PINA BAUSCH’S DANCE SCHOOL | Berlin | Unit 21 | 2012

Awarded Distinction in Design                                                                                                                                        Click to see Thesis

Dancer’s view in the studio ‘Love in the city’

 

The year’s work began with looking at a Korean film ‘3-iron’ by Ki-duk Kim.  A series of analysis about viewing relationships are set up, focusing on the last scene of the film.

In this series of drawing, around the moment when the husband is facing his wife, his visual area is constructed. The part of the room which is within the husband’s line of sight at this moment is modeled. The part of the furniture at the back is carefully taken out to show what is actually left out of the ephemeral visual area. The mirror and the glass doors of the cabinet reflect part of the space behind the husband which cannot be seen directly. And the light behind the husband casts the shadow of the man into the husband’s peripheral visual area, which could trigger the husband’s detection if the man moves.

Examining the husband’s changing viewpoint throughout the “kissing” section, a kind of rhythm is found. He changes his viewpoint rapidly when he just enters the living room because he is looking for his wife. After he finds her, his viewpoint is fixed at her direction. When she said ‘I love you’, he feels surprised (because he always yearns for her love but has never received it). He looks around and finds nothing, then he hugs his wife, enjoys this moment and even closes his eyes. His viewpoint is changing according to his emotion and expectation etc.

 

Pina Bausch’s Dance School

The design project is a dance school cum theatre for Pina Bausch’s company. The starting point of this project is to construct the viewing experience into architecture. This dance school is equipped with special studios for practicing specific emotions in Pina Bausch’s dance, and provides the audience with different viewing experiences according to the particular emotion. A subjective strategy is applied in the design process, which relies on the designer’s understanding from extracting emotions from Bausch’s dance till transforming them into studio design.

 

Audience’s area.

 

Studio ‘Longing’.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Studio ‘Lightness’.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The dancer’s view drawings show what the dancer sees when he/she is doing the homonymous piece in the studio. They try to combine the piece of dance, the emotive aspect of the design and the viewpoints together, which are the key aspects of this project.

Dancer’s view in the studio ‘Longing’ when doing the homonymous piece.

Dancer’s view in the studio ‘Lightness’.