BECKY WHITE INT ERIO R ARCHIT ECT URE & DESIG N CIAD6001 MAJO R PRO JECT
To gather an understanding of the historical and contextual location of the site, 36 Queen Street, I delved into the architectural surroundings as a source of information. Predominately offices in the finical district, Queen street is also within in few minutes’ walk from over six Livery Halls, home to the Livery Companies which have inhabited the City for hundreds of years. I instigated my project by mapping the one hundred and eight Livery halls in the United Kingdom. I found only forty in the City and made an appointment to visit one, the Skinners. Outside the halls, the rich facades exhibit a majestic and royal stigma, and within, the grandiose is equivalent, if not, even greater. It was inspiring and insightful to visit such a place, but I also learnt a lot about how the companies are structured and function. The beadle was the source of these interesting facts, and explained that the hall is also rented to other Livery Companies who do not have halls, as well as other functions for private hire. This highlighted a potential spatial programme for the Livery Companies, my first community. Alongside this research I also took an interest in the small community within the City which is overlooked amongst the thousands of commuters, the residents. The barbican estate houses a large majority of the residents in its high and low rise developments of brutalist architecture. This led me to explore other post war housing estates in the whole of London, surfacing as my second community.
CROSS PROGRAMMING: LIVERY & TENANT HALL BECKY WHITE
I chose Alexandra Road as a case study to allow for deeper research. I also made a visit there, which drew inspirations and awe in a different sense to that of Skinners Hall. At Alexandra Road I felt like I had landed in a futuristic film set, the low rise had a monstrous but beautiful presence and the copious amounts of greenery grew itself around the concrete, creating a lively green and white creature. Neave Brown, the architect, pulled in an architectural element to allow for a greater sense of community; he gave Alexandra Road a Tenant Hall. The tenant hall was designed for clubs, meetings, shows, to draw the estate together. I incidentally chose my communities through the architecture they inhabited which reflect a particular type of social structure. On one hand the traditional grand style of the livery halls mirrors a hierarchical pyramid constituting of a Master, wardens, liverymen and freemen. The post war housing estates, which were built during a time of social change, project an egalitarian society. The two contrast in those respects, but are connected via a common hope; to preserve their heritage in the confines of a hall. Livery companies have lost their original role in the City, as trade unions. Some companies continue this tradition through apprenticeships but primarily they focuses are charity, hospitality and education, which take place through dinners, court meetings and other events. They garnish their halls with paintings, ornament and sculpture to remind and accentuate their past to themselves and guests. I found the tenants of Alexandra Road exhibit their heritage in a different, modern technique, through film. In the tenant made documentary, One Below the Queen (2010), the residents made a video to demonstrate their community within the estate and attempt to diminish any negative misconceptions others have about high density living. I also discovered a photographic exhibition, Cooks Camden (2010) including the work of many post war housing scheme architects and photos by Martin Charles. The housing estates have been ill maintained and are therefore dilapidating, it is important for the residents and for our architectural history to preserve the housing estates. In order to assist in this turmoil, housing estate’s importance can be highlighted and shown through photography, film and models, in an exhibition. My design attempts to reflect both communities sense of style in a transformable space which can be adapted to suit both communities’ needs. Utilising a simple design element, the double sided panel, the space changes aesthetically but also in arrangement. Stage one constitutes of Rio rosewood book matched panels and a copper chandelier, a palette of richness for the Livery Hall. The panels can be easily lowered down into an E-shape table arrangement, present in most livery halls, for the large events that take place. The hierarchy of the table reflects that of the company with the livery master sitting at the head of the table and the remaining pyramid following in ascending order. The double faced facades, which change the skin of the interiors to suit the inhabitants, are rotated to a clean white backdrop for the Tenants exhibition. The chandelier is pulled out to become a simple equal row of hanging lights and the heavy white curtain can also be pulled round to create an enclosure for projection. I have also allowed for a phase where the two communities cross over and can inhabit the space at same time. The curtain then acts as a divide and the two may perform smaller programmes, like meetings, and coexist together.
Height
Worshipful Comp of Vin 1
Worshipful Company of Drapers 1671 Edward Jarman
Prof R.H. Taylor BSc, MA, MBA, MD, FRCP, DHMSA, DPMSA Medicine Music,Opera, Boats, Travel
Worshipful Company of Tallow Chandlers 1672 Captain John Caines
Sir Michael Snyder DSc, FRSA, FCA Accountancy Music, gardening, wine collecting
Michael J C
Height
Lady Victoria Diana Leatham Hon Col, Hon Dr Arts, Hon DLitt
Worshipful Company of Apothecaries 1672 Thomas Lock
‘Pound for pound this is the most expensive building built by a Local council anywhere in the world... Everyone has a connection to the street’
‘Good feeling about living here... You can feel proud of the area, one step below the Queen, that’s something big init’
‘My wife said it looks life Greece.. I felt it was like a fish bowl, I could see my neighbours, my neighbours could see me, but I liked the architecture’
‘It looked so bright and white.. it took your breath away.. Your so close to people you have to get on with them... I love concrete’
‘I just thought it was a really cool space.. They built wooden boards and poured loads of concrete into it and each board left a different imprint, it’s like building DNA’
‘It feels like an actual street as apposed to living in a high rise building... I really despise those brown tiles, I just think they’re really hideous’
‘We are very close together, I want it to be more out, so we have more space’
‘People are constantly b defensive about how they t their space, so they might fen or planting.. So you see defen des
Worshipful Company of Merchant Taylors 1683 Edward Jarman
Worshipful Company of Coopers 1708 Nicholas Barbon
Worshipful Company of Information Technologists 1750
Worshipful Company of Skinners 1779
Worshipful Company of Fishmongers 1835 Henry Roberts
Worshipful Company of Watermen & Lightermen 1780 William Blackburn
Worshipful Company of Glaziers, Launderers & Scientific Instrument makers 1808
Time
Dr John Sichel Medicine Sailing, wine
There is a lot of space in Rowley and you think what is that’
Bryan Pickering
Michael Grant Marketing and Coperate Communications Charity, yachting, moutain biking, cross-country skiing, travel
‘Well it is a stupid idea, here you have to go the stairs, then there’s a lift... You should have a lift from the bottom’
‘It just looks dull... There are other times when it’s really hot and sunny and everybody’s one their patios, maybe having a drink... It looks really nice’
William Fell
J M Redmond
‘At one time we had housing corp here and I thought it was one of the best times we had, in terms of managing this place’
David R B Ingmire
Ivan Keryy Plumbing Golf, photography, football
‘He made it so that you walk round either way and you never come to a stop... IN a small space you do not want radiators, because it gets in the way of the furniture’
K F Etherington
‘The red brick road seems never ending as you approach it’
Francis Stephen Phillimore BA Law Arts, music, museum, theatre, shooting, travel, gardens, tennis
‘The main one, that’s not used well, is the tenant Hall... because it’s a lovely big, open space building, it could be used for anything’
COMMUNITIES RESEARCH: L I V E R Y C O M PA N I E S & P O S T WA R H O U S I N G E S TAT E S
36 QUEEN STREET
COMMUNITIES
THE LIVERY COMPANIES
POST WAR HOUSING ESTATES
PROGRAMMES
LIBRARY
BANQUET
COURT MEETING
OPEN SPACE
DISPLAY SHELVES
STORAGE
PROJECTION SPACE
SMALL MEETING ROOM
OPEN SPACE
EXHIBITION SPACE
LIBRARY
STORAGE
SPATIAL REQUIREMENTS
PROGRAM DIAGRAMS
LIVERY PLAN 1.100
LIVERY & TENANT PLAN 1.100
TENANT PLAN 1.100
Chandelier Livery company structure relfected in banquet table
Mies van der Rohe: Tugendhat House bookcase
Mies van der Rohe: Barcelona Pavillion bookmatched walls
Erno Golfinger: Chair
Experimental images with light projected into ornaments
Space for personal carpet/rug
Ornaments and trophies expressing the Livery heritage
ISOMETRIC:LIVERY
Small meeting room
Double faced pivoting wall
Curtain of lights
Chrome steel frames
Court meeting table
In situ concrete elements
Polished concrete floor
Zauberschoen: Library recessed curtain
ISOMETRIC:LIVERY & TENANT
Jaime Hayon: Groniger museum
Entrance through rotating bookcases Tenant social structure
Exhibtion space for photography & models
White wall finish
Projection space Rotating facade to allow light in
ISOMETRIC:TENANT
Steel Chrome Frame
Circular steel plate
White finish Flush bolt into next table
Flush bolt into panel
MDF
Steel Chrome Frame
MDF
Rio Rosewood Veneer
Flush bolt into floor
Teflon wheel
D E TA I L S : 1 . 5
D E TA I L S : 1 . 2 0
D E S I G N E L E M E N T : P I V O T PA N E L
INTERIOR PERSPECTIVE:LIVERY
DYNAMIC PLAN