kevin

I am drawing inspiration for a rooftop gallery from the Acropolis. The site of the latter collection of temples is a plateau raised above the city of Athens. Primarily the temples served as buildings to house and protect images of the gods. However, the Acropolis also served as a gathering place and the culmination point of the Grand Panathenaia. Therefore, the Acropolis had an important processional component. The Panathenaia would enter Athens through the Dipylon Gate at the edge of town through the Potters' Quarter, through the Agora and end at the altar of Athena near the east end of the temples. The east end of the complex was considered the most sacred side while the western end where the procession would enter through the Propylaia was the more secular. Thus, there was an important hierarchical component to the site as well as a processional one.

The interior of the temples were fairly simple. The attention was focused on the iconic image housed within. In the case of the Parthenon, this was a massive statue of Athena. They were probably dark, mysterious places filled with the scent of incense.

My site is the rooftop of the Niketown building on Oxford Circus. It's a large site raised above a busy, commercial part of the city. My goal is to create a series of individiual galleries (temples) each of which would house a single, iconic piece of art. Ideally, each will have particular significance for one of the commercial tenants of the building. These include Nike, Topshop, Miss Selfridge, and HOK Architects. The interior of the spaces will be simple with attention focused on the single work within through the use of light.

The approach to the site must have a prominent processional component. This should, therefore, be visible to the passerby and make the visitor's progress to the rooftop site a part of the experience.

Below are images of the acropolis. One is a site of the plan with contour lines while the other is a series of vertical lines which are derived from a perspective view of the reconstructed site. I hope to use these to derive the form of the individual units of the gallery.