No. 03 — 2017
Harlem Dance Atelier
Home for performance
- Location
- Harlem, New York
- Studio
- Advanced Design Studio
A center for contemporary dance that reckons with layers, topographic, programmatic, tectonic, and the way we use them to understand our environment. The layering of work and domesticity is reflected by a layering of familiar forms and open spaces.
Perform
Spaces for emerging dance companies pushing the boundaries of formal performance. A gallery opening onto a courtyard, art, practice, performance and gathering held in one room.
Layers
Topographical layers provide constraints and points of departure; layers of program create implicit relationships and hierarchies; tectonic layers of thresholds and columns shape how tenants and passersby engage; layers of visual and experiential information reveal the origin of forms and the inner workings of the complex.
Scale figures
An important design consideration was the user. A library of scale figures was designed specifically for this site: the dancer, choreographer, student and artist in residence, all relying on the art of physical expression. How does the dancer inform the space, and what are the unique needs of an artist?
“The inner life of a home reveals an expression of identity, through appropriation, through idiosyncrasy.”
