The House of
William Curtis
Stuart Alexander 2008
This document is a condensed portfolio of work completed between January and May 2008 whilst studying architecture at Central St. Martins in London. All work is produced by Stuart Alexander unless otherwise stated. All images and text are subject to copyright.
7 Year Architecture
This work is both a theoretical and practical response to brief and place. This project is the last stage of a further concept of ‘7 year architecture’ which followed the demolition of the Heygate Estate in Elephant and Castle. Starting with a funeral, it went on to ask where the 1,194 families and households will be while the estate is demolished and then rebuilt as part of a larger regeneration of in the area. The concept explored the idea of creating a series of temporary houses hidden in pockets around a 7 mile radius of the estate, these 7 year buildings would then open-up and be used to create a regeneration of a much larger area, giving area which may not have access to regeneration money the ability to develop their community. It is at this stage in the cycle that this project explores.
Introduction
Hauntological Landscapes Hauntology was first discussed by Derrida in 1993 in his book the Spectres of Marx. This was an exploration into how the ghosts or spectres or Marx’s writing and the effects it had on people from the leading politicians and the effect they had on everyone in their selected state and how this has had a zeitgeist effect on a huge number of places, events and people in the previous century and continue to haunt our future. Hauntology is a philosophical ghost house, but can only mention and comment on spectres, ghosts and phantoms, it is down to society and time to exorcise these elements from our individual to collective memory. But in noticing these ghosts it allows the senses to be able to notice and respond to these elements which are somewhat present in our world. To follow this concept into architecture and our built environment is to uncover many hundreds of layers of history which underlie in our cities, collectively and individually, we are haunted by the events that surround us, and our buildings should be able to adapt to this environment. Ghosts, phantoms and spectres are neither being or non-being, but still they exist. As Hamlet suggests when seeing the Ghost for the first time:
“This time is out of joint!”
Landscape is the one thing that defines places, countries and continents apart from one another. It can’t be chosen by those that live there as can almost everything else, but it is perhaps the one thing that makes a feeling of home for anyone who is born or grew up within that landscape. London’s landscape is under scrutiny for this project, where most has been lost to the cities growth, the pride that comes from Landscape is second to none. Perhaps unnoticed it defines places apart from one another and creates connection with humans individually and collectively, in memory and physical sense: landscape is special to all those that recognise it to themselves.
This dual concept is used to direct and exorcise this project as well as a basis for future projects and research, this is a beginning of something much bigger.
William Curtis
William Curtis (1746-1799) was an English botanist and entomologist who started the London Botanic Garden in 1779 in what is now Lower Marsh in Lambeth. His followed the Linneaus system for organising his flowers, plants, moths, butterflies and other insects. Between 1777 and 1798 he published 6 issues of Flora Londinensis, which documented flowers and plants from around the London area. These, at the time, were passed off as a collection of weeds which were of non interest to the English botanists at the time, but now this collection is treasured as many have become extinct or very rare, as well as being a great collection of what natively grew in London in the 1700’s. Over time the Flora Londinensis was developed into what is now the Kew Garden magazine.
Images sourced from Flora Londinensis by William Curtis, 1777-1798
Spectral History
Lower Marsh in north Lambeth is rich with history; originally it was a space for grazing and recreation, a retreat from the hustling and growing London. Lower Marsh was considered a rugged pleasure garden, with its untamed and natural growth, and with the Vauxhall pleasure gardens very close, it experienced thousand of people using the space as a pleasure and landscape garden. When Waterloo and Lambeth bridges were built the city and its huge growth in the industrial revolution meant a huge amount of development spawned in north Lambeth, dense warehouses and factories took over from the gardens and green spaces. This is the time when W. Curtis moved to a new house with smaller garden in Fulham, as the drainage which had allowed his gardens to grow so well, were now broken and distorted by the mass growth on the southbank. This growth then led to the area becoming the crossing point between central London and working class suburbs; Lower Marsh being the starting point of this. Pollution and the living class meant the area was changed forever and is now disjointed between its Natural History and its forced history.
Place Analysis
Lower Marsh is an ambiguous place. Its disjuncture between the suburbs to the south of it, and the looming city within one hundred metres above its head creates a strange location within the shadow of Waterloo station. Its shops range from the height street famous to vintage clothes and bike stores to specialist flute shops and independent bookstores. It has no overwhelming concept or idea, but it has a flow which makes walking through Lower Marsh an experience of a natural sprawl, one which changes with time but is very natural to humans. The key element which brings this together is the street market, which has been in decline in recent years. These stalls range from a fruit and veg to an everyday car boot sale. The facades and viaduct to the north are fantastic examples of a range of ages in London architecture and style and have a town like feature which is very hard to find now that many places have become homogenised with generic high street stores and clean malls. This is something Lower Marsh has kept free of, but should be celebrated for. It has no place in guide books because it contains nothing for tourists. It is possibly the last standing real community within central London, resisting boom and ‘selling out’, or it simply hasn’t had a chance to take on these options.
Concept Programming
As the natural history of Lower Marsh fades in the echo of the city, the house of William Curtis comes to reinact the events and discoveries that were found in this part of the city, but long forgotten. The building uses life cycles to re-evolve and reinterpret itself over and over again, as seasons shift, the flowers, plants, and trees adorning the landscape and the facades shift as well. As fashions update and develop the programming and events within the building change to chase the cultural seasons of the users. And everyday the news cycles that project out of our televisions are projected from the hidden facade and the free newspapers which are collected for recycling are shredded into the basement of the building to be recycled. The heat of the building is recycled, further projecting the cycle of our consumption and waste. The building creates an integer between where we are today and where we should aim to be tomorrow; allowing human and nature cycles to run together.
Video Ethnography
This short film documents views and visions of Lower Marsh and Waterloo and the contrast between the two areas. The town like and twee qualities of Lower Marsh sits quietly as Waterloo and the southbank has a huge rush hour surge of commuters and people in transit. Waterloo Sunset by the Kinks discusses the sunset as a meeting point and a space of contemplation; in creating this natural intersection into the urbanscape creates both a link between Waterloo and Lower Marsh, but also one which connects nature and the city.
Urban Context
The spectral landscape sits above Lower Marsh on a semi-disused access road to Waterloo. Due to the Eurostar terminal moving to Kings Cross, Waterloo’s built up infrastructure to deal with such a station is now becoming desolate as the north side of the station allows all the access that is needed. The site is hidden from the north side, and has no clear view from Lower Marsh, only as a whisper on the horizon through the changing density of buildings on Lower Marsh. The landscape becomes urbanscape and grows out over time.
Images sourced from Windows Live Maps 2007
English Landscape Gardens
The English Landscape Garden is almost a lost art. The work of ‘Capability Brown’, Alexander Pope and William Kent who created picturesque and idyllic landscape gardens throughout England’s large 18th and 19th century estates are remembered by the National Trust, but used little outside these means. These gardens and their originally uses are quintessential to English behavior, and something that is missed in todays society. The idea of grazing and contemplating is one which seems to pass todays society, but one which could work. Banning all mediascapes such as adverts and shopping, and taking in the surrounding environment would be key to rejuvenating the ideal of the landscape garden.
Native Landscape
Thanks to the research by the Natural History museum in London, we can now search by postcode and reveal a long list of all the plants and flowers which are native to the area. Due to the amount of immigrant plants we have in England a lot of wildlife and other life cycles have had to change to match the cycle of these plants and life forms. Re-introducing a native landscape will allow the native wildlife to flourish and create a healthy ecosystem. The hauntological landscape recreates what has left, all landscapes are in debt to the wildlife that create the special audio and visual contents.
Native Landscape
The diagram opposite allocates the various plants to the landscape and information on each of the choices. All the plants, flowers and trees are native to Lower Marsh as documented from the Natural History Museum database.
Chasing Ghosts
Ghosts, Spectres, Phantoms; The everyday existence of these in our urban environment is unexposed. Ever increasingly our mediascape creates more and more detail about places and spaces, ones we know and ones we don’t, it adds to the fabric of our spaces. Every time an event (eg a murder) happens the space becomes a memory not within the physical context of the space but within the collective memory of all those that have seen it first hand, and second hand through the media. It is exactly this media projection which we see everyday that is creating (in some cases subtle, and in other not so subtle) urban paranoia. This sanctuary from media and preconception allows the place to grow and be able to re-fashion itself as time and events in the media’s eye changes.
Plans
Plans
The top level is where the entrance from the Waterloo side enters. The space has a large cafe selling organic and native food and drinks, as well as accomodating for events which may happen within the building. A balcony over the stone and paper garden and various periodicals and seating arrangements allow the user to walk and discover different experiences as well as relaxation and contemplation. This floor contrasts a landscape garden into an enclosed space, the use of periodicals and transient media allows points of discussion between different users as well as a place to read such items.
Top Level
The upper level is where the ramp from Lower Marsh which follows the hidden facade enters the building. From the entrance a large view over into the atrium draws a huge amount of light. Periodicals from weeks to months are stored on the books shelves and the seats are designed to allow for longer stays to take in this information. This floor is set 1.5m below the spectral landscape allowing an eye height experience of the whispering landscape. Small private rooms allow for meetings and private reading or experiences.
Upper Level
Plans
Plans
The lower level contains two theatres and a series of small cinemas which project onto the hidden facade of the building. These cinema rooms project daily news and soap operas into small rooms. These rooms can also be let out to evening or weekend events or exhibitions. The floor also contains a bar and more seating for meeting people. There is also entrance to the paper stone garden, a space where the shredded paper of the daily free newspapers is placed in panels, using starch as a bind, and allowed to weather and fall out into the gabion stone floor and walls, decomposing over and over as weather and time takes its discourse. Small weeds and phantom plants will grow between the cracks of the stones over time, creating an almost surreal ecosystem.
Lower Level
The lower floor storage is purely dedicated to the declining street market on Lower Marsh. At any moment a street cart can be stored or moved on to the street. There are also spaces for storing stock. This allows the market to grow and have more market stalls which may only appear on larger market days, whereas others may stay on the street for the whole week. It also allows for the market which is currently a sprawl to gain organisational help; office spaces on this floor also allow for this to happen. This floor is also the connection between the lorries delivering organic waste to the recycling centre below. The lift and organic waste store are accessible from this level.
Lower Floor Storage
Plans
Plans
The lower level 2 contains the water storage points, where rain water is pulled to from the roof and used whenever needed. There is also storage for various uses.
Lower Level 2
The lower level 3 is where the structural points meet the ground and the foundations as well as where the biodigesters which heat the building in cold temperatures. These biodigesters decompose organic waste which is delivered from the surrounding areas. When it is finished decomposing it is perfect composting material and outsourced to whoever needs compost (the ghost flowers of lambeth). This floor is kept well insulated and moist to create a perfect ecology for fast decomposure.
Lower Level 3
Technical: Structure
Electricity
Air movement controller Steel structure
Combining structure and services creates the roots of the building. These diagrams show how the structure is held together as well as allowing heat, electricity and other services that may be needed to flow naturally up through the building, but also allow collected rainwater to flow down and be collected for later use.
Hot Air (up) Cold Air (down)
Biomass Air tubes
Glulam support at floor cuts Glulam Beam
Hauntology in Praxis
“He lost his body out of love for his body... everything ought to begin and begin again, with the love of one owns body.� p164; The Spectres of Marx, Derrida 1993
Echo and Narcissus
The Greek Myth of Echo and Narcissus is interesting for us to view as a metaphor for the ghosting of the media as a cycle of a human nature. We see that echo looses her voice for endlessly talking too much and Narcissus, obsessed with his own image, drives him to his own death. These two characters, who were said to be deeply in love are represented in this building through a shredder where the ending periodicals as they get old land and are destroyed. This sound is played into the echo chamber; a circular room with large inverted boxes allowing the sound to echo and dissipate at different levels throughout the whole room.
Into the Echo Chamber
Embodied Ghosts
Composting is one of the easiest forms of recycling, but only 10% of Londoners do it. Organic waste fills up to 40% of our landfill sites and could easily be recycled by bringing it together and letting it sit (possibly with worms) and let natures cycles decompose it into compost, which is very useful in future gardening. If Lambeth was to recycle organic waste from the surrounding area into compost, this would create a future ghost, one where the flowers grown with nutrients from Lower Marsh would be a grown spectral from William Curtis’s ghost garden.
Hidden South Elevation during summer
The south elevation sits directly behind the shops of Lower Marsh. Its experience as you travel up a gentle ramp from the street lets the facade be able to read. Projections onto the exterior of the building from the cinemas inside with a small screen distorting the image coming out. The facade is wrapped in a mesh which allows for flower and plants to growth throughout it. The contour of the road originally leads down towards the viaduct below the bridge where the landscape will be constructed, this will now be converted into a ramp for the market stalls to be able to moved into the storage level of the building, for easy access from and too the street.
North Elevation from Waterloo during autumn
The north elevation is where the landscape on the road towards Waterloo touches the building. A ramp leads you into the top level or an entrance towards the west allows access to the upper floor. The facade is a mesh with series of points where flowers can grow from. The whole facade will eventually grow a thick perennial coat, which will mean that during the summer all the plants will flower and create a solar shading to the interior or the building as well as creating a vertical garden which will blend intogether with the landscape. In the winter the flowers will recede as they wait to flower in the summer, this allows extra solar gain which will heat and fill the building with light.
The Paper and Stone Garden
The Paper and Stone Garden is a full wall facade packed with small panels which are filled with newspaper shreddings from the interior shredding device for daily free newspapers. The shreddings are mixed with startch which acts as a bio-resin, holding the paper together, but allowing the weathering to loosen the shreddings, which float into the base of the garden and settle of the stone and slowly decompose. The stone which is held in a gabion style in steel cages in the base and also creates the retaining walls on the lower floor levels is reclaimed from the newly demolished Heygate Estate.