Friday, December 17, 2010
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Design Development.
Preparing work for the SPAB Award was a useful exercise in regards to completing a finalised and suitably resolved proposition and overall project narrative. Often, when competition submission are prepared in practice, the focus is upon the creation of a whole proposal that works, accepting that the limited time scale may lead to some elements not being satisfactorily resolved.
Regarding the scheme at Bursledon further interrogation and development is required to address issues that perhaps could have been resolved completely. In particular three areas have been highlighted as perhaps needing more work specifically, in addition to an overall interrogation of the scheme. These are:
The entrance ramp and space in regards to their relationship and format.
Finally the function, narrative and concept behind the landscape 'wall' interventions, which are intended to provide a frame work for craft activity and storage units as well as accommodation for conferences and taught courses.
The relationship between the functions of the display areas on the first floor and the brick archive on the ground floor in the drying sheds.
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Post graduate draft research proposal.
The early to mid-century nineteenth century gothic revival in England, presents a unique insight into the social context of the age. However the focus is often, understandably, upon the stylistic and functional aspects of the completed buildings.
Through addressing this subject from an alternative approach, one that is often overlooked, how therefore could the methods and techniques used to construct enlighten us about the context of their application?
Woodchester Mansion, located near Stroud in Gloucestershire, presents an exceptional situation where it is possible to understand the construction methods that contributed to produce a mid-nineteenth country house. The building was completed only as far as the construction of its stone shell and timber roof; therefore the methods and techniques used to assemble the building are clearly visible. The architect was Bristol based Charles Hansom and later his apprentice Benjamin Bucknall, although A W N Pugin drew up initial designs in 1846 these were never instigated.
Furthermore, as a programme of restoration work is currently ongoing, it is possible to witness the traditional techniques that were being used at the time of the buildings original creation between 1855 and 1873.
Therefore what can the methods used to construct Woodchester tell us about the contemporary context at the time of its building? The middle of the nineteenth century was an age where many construction techniques had barely changed since the medieval period and with the gothic revival traditional crafts, such as stone masonry, initially enjoyed a renaissance. Also these processes, for example brick making, often took place locally, including the sourcing of the basic materials.
All of this however was taking place within an increasingly industrial climate, which promoted technological advances in architecture and in production generally. Many buildings gradually embraced and expressed these developments, so in this light how does Woodchester Mansion compare to its local contemporaries; for example Tortworth Court (1849-52) by S S Teulon or Tyntesfield (1863-1865) by J Norton.
The building process can offer us the ability to observe a section through society from the wealthy who commissioned the building, to the professionals who produced to designs through to the highly skilled, but often poorly paid workforce. In this sense the construction method itself offers a vehicle that allows a full appreciation not only of the architecture but also of a cross section of society that facilitated the production of a building. This period sat on the cusp of an architecture moving from a traditionally produced and often locally responsive method to a mass-produced commodity.
To conclude, this synthesis also has a great amount of relevance currently when it is considered that architects are increasingly attempting to combine a progressive architectural approach with a responsive move towards embracing social and physical context in order to fulfill aspirations for an improved social and environmental agenda. Therefore what could this period inform us about the way we build in the present?
General subject references
R. Dixon and S. Muthesius. ‘Victorian Architecture’ 1978 Thames and Hudson
G, German. ‘Gothic Revival in Europe and Britain: Sources, Influences and Ideas’ 1972 Lund Humphries Publishers Ltd
J. Summerson. ‘Victorian Architecture in England’ 1970 Columbia University Press
The archives at Woodchester Mansion, managed by Liz Davenport.
Website - http://www.woodchestermansion.org.uk/
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Design Process Reflection 01.
All of the below posts are intended to demonstrate the development of my design thesis, as whilst this course of study encourages an analysis of different architectural methods and processes also allows the possibility of absorbing these design methods by integrating and seeking to enhance ones own approach.
If I were to analysis my personal approach to design development I would come to the conclusion that completion and an emphasis on the presentation of something 'finished' perhaps best describes my current approach to engaging with an architectural problem. Sketchbooks (not to scale) machetes (small models) and bricolage are the usual methods used to develop my design ideas. However these often demonstrate completed and 'finished' artefact in themselves.
This is arguably a personal trait, possibly demonstrative of a subconscious desire to constantly establish order or a sense of clarity, particularly where buildings as seemingly chaotic as Bursledon are concerned. However this is can be read as a very different approach to say Carlo Scarpa's approach to architectural development within historical contexts. His ideas were worked and reworked, with ideas only finalised during the construction process where they were still often changed, subject to constant influences and input. Everything was therefore transient and constantly in 'process'. Admittedly Scarpa often had the luxury of time, seventeen years in fact at Castellovecchio Museum.
However would this process led approach necessarily work within a contemporary architectural discourse, where a finalised solution is required far more quickly within a generally faster paced capitalist context. Advances in representation also allow architects to illustrate their ideas far more quickly and to a greater level of photographic completion that was previously the case.
Therefore whilst many architectural ideas and indeed methodologies, such as Scarpas, would no doubt work within the realm of academia, these quite often exposed as unsuitable in regards to their application to realist context. Therefore methods and processes are only useful to the point where they are practically applicable and relevant within reality. How therefore could elements of, for example, Scarpas, rather luxurious, investigative and intuitively developed approach be balanced into the current context where speed of completion is perhaps more a more prevalent and often necessary consideration?
Ultimately it is my belief that architects have to balance and mediate ideas and influences from a range of references and sources in order to ultimately establish a suitable methodology that can re-articulate a subjective situation into something of clarity and of worth to society.
Friday, December 10, 2010
Artefact.
This constructed artefact explores the creation of a new whole from a found existing. Specifically it considers how can we take an object and subsequently manipulate and transform it. Responding to this idea the slate below has been altered both through by enhancing the existing (varnished section) and alternatively by fusing a contrasting element to it (steel plate) in order to form a new whole.
This raises the question therefore how far we engage with existing objects, including buildings through practical means and tectonics? Any intervention, whether it is restoration or adding a new element, will involve an objective real and tangible process.
However what informs which approach we enlist? Do we 'varnish' or 'layer into' an existing building? Perhaps the solution relies on an interpretation of the existing. Ultimately as the varnish and the steel plate are only demonstrations of method, and despite the importance of a tectonic engagement as such there is arguably no methodology that to formulate an objective response. In the first instance the existing condition and the intended function should collectively inform which solution which be best suited to re-articulate the existing, as well to what extreme it needs to be applied.
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Thesis - Draft Introduction and Abstract
ABSTRACT
Design intervention theory pertaining to existing structures is articulated in our current context primarily through the vehicle of history. Buildings classed as historic are currently seen as artistic expressions of a past social and indeed physical context. This is architecture as a static monument, relative to a previous social narrative and use. Indeed Mark Hewitt speculates in his paper, ‘Architecture for a Contingent Environment’ that, “We tend to isolate it [the building] in much the same way that museum curators have traditionally dealt with objects in their care.” (Hewitt 1994: 198)
The current objective treatment of historical architecture does not just reflect a shift in dictation within its own discourse. It in fact represents a general development in architecture throughout history, which has sought an objective means of defining processes and categorisation. To ‘objectify’ means to fully comprehend and command, which are arguably two traits intrinsic to human nature; including beyond the boundaries of the architectural discourse. (Mitchell 1998: 88-91 - See Goethes realist 'Plant Theory' )
However rather than the ‘historical’ building that we perceive as a fixed artifact solely embodying a realist methodology, it in fact demonstrates a subjective process relative to ‘place’ as a transient notion. Buildings, when understood in this relativist way are responsive artifacts, incorporating layers of transient social, topographical and geographical change.
The entire notion of historical architecture as perceived as representative of a fixed point in the past, can therefore be brought into question, indeed even the very notion of historic can be challenged in this light. If architecture is actually in reality a responsive medium then should it not therefore seek to continue this function of reflecting the evanescent nature of its particular milieu? How might our architectural methodologies embody this essentially subjective and transient characteristic in buildings, whilst maintaining the sense of order that collective society seems to posses as a primordial desire?
“What if the artifact and its environment were instead considered as a morphologically continuous and, temporally fluid system undergoing a lager metamorphosis of which the ‘designed’ changes are only a small part? (Hewitt 1994: 200)
Site Model - Development
The below images show the site model of Bursledon Brickworks that is being developed for the client. This is collaborative effect between myself and David Holden and will eventually, it is hoped, be used as a visitor interpretation device as part of the museum on the site.
So far the base and landscape contours have been completed. Each of these have been cut individually on a laser cutter, before being assembled by hand. As part of the next stage the brickworks themselves will be modeled from plywood and landscape features such as trees, rail-lines and roads will be added.
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