Context

Context

“Always design a thing by considering it in its next larger context - a chair in a room, a room in a house, a house in an environment, an environment in a city plan.”

The above quote relates well to our project as each part of what we do has a relationship to other (sometimes larger) parts of our building and environment.

For example our building (as discussed in hierarchy) begins on the lower floor for ordinary people, but that is to house more prestigious upper levels which then leads the focus toward the central dome. This in turn is set in our nations capital. So our building is designed to meet the context of our highest federal court.

This context is important as it effects the design of the building, as many lower courts built all around the nation are not as symbolic in the nature of there designs and are more designed to fit the context of there own local environments.

The actual materials used to contruct the building however do not appear to be specific for the context of the surrounding site or the building itself as Harry Seidler has used almost identical designs in buildings including the MLC building in Martin Place, Sydney which shares no contextual meaning with the high court of Australia in Canberra but remarkable resemblance in materials.

THE MLC BUILDING SYDNEY

The proposed High Court Of Australia Canberra

Many buildings, in particular energy efficient buildings, are designed with the environmental context in mind and materials chosen represent that. For example many buildings in Tropical Darwin are built on stilts to create airflow underneath with louvers to increase cross ventilation and also provide some shade to be outdoors to combat the tropical environment.

This is in keeping with the context of the building environment and would be out of place in Siberia……

So building context is usually related to the surrounding area and the use of the building, however it is not always totally encompassed and general non specific parts of the design can be used without affecting the overall context of the design.

References:
http://thinkexist.com/quotes/with/keyword/context/ viewed may 13 2008
http://www.futuredarwin.nt.gov.au/recreation/building.html viewed may 13 2008
http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=108161 viewed may 13 2008