Julia Reed- Betts | spring 2018 HAA 96B Connections studio
This work deals with the notions of collective entertainment and belonging. In it, a chicken coop is combined with and a cinema - chickens occupy the same interior territory as theater-goers. The design takes a strong stance in favor of chickens, which is evidenced in the free-range architectural program I have established. The chickens are oblivious to external stimuli; therefore, the cinema does not disturb them. Inspired by an egg and yolk metaphor, where the egg is the cinema, and the yolk are the chickens, the project explores nesting simultaneously in the architectural plan and section. Emphasis on a mesh and translucent materiality highlights and envelopes the cinema. Circulation begins through the cafe or feeding station, as eating is necessarily primary input for both chickens and humans. The human then has two circulatory options, both of which ultimately lead to the chicken coop. The first, is to enter the cinema and exit into the coop, or a visitor can directly enter the coop’s lattice apparatus. The project architecturally explores the line between theatrical performance and live-action and the artificial and the real.
