WALKING DOWN VICTORIA STREET WHILE VIEWING THE BELVEDERE TOWER

-Belvedere Tower
A symbolic abstraction from a watching tower. In the project of ‘wellbeing’, it has been ‘transformed’ into a belvedere tower and becomes a part of perimeter wall.

-Perimeter Wall
A retained part of perimeter wall which has been interpreted in a different meaning - a heritage with its historical constrain turns into a part of memory machine, an architectural redemption for remembering. And it composes a new definition of privacy and security with the ‘watching tower’ at the end of it.

PUBLIC - WALKING THROUGH OLD ROOFSCAPE, LOOKING TO ARCADE PILOTIS

“Even ‘flowing space’ has implied being outside when inside, and inside when outside, rather than both at the same time. Such manifestations of articulation and clarity are foreign to an architecture of complexity and contradiction, which tends to include ‘both-and rather than exclude’ either-or.”
-Venturi Robert, “Complexity and contradiction in architecture”

NORTHWEST BIRDVIEW IN SUNSHOWER

PUBLIC - LOGGIA VIEW BRIDGE THROUGH A WING WITH THE CELLS ALONGSIDE

Architectural Uncanny, Whistling In The Dark While Walking Towards The Light!

“The contrast between a secure and homely interior and the fearful invasion of an alien presence...At the heart of anxiety provoked by such alien presences was a fundamental insecurity: that of a newly established class, not quite at home in its own home.

The uncanny habit of history to repeat itself, to return at unexpected and unwanted moments; the stubborn resistance of nature to the assimilation of human attributes and its tragic propensity to inorganic isolation, seemed, for many, to confirm the impossibility of ‘living comfortably’ in the world.”
-Anthony Vidler, “The architectural uncanny: essays in the modern unhomely”

PUBLIC - VIEW BRIDGE THROUGH A WING IN SUNSHOWER

How Deep The Light Could Reach Into A Building!

“Yet such a spatial paradigm was, as Foucault pointed out, constructed out of an initial fear, the fear of Enlightenment in the face of ‘darkened spaces, of the pall of gloom which prevents the full visibility of things, men and truths.’”
-Anthony Vidler, “The architectural uncanny: essays in the modern unhomely”

PUBLIC - VIEW FROM PROPOSED PARK,
LOOKING TO DIAGONAL CUT THROUGH FORMER MALE CELLS AT A WING

“Quintillian says, ‘when we return to a place after a considerable absence, we do not merely recognize the place itself, but remember things that we did there,’ it is possible to use this property of places to construct a kind of memory machine.”
-Anthony Vidler, “The architectural uncanny: essays in the modern unhomely”

SECTIONS

THE ESSENTIAL QUALITY OF LIGHT AND VIEW

One sketch during the early stage which illustrates the importance of introducing the light and view into a building with the former purpose of confinement and punishment.

This drawing presents a scenario - “Standing in the sphere garden and looking outside through the circle frame. The oculus skylight brings in the sunlight, and the shadow changes according to the time during a day. Here we arrive with a sense of ambiguity of the inside and the outside, the possibility of looking outside occurs.”


“Architecture as the wall between the inside and the outside becomes the spatial record of this resolution and its drama. And by recognizing the difference between the inside and the outside, architecture opens the door once again to an urbanistic point of view.”
-Venturi Robert, “Complexity and contradiction in architecture”

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’.

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.