The concept behind my Cirque facility is the idea of spatial awareness. That is, a conscious recognition of the body's movement through space. Richard Serra is an artist who works with this concept and invites viewers to engage with his installations (walking in, through and around them). He speaks of one's relationship to a volume of space. More info on Richard Serra here.
Richard Serra's work mostly features curves. In my opinion, the program of the Cirque facility calls for straight lines and angles. Hence the inspiration drawn from Daniel Liebskind. From the couple Liebskind buildings I've visited (ROM in Toronto, CityCenter in Las Vegas) I feel that, however interesting the geometries may be, one feels removed from them once inside due to the large scale of the spaces. I suppose this is also because the angled planes do not continue down to the floor (as in the image below) and remain at play solely on the ceiling. Thus, fusing Serra's intimate approach with the Liebskind geometries is what I'm hoping to achieve with my design.
Be extremely careful when discussing "inspiration" from contemporary architects such as Liebskind as they potentially create a polarity or formal guideline for your design work that need not exist. That straight lines and angles exist in Liebskind's work and Serra's work embraces spatial engagement through its curved forms does not necessarily result in successful hybrid of the two in accomplishing both characteristics simultaneously. You potentially run the risk of compromising one over the other. In City Center's crystalline form, it is difficult to understand the spatial investigations that would be found in Serra's work as the scale and visual activity is completely different in a shopping mall than a sedate installation.
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