RMIT INTERIOR DESIGN STUDIO 2008

sound and vision

ross mcleod + bruce mowson

YOLANDE O’MARA

101 COLLINS STREET

The business tenants of 101 Collins St move through the foyer space with their heads down, their is no chatter or smiles amongst the crowds only people entrenched by their daily grind of high powered stress inducing job positions. This scene is reminiscent of John Brack’s painting ‘5pm Collins St’ in which sepia toned Melbournians with grim faces move in neat lines down through the city.

The design proposal intends to create a porthole within the foyer space that would transport the office workers from their daily life. This is achieved through a large rear projection screen that is viewed through the colonnade of classical columns that line the foyer, to create a perspective effect, just as if the people where looking through a window. In these scenes, images of architectural wonders and beautiful natural landscapes are projected and calming tones are played through concealed speakers.

The view of the utopian world projected beyond the columns and its contrast with the drab nature of office existence would be intensified through the installation of sodium vapour Ellison lamps within the foyer space where people walk. The Ellison lamps reduce colour rendition to yellows and browns, this dispiriting colour field would work in unison with a soundtrack of the working of a great engine relentlessly grinding and clanking away.