Ouyang Cai Timothy: Final Sketchup Model for Steinway & Sons

The idea of this architecture:

My client is Steinway & Sons. The word of the whole structure is piano, which it is an expression of black and white keys are interact of each other. Basically, I transformed a Steinway & Sons piano into a building. This building is clearly divided into three major parts: the front visiting and exhibition place of the concept of black keys, the studio place of the concept of the white keys, which set rear of the front visiting place and the third one is the underground place, which is a very private space.

I will start from the front visiting and exhibition building. On the ground floor, function of the floor to celling windows to invite more natural lights into the ground floor. The quite and huge space on the ground floor can be provided for a piano exhibition. The design concept of the spiral stair is from the music, which consists three floors as an entirety and also shows the shape of dynamic, on the other hand, the spiral stair also form a contrast of moving and motionless between stair and the whole space. On the first floor, the void creates a very interesting space between ground floor and first floor, which means it gives an interaction when guests visiting first floor and ground floor because they can see each other through the void. Besides, the first floor also as a gateway to the second building.

Secondly, I will talk about the studio space where designed as a private and quite space for Steinway & Sons. The big balcony at the studio place creates a rest place for the client. The function of the stair with a gently sloping provides relieve traffic channel in case of there are a lots of people, so the people can through the stair down to the ground.

Besides, the below ground space was designed for the private use, such as living or creating. Also. I want to talk about the building materials that I used. First of all, the white and black concrete dominate the whole design. The gateway is a mixture color of black and white, which also shows the theme of the building.

In the end, I designed the three parts function differently but also combine together as integrity. From the front view, the visiting and exhibition space is horizontal and the studio space is vertical, which creates interesting and interaction view against each other.