unit 4: site constraints and mobile horizons

possibilitiesSTAGE 2:

Aneesah SatriyaStage 4Master of ArchitectureKent School of Architecture

URBANLANDSCAPE

AR83

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Stage 2 of the Urban Landscapes module (running from Week 8 – 13) seeks to fulfil four objectives :

• Developing a classification system for the scaffolding of the architecture.

• Create a clear set of instructions for the architecture to operate in the City of London.

• Compose the components of the architecture on site.• Communicate the aesthetics of the architecture visually, verbally,

spatially and experientially.

This is achieved via four elements of scaffolding and prototype structures used to implement an architecture on the site:

1. Nine Components (Objects) created from the different scaled drawings in Stage 1

2. Ground cast A cast from the site that reveals something new

3. Prima Materia A material from the site made into a hybrid building material by mixing additive technologies.

4. Towards Composition A combination of the above items to compose and build the architecture.

introduction2

introduction

Precedent – Magnets.............................................................. 4Objects – Macro Scale............................................................ 6Objects – Human Scale.......................................................... 8Ground Cast........................................................................... 10Prima Materia......................................................................... 12Summary of Possibilities........................................................ 14

The intention of my proposal is to accelerate the rejuvenation of derelict sites or landscapes by providing public access, views, delight and facilities through specific devices transplanted onto the site. This idea has a main precedence: Cedric Price’s series called Magnets, which aimed to stimulate new patterns of movement on specific sites and create new public spaces using temporary components.

The architecture that I see this project heading towards is that of an urban public park. The existing site in Dartford is surrounded by potentials: there is a new housing development with a school and various plots for commercial and mixed use buildings. The marshland has several areas for recreational activities, namely motocross racing and clay pigeon shooting. And the bank of the River Thames with the Bridge crossing provides

pleasant views. From the Bexley council’s Managing the Marshes project, there is a lot of mention of planned improvement to the nature reserve, but all while waiting for funding or studies and investigations to take place. So my proposal follows along this theme by allowing access and use of the site while more permanent plans actually begin…

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4 precedent – magnets

Cedric Price, who set up practice in 1960, was concerned with the facilities, possibilities, activities and pleasures that architecture generates rather than the typical obsession with producing a glamorous building. He was unique in considering how his structures might be removed, re-used or demolished once they are no longer useful.

The Magnet project is a series of short life structures, to be funded by local authorities or civic bodies, which would be used to set up new kinds of public amenity and public movement. They would occupy spaces not usually seen as sites available to the public such as –

• the air space above roads,• streets,• parks,• lakes and• railways.

Magnets are designed to generate new kinds of –

• access,• views,• sanctuary,• safety,• information and

delight.

5precedent – magnets

The magnets can provide, for example, library facilities or better access to a railway station and simultaneously give users the sorts of view for which one would normally be expected to pay. They are designed to “overload” underused or misused sites, to make them operate more beneficially, to make them more delightful and better fun.

Magnets are deliberately mobile, adaptable and reusable, so that they do not become, as often happens with buildings, inactive, inflexible, institutionalised, formalised, privatised or redundant. The structures, or ‘tools” which make up Magnets are inherently mobile: cranes, airport transporters, scissor lifts – so that they can be hired for the length of time needed and adjusted or moved elsewhere as required.

Magnets are both pragmatic and polemic in the way they turn space to the public advantage. Unlike conventional architecture, they are not an end in themselves but encourage the continual necessity for change.

—from The Architects’ Journal, September 1996.

I find this project fascinating and relevant in terms of its temporary but pragmatic nature. The “objects” are simple facilities or vehicles transplanted onto the site in order to improve particular elements for the users. I took this idea and adapted it for the site of Dartford marshes.

6 objects – macro scale

The pier with its simple forms, is located on the site of the Long Reach Hospital, where there used to be a pier serving the three hospital ships.

The lower level of the pier is meant to provide access to boats and a submarine, whereas the top one encourages views towards the Queen Elizabeth II bridge, Purfleet, and the stretch of river.

OBJECT_MACRO_PIER

7objects – macro scale

This submarine is part of the scheme to increase visual interaction with the Dartford site, mainly views of and under the River Thames.

Aside from being able to experience the sense of being underwater, the feed from cameras attached to this submarine would be routed to viewing platforms on the fireworks factory sheds.

OBJECT_MACRO_SUBMARINE

8 objects – human scale

This component was inspired by commercial “tower viewers” – devices, usually coin-operated, placed on strategic locations to provide visual experiences to the viewer.

The modeling of this device was also generated by geometry found within the sheds in the abandoned fireworks factory.

The binoculars may also provide control in the visuals (zooming, panning, enlargement, infrared?) to enhance the delight in viewing the surrounding areas of the marshland and river bank.

OBJECT_HUMAN_BINOCULARS

9objects – human scale

This shell skin was produced from weaving a spline through the openings of one of the fireworks factory sheds. A solid was generated by revolving a surface through the spline.

This skin represents an access and visual route taken by a person in engaging with the derelict sheds. The form of this object would likely transform according to the shed it attaches to.

OBJECT_HUMAN_SHELL

10 ground cast

A plaster cast was taken on 28 October 2012 of the floor of one of the abandoned sheds in Wells Fireworks Factory, spefically the one below, which in its heyday was used for sparkler packing.

key planOBJECT_HUMAN_GROUNDCAST

11ground cast

The cast was then photographed and imported as a digital model. With the surface colour turned off, it was interesting how the crevices of the cast looked like a landscape in itself. I experimented by adding “water” to the 3D model and let parts of it flood. The model would become one of my objects in the human scale.

Metal objects from the floor embedded

in the cast

Texture from hessian sack and wooden

floorboards

Embedded berry causes mould to start

grow on the cast

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The objects in the micro scale relate to the materiality of the architecture to be built. Of the various findings on site, I decided to work with the plants that have overgrown and taken over the fireworks factory.

Using plants as building materials is nothing new: timber is an obvious building product, but plant fibres have also found a place in the construction industry. Products such as hempcrete and the various fibres used as insulation material proves that there is great potential in this natural source.

For working with the leaves and grass, I drew reference from some papermaking methods found at liz-annaslakesidestudio.blogspot.co.uk. The following page highlights the steps I took in producing three different varities of material from the plant fibre.

key planprima materia OBJECT_MACRO_PFROBJECT_MACRO_PFCOBJECT_MACRO_PFP

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A quantity of dried leaves were collected from site. After soaking in water, the leaves were boiled for an hour with soda ash (sodium carbonate) to remove unwanted components.

The resulting plant fibres were rinsed and wrung through a fabric mesh to squeeze out the water.

The fibres were then broken down in a blender.

The first route to using the fibre was to mix it in a vat of water and run the mixture through a screen to produce, essentially, paper. The pulp may also be sculpted into other shapes. I name this material Plant Fibre Pulp (PFP).

The second type of material involved mixing the fibre with plaster and send, and letting it set in a mould. This material is more cement or concrete-like: Plant Fibre Cement (PFC).

The third involved the use of resin (purchased at a crafts store) and mixing the fibre in before pouring into a mould. The result was a plastic-like block with translucent qualities: Plant Fibre Resin (PFR).

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2 4 6

prima materia

summary of possibilities

The drawings from Stage 1 were utilised as a base for transplanting the objects on site. I did not end up using all three sites previously selected, choosing to focus on the river bank and the abandoned fireworks factory.

The materiality of the building (micro scale) remains hanging and disconnected at this point in time – perhaps the plant fibre will become a building component later on in the design development.

The project will be continued by heading towards a more solid architectural scheme in the next module, Minor Design Project.

MACRO HUMAN MICRO

S2_MACRO_PLAN S2_MICRO_PFP

S2_MACRO_SECTION S2_MICRO_PFC

S2_MACRO_PERSPECTIVE

S2_HUMAN_FIREWORKS

S2_MICRO_PFR

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