DESA1002 'Nine Quarter City' - <Lauren Chua>

Abstract

The park in Tunis which I designed this semester was directly inspired by the beautiful doors of Tunisia. I was particularly intrigued by the history behind the doors and the reasons for their blue colouring; to keep bugs away, to give the illusion of a longer day and to keep evil spirits out. These doors contrast wonderfully with the plain white walls and simplistic architecture of Tunis. The driving concept for my design was the desire to create a space where all types of people would be able to meet and interact, hence my decision to design a public space such as a park. Tunis is a compacted and relatively dense area with low building height, which then led to my decision to select a site with a small area and build a park with two storeys for space efficiency. One of the main intentions for this park was for it to appeal to many different types of people in Tunis, which linked back to my interest in Tunisian doors. I created five different “types of people” which would visit the park; children, parents, maintenance, residents and couples and designed a virtual “path” by imagining the types of things these people would do when in the public space. These paths were represented by five different entry points into the park; each characterised with a traditional Tunisian door designed specifically for this type of person. When mapping these paths out onto a sketch, it was interesting to see how two types of very different people utilised a common space. I thought it was a nice idea how two groups of people who wouldn’t necessarily interact in life outside the park, were able to experience something together in my space.