‘Nothing easier. One step beyond the pole, you see, and the north wind becomes a south one.’ Robert Peary, Arctic Explorer
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Contents Summary 7 Chapter 1: The Edge 9 The City Edge 10 The Water’s Edge 16 Chapter 2: Location 67.2804° N, 14.4049° E 25 Environment 26 Culture 28 Chapter 3: Incubate 31 Community 32 Residential 33 Bedroom 34 Dining 35 Chapter 4: Folding 37 Folding the City 38 Folding Paper 40 Folding Structure 42
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Summary
Before our trip to the city of Bodø in Norway during October 2015, I researched many explorers that had travelled to the Arctic Circle and the North Pole. Robert Peary’s words were inspiring as it is true, our human curiosity is fascinated by the most northern point on Earth, but once you are there, there is only the South to look to. Bodø is situated at 67.2804° N, 14.4049° E so despite being the most Northerly location I had visited, the city still looks to the North Pole as a more Northern Latitude. A northern point to the city is the ocean and a peninsula stretching into it. South of the ocean lies the city and its edge. As a visitor to the Arctic Circle my first impression was that the city was literally facing the ocean and the North. However while walking down this edge it was noted that most of these doors and structures faced away from the water, especially on the ground floor. The doors onto this walk were back doors, used for services, bins and garages. An immediate reaction to this condition was that it should be opened up and made more public. My group chose to design an art college for the city as a cultural hub was beginning to be introduced through the Library and Concert Hall designed by DRDH. We split the programmes into the Gallery for the Art College, The Library and I took responsibility for the Student Accommodation. Student Residences are typically self-enclosed and inward facing. They rarely serve a public function apart from possibly incorporating shops or cafés. I aimed to mix this private programme with a public element. The architectural design aims to feature both functional ties between the students and the public, but also visual connections.
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Chapter 1: The Edge
The city of Bodø had a distinctive edge between the city and the water as does most of Norway. The rock and land formations rarely create sandy beaches. Instead islands are created where Pine Trees and Norwegian Spruce grow right up to the waters edge. Whereas the geography of Scotland has created many sand beaches on it’s coastline which generate a softer and more gradual edge between earth and ocean.
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Scale 1: 5000
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The City Edge
The edge of the city onto the Norwegian Ocean, as previously explained, was very surprising. As a visitor I was captivated by the amazing views of the peninsula and the islands beyond. However the city treated this edge as a service area for it’s industry. It was an area for boats to harbour and deliveries to be made. There were many bins, storage areas and garages along the walk. It was not a welcoming place, the architecture did not tempt anyone to linger.
mainly made up of narrow spaces and the few open, public spaces lead into the centre of the city.
I decided to explore this edge to identify the least welcoming areas and the few public spaces along the edge. I began by taking a series of snapshots along the edge, facing the city, to explore how the city faced the sea, I then drew these onto the image opposite to identify the most ‘inward faceing’ areas. There was a clear line down the middle, with the Western side of the edge being mostly ‘inward facing’ and the eastern side had been more recently developed to become ‘outward facing’. This drawing led me to site my design on the western half of the edge. Another drawing I produced explored the ‘narrow spaces’ compared to the more ‘open spaces’. I aimed for my design to add to these open spaces later on as it can be seen in the image below that the edge is
Confluence of The City and The Water Scale 1:10,000 Key
Public Space
Narrow Space
Open Space
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Faces of the City
These images are a selection of the snapshots of the city that were used to annotate the drawing of the edge.
The ground conditions at the this location, the site of the Student Accommodation, show rough, unattended textures reflecting the messy car park function it served.
At a few points of interest along the edge some castings of ground conditions and rubbing of the surface were taken. These were used to asses if the ground conditions related to the ‘inward’ or ‘outward’ facing characteristics of the location.
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The casting from this location, on the Eastern half of the edge, close to the harbour and DRDH’s Library, shows a smooth surface suggesting this area is more aesthetically pleasing.
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Diagrams of my building opening space/facing the water
This image shows how my design has increased the amount of public space on the edge of the city, and the ground floor plan opens up a previously narrow space.
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Scale 1:1000
The ground floor plan of the Student Accommodation features many public areas and functions.
Space for Community Workshops/Evening classes
Studio to rent
Studio to rent
Studio to rent
Studio to rent
Studio to rent
Studio to rent
Studio to rent
Studio to rent
Scale 1:200
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The Water’s Edge
During the first weeks of term we carried out a project in Musselburgh, Scotland. We were to design an architectural entity on the coastline where the John Muir Way meets the sea, or the Earth meets the Ocean. We were inspired for our project but the neighbouring Ash Pit-a space where ash from the now demolished Cockenzie Power Station was left. We strived to clear away this ash by using it to create concrete for our structures. This project influenced my final design as we positioned our design at a point of ‘confluence’ between the River Esk and the sea in the estuary. During low tide a slither of land would appear, which was then consumed by water at high tide. The drawing on the opposite page explored the tidal movements and flows of the sea and the water’s edge which was constantly changing.
Scale 1:4000
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These series of photographs are stills from videos showing the confluence and merging of the two bodies of water. It was noted a crisscross pattern was created.
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The flow and movement of the water’s edge became very inspiring and a few plaster models were produced to explore the movement of the liquid passing over the solid. These pepples and negatives behind them emphasised the forms for the Musselburgh project. I used this information and forms for my Student Accommodation to control the flow of another system in this city-people. To encourage the public to come into the community and student shared courtyard the flow of pedestrians had to be controlled and pushed into this area. This control would also help open up this part of the edge.
The site plan shows the flow of pedestrians from the city centre, transport links and the Art College towards the Student Residence.
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This diagram gives a closer perspective of the pedestrian flows of the cities edge and how the Accommodation intervenes .
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The circular form of the community classroom on the ground floor, right at the waters edge both creates a smooth flow past it on the edge, but also helps invite pedestrians into the courtyard. This form was inspired by the pebbles from Musselburgh and the way they guided the flow of the liquid around them
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The following image shows the pedestrian flow from the street. The form has been shaved at the middle corners of the front two blocks to again tempt the flow of people into the public courtyard.
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Bodo
Norway
Scotland
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Chapter 2: Location- 67.2804° N, 14.4049° E Location is always key for an architectural project. However the city of Bodø in Norway has a very strange climate. The days can be completely dark during winter, yet they have a ‘Midnight Sun’ in June. The gulf stream still reaches Bodø which prevents this area from getting too much snow. However the weather is very changeable with wet and cold winters and hot sunny summers. An architectural entity for this location would require both covered areas and out door space to encourage the community and students to mix.
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Incubate-The Accommodation is situated on ‘Gravel Sand and Clay’ relating back to the Musselburgh project as this site isolated on a harder geographical landscape which makes its edge conditions differ to that of the sandy beach of Musselburgh.
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Image Credit: Connel Binnie, Adam Ramsay, Ayla Riome and Martin Skarback Edited by: Rachel Milne
Environment
January 12 Noon
June 12 Noon
April 12 Noon
October12 Noon The above diagrams show the sun path across the Accommodation across the year. The form of the two fingers meeting at the shared timber dining hall were to allow as much sunlight as possible into the courtyard. The public courtyard would only be success if it had the maximum sunlight. The two fingers also allow both the shared lounge areas in the corridor to look down onto the community courtyard and the bedrooms to get daylight. The section shows how large the courtyard is, to allow sunlight all year around. Due to the latitude courtyards in Norway must be larger.
1:200 Section
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www.azuremagazine.com
Norwegians love the outdoors. They are always out exploring and experiencing the landscape. They are far more in touch with their environment that the Scottish which is passed down from traditional Sami cultures. An inspiration to my design was Sami Rintala’s design for the SALT festival. He encompassed the traditional Norwegian culture of gathering in the outdoors to experience the landscape very successfully. His form was inspired by the drying racks used by fishermen. His design encourages a gathering on the beach for many activities such as observing the Northern Lights or for film screenings. I wished for my design to take motivation from this both in the form of the courtyard and in its interiors. The glass ground floor of the timber structure allows the community to gather for art classes and evening classes. The floor above this is solely for the students and functions as a shared dining hall with a small kitchen to encourage all the students from all floors to gather in the one space.
www.azuremagazine.com
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Culture
This image represents the community aspect of the courtyard. It encourages both the public and students to gather in the space, surrounded by working artists in the rentable studios.
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Chapter 3: Incubate One of the central concerns of this project was to create links between the general public and the art institution. Inspiration came from a visit to the Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop which maintains connection with the general public while renting studios to artists. The ground floor of the Student Accommodation feature s 8 studios that can either be rented by graduates of the art college as a step up into the outside world, or by artists of the community. The residence strived to create feelings of community between the studios by providing many social spaces such as the window seats and gathering spaces in the corridors with visual connections to the public courtyard and the shared kitchens on each floor.
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Community
The massing model above shows an earlier version of my design where I aimed to created public space (shown in the clear acrylic) on the ground floor with a presence on the street front and a community core on the waters edge. My final design also follows this arrangement where the private residence is on the upper floors. This photograph shows the Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop where the public cafe drawing pedestrians off the lower level Water of Leith into the courtyard with views to the outdoor workshop. The Workshop also has a street presence of the upper level as the gallery has been placed her.
www.edinburgharchitecture.co.uk
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Residential The rooms of the Student Residence are arranged at angles to allow optimum views out over the water as-well as allowing north light to flow into the rooms. The kitchens are featured at the ends of the corridors to make the most of the views but also to comply with fire regulations.
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Sleeping
Key 4.
3.
5.
1.
1. Bathroom Pod (2350x1205) 2. Bed (2140x1200) 3. Desk (3046x1000) 4. Wardrobe (1400x800) 5. Chair
2.
Room Layout 1:50
The bedrooms are all identical to allow fairness across the design. Each room has an en-suite in their room as this is typical for Norwegian Student Residences. The rooms are slightly larger than most standard halls of residence as the students are from an art college they will need more desk and storage spaces for their art work.
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The shared dining hall, as previously mentioned, is to promote a feeling of community among the students. The rooms looks out over the sea and is made of a timber structure to highlight its importance with the scheme and the channel it’s inspiration from traditional coastal timber structures of Norway used for fishermen and families to gather round a fire.
Dining
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Chapter 4: Folding Folding has been a key theme throughout this project, from the first weeks in Norway studying faรงades the theme formed quickly.
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Folding the City
While drawing the faces and façades of Bodø I began to draw them from their plan in relation to one another. I created the opposite drawing to explore the folding nature of these faces, like a stage set. This drawing then led onto the folded paper model. The three member of our group all drew our buildings in this same way and created models of them to add to the site model.
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Folding Paper
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Folding Structure
The structure and cladding of the design was motivated by the folding theme. The concrete used would be pre-cast and the almost ‘folded up’ as it was put into place to create the structure. The form of the ‘fins’ looking out to the sea also have a ‘folded’ sense to them as if they are a series of flaps that have brought up. The folded model really reflected its idea. The design is mostly clad with fibre cement panels using a steel carrier system to attach them to the CLT boxes.
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