Year 5 Process Journal by katiephillips.architecture

The Collective Individual: Confronting Autonomy in an Urban Semiosphere year five

AR50005

Process

K. Phillips

Process A linear journey through the evolution of my year 5 masters project exploring continuity, porosity, “freedom” and semiotics in the theatrical landscape of the Southbank Arts Centre, London.

THE COLLECTIVE INDIVIDUAL: CON AUTONOMY IN AN SEMIOSPHERE

E NFRONTING N URBAN

A Reading of Southbank as a Biological Entity An exploration of the theatrical buildings and their internal organs within connective tissue (objects within a series of both internal and external foyer spaces). Areas of growth are identified in order to improve both porosity and continuity, and to form a true pluralistic urban semiosphere.

organs within buildings

organ catalogue

Site Strategy 030222

model scale 1:1000

Site Strategy 110222

What if the housing element could be moved further towards London Eye and occupy Jubilee Gardens?

Urban Strategy 110222

Southbank yearns to be a fluid and continuous landscape, but realistically it cannot extend forever - it must stop eventually. The new housing strata (2.) acts as a bookend in the South and corresponds with the IBM building bookend (1.) which will be reclaimed and deep retrofitted as housing. The entire landscape in between will be improved through small interventions to the north of the railway bridge, and a new development of connective tissue and theatrical organs/ objects will extend the landscape to the London Eye, forming a new Southbank.

Southbank’s existing dramaturgical programme: Theatres, auditoria, cinema, workshop spaces, galleries, exhibition spaces, restaurants, bars, cafes, shops

What is missing? Total fluidity between existing forms. Education: Art school, Theatre / Dance school Housing (for transient populations - actors and performers, artists and students) ?Spaces to bridge the anonymity between maker and product?

A reading of the Greek Agora as a series of organs within connective tissue - however not fully synthesized with one another.

The Agora Athens, c. 150

Arendt states that freedom is “participation in public affairs or admission to the public realm”, (Arendt, H., 1958) placing emphasis on a collective society as being conducive to a holistic and full life, as she viewed that non-participation in the public realm was akin to the experience of social outcasts such as slaves, outlaws or barbarians in the Greek polis. The polis provided a public forum in which people of all walks of life came together in a pluralistic realm, of learning, markets and entertainment. The Stoa were informal places of learning and information where Stoics would walk up and down, extolling their teachings. Stoics were foreign (not athenian) and were only permitted to teach inside the stoa - (which starts to unravel concepts of ‘the other’) and ideas of temporality and ephemerality start to form in these thresholds. The event spaces, the organs of the polis can be easily identified as objects. The Stoa, however, can be read as both organ and connective tissue, as they bridge the threshold between event space, or object, and foyer.

[image: Camp, J. (2021). The Agora: Public Life and Administration. In J. Neils & D. Rogers (Eds.), The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Athens (Cambridge Companions to the Ancient World, pp. 86-97). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press doi:10.1017/9781108614054.007]

Narkomfin The Social Condenser The Narkomfin Building (Dom Narkomfin) in Moscow was designed by Moisei Ginzburg and Ignatii Milinis in 1928 to host collective housing for employees of the Narodnyo Kommissariat Finansov (the People’s Commissariat of Finance). Completed in 1932, the Narkomfin is one of the few actually built architectural works responding to the constructivist aim of reinventing the everyday life of people, (byt in Russian), trough typologically experimental buildings that embodied new Socialist ideals. The main principle behind the conception of the building is the collectivization of all the areas that corresponded to collective functions. Reading, cooking, raising children, doing sport, all are functions conceptually removed from the traditional -bourgeois- apartment, and relocated within a glazed, collective volume hosting communal kindergartens, kitchens, libraries and gymnasiums. The upper roof would also work as a communal recreative space. The individual spaces, eg. rooms for sleeping, washrooms and toilets, as well as study and individual research areas are, instead, hosted in a long block with ribbon windows. The windows, here, open widely towards the exterior natural setting, implicitly questioning the closed and interior nature of a “room”. The duplex flats were divided into two types, the K Types which still included a surface for children and cooking, and the F Types, where all the communal functions, located outside of the apartments, implied that all children should be raised collectively in order to contrast patriarchial relationships. The transformation of cooking into a communal activity would also allow women to be freed from household responsibilities and question the privatization of couple relationships.

[image: socks-studio.com/2016/12/04/the-narkomfin-building-inmoscow-1928-29-a-built-experiment-on-everyday-life/]

[plans: (ibid) ]

Urban Strategy Superimposing Narkomfin and the Stoa (to scale) on to the landscape of Southbank to create thresholds and continuity between new potential organs and existing ones.

1. 2. 3.

10.

1. IBM - reclaimed and deep-retrofitted as housing for travelling actors and artists. 2. Derive strata / connective tissue (or layer) 3. Transitionary open air connection above National Theatre 4. New Organ - Theatre School 5. Derive strata / connective tissue 6. New Organ - Dance School 7. New Organ - Art College building 01 8. New Organ - Art College building 02 9. Student housing 10. Housing for travelling actors and artists.

6. 4. 5.

1. IBM - new voids to accommodate housing deep retrofit 2. Collective housing amenities and performance rehearsal spaces 3. Connective walkway over National Theatre 4. New Organ - Theatre School: performance and rehearsal spaces 5. New Organ - Theatre School: workshop / teaching spaces 6. Derive strata / connective layer

urban scale development 160222

1. 2.

urban scale development: sketch model 160222 1:1000

urban scale development 180222

How can the new public realm provide spaces of freedom and play? (freedom as per Hannah Arendt and Iris Marion Young’s definitions) A true agonistic public space where people can exercise their rights. 1. Space for spontaneous debate, talks, protest, demonstrations, performances. 2. How to create a space in front of the housing which is porous but offers privacy to residents? Another paradox. Barbican deals with this separation well.

indeterminate spaces 180222 An isolated limb of Derive strata forms indeterminate thresholds and programme It can operate as public or private - partitions can enclose spaces and be utilised for markets / exhibition / events / degree shows / installations. Form of structure leaves opportunity for growth and metabolism in the future - more levels can be added.

urban scale development 180222

review feedback 230222 The reading of the city as objects and foyers must be spatialised more clearly in the design - really visualise the strata as connective tissue rather than an extension of the buildings or simply as bridges. Key ideas of the programme can inform the form. Take forward one piece at urban scale and develop it at an architectural scale. Southbank will be concieved as a language of surfaces, or as connective tissue encapsulating objects / organs. How could this project become more transgressive?

National Theatre Continuity Built in 1976 as one of the last great exemplars of public sector architecture, the National Theatre has been described as the nation’s living room due to its highly porous nature. The open levels of strata make it hard to define where the building begins and ends, and the interconnected walkways, split levels and terraces merge with the city itself. The concrete waffle slabs of the National Theatre extend fluidly from interior to exterior, with glazing only used to environmentally protect spaces. Architect Denys Lasdun described the early design process as one of evolution, which began with the spaces of the theatres themselves, “before we even knew what the outside would look like”. (Foges, C., 2016) The ‘organs’, as the theatres, directly influenced the arrangement of the foyers, or ‘connective tissue’ that surrounds them. The notion of designing from inside to out is one which I will take forward in conceptualising the key spaces within the new Southbank extension. [image: architecturalrecord.com/articles/11494-the-national-theatre, Foges, C., “The National Theatre”, source: ibid]

[image: architecturalrecord.com/articles/11494-the-national-theatre]

Illinois Institute of Technology S.R. Crown Hall, Mies Van Der Rohe

[image: divisare.com/projects/396852-ludwig-mies-van-der-rohedavide-adamo-s-r-crown-hall]

Mies Van Der Rohe’s plan for the IIT campus was developed for almost 20 years, and the campus contains 20 of his works. The master plan for the campus, based on a 24 by 24 foot grid, was the structural order used as a tool for locating columns within buildings. Mies stressed the importance of order and the dimension of the grid was dictated by the smallest modules, ie. the student’s drafting tables, desks and lab benches, which then started a reverse planning order and determined the form of the rooms, then the building size, and then the campus itself. The S.R. Crown Hall (above plan), which houses the College of Architecture, is an open plan space uninterrupted by columns, creating Mies’ theory of “universal space”. The studio allows creative interaction among the students and the only modules in the space are free standing wooden partitions that delineate different spaces for specific activities.

[image: https://visuallexicon.wordpress.com/2017/10/03/iit-crownhall/]

Through the prescience of the National Theatre and IIT, I aim to create a space which is based on the needs of an individual, then extrapolated to become an interconnected network of spaces in which a collective can operate. The structure will reflect the concept of the collective individual.

a collective formed by individuals

[image: behance.net/usrdck]

concrete waffle slab

Each 3 by 3 pod (9m2) waffle slab grid is occupied by 2 students, each with their own desk. Sliding partitions can operate on runners on the underside of the waffle slab ribs, compartmentalising spaces as and when students need them. They can also be used as surfaces to pin up work, provide acoustic shelter and privacy. Drilling and leading cables and ducts through the slab should be mitigated as much as possible as it makes it difficult to repair and maintain the building services. How can the sliding partitions operate on the waffle slab ribs if services are suspended below ? Issue to be solved: how can a waffle slab accomodate exposed services while also having screens operate on a grid system on the ribs?

Holedeck alarcon+asociados Holedeck is a patented system of voided waffle slabs which allow services to be run through the ribs of the slab without compromising structural integrity. There is no requirement for a suspended ceiling and the voids can accomodate multiple services and air conditioning. The system is suitable for large spans with high levels of services, and the architects recommend its use for schools, offices and hospitals.

[image: designboom.com/architecture/alarconasociados-reducefloor-slabs-with-holedeck-system-02-21-2014/, source: ibid]

unit with air conditioning, suspensed lighting and electrical outlets

3D printed mould for Holedeck waffle slab (model built from scratch, not downloaded)

Can the 1:20 3D printed waffle slab mould be used as a real mould to cast concrete?

Mould printed in PVA instead of plastic, so it can be dissolved out of the concrete.

Concrete waffle slab cast, scale 1:20

analysis standard art school model Through the selective reading of my own art school (the matthew and crawford buildings), it has been shown that art is hermetic. Many functions are enclosed as objects when they could be better conceived as foyers. Their function is limited and student experience is impaired by certain programmes being contained within closed objects. Some of these programmes must be objects to allow them to function within reasonable realms of practicality (and safety), ie. a photography studio, a metal working studio, a lecture theatre, a shop. However, some can benefit from an open plan and collectivist reform. Studios should no longer be separate isolated rooms, but instead a vast, shared space where students can work cross-discipline, seeking inspiration from and collaborating with students on other courses and in other years of study. Lecture theatres can be objects for acoustic performance and for presentations, but can also leak out of the containers of the institution and engage in an immediate public setting. Some lecture theatres can be transitionary thresholds between public and private, inside and outside. A set of steps adjacent to the studios, allowing the public and the students to share a forum. Review spaces should have the option to be enclosed or open spaces, to allow for formal or informal settings. The remaining functions can all be conceived as foyers or connective tissue - spaces to move through, experience and engage with others in a highly pluralistic realm.

site development 010322

site development 040322

3. site development (level 00) 080322 1. Workshops and studios 2. Library and hermetic lecture theatres 3. Housing

site development (level 00) 110322 (tutorial) Iterations required on creating a more porous threshold between public and private, interior and exterior. Can parts of the studios be operated by students to open and allow public in to view work? Perhaps voids in the above tissue can form to allow more light into ground level workshop spaces and allow the public to view the machines and processes as a form of spectacle, taking the word back to its original meaning and not as a descriptor of the diagnosis of modern society under capitalism. Need to work on continuity on materiality from studio floor to connective tissue (strata).

try to concieve studios not as building and strata

but as porous spaces

studio development (level 01) 150322 Students have autonomy over operating pivoting glass partitions leading into the studio space, and are able to compartmentalise the studios by using folding partitions to create public cells within. The public can interact with work and exhibitions in these cells, while other students are free to work in different areas of the studio.

reflections pseudo-public space Through the thesis text I uncovered a phenomenon in London’s public realm, where large swathes of seemingly public parks, thoroughfares and squares actually belonging to and being operated by private corporations who draft up their own laws and restrictions on “acceptable behaviour” and enforce these by means of private security companies. (Shenker, J., 2017) They are not under obligation to make these rules public, meaning citizens have no way of knowing what they are permitted to do at some of London’s largest and most popular outdoor spaces, and can be removed for holding protests, taking photographs, or simply looking untidy. (ibid.) Public places are, in a way, a spatial representation of our freedom in society- many important protests and reformist movements began in parks and squares as they are natural gathering points in the city. These spaces are not just landmarks or places to meet with others, they are vehicles for social change and public expression. The erosion of these is arguably reflecting an erosion of our rights. The ground level public space will therefore be divided into a two; the first half being a genuine public foyer, or “stage”, as a gathering point for discourse, debate, protest and the like. The lower half towards the housing strata will serve as a landscape of gardens for the residents and public.

stage for public discourse

landscape development: gardens 160322

desire lines (which embody autonomy)

forming paths and green spaces

simplifying and creating a public realm

site development (level 00) 180322

reflections strata and fluid landscapes The porosity of Southbank must be continued through the development, and the fluid nature of its thresholds must be considered. The studio development (150322) focused on a concept for public interaction through fluid thresholds controlled by students inside the studio. The mechanism for this needs to be resolved further - how can the act of opening and closing thresholds be concieved as a performance or theatrical act? Also helps to reclaim the notion of spectacle through an act which is interesting to look at, rather than as a diagnosis of society under capitalism.

Maison de Verre Performative mechanisms The theatrical 1932 house designed by Pierre Chareau has been described by some as an “elaborate piece of furniture”, or even as a “cult object”. (Ouroussoff, N., 2007) It challenges assumptions about the nature of Modernism, becoming a theatrical machine. Its famous glass block facade allows light to play in the double height interior, prompting comparisons to a Surrealist artwork, a theater stage and an operating room. (The ground floor was once used as a medical suite for the original client). Internally, spatial division is variable by the use of sliding, folding or rotating screens in glass, sheet or perforated metal, or in combination. Other mechanical components includ an overhead trolley from the kitchen to dining room, a retracting stair from the private sitting room to the master bedroom and complex bathroom cupboards and fittings. Windows operate by way of a wheel engaged with a worm gear, which turns the mechanism for opening and closing the facade.

[image: madparis.fr/architecture, text source: Ouroussoff, N, ‘The Best House in Paris’, NY Times. Aug 26, 2007]

Can a worm gear mechanism on large scale doors be used in order for students to have control over allowing the public into the studios? Theatrical and performance-like.

Operating the doors democratic decisions

The wheels to open the doors for public interaction are large scale so that they require a minimum of two people to operate: fostering more communication between students and therefore the decision to open the doors is undertaken in a more democratic way than purely being one student’s decision. The enlarged scale of the wheels also creates a more theatrical performance, and are interesting to observe.

partitions autonomy and self planning within the studio Through the prescience of No-Stop City and Spatial City, both researched through the thesis text, ideas of self planning and autonomous spaces emerged. Self-planning and autonomous organisation within the super-structure of No-Stop is made possible due to the vast homogeneous grid allowing for various internal elements to be assembled and disassembled at will, with people moulding the space to their needs. Some elements are shown as partition walls, straight or curved, with objects and furniture like tents and chairs spontaneously and temporarily laid out to delineate vague boundaries of programme. As with Spatial City, architecture had been reduced to the bare minimum, a simple background for human processes and functions. Students should have the autonomy to move their desks anywhere in studio and configure layouts with the partitions to suit their needs as frequently as they desire. The result will be a highly flexible, self-planned space which allows for individuals to chose where and with who they want to work.

steel channel cast into underside of concrete waffle slab rib ball bearings in channel / linear guide rail steel thread set into channel

female steel thread in stainless steel component 1.6 mm stainless steel frame 13.8 mm stainless steel dowel (clearance fit in 14 mm hole) 24 mm double wall polycarbonate

1.6mm stainless steel frame 8 mm stainless steel rod stainless steel guide channel (12.7 x 12.7 x 1.6 mm)

Partition component 200322

The component is housed within the stainless steel frame which wraps around the edges of the board material. The dowel is inserted in the component through the board material in order to support the weight, and can be easily pushed back out if the board needs to be taken down or to have the material replaced. The frame provides a protective edge to the material and also will house magnets on the sides to lock adjacent partitions into place.

partitions autonomy and self planning within the studio Sliding partitions, in either solid pin-board or transparent polycarbonate, operate on runners on the underside of each 3 x 3 unit’s boundary, compartmentalising spaces as and when students need them, providing pin up spaces, acoustic shelter and privacy.

Studio scenarios autonomy and self planning The studios can be configured in a multitude of ways, but three main scenarios are afforded: Private Workspace Semi-Public Full Public Interaction These configurations are discussed in more detail over the following pages, where the layouts are explained in regards to autonomy and collectiveness.

NOTE: Through the production of these diagrams, I was able to calculate the number of students the Art School can accomodate. At at 2 desks per square, with no desks blocking fire exits, circulation or partition stores, and no students working in the middle ‘semi-public’ space, the Main studio 01 level can accommodate 308 students. The level 02 and 03 studios under the same conditions can accommodate 350 students each. At a minimum, the studios can operate with 1,008 students.

Studio scenario 01: private workspace This configuration is of the studio as a fully private space, where the public are separated physically by glazing and only able to view the work of the students or artists from a distance. The plan is shown in this arrangement as entirely open, however internal doors can be pivoted to compartmentalise spaces if required. The central crit space can also operate as an open or closed space informal or formal - allowing for students to meander through and participate in other’s reviews or alternatively to act as a sealed and undisturbed room for exams or final exhibitions. Voids in the connective tissue strata allow the public to look down into the ground floor workshop space and observe processes which are usually kept hidden within the main bodies of normative art schools.

Studio scenario 02: semi-public The student operated pivoting main doors afford the student collective (or artist collective) control over when and for how long the public is permitted to engage with the space and their work. The students as a collective, democratic body have control over their studio and can decide whether they wish to participate in public interaction. In this semi-public configuration, the internal doors of the studio are closed to create a central public space, with two adjacent private spaces. The students who do not wish to participate in the open studio exhibition can move to the private spaces and continue working. The crit space can be included in an exhibition, or as a venue to host workshops, talks and presentations. It can alternatively be used independently from the central public space by students and artists during the open studio.

Studio scenario 03: full public interaction This scenario shows the studio as an entirely public space, with all desks and chairs moved into storage in the central crit space. The internal partitions allow for a myriad of different exhibition layouts and opportunites. This configuration could accomodate a party at the end of semester, a degree show, an artists exhibition or a gallery. The studio behaves as true connective tissue, bridging thresholds of inside and out, and allowing people to meander through the space freely in a “dérive”.

5. 6. 7. 8.

10.

11. 12.

level 00 scale 1:200 1. Main entrance 2. Meeting room 3. Admin and office 4. Spray painting room 5. CNC machines 6. A2 laser cutters 7. Assembly and work-benches 8. 3D printers 9. A0 laser cutters 10. Assembly and work-benches 11. Materials store 12. Printers

10.

11.

12. 13.

14. 15.

level 00 scale 1:200 1. Textiles benches 2. Printmaking studio 3. CAD Suite computers 4. Photography studio 01 5. Photography studio 02 6. CAD Suite computers General Workshop 7. Band saws 8. Beam panel saws 9. Belt sanders 10. Soldering station 11. Work benches and saw tables 12. CNC machine 13. Finishing sander 14. Spindle 15. Trim table

A figure ground plan of the New Southbank enclave, illustrating its new boundary while remaining porous.

Art School:

Excerpts from A1 exploded axo drawing, illustrating the porosity and transparent nature of the studios.

The public have a visual connection to the students and artists. The almost seamless continuation (broken by glazing) of the travertine floor tiles from the studio to the strata creates a fluid connection and blurs the threshold between inside and out.

The voids open the strata to reveal the make lab and workshop processes on the ground floor, while the wheel operated doors open a section of the elevation for the public to meander through.

The building, as a semiosphere, communicates to the public and is visible from the other side of the Thames and beyond. The decals are made from vinyl, cut in the make lab, and easily applied / removed from the windows as and when required.

The connective tissue under the Hungerford Bridge becomes a place of self expression, continuing the atmosphere of the skate undercroft at the Southbank Centre.

The studio’s elevation visible from the opposite edge of the Thames, with the internal processes visible and clearly communicated.

Critical Reflections thesis and project On reflection, I feel that the thesis and project came together in a symbiotic relationship, with the project utilised as a conclusion and a means of testing the key themes uncovered in the text. The project answered key questions that the thesis posed; a balance between individuals and the collective, which was tested through a self planned space where individuals can decide where they want to work but must respect their peers and their space in order for it to function, the silent creep of pseudo-public spaces was addressed through the inclusion of the new public foyer, which acts as a space for a true public realm, free from by-laws and oppressive capital forces, and the project as a whole is a sensitive and logical extension of an existing fluid landscape, synthesising with existing nodes (or limbs) and continuing the strata to a defined and holistic conclusion. It recognised the potential for Southbank to evolve into something more resolved - an urban semiosphere, and it proposed a clear method of doing so through intervention and addition. If I had more time, I would develop the other ‘organs’ in the urban plan in more depth, proposing their organs within organs (event spaces within buildings) and work on developing their connective tissue to synthesise with the existing forms. The housing, in both the IBM as a retrofit project and the new proposed strata at the London Eye, would be very interesting to resolve, however as housing was the focus of my year 4 project I instead chose to challenge myself with a different, more public programme, and placed myself far out of my comfort zone. I found it difficult to get into at first, and I initially really struggled with the scale of the proposal as compared to the relatively small scale of my previous year’s housing project. I acknowledge that there is less of a degree of technical resolution in this project compared to last year’s, however as I have already met all RIBA criteria, my focus was set on uncovering original research and knowledge through the thesis and applying this to a project which aimed to embody and test the key themes as precisely as possible. Any technical details that have been resolved (i.e. the partitions, waffle slab) have been essential to the concept of the operation of the studio and therefore their development was necessary. “Southbank, with the addition of new organs and an extension of its connective tissue, now operates as a fully realised semiosphere. Penetrated by students, actors, artists and the public, it creates a stage which allows new ideas to form through spaces unhindered by capital forces. The new connective tissue creates a genuinely public space where people are free from hidden private laws, as found in the proliferation of pseudo-public spaces in London, dictating their behaviour. People can exercise their right to self-expression, free speech, debate and protest on a neutral platform, irrigated with all the potential energies emanating from its contiguous organs” - thesis excerpt.