not to the individual if there exists a God witnessing their act of devotion, though if an omniscient spectator could be objectively defined it would negate the core principles of faith. The motion of faith initiates the individual’s accruement of subjective knowledge that ultimately forms the essence of one’s being.

Accompanying the dissertation, a physical simulation of the Existential process was proposed in the form of a speculative architectural intervention. Designed within St Michael’s College, an abandoned residential college that is owned by the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney, the architecture was derived from the existing conditions of the site to mirror Chekhov’s own introspective processes.

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A diagramatic study of interiority as discussed by Kierkegaard in Fear and Trembling and demonstrated through the staging of Chekhov’s The Seagull.

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The development of St Michael’s College and the Chapel of the Resurrection to its current before a further extension (3) and finally the addition of the Chapel of the Resurrection (4).

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form. Starting with the parochial house (1), this extends to start accommodate students (2)

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