Self Defined- Primary research photographing the National Theatre

I found this particular angle of viewing the building interesting as this is the sort of idea I was thinking about for the final design, layering natural imagery such as a forest or trees over the plain concrete walls of this Brutalist architecture.

The are a few instances of nature in the area however as plants are seasonal it might be nice to have a surface pattern design featuring nature present all the time. Despite London's unpredictable weather, passers by will be reminded of the beauty of nature + colours that come with it even if the surrounding environment has no leaves and flowers are not in blood. People will also be able to benefit from the calming qualities of nature imagery as they walk by a busy part of an already busy city.

This building itself was quite hard to photograph because it was so big with little room either side to stand back and take pictures. I therefore decided to photograph it from angles where the view of the walls was clear enough for me to later sketch designs on top of.

I did find some examples of where artists have already been commissioned to produce work that brighten up the area adding a bit of life and colour to this otherwise quite dull and grey environment. Like Christo and Jeanne-Claude they have worked with the already existing environment and based their ideas around it. In the first example part of the building and stair case has been coloured yellow and in the second the abstract bench almost doesn't function as a bench and rather acts as a frame highlighting different aspects of the landscape.

After visiting the building I realised that with so many walls, the building provided multiple surfaces in which to showcase my eventual design. I therefore thought it might be a good idea to have a narrative along the different walls of the building that people could follow as they walked past or around it. This could also be extended to the other buildings in the area and maybe if I were to take the project further it might be a nice idea to have a narrative displayed along all the buildings along this part of the river.

Because one of the main themes in 'Hansel and Gretel' is being lost in the woods it might be a nice idea to have certain images hidden under the roofs of the parts of the building that stick out. That way the people who walk past will actively have to look of the designs and it might be a fun way to get people involved with the stories being performed at the theatre. This therefore might be a good way of advertising the performances to the public.