Continuity in Architecture 2022/23

ABSENCE OF 'VIEW'

“The views from the building would define its essential quality.”
-Rem Koolhaas


At my first visit in Shrewsbury Prison, after passing through the gatehouse, a pediment appeared, which is the reception of current Jailhouse Tour. Subsequently, I turned left to the perimeter wall, then I realized there was nothing outside came into sight except the vacant and infinite sky.

I went back to Shrewsbury Prison for the second time. This time I entered the buildings with a purposeful perception by searching for the ‘view’. Almost all the cells were uniform, and the window sills were so high for preventing the inmates to escape and view outside.


View is commonly used as a prospect of attractive natural scenery, which is one important character in this project. In addition, I apply another underlying meaning, which is to regain the penetration for the perception of ‘Epistemology’ from the ‘Epistemological break’ by viewing from above the ‘Labyrinth’.

Longitudinal section of the journey

The proposed path carves through the existing buildings to connect Frankwells Footbridge with the hidden medieval ’70 steps’

PHYSICAL MODEL + STOP MOTION

This video demonstrates an overall concept of generating a notion of 'architectural redemption'.

As the white represents the old and the blue stands for the new, a vivid contrast emerges among the old Victorian pitched roofs and the new Barrel vault volume.

In the site, a diagonal cut, 'loggia view bridge’, breaks through the dark power of former Shrewsbury Prison at A wing while linking the new, and ends at ‘belvedere tower’ where an overall 'view' above the medieval town is taking place.

On a large scale, the diagonal cut is a predominant component at an axis of 'wellbeing', which bridges two directions to Shrewsbury School and Mousefield Nature Reserve respectively.

In terms of the new, 3 options of the barrel vault were testing in massing by regarding the old and the surroundings in a consistent and harmonious fashion.

The amount of existing retail space has failed as the Riverside Shopping Centre is almost vacant. Therefore, I have proposed to decrease the amount of retail floor area to be substituted by a different programme. I believe that this is an opportunity to expand the university facilities, connecting the Guildhall building on the other side of the river, to the high street so students can be connected to the town centre.

The desire path

‘A desire path is a path created as a consequence of erosion caused by human or animal foot-fall traffic. The path usually represents the shortest or most easily navigated route between an origin and destination. These emerge as shortcuts where constructed ways take a circuitous route, have gaps or are non-existent.’

Shrewsbury’s council has plans to demolish the Riverside Shopping Centre. However, based on the artistic influence of Gordon Matta Clark I decided to keep it and re-use it instead, to solve a problem of movement and identity through the site. Matta Clark used to create apertures on buildings which were about to be demolished, thus, I have used this technique as a concept to reveal elements of Shrewsbury which were hidden behind the shopping centres walls and help guide the visitor towards the town centre.

Massing Studies - Exploring massing and roof typologies for a masterplan that aims to define a new character within the West End. This new neighbourhood aims to provide both retail and residential amenities, to help form a previously broken connection between the Welsh Bridge and the city's town centre.

West Wing Gallery Space - an initially study into how light floods into this space within the library. This will in turn show where objects could best be displayed.

The relics of Rigg's Hall - A WIP concept sketch which shows the timber relics of the 15th century hall and the beginnings of a surrounding canopy which seeks to both protect and showcase the ruins. The ruins in tern aim to portray the history of the site and allow for further interpretation into the old library and previous school.

Interventions in the pivotal space - A WIP plan which looks at architectural intervention as a tool to allow visitors to experience the area of castle gates differently and recognise the historic important nature of this context. WIP bridge and canopy shown on plan.

The Pivotal Exhibition Space - The West Wing Gallery

A WIP elevation of the gallery space within the old library. This image aims to illustrate how viewing the surrounding context specifically from this space with the addition of a selection of artefacts will portray the historic pivotal nature of this part of the town .

Flooded river walkway

Tissue_Sample_02 "The Bear Steps". An alleyway and courtyard side by side yet separated by height, that would be unaware of one another if not for a conjoining set of steps.

Tissue_Sample_01 of my collection, in an attempt to capture the "Shrewsburyness" of Shrewsbury's urban environment.

Riverside shopping centre is used as a direct route to the town centre from Frankwells car park. It is frequently transitted by locals, however, people do not stop as the corridors are dark and many shops are vacant,

Routes, Passageways & Brick details.

Materiality of Shrewsbury captured side by side.

Of layers and levels.

The entrance of the Shrewsbury Castle. There is a great sense of border by the wall, framing and emphasising the castle inside. This type of entrance gate is commonly observed around the town.

Growing collection of Museu de Imprensa.

#Guysthatprint

Testing materials

Machado Silvetti, glazed ceramic facade, Ringling Museum of Art

"The biggest temptation is to jump right in. There are solutions that come to you. There are images that spontaneously appear. My method is rather to hold back as long as possible, to really imagine it spatially, so to be sure I have something to say."

Institut du Monde Arabe / Jean Nouvel

traveling Portuguese tiles in Havana

It's all about making a goood impression.

Letter pressing plaster

Awaiting the symposium

Spanish steps, Rome

services diagram

acoustic control

Nolli plan exercise

quadruple glazed acoustic window

Index - An observant's guide to the development of Lisbon through analysis of religion.

From horse and carriage delivery to a wifi connection - The changing face of the news

First couple of practice prints

Studying authors' working environments

Some light reading...

when you get the party site

(shot from the roof of Palácio Braamcamp, next to the Lithographic Factory site)

Opening of Ponte Salazar taken from SECULO ilustrado 1966.

"The relation between what we see and what we know is never settled. Each evening we see the sun set. We know that the earth is turning away from it. Yet the knowledge, the explanation, never quite fits the sight.”

"What makes photography a strange invention – with unforeseeable consequences – is that its primary raw materials are light and time.”

RIP, John Berger, very influential and perceptive writer has left us

Nolli workshop

Guess the building by its Nolli

James O Nolli-planning.

His threshold.

Friday night frolics - On weathering by David Leatherbarrow.

Searching for strategies and the comparison to Kolumba Musuem.

I wonder what Pete Zumthor does in comparison on a Friday night?

Merry Christmas from TATE

photo credits: Jeremy Selwyn

1st of December feelings.

Lisbon blues

PLACE: Sterling-esque plan of the Square Do O Seculo - the dotted line illustrates a potential route with which to climb the retaining wall and access my personal site. The path will cut into, as well as extrude from, the monumental stone structure.

Museu dos Azulejos, Lisboa

Caruso st. John appreciation trip

[still from Lisbon Story, Wim Wenders 1994]

“To photograph people is to violate them, by seeing them as they never see themselves, by having knowledge of them that they can never have; it turns people into objects that can be symbolically possessed. Just as a camera is a sublimation of the gun, to photograph someone is a subliminal murder - a soft murder, appropriate to a sad, frightened time.”
― Susan Sontag, On Photography 1977

Boris' DESSA

A visit to the Tate Modern Switch House

Stair core at the Newport Street Gallery

A trip to the Newport Street Gallery

Stone masonry study 01 - Cast stone powder plaster carved with bevelled edge chisel and scribing gouge

Manueline Column

Bakewell sketch model
Two doors to one house

Threshold upon Threshold

Threshold Study Models - Ramps & Stairs

Front door at Castle Street, Bakewell

#CareerGoals

The Marquis of Pombal Enlightening and Rebuilding Lisbon, by Louis-Michel van Loo and Claude Joseph Vernet; 1766.

impatience at the threshold
#dailylifelisbon

The man about town in Lisbon circa 1755. Carlos Mardel.

Architectural Jetty in Lisbon [diagram over own photograph]

Kolumba Museum - Axonometric Sketch of section taken for the seminar model

Hospitalhof new build 3D printed model before being added to the laser cut portion and the mahogany base

new tate views #nozoom

new tate views

Diagram of Rossi's chapter 'The Structure of Urban Artefacts' in 'The Architecture of the city'.
Designed by Agnes Brull and Simon Mitchell

Brockholes Cafe

Brockholes Visitor Centre

Sketches of Brockholes Visitor Centre investigating the floating structure...

Another gem from Carlos Mardel's repertoire. This architect's productivity from 1740 - 1763 is incredible.

Mae d' Agua, Obidos 1754.
'The shaping of volume is so compelling in its starkness and purity that ornament would be superfluous. The stately rhythms and the simplicity of these forms clearly show what continuity there was between the architectural tradition of the sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries and the rationalist, functional plainness of the new Lisbon that arose after the earthquake.'

Canteiros - Flower beds, the term given to the starting block of stone.

1st attempt at a Manueline column of the Jeronimos monastery

Lexicon Project: Artesano de Lisboa

Foldout from Chapter 2, The calçada making process

Lexicon Project: Artesano de Lisboa

The wrought ironwork of the Baixa verandas

The Lisbon Photograph

Santa Justa Lift, Lisbon