Dwellings4

Ur ban Tr eetop Hide -A Viewing Gallery for Adventuring Escapist City-dwellers-

Progression of Architecture, Reversion and Escapism

Start Laugier’s Primitive Hut

Progress Early Dwellings

Develop

’French order’ -Ribart de Chamoust

Conquer Renzo Piano’s -The Shard

-The ‘Primitive Hut’, ‘Original Dwelling’ and Origins of ArchitectureThe tree house suggests a retreat to simple, ‘primitive’ dwelling, providing shelter from the elements and the natural world whilst embracing and using them

Revert The Tree House

Adventure Escape Explore Climb

-ConquerDanger Hide Retreat Revert

-An Urban Tree HideA place to escape to for London’s most daring.

The very visible hide states its presence across the city, whilst keeping its inhabitants invisible atop the tallest tree in London.

-King of the CastleAn urban tree house atop London’s Urban Jungle

-Elements-

The hide embraces natural elements, providing an escape from the artificial covered and sealed condition of urban living. The inhabitant is made to experience the wind, air, rain, sun and sky, whilst carfully controlling their effects.

-Wind-

As the wind blows, the heavy carved oak damper rocks gently back and forth in its cradle

-Sun-

The sun is allowed to penetrate through holes piercing the top of the hide

-Sky-

Cut-out windows look up to the sky giving a reclining inhabitant a view of the changing sky

-Rain-

Oak shell expands and shrinks, with wetting and drying, aging, cracking and changing colour over time

L

-Urban Treetop Hide-

o tH h ig

les

Oiled Carved Oak Sleeper Shell

Hollowed-out Interior

Woven Rope Cradle

Carved oak hide capsule rests inside a rope weave cradle -Construction MethodsNatural tactile materials and low-tech construction methods

Oak hide carved from sleeper wood

Rope Cradle

-MakingThe hide is made from simple construction techniques- the cradle is wove rope through a timber jointed frame and the capsule is carved from oak sleeper wood

Hide rocks in cradle

-Oak DamperAs strong winds blow the heavy oak capsule rolls slowly back and forth in its cradle, acting as a damper to the structure and creating a gentle rocking motion

-Windows-

-Periscpe-

-Daylight holes-

-Oak Capsule Hide-

-Views-

Windows frame wiews out whilst perforated ceiling allows daylight to penetrate and periscope allows all-round viewing

Chocolate Box -A Suburban Playhouse-

Suburban Luxury/Enhancement/Exhibitionism

-Suburban LuxuriesA little everyday luxury- enhancement and exhibitionism of suburban lives and homes

-Suburban Bin AlleysDue to property values and desirability based on detachment, the gap closes between homes, leaving only skinny bin/bike alleys dividing supposedly ‘detached’ and semi-detached’ houses

Climb

Meet

Recline

Study

-Malleable LivingPin sculpture wall allows inhabitants to create different furniture and to mould their living space

Steps

Table, Chairs and Shelving

-Chocolate/Wood CraftHighly crafted luxury of chocolate treats and decorative wood interiors and furniture

Sliding, stacked wooden storage boxes

Elastic-Threaded Wood

Soft wooden mattress

-Material Tests1:20 Tests in malleable, mouldable wood construction techniques

Attic

Living

Garden Bed Staircase

Shed

-Suburban Playhouse-

Crafte wooden playhouse mirrors exisiting domestic spaces within the home

-Digitally Fabricated InlaysArray of precisely crafted spaces of different crafts and functions

-Build-

-Store-

-Sleep-

-Climb-Chocolate BoxMenu of tactile play spaces to explore

-Hide-

-Live/Move-

Hearth House -Services off the M40-

-Rural/Urban?Motorways cut through british countryside transform once isolated rural areas, creating a strange border between rural and urban conditions

-Ruined FarmhousesRural farmhouses and shepherds’ cottages left abandoned by motorways cut through countryside

Site

-Shepherd’s Cottage, M40-

Cottage and farmhouse ruins along the M40.

Site-Small stone cottage ruin with still standing chimney near Exit for Royal Leamington Spa

-ClientsServices provide toilets and rest stop for M40 travellers, Shelter for chilly hikers and sheep and fertilizer for farmers

-BiodigestorPoo-Oxygen=fertilizer+biogas Biodigestor provides biogas to keep chimney burning and heat shelter and fertilizer for land-owning farmer

-“Back to Nature�The house provides a fleeting countryside visit before returning to car to continue journey

Laser cut Corten Thatch

Timber Off-cut Bricks

Moss Carpet

-Hearth HouseMotorway rest stop and toilets

-Hearth HouseService station provides rest stop, warmth and comfort and toilets. The hearth os fuelled by biogas from use of toilets and sheep feeders

-Country Thatch-

-Soft Moss-

Traditional British Thatched roof acoustically insulates and protects space from noise of motorway

Carpet, Seat and Head rests

-Natural LiningsNatural materials and living moss replace carpets and soft furnishings to provide a fleeting experience of nature and the countryside in comfort

-Laser-cut Steel CortenMimics crumbling brick walls from a distance, whilst allowing daylight in and views out

-ViewsThe house provides views out to the countryside whilst blocking off views and noise from motorway and views in from the outside

-Toilet View-

Looks out away from motorway over countryside

-Wooden BricksTimber bricks fit into existing ruins and are strung from main roof structure. Hanging walls can also be moved around the space in change internal configuration