Infrastructure in the Community / BA (Hons) Architecture / Newcastle University

Page 1



In this essay, I will be reflecting on my own design influences and how I have put these into practice in my graduation project. I shall be looking at architectural theories as well as wider architectural practices and ideas.

The Infrastructure and Ritual Studio first looks at the macro, observing the large scale and overall effect of how smaller entities interact. From here, it zooms into the micro to study the smaller interactions of daily rituals and how this affects and is affected by architecture. Our Studio is concerned with the concept that objects and places are more than a sum of their individual parts.

We began our graduation project with a visit to Brentford, London. Brentford, as a site for development, provides opportunities to solve the problems created by urban sprawl and the damaged outlines of new infrastructures. Through Brentford, we can explore the threshold at which human and non-human systems interact. As a Studio built on identifying problems and proposing solutions,





1 km

Figure 2: Map of the wider context of Brentford

Figure 4: Layered maps by Rem Koolhaas Figure 5: Layered maps by Bernard Tschumi

circulation bridges across the separate

understand the context of the site and

spaces will put each activity on display,

the wider context of Brentford and

interlacing processes to construct a

then London as a whole. James Corner

culture which nurtures a dialogue

asserts that ‘mapping is a fantastic

between a sheltered education and the

cultural project, creating and building

professional world.

the world as much as measuring and describing it’.10 Distinct from tracing, it

With theoretical research and a

is ‘neither reproduction nor imposition’

conceptual approach achieved, it is

but it allows us to reveal and explore

possible to move forward to something

potential in unexpected areas.11

more tangible. This begins with

Mapping allowed me to condense a lot

mapping the area at different scales to

of information into understandable






Across the arts, many seek to achieve

weakness disregards that there is a

a fourth dimension to their work. It is

relationship between a building and its

how this is achieved that varies through

occupants and requires an assessment

the art forms. In writing, Ernest

of non-quantitative information to

Hemingway achieved this by choosing

solve it. It requires the exploration of

to ‘omit things that he knows’, yet the

things such as the reverberation of a

reader will still have ‘a feeling of those

game of basketball to the classrooms

things as strongly as though the writer

surrounding the school hall or the

had stated them’.19

quality of light that streams through the greenhouse roof during a weekly

In architecture, this fourth dimension

unemployment workshop. In seeking

is achieved by what you add in. If

this fourth dimension to my work, I

three dimensional design relies on

have detailed a day in the life of four

the conceivable a posteriori senses,

different users of the building and

the fourth dimension requires the

described the senses and emotions

addition of a priori senses that evoke

of each user. To describe these user

sensory memories and thoughts.

temporalities of the building, I have

It is this notion which leads back

diagrammed this non-quantitative.

to Norberg-Schulz’s concern with

Through this information, I have

everyday activities. It is this threshold

formed a spatial organisation which

between human (experience) and

respects the private aspects of

non-human (buildings) systems which

these activities and emphasizes the

the Studio seeks to explore. James

experiential qualities that evoke positive

Marston Fitch asserts that a ‘weakness

emotions and memories.

in most discussions of architectural aesthetics is a failure to relate it to its matrix of experiential reality’.20 This


A DAY IN THE LIFE OF...

MS WHITE, RECEPTION CLASS TEACHER

MONDAY 21ST MARCH

H

7 30 AM

Child minder arrives to take my children to school and I leave for work.

8 00 AM

Arrive at school. Read notes form my jobshare partner to catch up on parent contact, ICT tasks and timetable changes for the coming week. Check emails.

8 55 AM

Children arrive. Register. Collect Tesco vouchers and any letters from Explain the different activities available

9 15 AM 10 30 AM

Children access activities available. I do small group work, with between 3 and 6 Snack time. Wander around the classroom to ensure healthy choices are eaten

11 20 AM

Outdoor play time. I try to extend them wherever possible, to be constantly embedding the curriculum within their play. Finish half a cup of coffee. Phonics

12 00 PM

Lunch

10 40 AM

1 00 PM

After lunch they wind down, rest, read stories

3 00 PM

Safely deliver children to parents or after school care. My day is not over, I have hours of work ahead to get ready for the next day, week, month, year. Leave work to pick my children up from the child minders house.

5 30 PM

Figure 16: ‘A day in the life’ extract

Figure 17: User temporalities diagram from each ‘day in the life’ exploration



Through the Infrastructure and Ritual Studio, I have been able to explore how interactions of opposite scales can coexist. Throughout my design I have been exploring how two seemingly opposing entities – Infrastructure and Ritual – can synchronise. It is at the threshold between the two which I have attempted to place my design.



END NOTES 1

David Spittles, ‘Now It’s Brentford-Tastic’, Evening Standard, 6 April 2016, p. 10

<http://standardonline.newspaperdirect.com/epaper/viewer.aspx#> [accessed 15 April 2016]. 2

Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities (Modern Library Series), 4th edn (New

York: Random House Publishing Group, 1993), p. 5. 3

Jane Jacobs, ‘The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs’, Random House, 1992

<http://www.randomhouse.com/highschool/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780679741954&view =printexcerpt> [accessed 15 April 2016]. 4

‘Integrated Agriculture’, Kiss + Cathcart

<http://www.kisscathcart.com/integrated_agriculture.html> [accessed 15 April 2016]. 5

CJ Lim and Ed Liu, Smart-Cities and Eco-Warriors (New York, NY: Routledge, an imprint of the

Taylor & Francis Group, 2010). 6

‘Hydroponics Gives 100 Times Field Yields’, Android World

<http://www.androidworld.com/prod26.htm> [accessed 15 April 2016]. 7

1105 Media, ‘Price Center East’, Education Design Showcase Project, 2015

<http://www.educationdesignshowcase.com/view.esiml?pid=327> [accessed 15 April 2016]. 8

Nicolai Ouroussoff, ‘Putting up Walls That Break down Barriers’, Los Angeles Times (latimes,

1998) <http://articles.latimes.com/1998/nov/15/entertainment/ca-42850/2> [accessed 15 April 2016]. 9

Jeremy Melvin, ‘Obituary: Cedric Price’, The Guardian (The Guardian, 15 August 2003)

<http://www.theguardian.com/society/2003/aug/15/urbandesign.artsobituaries> [accessed 15 April 2016]. 10

James Corner, ‘The Agency of Mapping: Speculation, Critique and Invention’, in Mappings, ed. by

Denis E. Cosgrove (London: Reaktion Books, 1999), pp. 213. 11

Ibid.

12

Ibid, p. 228.

13

Ibid, p. 235.

14

Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities (Modern Library Series), 4th edn (New

York: Random House Publishing Group, 1993), p. 187. 15

‘Adaptive Reuse’, Wikipedia (Wikimedia Foundation)

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptive_reuse> [accessed 15 April 2016].


16

Christian Norberg-Schulz, Intentions in Architecture, 9th edn (Cambridge, MA: M.I.T. Press,

1966), p. 126. 17

Christian Norberg-Schulz, Genius Loci: Towards a Phenomenology of Architecture, 21st edn

(New York: Rizzoli International Publications, 1980). 18

Christian Norberg-Schulz, Existence Space and Architecture (United Kingdom: Studio Vista

London, 1971), p. 37. 19

Charles M. Oliver, Ernest Hemingway A to Z: The Essential Reference to the Life and Work (New

York, NY: Facts on File, 1999), p. 322. 20

James Marston Fitch, ‘Experiential Context of the Aesthetic Process’, Journal of Architectural

Education, 41 (1988), 4 <http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1424829>.




LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figure 1: Authors own Figure 2: Authors own Figure 3: Authors own Figure 4: Metropolitan Architecture Office and others, S, M, L, XL: Small, Medium, Large, Extra Large, 2nd edn (New York, NY: Crown Publishing Group, 2002). Figure 5: Bernard Tschumi, Architecture and Disjunction (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1994). Figure 6: Authors own Figure 7: Authors own Figure 8: zombizza, ‘Report - Wilson and Kyle Factory, Brentford’ (28DaysLater.co.uk, 2011) <http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/wilson-and-kyle-factory-brentford.t59885> [accessed 15 April 2016]. Figure 9: Ibid. Figure 10: Ibid. Figure 11: Authors own Figure 12: Authors own Figure 13: Authors own Figure 14: Authors own Figure 15: Authors own Figure 16: Authors own Figure 17: Authors own



BIBLIOGRAPHY 1105 Media, ‘Price Center East’, Education Design Showcase Project, 2015 <http://www.educationdesignshowcase.com/view.esiml?pid=327> [accessed 15 April 2016] ‘Adaptive Reuse’, Wikipedia (Wikimedia Foundation) <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptive_reuse> [accessed 15 April 2016] Corner, James, ‘The Agency of Mapping: Speculation, Critique and Invention’, in Mappings, ed. by Denis E. Cosgrove (London: Reaktion Books, 1999), pp. 213–35 Fitch, James Marston, ‘Experiential Context of the Aesthetic Process’, Journal of Architectural Education, 41 (1988), 4 <http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1424829> ‘Hydroponics Gives 100 Times Field Yields’, Android World <http://www.androidworld.com/prod26.htm> [accessed 15 April 2016] ‘Integrated Agriculture’, Kiss + Cathcart <http://www.kisscathcart.com/integrated_agriculture.html> [accessed 15 April 2016] Jacobs, Jane, The Death and Life of Great American Cities (Modern Library Series), 4th edn (New York: Random House Publishing Group, 1993) Jacobs, Jane, ‘The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs’, Random House, 1992 <http://www.randomhouse.com/highschool/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780679741954&view =printexcerpt> [accessed 15 April 2016] Lim, CJ, and Ed Liu, Smart-Cities and Eco-Warriors (New York, NY: Routledge, an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, 2010) Melvin, Jeremy, ‘Obituary: Cedric Price’, The Guardian (The Guardian, 15 August 2003) <http://www.theguardian.com/society/2003/aug/15/urbandesign.artsobituaries> [accessed 15 April 2016] Norberg-Schulz, Christian, Existence Space and Architecture (United Kingdom: Studio Vista London, 1971) Norberg-Schulz, Christian, Genius Loci: Towards a Phenomenology of Architecture, 21st edn (New York: Rizzoli International Publications, 1980) Norberg-Schulz, Christian, Intentions in Architecture, 9th edn (Cambridge, MA: M.I.T. Press, 1966) Office, Metropolitan Architecture, Rem Koolhaas, Bruce Mau, Jennifer Sigler, Hans Werlemann Photography, and Hans Werlemann, S, M, L, XL: Small, Medium, Large, Extra Large, 2nd edn (New York, NY: Crown Publishing Group, 2002) Oliver, Charles M., Ernest Hemingway A to Z: The Essential Reference to the Life and Work (New York, NY: Facts on File, 1999)


Ouroussoff, Nicolai, ‘Putting up Walls That Break down Barriers’, Los Angeles Times (latimes, 1998) <http://articles.latimes.com/1998/nov/15/entertainment/ca-42850/2> [accessed 15 April 2016] Spittles, David, ‘Now It’s Brentford-Tastic’, Evening Standard, 6 April 2016, p. 10 <http://standardonline.newspaperdirect.com/epaper/viewer.aspx#> [accessed 15 April 2016] Tschumi, Bernard, Architecture and Disjunction (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1994) zombizza, ‘Report - Wilson and Kyle Factory, Brentford’ (28DaysLater.co.uk, 2011) <http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/wilson-and-kyle-factory-brentford.t59885> [accessed 15 April 2016]



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