The Spirit Level is an area inside the Royal Festival Hall which is used by the Southbank Centre’s Learning & Participation program along with artists and youth groups working in association with the Centre. Andrea collaborated with Ashley Roop, interior designer, and Mansee Dabral, journalist/writer to design a new environment for the Spirit Level. This booklet was created to showcase the research and evaluation of the Spirit Level space and how people used it. This research was used to guide the design of environmental graphics for the space.
Andrea, Ashley and Mansee teamed up with design studio Eat Sleep Work/Play to develop environmental graphics for the Spirit Level that incorporated the use of blackboards for inhabitants of the space to communicate with each other. The Spirit Level is the home of the Southbank Centre’s Learning & Participation department. The space is used by performers, artist groups and youth groups associated with the Centre who collaborate with each other quite frequently. The Southbank Centre wanted to encourage open dialogue between these groups. Through research into the space it was concluded that blackboards would be the easiest and most cost effective way to solve this. In addition, people were having a hard time finding the rooms. Each room was named a colour but without any indication of that particular colour inside or outside the room. This was solved by creating “colour trails” that start at each entrance sign and lead people to the rooms.
chalk holders were customed designed to fit the slanted lines in the graphics
Part of this project is still to be realised. Below is a section of a wall that leads out from the Spirit Level to the cloakroom and entrances. This wall is a secondary entrance into the Spirit Level and is where a lot of people first venture inside. A large picture window looks into the Gamelan Room. The idea is to continue the Gamelan graphics on this wall and install a listening station where visitors can hear the sounds of the Gamelan. The installation piece will be activated by proximity. Visitors will cup their ear to the sound areas and hear different Gamelan tunes. Half of this installation will be made of chalkboard so that the Gamelan tunes and information about the Gamelan classes can be updated frequently. This installation will be a collaboration with artist Henry Holland.
