An I n s t i t u t i o n o f Emp o w e rme n t
Challenging how power is acquired to the individual within the parameters of the traditional University collegiate system
MArch Architectural Design Stage 6 Thesis Project Cultural Assemblages Studio Jenna Sheehy Newcastle University
Chapter Contents: An Institution of Empowerment
This thesis challenges the exclusive power structures historically established within society and re-examines the structure of prestigious educational institutions domineering power. It proposes a template of a more comprehensive structure, one that reflects and is inclusive of a wider group of protagonists, in recognition of the more recently emerging individuals that shape our society and, therefore, attain power in new ways.
Chapter 1:
Cultural Assemblages - Architecture as Social Phenomenon
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Chapter 2:
An Assemblage of ‘Real’ and ‘Non-Real’
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Chapter 3:
Mapping - Translating Fictional Architecture Through Narrative; Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
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Chapter 4:
Mapping - Translating Fictional Architecture Through Narrative; Through the Looking Glass
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Chapter 5:
An Assemblage of Myths and Legends
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Chapter 6:
An Assemblage of Power
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Chapter 7:
An Institution of Empowerment - Programme of Intervention
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Chapter 8:
Subverting Tradition
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Chapter 9:
Portals to the New ‘Wonderland’
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Chapter 10:
Exchange of Knowledge and Information
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Chapter 11:
New Student Residency
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Chapter 12:
Protagonist Interactions
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Chapter 13:
Precedents and References
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ultural Assemblages Architecture as Social Phenomenon: This studio traces the making and unmaking of assemblages; collectives made up of interactive components comprising a combination of people, places, practices and objects. ‘According to assemblage theory, the proverbial whole is bigger than the parts that constitute it. But, in turn, the whole itself is contingent on the components, which maintain their autonomy, and can over time, or under certain circumstances, be spun off to form parts of other assemblages or atrophy as vestigial elements.’1 This thesis draws from more than one assemblage, linking several into an architectural response; the resulting whole an assemblage in itself. It begins by establishing the assemblage of ‘Real and Non-Real’, through a depiction of Alice’s experiences in Wonderland and the Looking Glass world, narrated through the novels written by Lewis Carroll. It then draws on the assemblage of ‘Empowerment’; tracing three key power groups in society, through an analogy of Wonderland characters, and analyses how the two are bridged by an assemblage of ‘Myth and Legend.’
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An assemblage of the Real and the Non-Real
An assemblage of Myths and Legends
An assemblage of Power
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n Assemblage of ‘Real and Non-Real’ Michel de Certeau’s book, ‘The Practice of Everyday Life’ formed an influential starting point for me to identify an assemblage on which to focus, particularly the chapter, ‘believing and making people believe.’ To summarise this chapter, de Certeau talks of how narrated reality and news nowadays tells us what must be believed; here are the facts, this is the news, here is the data, therefore, this is the truth and you should believe it. This ‘assemblage of truths’ is strengthened through modern technology and media providing visualisation evidence, which gives a stronger sense of truth and, thus, belief. An idea, camouflaged as facts and data, can ‘present themselves as messengers from a “reality”.’2 In the past, the narration of news was left to be interpreted, since it was spread through word of mouth alone, with no digital media or visualisations to reinforce it. As a result, its effect was less forceful. Any truths left in suspension were encouraged to be visualised. Today, however, fiction claims to make the present and speak through facts, therefore, people are no longer obliged to believe what they don’t see, but rather to only believe what they do see. ‘This reversal of the terrain on which beliefs develop results from a mutation in the paradigms of knowledge: the ancient postulate of the invisibility of the real has been replaced by the postulation of its visibility. The modern sociocultural scene refers to a “myth”.’3 This prompted a wider thinking into instances in which we see things we know not to be real, despite visual evidence, such as dreams and illusions. In addition, this thesis draws strong links from narratives, particularly the way in which ‘imaginary architecture’ is created through the medium of fictional literature. Lewis Carroll’s Wonderland duology personifies a fictional land and fictional characters, whilst continually prompting the protagonist, Alice, to question ‘what is real and what is an illusion?’; ‘what is apparently nonsense and what sense can be drawn from it?’ The first phase of mapping depicts the two novels; Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking Glass (1871), tracing Alice’s journeys through Wonderland, both physical and psychological. The ‘influence of Carroll’s classic texts are attributable to the way they unfold through a largely unpredictable series of episodes and incidents. [..] this aleatory motive anticipates [..] the modernist exploration of mixed media, collage and assemblage.’4 The drawing overleaf depicts my initial mapping of Alice’s journey through Wonderland, translating text into drawing. It is purely architectural, aiming to visualise the chapters spatially and imagine the physical journey Alice is taking through Wonderland. ‘All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream...’5
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ranslating fictional architecture through narrative; Alice’s adventures in Wonderland
During the time Carroll was writing the Wonderland novels, there was a growing Victorian obsession with hallucinations, mystics and early examples or augmented reality. The emergence of a new mathematical theory was introduced by hyperspace philosophers claiming that ‘time’ was the 4th dimension of space. Carroll’s exploration of mirror images and symmetry in Through the Looking Glass, with their four-dimensional implications, stands as a comment to this contemporary fascination with higher dimensions.6 However, this should not be interpreted to suggest that Carroll, too, followed this theory. In fact, his 1873 text, ‘Euclid and His Modern Rivals, suggest he took a mathematical stance which did not support ‘n’ dimensional and non-Euclidean geometries. Carroll’s misgivings about symbolic algebra are embodied through Alice and the confusion she feels when faced with the absurdities of Wonderland and the nonsensical language and logic adopted by the mythical characters that inhabit it. Carroll places emphasis on the hypostatization of language, whereby a figure of speech is given concrete evidence, to represent the dangers of separating symbols from meaning in mathematics. This is an interpretative strategy frequently deployed by Carroll through his portrayal of the fantastical creatures. Similarly to the four-dimensional space they analogically represent, the chess and card symbols, imperative to the two narratives, are brought to life through hypostatization. Thus, through the nonsense logic of Wonderland and the Looking Glass world and the apparently nonsensical creatures that inhabit them, Carroll highlights some of the pitfalls of new developments in symbolical algebra. The reader is urged to reflect; if time is the fourth dimension of space, is nonsense the fourth dimension of literature? Literal interpretations and riddles are the common cause of confusion between Alice and the Wonderland characters, yet, arguably underlying ‘nonsense’ is a conscious pattern of speech, which implies having a prior knowledge to the normal sequence of events; the ‘sense’. The Red Queen’s declaration of ‘sentence first, verdict afterwards’ is an example of this; whilst running backwards, in the Looking Glass world, is an example of reversed conventional order legalized by the mirror. This would suggest that the Wonderland creatures have an understanding of Alice’s upper-middle-class world, aware of the rules and regulations, to insist on taking her literally at her word. ‘Thus it is nonsense’s link to the ‘normal’ paradigm that works to expose the arbitrariness of the norm, for the reader.’7 This proliferation of nonsensical logic threatens Alice’s understanding of her ‘above-ground’ world, just as the nonsensical logic of hyperspace philosophy, with its multiple interpretations, threatens traditional mathematics.8 Besides grammatical and verbal distortions, Carroll interjects visual distortions into the narratives. In his essay, ‘Improvising Spaces’, Chris Hollingsworth considers the influence of photography and photographic apparatus (a modern Victorian invention at the time of writing) on Carroll’s writing. For example, the patterns of reversal and inversion may derive from the view through a camera lens. Hollingsworth elaborates on this point, suggesting that Carroll creates visual imagination to the reader through a series of ‘optical and chemical stimuli, directly enabling specific sensory experiences (such as materialization, inversion, reversal and changes in size.)’9 These ‘sensory experiences’, combined with the nonsensical logic of the Wonderland characters and the visual interactions of hypostatization, are the cause of Alice’s confusion. The succeeding mappings illustrate the journey through Wonderland from Alice’s perspective. They depict her confused understanding of the ‘real’ and ‘non-real’, her questioning preconceptions of logic, and the sensory experiences she encounters along the way.
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The ‘Real’ | Down the rabbit hole | The long hall | Pool of tears Deriving architecture from fictional narrative, in this case Wonderland, is interpretive to the reader. For me, the spatial qualities of each setting were drawn from linking them to Alice’s experience within them and her interactions with the characters she met there. Before beginning the mapping process, I researched more into characteristics of the unconscious, finding many links with Carroll’s writing: it allows contradictory ideas to coexist side by side, its contents do not have degrees of ‘certainty’ in the way that conscious ideas do and unconscious ideas are not arranged in any chronological order. I subsequently embarked upon a process of subconscious mapping, in an attempt to position myself as Alice and reflect her sensory experiences in Wonderland. In this way, the drawings are not themselves the mapping, but the outcome. The unconscious process of creating them becomes the mapping. I wanted to re-imagine my initial mapping (on page 4) in a way less restrained to spatial proportions, thus transitioning from a more architectural mapping to one more reflective of Alice’s experiential journey. I used ink as a medium for its unpredictability. By manipulating it to flow in certain directions, the resulting image still hints of Alice’s route through Wonderland. The crosses depict Alice’s changes in size, in relation to that chapter of her journey. The lines and irregular shapes are symbolic of Alice’s feelings, becoming more concentrated when she is confused or angered by her surroundings or the creatures and larger when she is able to navigate her way through the ‘logic’ of Wonderland. ‘Down, down, down. Would this fall ever come to an end?’...“I must be getting somewhere near the centre of the earth.” ‘So many out-of-the-way things had happened lately, that Alice had begun to think that very few things indeed were really impossible.’ “But if I’m not the same, the next question is, ‘Who in the world am I?’ Ah that’s the great puzzle!”
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The mad tea-party| The long hall | The beautiful garden The March Hare, the Dormouse and the Hatter always seem one step ahead of Alice (the same is true for many of the Wonderland characters), reflecting the way a child feels in an ‘adult’ world. “At least I mean what I say - that’s the same thing, you know.” “You may as well say ‘I see what I eat’ is the same thing as ‘I eat what I see!’” “If you knew Time as well as I do, you wouldn’t talk about wasting it. It’s him.” ‘...she noticed that one of the trees had a door leading right into it. “That’s very curious!” she thought. “But everything’s curious to-day. I think I may go in at once.”
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The Queen’s croquet-ground | The gryphon and mock turtle | The thrown room ‘...she noticed a curious appearance in the air: it puzzled her very much at first, but after watching it a minute or two she made it out to be a grin...’ ‘She had never seen such a curious croquet-ground in her life: it was all ridges and furrows: the croquet balls were live hedgehogs, and the mallets live flamingoes, and the soldiers had to double themselves up and stand on their hands and feet, to make the arches.’ ‘Just at that moment Alice felt a very curious sensation, which puzzled her a great deal until she made out what it was: she was beginning to grow larger again.’ ‘The whole pack (of cards) rose up into the air, and came flying down upon her...’
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The Phenakistoscope During the time Carroll was writing the Wonderland novels, there was a growing Victorian obsession with hallucinations, mystics and early examples or augmented reality. Scientists of this era experimented with ways of creating optical illusions and image projections, leading to the creation of the phenakistoscope. Since Alice was herself a child growing up in this Victoria era, it is likely she would have owned such a device. I created my own version to reflect one of the sensory experiences explored in the previous mappings: when Alice finds herself growing and shrinking. The user spins the disc whilst looking through the moving slits at the images reflected in a mirror. The rapid succession of images appear to be a single moving picture. A video link is provided opposite.
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https://youtu.be/u0LUzUxi9ho
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ranslating fictional architecture through narrative; Through the Looking Glass The second novel, ‘Through the Looking Glass’ appears as a mirror image to Wonderland. Whilst ‘Alice in Wonderland’ uses frequent changes of size as a plot device and draws on the imagery of playing cards, Through the Looking Glass uses frequent changes in time and spatial directions, and draws on the imagery of a chess game. The two objects: the looking glass and chess board seemingly dictate the assembly of the story. The chessboard itself is an allegory of the looking glass, since the arrangement of either team’s pieces at the start of a game are a reflection of one another. Whilst in the first novel no direction is apparent; the chapters could be placed in any sequence and remain seemingly coherent, in Through the Looking Glass the chessboard is fundamental to understanding the narrative and, as such, the chapters follow the order (or moves) of the game. It portrays a sense of logic and direction to the reader, who has a clearer idea of where the story will go next. Similarly to how the novel’s structure is determined by chess moves, the ‘pieces’’ or characters’ behaviours are determined by the implications of other characters’ moves. Being a pawn piece in the game, Alice will only come into contact with characters in the immediate squares around her, thus explaining her astonishment when the red queen appears to suddenly vanish, when in fact she has moved diagonally across the chessboard. Each move brings about interactions with new characters and each new square that Alice enters is distinguished with a unique architectural setting; be it the old sheep’s shop, the wood where things have no names, or the garden of live flowers. The Looking Glass world follows Alice’s transition from a pawn piece to a Queen, reflecting the real Alice’s transition from a child to teenager/ adulthood. The Red and White Queens always seem to be one step ahead of Alice, similar to how a child feels in an adult world. In the first novel, Carroll conveys adult hood from a child’s perspective, leaving Alice frustrated when the Wonderland characters are constantly telling her what to do. In the second novel, the tyranny of adulthood is reflected through Alice’s encounters and when she learns that becoming a Queen (an ‘adult’) is not what she had anticipated. The image opposite illustrates the journey ‘through the looking glass’, from Alice’s perspective. The broken image represents different chapters in the book, or Alice’s ‘encounters’ in Wonderland, dictated by the moves from a game of chess. I created the drawing by tracing the shadows resulting when Alice hypothetically moves through the three dimensional mapping model (seen on the next page). The drawing stands as a mirror image to the model and is only understood properly when reflected, thus it becomes, in itself, a looking glass to the reader.
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The Looking Glass Model Following the cryptic game of chess, Alice’s journey through Wonderland is reflective of her moves, starting as a White Pawn until her crowning as a Queen. Following the ideology of a pawn piece, Alice can only move one square at a time (with the exception of the first move, in which she can progress by two squares) and will only interact with the pieces, or Wonderland characters, that are in the adjacent squares around her. The model splits the narrative into four fragments, depicting Alice’s chessboard interactions with these characters at each move. Since her vision of Wonderland is constrained to the squares immediately adjacent to her, it is only once she is crowned a Queen herself that her chessboard journey can be seen fully resolved. Similarly, as one moves between the model fragments, they appear to stand alone, only reflecting that section of the story. It is when viewed from outside the looking glass frame that the pieces align to complete the chessboard.
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he narrative of Through the Looking Glass has been split into four fragments, with each map tracing the chapters, or chessboard moves, associated with that part of the story. These correspond to the different layers of the chessboard model, seen on the previous pages. When Alice reaches the other end of the chessboard and is crowned a Queen herself, she has travelled full circle to a point where several opposites meet; two bell handles are positioned either side of the archway leading to Alice’s coronation feast, one labelled ‘Visitor’s Bell’ (front door) and the other ‘Servant’s Bell’ (back door); the two ends of the chessboard; and the beginning and end of the story. The mapping embodies this journey by depicting four segments of a circle, with each following on from the previous mapping in an anti-clockwise rotation. Each iteration illustrates the point in the story, Alice’s location in the Looking Glass world, through the corresponding moves on the chessboard. Simultaneously, they reflect the ‘real world’ or the ‘normal’ in parallel, which lies on the other side of the looking glass, presented as a deconstruction of Oxford, the location in which Carroll wrote both narratives.
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The Looking Glass House | Garden of Live Flowers | Top of the Hill
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The Train Journey | The Wood where things have no names | Wool & Water
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Humpty Dumpty’s Wall | Lion & Unicorn | Battle of the Knights
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Queen Alice’s Coronation | Which Dreamed It?
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egends of Wonderland Though Oxford is commonly associated with many connotations of Wonderland, given it was here that Carroll met Alice Liddell’s family and wrote the two narratives, it is within the North East region of England that the true legends of Wonderland can be traced. Carroll spent a large part of his childhood in this area of the country and the influences of the places he visited, along with the connections he made with the people he met, are referenced in the spaces and characters he creates in the novels. The seemingly fantastical and mythical creatures that adorn the stories, the imaginary architecture conjured to the reader and the seemingly nonsensical journey that Alice finds herself on, thus, all follow a greater logic; a narrative derived from the real life myths and legends of the North East. This drawing maps the places that influenced Carroll’s writing. Hylton Castle and its surroundings, for example, forms the setting to which Alice’s adventures appear to revolve; here congregates all of the ‘ingredients’ to create the magic of the stories. North of the castle lies Bunny Hill, unsurprisingly teemed with rabbits, referenced in the character of the White Rabbit; the castle is linked to the household of the Gray family by a subway (down the rabbit hole); the river Wear at Hylton was a popular rowing spot (Alice travels via rowing boat with the White Queen/ sheep in the Looking Glass world); the heraldic array on the west façade of the castle is cryptically riddled into Alice’s moves on the chessboard; and the sculpture of a knight in combat with a dragon is imitated through the Jabberwocky. A large proportion of these influences lie within the walls of old abbeys, castles or great family households; thus in their ruins the concentration of story and myth is found. The ‘real’ myths and legends of Wonderland. Hylton castle has particular connotations. Carroll has cleverly riddled each move of Alice’s chess board journey to correspond to a family household in the North East of England, of which the coat of arms is engraved on the West facade of the Castle. Thus, it is arguably here that the living myths of Wonderland appear to congregate.
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‘I shall give you your directions...At the end of three yards I shall repeat them [..] at the end of four, I shall say good-bye. And at the end of five, I shall go!” - The Red Queen ‘I shall repeat them’ - The parrots of Lumley ‘I shall say goodbye’ - The waving lion of Grey ‘I shall go’ - The pilgrims escallops of Eure
Alice’s route from Pawn to Queen: A1. DeROS (Thirst Quenched) A2. BOYTON (Have another biscuit) A3. WASHINGTON (By railway I should think) A4. LUMLEY (Tweedledee and Tweedledum) A5. FITZRANDOLPH (The fifth square is mainly water) A6. HYLTON OF SWINE (Humpty Dumpty) A7. SURTEES (All forest) A8. BOWES (All Queens Together) Red Queen’s Exit Route: Q3. LUMLEY - Parrots (I shall repeat them) Q4. GREY - Waving Lion (I shall say goodbye) Q5. EURE - Pilgrim Escallops (I shall go
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The Legends of Wonderland
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A Concentration of the ‘Stuff of Story and Myth’
A Concentration of the ‘Stuff of Story and Myth’
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iving History of Rituals and Legends In his writing, Carroll disguises a greater meaning in the riddles and nonsense of the Wonderland characters. In the same way that myths traditionally conceal a lesson, the ‘myths and legends’ of Wonderland, the creatures, convey Carroll’s teaching to the reader through their conversations with Alice. The characters of the book personify ‘myths’ in more than one sense of the word; through their teaching, their analogy of real life people and places and through the mythical forms they embody. After many childhood years spent in the North East of England, Carroll studied and later taught at Oxford University, where he met the Liddell family, including their daughter Alice, whom the novel’s protagonist takes its inspiration. It is here that he wrote the duology. Drawing links with Wonderland and the manner in which the real myths of the North East are embodied as ‘living legends’ through the characters; the myths and prestige of those that have studied and taught at Oxford University become the ‘living legends’ of the collegiate system. The students that enrol at these colleges will be aware of the esteemed individuals who were there before them. This collage illustrates the living history and legends that embody Oxford’s collegiate system and begins to hint at the links between the University as a prestigious learning institute and its alumni that later attain senior roles of political power. This link forms a basis for situating the intervention that this thesis will embody. Referencing the method in which Carroll extracted his characters and their settings from the North East and brought them to Oxford to be brought to life in writing, this thesis similarly traces the myths of the story, reimagined through an analogy of the design’s protagonists, and proposes an intervention in Oxford.
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rotagonists of Power
The University of Oxford prides itself on its prestigious reputation, a status largely attained through its esteemed list of alumni; the living ‘myths and legends’ of the colleges. Oxford’s collegiate system includes thirty-nine colleges throughout the city, and serves as a reference to which parallels in Wonderland can be drawn. The colleges themselves become immersive bubbles of learning and social interaction; segregated snapshots of the city’s whole. In some ways they create a world within a larger world (the city of Oxford), just like the rabbit hole and mirror glass in Carroll’s duology serve as portals to the Wonderland and Looking Glass worlds. The University of Oxford ascertains a certain element of hierarchy in its students enrolled there, generating a system of perpetuating power. Many come from elitist backgrounds, drawn to colleges for their prestigious reputation, generations of family members who have previously attended the same institutions, or with the aim of attaining a powerful position in society; something a degree from Oxford can better promote more often than elsewhere. A particular example of this is a reflection of the graduates of the Oxford degree: Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) dominating senior cabinet positions. Balliol College became the first school in the world to offer a degree in PPE, in the Autumn of 1921, and as such has acquired an esteemed reputation for the degree since. ‘An Oxford PPE degree has become a global status symbol of academic achievement and worldly potential.’10 The University itself is not innocent to the elitist environment it constitutes. Their entrance barriers serve to be exclusive to only a few in society; requiring an individual to offer more than high grades and the provision of a strong personal statement in order to be accepted. The cost of attending Oxford University forms a barrier much more so than other higher education institutions; an individual’s family background may play an influential role to acceptance, for example, if many generations before them have attended the same college; traditional requirements include all students being educated in Ancient Greek, a speciality of private schools; and the entrance examinations and interview process is much more rigorous than elsewhere. These all form barriers to a filtering system. For a large portion of history, and indeed still today, individuals domineering influential roles in society have come from generations of elitist and privileged backgrounds, passing through a similar system of hierarchy which Oxford University embodies. This thesis serves to challenge this exclusive power structure, by reinventing the collegiate system at Balliol, to make it more inclusive to the lines of power both historically established in society and those more recently emerged. These have been categorised as Bloodlines, Puppeteers, Visionaries and Opportunists. This ‘institution of empowerment’ imagines what a college would constitute for these different individuals in society. Each protagonists is derived from an analogy of a Wonderland character, creating a link between the fictional narratives and the methodology informing design. The Red Queen personifies the Bloodlines, the White Rabbit denotes the Puppeteers, the Mad Hatter symbolises the Visionaries and Alice herself embodies the Opportunist. Each will vary greatly from how they enrol at the college, the spaces they will inhabit there and the programmes they will partake. Thus, their architectural language will contrast both spatially and materially to one another. Drawing from the structure of the Looking Glass world which traces a game of chess, the institution forms the beginnings of a game that students must embark upon before entering into the wider world of work. Similarly to how Alice’s chessboard journey only becomes apparent when she is crowned a Queen, it is only when the protagonists leave the college that a reflection of power and leadership becomes apparent. Power is having ‘the capacity or ability to direct or influence the behaviour of others or the course of events.’
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Perpetuating Power; Blood lines, Puppeteers, Visionaries and Opportunists
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The Oxford Elite - Sir Martin Ryle - Graduated with a degree in Physics in 1939; Revolutionary contributions to radio telescope systems, awarded numerous honours in Science and Astronomy including a Nobel Prize in Physics in 1974. - Harold Wilson - Graduated with a first class degree in PPE (Philosophy, Politics & Economics) in 1937; British Prime Minister from 1964-70 and 1974-76. - Oscar Wilde - Graduated with a degree in Literae humaniores (‘Greats’) in 1878; Influential playwright and poet. - Theresa May - Graduated with a second class degree in Geography in 1977; British Prime Minister from 2016-19. - Lewis Carroll - Graduated with a double first class degree in Mathematics in 1952 and 1954; Influential author and poet, including the Alice in Wonderland narratives. - Boris Johnson - Graduated with an upper second class degree in PPE in 1986; British Prime Minister from 2019 - present. Alongside David Cameron, William Hague, Michael Gove, Jeremy Hunt and Nick Boles, he was amongst the generation of Oxford undergraduates who were to later dominate British politics, in the second decade of the 21st century, and become senior Conservative Party MPs.
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A Historic Institute for Educating Power Leaders The published report ‘Elitist Britain 2019’ found that power resides with a small section of the population: the 7% who attend private schools and the 1% who graduate from Oxbridge. Further to this, the report found that 31% of British politicians attended Oxbridge, with 57% being Cabinet members. In particular, graduates of the Oxford degree: Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE), dominate senior parliament positions. According to Andy Beckett’s Guardian article, ‘PPE: The Oxford degree than runs Britain’, an Oxford PPE degree pervades British political life ‘more than any other course at any other university, more than any revered or resented private school, and in a manner probably unmatched in any other democracy.’11 Balliol college played a central role in the creation of the degree and boasts the highest intake of PPE students and dons, referred to as ‘Balliol men’, thereby creating ‘an elite within the elite’. The college has always striven to be more meritocratic than some of its neighbouring colleges; pioneering entrance by exam rather than wealth and connections. ‘An Oxford PPE degree has become a global status symbol of academic achievement and worldly potential.’12
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Mapping Oxford University Colleges within the City
‘Reinventing the Grid’ Bringing the Chessboard to Balliol College, Oxford
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Think Tanks | Inventions Warehouse
Mad Hatter’s Tea Party Networking | Residence
The Tower of Acceptance
Portals to ‘Wonderland’
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The Institution o
The Towers | Secret Networks
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Social Networking | The ‘New Religion’
Status of Prestige
Gate Tower Arrival
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Institution Programme The spaces each of the protagonists will inhabit within the institution and the programmes they will partake will differ accordingly, much like the rules differ for each ‘piece’ or ‘character’ in the Looking Glass chessboard. The following collages depict my initial analysis of the spatial requirements for each, referencing the research I undertook into modern day sources, for example, the office spaces of leading technology companies, such as Microsoft and Google, informed the design of the Visionary’s learning spaces. The programme diagrams that follow illustrate my initial analysis of the site, suggesting where each of these programmes would be located within the college and drawing a parallel link with the activities that take place there with a Wonderland or Looking Glass setting. The characteristics of these places in the novels, influenced the design, both metaphorically and physically.
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Protagonist | Spatial The Bloodlines & Puppeteers
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Protagonist | Spatial The Visionaries
Protagonist | Spatial The Opportunists
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Link between reading/learning and creating, turning knowledge into invention; linking the Bloodlines with the Visionaries. Physical horizontal link, following the rules of movement of the Queen, King and Rook on a chessboard, forms the platform to spectate.
‘Chapel’; Bloodlines communal networking space. What is the ‘new’ religion? The alternative incentive to gathering here?
Spectating from above the visionarie’s inventions on display; symbol of hierarchy, an opportunity to invest
Residency for students and professors, within traditional college fabric
Learning and teaching spaces within the traditional college fabric
Library
‘Dining Hall’; Bloodlines communal networking space
BLOODLINES NETWORKING: ‘The beautiful garden’
SPECTATOR WALKWAY: ‘The thrown room’ BLOODLINES LEARNING SPACES: ‘Gryphon & mock turtle’
BLOODLINES LIBRARY: ‘Humpty Dumpty’s wall’
BLOODLINES RESIDENCE: ‘Looking glass house’ BLOODLINES NETWORKING: ‘The beautiful garden’
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Spatial Occupancy: The Bloodlines & Puppeteers
‘Great Hall’; Visionary communal networking space and a space to showcase inventions to potential investors, the Bloodlines
Portal to underground ‘wonderland’
Residency - 50 students split between two blocks
Laboratories (x 20) and teaching spaces
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Utilising the original back gate entrance to the college for the Visionarie’s arrival point
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Portal to underground - ‘falling down the rabbit hole’; enrolled Visionary students will gain access to network here Growth and expansion permitted by the grid
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Think tanks (x10) connected to the grid, the ‘chessboard’, by the rules of the knight’s movement in the game Deliveries to laboratory warehouse
Arrival tower; acceptance process begins at ground level, with admission granted at the top. Hierarchy of success. Residency - 50 students split between two blocks ‘The grid puppeteer’ Tower of rotation, tower of acceptance VISIONARY LEARNING SPACES: ‘Wool & water’ PORTAL: ‘Down the rabbit hole’
VISIONARY NETWORKING: ‘Mad Hatter’s tea party’
VISIONARY RESIDENCE: ‘The trees’
VISIONARY THINK TANKS: ‘The beautiful garden’
VISIONARY ENTRANCE PROCESS: ‘The long hall’
ELIMINATION PROCESS: ‘Pool of tears’
PUPPETEER/ TOWER OF ROTATION: ‘Top of the hill’
VISIONARY LABS: ‘The thick wood’
Spatial Occupancy: The Visionaries
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Underground warehouse; subverting the traditional college architecture creates the work quarters for those employed by the Secret networks of circulation, creating opportunities to spy on the Bloodlines and listen in on conversations Opportunist communal networking space
Portal to underground ‘wonderland’
Sleeping quarters alongside Bloodlines, for those employed as staff
Secret network of circulation, creating opportunities to spy on the Bloodlines and listen in on conversations
GF serves the Bloodlines’ dining hall, upper floors serve as sleeping quarters for the Opportunists
UNDERGROUND WAREHOUSE: ‘Croquet lawn’
OPPORTUNIST LADDER: ‘Wood with no names’
OPPORTUNIST’S NETWORKING: ‘Mad Hatter’s tea party’ ‘Looking glass’ OPPORTUNIST’S SECRET NETWORKS: ‘Garden of live flowers’
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Spatial Occupancy: The Opportunists
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Spatial analysis of the new institution in reference to Wonderland & the Looking Glass worlds
Spatial Occupancy: Experiential Mapping
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ubverting tradition
The new intervention seeks to subvert tradition both metaphorically, through its challenging of an established educational institute, and architecturally, through its interaction with the existing and expression of the new. The first three dimensions of an object’s location represent its movement in space (X,Y, Z = forwards and backwards, left and right, up and down.) These are directly translatable when designing architecture into the angles and positions of built objects. Carroll’s literature stands as comment to the theory that ‘time’ is the fourth dimension of space. The new intervention draws on this by designing in the fourth dimension, in its reflection of change over time, both spatially and socially. Thus, it’s interaction with the existing architecture of the site reinforces this change. The intervention recognises that changes within prestigious institutions are historically slow to occur (for example, admitting female students) and, as such, it is necessary to engage with them in order to instigate change. The architecture of the new is sensitive to this in how it engages with the site. Its form and materiality compliments the existing, whilst simultaneously being clearly defined as new. Once within the facade, however, unexpected and playful moments occur. Thus, the facade acts as a portal to the Visionary and Opportunists’ ‘Wonderland’ within.
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The remaining intervention intersects with the unmoved half of the existing Great Hall and extends outwards into the college quadrangle.
Inserting the new intervention within the void of the existing
Splitting the existing Great Hall and shifting one half further along the site
Non-listed 1960’s buildings to be demolished
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New learning pods, ‘think tanks’, contrasting in form and materiality to the existing Great Hall they sit within. Glazed masonry facade of the new insertion contrasts with the thick stone buttresses. Re-figuring the traditional dining hall layout with the high table seating arrangement (see diagram below) to one that is more inclusive and reflective of the rotational element of the mad hatter’s tea party, ‘“Let’s all move one place on.” He moved on as he spoke, and the Dormouse followed him: the March Hare moved into the Dormouse’s place, and Alice took the place of the March Hare.’ Private entrance for Visionary students, leading directly from the city into the new extension, without having to enter through the college as per traditional student accommodation. Quadrangles are a typical feature of collegiate architecture. The new quadrangle is reflected of this, but is subverted to be outward facing and is not surrounded by college buildings in a symmetrical manner, like they are traditionally. The student bedrooms lead directly out into terraces adjoining the new quadrangle, in place of the traditional cloisters. Dual access to bedrooms, both leading directly into social spaces to encourage interactions. Set back entrances disrupting the linear arrangement of typical student accommodation corridors, again creating more social space to encourage interaction as well as creating the personal element of a ‘front door’.
Subverting Tradition
Examples of Tradition: Collegiate University cloisters, inward facing quadrangles and the dining hall arrangements with the high table seating plan
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Existing Ground Floor Plan
Analysis of Existing Geometries
Proposal
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Proposed Ground Floor Plan
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‘Tower of Acceptance’ | Visionaries’ admissions process Think tanks and shared laboratories Teaching theatre Dining hall Entrance foyer/porter’s lodge Student accommodation and social spaces Bedroom terraces leading out to sunken courtyard Debate chamber Inventions warehouse above Roof garden
Proposed First Floor Plan
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Portals A feature of the design which is indicative of the new flexibility is having different portals to enter the institution and different ways of manoeuvring around it. This offers the protagonists different routes to gaining power, again reminiscent of the chessboard. The Bloodlines and Puppeteers shall enter the college through the traditional gate tower, leading into the front quad. For the Visionaries, the sequence of arrival can be split into four stages. They begin with the admissions process at point (a), the ‘tower of acceptance’. If admission is granted, enrolled Visionary students will henceforth enter the college grounds at point (b), the existing ‘back gate’. Access to the new intervention, specifically designed for use by these individuals, is at point (c), whilst a more private and direct point of access from the wider city is at point (d).
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The Opportunists will utilise the hidden circulation within the college towers to enter the various buildings without drawing attention. This double circulation, alongside that of the more public routes, means this group of individuals can move unnoticed and without interaction with the Bloodlines, Puppeteers and Visionaries. Towers above ground level
Portals to Wonderland: Down the Rabbit Hole & The Looking Glass
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Traditional Arrival Sequence Unlike the Visionaries and Opportunists, the arrival sequence for the Bloodlines and Puppeteers comprises of entering Balliol College in the traditional manner, through the gate tower off Broad Street. This is once they have been granted enrolment following the University’s traditional procedure of admission. Once within the college, its exclusivity is metaphorically reflected in the protective ‘fortress’ shell that dictates its inward facing form and materiality.
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Bloodlines & Puppeteers: The Arrival
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New Arrival Sequence The Visionaries’ admissions process is unique, to reflect the mindset of this protagonist group, and will be very different to the University’s traditional procedure, which requires written examinations, strong personal statements and academic grades, Thinking Skills Assessments and interviews. Instead it will focus on testing aptitude over knowledge. The Visionaries are not being tested on their ability to regurgitate facts and knowledge, but how they navigate their intelligence in innovative ways. The Opportunists may be individuals working as service staff for the institution or employed by the Visionaries to work in their laboratories, building their inventions or coding their programmes, for example. They will utilise the service spaces, secret passageways and the double circulation network I’ve identified in the buildings towers as a means of passing through the college unseen, creating opportunities to listen in on conversations and gain information, which can be used to gain power, much like Alice did in the game of chess.
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Section AA ‘The Tower of Acceptance’: Visionaries’ Admission Process
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Visionaries’ Admission Process
PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK STUDENT VERSION
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Section BB ‘The Tower of Acceptance’: Testing overofKnowledge Section BBAptitude ‘The Tower Acceptance’: PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK STUDENT VERSION
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Admissions Process
Testing Aptitude over Knowledge
Arrival for enrolled Visionary students | ‘Down the rabbit hole’ Elimination process | ‘Pool of tears’: Unsuccessful applicants will leave through the smaller tower on Magdalen Street The puzzle wall | ‘The long hall’ ‘Tower of rotation’ |Start | Proceeding up through the tower | Finish: Admission granted Opportunists’ secret networks: Double circulation in the existing stairwell tower grants secret access, in addition to new under-stair passageways adjoining key rooms. Beginners interviews | ‘The long hall’ Showcasing inventions| ‘The long hall’ Coding| ‘The long hall’
Section BB ‘The Tower of Acceptance’: Testing Aptitude over Knowledge
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Visionaries: Private Arrival at Point ‘d’
Portals to the new ‘Wonderland’ | Subverting Tradition New entrance foyer intersects the existing with a mirrored soffit canopy, reflective of the mirror glass portal
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Opportunists: The Arrival | Double Circulation
Opportunists: Secret Networks
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Protagonist Interactions |Section showcasing new interventions within the old Great Hall and the old Library to create new Visionary learning spaces and a new debate chamber
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Exchange of Knowledge & Information In addition to recognising new lines of power emerging in society through Visionary individuals and Opportunists, new powers are also emerging within the old establishments. Therefore, elite institutions, such as Oxford, constantly seek to be progressive in order to continually attract affluent individuals from around the world. Balliol’s existing library building has been reconfigured so as to create a large double height debate chamber within it (seen on the following pages). This serves to prepare the Bloodlines & Puppeteers for when they later obtain influential roles in parliament. It follows the British layout of debating in accordance with the House of Commons. A key feature of this layout for my project is the ‘strangers’ seats, which allude to areas in which members of the public can oversee debates. The new debate chamber at Balliol will have a similar arrangement of seating in the upper balcony, allowing the Opportunists not partaking in the debates to still listen in. It is also strategically positioned between two of the circulation towers and adjoins the Opportunists’ secret passageways through jib doors in the library bookcases, as shown on the ground floor plan.
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Bloodlines & Puppeteers: Perpetuating Power through the Exchange of Knowledge
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Existing Library
British Parliament House of Commons
Bloodlines & Puppeteers: The New Library & Debate Chamber
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Protagonist Interactions | Section Through the Library & Debate Chamber
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Visionary Think Tanks Mad Hatter | Concept
Visionary Think Tanks Connecting the ‘Real’ and the Visionary world: ‘Wonderland’
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New Learning Spaces As mentioned previously, the new intervention subverts the existing architecture. The existing Great Hall (seen above) has been split, with half of the structure being moved further along the site and the new Visionary learning spaces being built in the resulting void inbetween. The structure of the new will take reference from the existing whilst simultaneously being clearly expressed as new architecture. The geometries of the new intervention reference the existing Gothic openings and roof truss, but will comprise much thinner masonry walls and a new timber roof structure, contrasting to the existing timber. Within this sympathetic frame the architecture becomes more playful, to reflect the new users, through changing levels and the innovative think tank pods. Together these create thresholds between differing levels of interaction. The think tanks, sunken down for privacy, act as individual laboratories, rotated to adjoin the neighbouring think tank for interactions within pairs. The adjacent level facilitates shared laboratories and work spaces, leading to much larger, double height spaces comprising the new teaching theatre and inventions warehouse.
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Visionary Think Tanks New Learning Spaces Within the Existing Great Hall
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The Visionaries’ Learning Spaces: Think Tank | Shared Laboratories & Work Spaces | Teaching Theatre & Inventions Warehouse
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Visionary Residency Communal Networking | Sleeping Quarters
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Student bedrooms and social spaces
Sunken quad and garden
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Re-figuring the traditional dining hall layout with the high table seating arrangement to one that is more inclusive and reflective of the rotational element of the mad hatter’s tea party, ‘“Let’s all move one place on.” He moved on as he spoke, and the Dormouse followed him: the March Hare moved into the Dormouse’s place, and Alice took the place of the March Hare.’ Private entrance for Visionary students, leading directly from the city into the new extension, without having to enter through the college. Bedroom terraces overlooking the sunken quadrangle Dual access to bedrooms, from the social corridor and terraces leading onto the new quadrangle. Set back bedroom entrances creating more social space to encourage interaction as well as creating the personal element of a ‘front door’. Large window seats Circulation to upper floors where the bedrooms are reversed, creating terraces that lead onto a roof garden, overlooking the college grounds. Connecting link to the existing college grounds
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Protagonist Interactions |Section through the ‘Tower of Acceptance’, within the existing college fabric and the new intervention comprising student accommodation and the new external courtyard
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Protagonist Interactions This template of a more inclusive institution provides opportunities for different protagonists to develop and encounter opportunities to cultivate relationships. The architecture facilitates a form of social engineering, building on what has historically occured in institutions, such as Oxford, for many years. Whilst this has previously occurred between a limited and elitist circle, this template widens this to encourage relationships to be formed across different protagonist groups, as well as within their own. These bonds may benefit the individuals in their future careers, once they have left the institution, for example, investment for entrepreneurs or appointment into influential roles.
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The Bloodlines Arrival | Exchange of Knowledge | Networking | Residence
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The Visionaries Think Tank | Shared Laboratories & Work Spaces | Inventions Warehouse
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The Opportunists Double Circulation | Secret Networks
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The Protagon Interactions within the Insti
nists of Power: itution | Ground Floor Plan
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Precedents: Intervention within Magdalen College, Oxford | Wright & Wright Architects
Sultan Nazrin Shah Centre, Oxford Niall McLaughlin Architects
New student accommodation within Oxford University Niall McLaughlin Architects
Urban sky villages: Interior ‘street level’ Le Corbusier
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Existing student accommodation at Balliol College
References: Maya Lin’s womens table, Yale (top & middle left) Matt Damon playing the Opportunist in Good Will Hunting (bottom & middle right)
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Great Hall Back entrance (services)
Chapel Library
Main entrance gates
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Existing Location Plan with college site boundary shown in red
Existing buildings within Balliol College: The Great Hall (top), Salvin Tower (left), Gate Tower leading into the front quadrangle (right)
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References: 1. 2. 3. 4.
Cultural Assemblages studio brief. De Certeau. M, ‘The Practice of Everyday Life’, 1984, p.185. De Certeau. M, p.187. Hollingsworth. C, ‘Alice Beyond Wonderland, Essays for the Twenty-first Century’, chapter ‘Improvising Spaces’, pp.85-86. 5. Carroll. L 6. Henderson. L, ‘The Fourth Dimension and Non-Euclidean Geometry in Modern Art’, 1983, p.22. 7. Throesch. E, ‘Nonesense in the Fourth Dimension of Literature’, pp.44-45 8. Throesch. E, p.45. 9. Hollingsworth. C, p.85 10. The Guardian, ‘PPE: The Oxford Degree that runs Britain’ 11. The Guardian, ‘PPE: The Oxford Degree that runs Britain’ 12. The Guardian, ‘PPE: The Oxford Degree that runs Britain’
‘Sentence first, verdict afterwards!’ - Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland ‘Punishment, trial, crime.’ - Through the Looking Glass