Sissy O'Neill
"The Barras Kilt"- Calton Community Performance Venue
The Architecture of Performance - Visual Experiment
This project explored how the intrinsic rhythm of movement can enable social inclusion via performance.
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The Barralands Kilt borrows from and embeds
Scottish culture and traditions to create a building
where movement is both part of the form and
purpose. The redesign uses the principles of movement
to create an architectonic form, where the
public are encouraged to reassess their relationship
with their social identity through the medium
of performance.
The Barras Market signifies people, movement and
performance. This new civic realm had to incorporate
those elements.
Inclusivity is the guiding principle of the modern
Scottish meritocracy. The Barralands Kilt delivers
cultural diversity through an alchemy of spaces
and social inclusion via performance. This building
epitomises cultivation of artistic expression and
experience. By entering this space patrons are categorised
through their activities and all movement
can become a socially inclusive performance.
The creation of form then reflects an architectural
performance. This visual experiment of performance
displays that minimum and maximum
movements are visible in the spent space of a performer,
while their horizontal and vertical absent
space draws the viewer into the action.
Materials such as glass or perforated metal panels
help exaggerate the fundamental rhythm of
movement occurring within these visual structures
and alter how performance is perceived: is ballet
elegant or furious; is boxing weighted or delicate?
Under the roof kilt, our inclusive contemporary
cultural Scottish expression expands and shifts.
This civic cultural centre releases performance from
the restrictions of social exclusivity. The fundamental
rhythms of movement intrinsically fabricate
a building central to an expression of modern
Calton, while retaining the elemental performance
space of The Barras Market.