A Pivotal Play

Abstract

'A Pivotal Play’'explores the idea of a large-scale public retail interior (James Smiths Corner) conceived in terms of a 'stage set' where the audience and sales assistants represent 'actors on the stage'. There is always more than one play on at the same time as each retail space becomes its own distinctive play. The audience continually comes across these different plays as they move along different paths. In social terms, 'A Pivotal Play' suggests one of significance and importance; in design terms, it suggests one defined by a critical geometric shift. James Smiths is a place of social interaction. By challenging the typology of the retail building to be conceived in terms of social theatre, the interior imparts the nature of our daily social interactions, rather than acting simply as a space. It becomes a 'pivotal play'. At the physical heart of James Smiths is a vertical decorative stairway, one of the only parts of the building that still has an obvious memory of what used to be. The stairway is an existing element that should be celebrated by becoming the main architectural 'actor' in the play. Shifting the perceived core of the interior to the center creates a pivotal point – another 'Pivotal Play'. The interior spaces derive from this pivot. Radiating circulation arms intersect the main axis and the shifted axis of the building, creating strong architectural and experiential links back to the pivotal point. The interior architecture radiates out from the central pivot of the first 'play' on the ground floor. The entrance establishes a visible 'trace' as it pivots around each successive floor, revealing additional plays on every level.