Megan Townsend Unit 22 Year 5
Test model for timber bending and weaving
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Three Dwellings
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A Retreat For An Idealistic Imagination Imagination
‘The world is full of nice, ordinary little people who live in nice, ordinary little houses on the ground. But didn’t you ever dream of a house up on a tree top?’ Swiss Family Robinson 1960
The Minpins By Roald Dahl - 1991 ‘Little Billy is forbidden by his mother to enter the forest of sin behind his house. She tells him of the Whangdoodles, Hornswagglers, Snozzwanglers and Vermicious kinds that live in the forest. Worst of all is the terrible blood sucking Toothpickling Stonechuckling Spittler, which chases its prey while glowing clouds of hot smoke pour out of its nose, and then swallows them up in one gulp. Little Billy doesn’t believe his mother, and the Devil whispers to Little Billy that the monsters don’t exist, and there is a plethora of lucious wild strawberries in the forrest. Soon, Little Billy is walking through the forrest when he sees something coming after him, and runs to escape it. As he looks back, he sees puffs of orange-red smoke catching up with him. He escapes what he is sure must be the Spittler byclimbing up a tree as high and as fast as he can. When he comes to rest, he notices windows opening up al over the branches, and descovers a whole city of little people, The Minpins, living inside the tree. The leader of The Minpins, Don Mini, tells Little Billy that the monster waiting under the tree is not the Spittler (which the Minpins have never heard of), but the Red-Hot Smoke-Belching Gruncher, who grunches up everything in the forest. It seems that there is no way for Little Billy to safely get down from the tree and return home. But upon learning of the close friendship between the Minpins and birds, Little Billy devises a plan to rid the forest of the gruncher: Little Billy flies on a swans back and uses his scent to lure the Gruncher into a lake. The water of the lake puts out the fire in the Gruncher’s belly, killing him. The Minpins are gratefulto Little Billy for ridding the forest of their tormentor. They reward him by sending the swan to serve as Little Billy’s own personal transport every night, which he uses to explore the world and to comtinue his new found friendship with the Minpins.’
This intial drawing was inspired directly from The Minpins story. I listed all of the provisions ‘Little Billy’ would need. This design is not just for him, but any child or adult who finds their idealism a trait they do not want to lose, or in fact encourage.
When designing the tree dwelling, I first looked at the site and tree that I would use. This happened to be an Oak tree. I then set about researching the Oak, and used inspiration from Oak pollen and the Acorn to come up with my initial designs.
A Retreat for an Idealistic Imagination
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A Stage Set For Storytellers Fragility
‘Tree took account of road, which was aware of air, which was mindful of sea, which shared things with sun. Every element lived in harmonious relation with it’s neighbour, and all was kith and kin’ Life of Pi 2001
Life of Pi By Yann Martel 2001 ‘As a teenager in Pondicherry, India, Pi is constantly exploring new opportunities and learning new things. his father is the propritor of the Pondicherry Zoo, where Pi learns much of the workings and raising of animals. Pi grew up Hindu, but descovered the Catholic faith at the age of 14. He convert, and later again to Islam. He adopts all three as schools of thought. At 16, Pi’s father decides to move the zoo to Canada, due to the new developments in Parliament. The animals and family are loaded into the same boat. On the journey to Winnipeg, the boat sinks. All are lost, except Pi, a hyena, zebra and a 400 lb tiger called ‘Richard Parker’, later an orangutan arrives too. Pi removes himself from the animals by constructing tarpaulin and staying above. The animals eat eachother, until only Richard Parker remains. Pi gets scared and so constructs a floating raft that is attached tot he back of the boat. He learns how to catch fish, and sets about training Richard Parker. They share food, and slowly over time, begin to bond. Food is scarce though, and they both become quite ill. 7 months pass and they are struggling. They lose their sight and come across another blind man floating in the icean too. They talk, and eventually the blind man tries to board Pi’s boat, intent on eating him. Richard Parker does not allow this, added to his hunger, he attacks the man and eats him. Pi cries about it, but his tears clear his sight and they continue their journey. They eventually come across an island of algae. Pieats the algae to regain strength and sleeps in the boat at night. Richard Parker eats the meerkats that live on teh island and sleeps in a tree. They soon find out the island is carnivorous and so hastenly leave. Finally, after floating along further, Pi spots land and disembarks in Mexico. Richard Parker runs off into the woods, and Pi is rescued by two men, who owned the boat that sank. He recounts his 227 day story, but they don’t believe his fantastical tale.
A Stage For Storytellers - A Centre for Local History
Rye House Pleasure Garden
The Great Bed of Ware
Transport of Hops and Barley
Royal Swans on the River
Main structural ribs to boat depicting local history ‘scenes’
Joint slotted onto main central spine of the boat construct
Upper deck and lower deck. Upper as a viewing gallery, lower as reading and learning area Bent wood forming the main hull shape of the dwelling
Hand carved main spine to the structure, where all else is hung off
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A Bath for an Executive Vulnerability
‘The Emperor was doubtful showing himself naked to the people, but then he abandoned his fears. After all, no one would know about it except the ignorant and the incompetent.’ The Emperors New Clothes 1837
The Emperors New Clothes By Christian Anderson 1837 ‘A vein emperor who cares for nothing, bires two swindlers who promise him the finest and best suit of clothes, from a fabric invisible to anyone who is unfit for his position, or “helplessly stupid”. The Emperor can not see the clothing himself when he tries them on, standing naked in front of the mirror. He pretends, though, that he can, out of fear of appearing unfit for his position; his ministers do the same. When the swindlers report that the suit is finished, they mime dressing him and the Emperor marches in procession before his subjects, who play along with the pretense, until a child in the crowd, too young to understand the desirability of praising the emperors’ new clothes, blurts out that the Emperor is wearing nothing at all, and the cry is taken up throughout the crowd. The Emperor cringes, suspecting the assertion is true, but continues his procession with his head held high.’
Shunning the City - A Bath House for the Infallable City Worker
This dwelling will be situated on the top of a 1960’s style office block. It will be avaliable for the city worker to take a break from the indoors, or the husstle and busstle of the London streets. The process is important to enjoy the outcome. The feeling of vulnerability necessary to invigorate and take stock.
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360 degree view of the bath house for the infallable city worker
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Deconstruction of bath hut for a city worker
Flip up roof to allow weather in, and views to the sky Rain catcher with filter to collect water to heat for bath Entry door Oak hand cut timber shingles to clad the exterior of the bath hut Mahogany clad interior to create a dark and relaxing atmosphere Chimney to allow smoke / steam to escape from inside Twisting louvres for a more permeable feeling to the bath corner Infinity pool style bath spilling over the edge
Gutter to collect water spill of for cleaning and growing green wall Cantilevered over the edge of an office block
3 Months
6 Months
8 Months
Use of bath water from gutter to cultivate growth on the facade of the office building