Interior Design School of Design Uncategorized
Sophia Mackey
I’m Sophia, an interior designer with a theatrical approach to space who aims to create environments that invite interaction and engagement.
My work is rooted in a desire to promote community collaboration in design projects, an approach developed during a five-month study abroad programme at Politecnico di Milano where I worked alongside multidisciplinary teams and explored communal design in depth.
As a prelude to interior design, I studied musical theatre and singing, experiences that continue to influence how I think about rhythm, atmosphere and audience. I view interior design as a form of performance, a choreography of light, texture, sound and movement.
My upbringing in Ireland within a family dedicated to the curation of historic textiles such as linen, and the study of arts and crafts inspired by nature has given me a profound appreciation of natural tactile materials in design. I also enjoy the drama of landscape and carry an old film camera to capture its moods and scenes as an ongoing part of my creative processes.
Finally, I am fascinated by the human interaction with interior design, how people move, think and emotionally react in a particular space. My aim is always to seek to understand how people relate within and are best served by designs that provide practical solutions to interior spatial needs and promote communal wellbeing and life enrichment.
Site
The building is situated in 1 Salisbury Street, Laurieston Glasgow G59QX, in the Gorbals area. It is a B listed, three platform railway station. It was built in 1900 and developed by the Glasgow and South Western Railway. The station was closed in 1966 and fell into disrepair, though goods trains occasionally still travel on the lines above the station.
Concept
Below the Lines will breathe new life into the redundant railway building, transforming it into a vibrant cultural and community hub, a place for people from diverse backgrounds to communicate through the shared language of music and the arts.
This heritage development of a new music venue aims to attract a diverse audience of local participants, who have no identity with its past community significance. I aim to encourage engagement through hosting well promoted, accessible, music related events that foster an inclusive environment and re-establish connections.
The former railway station building which is divided into two parts by an outdoor tunnel will feature a rent and repair shop for instruments and an instrument lesson learning space in one half, and a main performance space, audience space, bar, cloakroom and reception in the other.
The concept incorporates both daytime and night-time use to ensure the building remains continuously utilised as an accessible facility that illuminates its surroundings attracting attention and admiration of its purpose.
The building will feature commercial and community areas separated by the existing tunnel from the busy road to the garden haven behind. It can be imagined as an instrument that users are guided around on a journey through rhythmical tunnels, spaces and staircases.
Through sensitive design it encourages a seamless transition between its functions with particular attention paid to transitional areas and the use of flexible multi-use spaces that can be adapted for different forms of entertainment.
Circulation
Liminal areas are integral to the design, guiding users toward the main space while offering unique, immersive experiences. The first of these, The Web of Strings is an interactive corridor that invites users to engage with strings attached to the walls; plucking, strumming, or simply brushing past them. This tactile experience explores interactive learning through colour and chromesthesia- “individuals see colours when they hear sounds.”
Acting as a threshold or liminal space, this corridor must be experienced before entering the main event space. A passage to either pass through and admire or stay within to become immersed in sound, movement, and colour. Inspired by the inner workings of a guitar, the corridor represents the neck: a long, narrow space measuring 3 meters in width and height. This leads to a dramatic reveal of the main venue, an expansive area with a barrel-vaulted ceiling that mirrors the resonant body of a guitar.
The Web of Strings is carefully choreographed to build anticipation, relief and wonder, a design principle in architecture known as compression and release. As the user makes their way down the web stings corridor, the music from the main venue begins to reveal itself more and more.
Luthier’s landing
As the sun rises and the shop opens, the luthier (a maker and repairer of stringed instruments such as violins or guitars) sets up on the mezzanine floor of the rent and repair shop to prepare for a days work of repair on varying string instruments. The retail rent and repair shop design has been inspired by the inside of a guitar. The circular skylight window playfully represents the sound hole of the guitar. The sound hole is “an essential component of stringed musical instruments, enhancing the sound radiation in the lower octave by introducing a natural vibration mode called air resonance.” Plenty of natural light floods in from the skylight for the intricate detail required in instrument repairs. The skylight opens to allow for ventilation
