Pen and ink drawing of the Rhinoceros, by Albrecht Dürer, 1515
> BRIEF_1_Imagine / Record / Reveal "So long as we represent technology as an instrument, we remain held fast in the will to master it. We press on past the essence of technology. When, however, we ask how the instrumental comes to presence as a kind of causality, then we experience this coming to presence as the destining of revealing" Martin Heidegger, The Question Concerning Technology (Vorträge und Aufsätze), 1954
Final pin-up: Time: Location:
UNITƎ
Tuesday 22th October 2013 09:00am Avery Hill
In 1515 Albrecht Dürer produced a woodcut of an Indian rhinoceros. He had never actually seen one. Rather than travelling to South Asia he read and listened to descriptions of the animal and studied a single paper sketch that lacked any explicit detail. The lack of accurate information forced Dürer to rely on assumption to realise the carving, creating inaccuracies and imaginative embellishments to the rhino’s composition. These inaccuracies of course revealed a technical naivety in the author, but more importantly gave a concise insight into a sophisticated process of interpretation and imagination. We will begin our own oneric adventures in preparation for our journey to Dungeness. We do not know Dungeness, we have not seen it, or measured it, but for now, we will endeavour to imagine it. Through a collection of stories, drawings and images that somehow instinctively resonate with us, we will compile speculative recordings of our own fantasy Dungeness dreamscapes; Situated pictures of our own imagination, interpretation and prejudice. These illustrations will then provide us with an operational context for the design and fabrication of an instrument (or series of instruments) for recording - to take with us on our first visit to Dungeness. The Instrument’s ‘function’ may not be explicit or traditional, but should attempt to reveal something new to us about this place: Something that provides an alternate reading or brings forth a hidden operation.
Pen and ink drawing of the Rhinoceros, by Albrecht Dürer, 1515
> BRIEF_1_Imagine / Record / Reveal "So long as we represent technology as an instrument, we remain held fast in the will to master it. We press on past the essence of technology. When, however, we ask how the instrumental comes to presence as a kind of causality, then we experience this coming to presence as the destining of revealing" Martin Heidegger, The Question Concerning Technology (Vorträge und Aufsätze), 1954
Final pin-up: Time: Location:
Tuesday 22th October 2013 09:00am Avery Hill
In 1515 Albrecht Dürer produced a woodcut of an Indian rhinoceros. He had never actually seen one. Rather than travelling to South Asia he read and listened to descriptions of the animal and studied a single paper sketch that lacked any explicit detail. The lack of accurate information forced Dürer to rely on assumption to realise the carving, creating inaccuracies and imaginative embellishments to the rhino’s composition. These inaccuracies of course revealed a technical naivety in the author, but more importantly gave a concise insight into a sophisticated process of interpretation and imagination.
UNITƎ
Ole Worm's cabinet of curiosities, from Museum Wormianum, 1655.
> Y2 BRIEF_2B: Dream House “When we think of Modern (Architecture) we do not generally think of domestic imagery..., for in the Arts the linkage of domesticity and modernism has been obscured by another invention of the nineteenth century: the idea of the ‘Avant-garde’...(which) imagined itself away from home marching towards glory on the battlefields of culture” 1 1. Not At Home: Christopher Reed 1996
Concept / Analysis Pin Up: Interim Crit: Interim Hand In:
Tuesday 12th November 2013 Tuesday 17th December 2013 Monday 06th January 2014
In the first three-quarters of the seventeenth century the Dutch colonial expeditions lead to an unprecedented influx of wealth to the Dutch Netherlands. This in turn began a radical shift in ideas about domesticity; the house became not just a place for living but a place of comfort. The accumulation of exotic personal possessions gained importance amongst the middle classes, reflecting ideas of cultural and intellectual stature. For the first time, distinct from the workplace, the houses of the Dutch middle-classes became vessels for creative personal expression. It is argued that this event marked the birth of the ‘home’ in the city. The idea of the domestic however exists only in its distinction from modernist ideologies; ’From the Victorian drawing room with its etageres full of trinkets to the twentieth-century tract-house with its mass produced paintings, the home has been positioned as an antipode to high art. Ultimately, in the eyes of the Avant-garde, being un-domestic came to serve as a guarantee of being art’. 2
UNITƎ
Ole Worm's cabinet of curiosities, from Museum Wormianum, 1655.
> Y2 BRIEF_2B: Dream House “When we think of Modern (Architecture) we do not generally think of domestic imagery..., for in the Arts the linkage of domesticity and modernism has been obscured by another invention of the nineteenth century: the idea of the ‘Avant-garde’...(which) imagined itself away from home marching towards glory on the battlefields of culture” 1 1. Not At Home: Christopher Reed 1996
Concept / Analysis Pin Up: Interim Crit: Interim Hand In:
Tuesday 12th November 2013 Tuesday 17th December 2013 Monday 06th January 2014
In the first three-quarters of the seventeenth century the Dutch colonial expeditions lead to an unprecedented influx of wealth to the Dutch Netherlands. This in turn began a radical shift in ideas about domesticity; the house became not just a place for living but a place of comfort. The accumulation of exotic personal possessions gained importance amongst the middle classes, reflecting ideas of cultural and intellectual stature. For the first time, distinct from the workplace, the houses of the Dutch middle-classes became vessels for creative personal
As architects operating in a construction environment that remains dominated by a Modernist agenda we must therefore question our position on the notion of the domestic; Is the standardised, industrial language of machine living still relevant in the age of the rapid prototype? Do we strive for tailored comfort or cold storage? Self Expression or High Art? Machines for Living or Machines for Dreaming? 2. Not At Home: Christopher Reed 1996
The fringes of the inner city have traditionally attracted the occupation
of unregulated performance and entertainment. In the middle ages, the South Bank, physically and politically severed from the centre of the city, became an unfettered haven of theatre, entertainment and debauchery. This tradition of defiant indulgence continued with the 18th century Vauxhall pleasure gardens offering fantasy and mystery to London’s middle classes - its evening events offering dark corners and informal settings for various forms of indulgence and depravity which continued late into the mid 19th century. After the Second World War the temporary cultural metropolis created by the Festival of Britain cemented the South Bank’s status as a cultural centre; encouraging the growth of adjacent creative enterprise it unwittingly retains many forms of underground and rebellious activity. Today, it is London’s post-industrial terrain that is attracting creative occupation. Low-rent flexible space-types are affording economic, political and creative freedom to artists and performers through There is an opportunity to stimulate the growth of a social-cultural core on Greenwich Peninsula that would be defined by human interaction and local needs.imaginative temporary re-appropriation of space. These creative physical manipulations can lead to a dramatic shift in perception of derelict places, often encouraging longterm social and economic regeneration. In recent years the power of this trend has been exploited by both developers and local government to stimulate land value and housing prices. In some instances this has created a sustainable, ‘natural’ growth centred around a socio-cultural core of activity based on human interaction. In others, and more commonly, it is manipulated as a gestural act to facilitate unrelated, large scale, master-planned developments focussed on capital rather than social growth. It could be argued that the current development of Greenwich Peninsular is symptomatic of the latter. As a counterpoint, in this project we will employ the use of performance architecture as a trigger for localised urban activation. We will develop proposals for guerrilla structures that intend to construct a new identity, and an infrastructure that establishes a localised model for socially-driven urban growth.