Rachel smillie
civic fabrication
Architectural design: tectonics
esala s1235994 MA(hons)architecture
Rachel smillie
Photographs recovered from site (see p.5)
Order of contents weeks 1-3 weeks 2-4 week 4-11 weeks 6-10
Knapping Scappling Fettling Arris
(medium becomes tools) (roughing out) (forming the object) (junctions and connections)
Material Investigations Urban Futures [Group Work] Further Education College Tectonic Resolution
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material investigations
knapping
(medium becomes tools)
Translating to White Light Spirit, Otto Piene’s sculpture Weißer Lichtgeist utilises its sinuous glass form to enhance and exaggerate the pulsating light emitted from a single bulb hidden within its circular base. Like many of Piene’s studies, the sculpture focuses on the dynamism of light and maximises the potential for light to create drama, surprise and theatre whilst nurturing a sense of curiosity. The undulating curves of the glass body bring depth and fluidity to the internal glow whilst establishing distinctive shadows and highlights. The milky glass is an important characteristic of the piece, its opaqueness concealing the inner workings of the light show and conserving the element of surprise. Weißer Lichtgeist is often displayed
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with two other identical sculptures, posing as a trio with the pulsing light between the three constructing a dialogue between the artworks. The sculpture maintains sense of anonymity, not ever being truly honest in its function yet its beauty allows us to appreciate its calm dignity without theorising too deeply. It is both a sculpture and a light piece, but simultaneously its anonymity and lack of scale allows it to remain as an obscure ‘object’. My own interpretations of Piene’s sculpture hope to investigate these ideas of translucency, fluidity and light whilst maintaining this obscurity and curiosity.
Original Artwork: Piene, O. (1966) Weißer Lichtgeist, Sculpture
preliminary investigation Initial studies involved passing light though a paper cut-out generated from a 3D model that mimics the form of Piene’s own sculpture. Shadow variance was achieved by differing lighting positions whilst the paper remained constant. These studies were then merged to create a single image.
Preliminary Investigation: Light passing through paper cut out to generate a shadow
Artwork 1 light shells
Making the translation of materiality from glass to paper distinctly changes the natural geometry of the piece. Paper isn’t fluid, it doesn’t change in state like glass, yet can still possess the same variety of translucency. Three lanterns were drawn, scored and folded; pinched and punched to create shell like forms that would each house its own small light source. The range of translucencies varied from 140 gsm paper to thick tracing paper. The guide lines that form the shape of the lanterns were drawn on the inside of the shells and remain invisible until the lanterns are illuminated. In an effort to obscure the light source even further, the photographed image of the three lanterns side by side was inverted and a colour overlay added in post production. This obscuring technique encourages the changing translucency to become more powerful by appearing less conventional.
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Artwork 1: Detail of tracing paper shell
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Artwork 1: Detail of shell folding technique
Artwork 2 changing state
Paper as a material choice provided an effective route into the investigation of varying translucencies but the method used to create the shells required accuracy and yielded a very predictable outcome. In an attempt to harness the more unpredictable qualities of glass, the process of making pancakes was documented, photographing the moments in which key changes in state occurred. Further to that, the resulting pancakes were each removed from the frying pan after differing cooking times to present a visual scale of the cooking process. Cooking times varied from 5 seconds where the pancake still remained practically raw, to 45 seconds where the pancake was overcooked. The pan was cleaned and new oil added each time to ensure each attempt was effectively the ‘first pancake’ that never turns out perfectly. The fresh oil also resulted in interesting cooking patterns left on the surface of each pancake.
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Artwork 2: Above: State changes in the process of making pancakes. Right and Left: Result of differing pancake cooking times
Artwork 3: Process images
Artwork 3 glass veils The final translation makes a move towards modelling in glass. Three glass ‘veils’ were blown with the intention of capturing the fluidity of glass in a fabric like way. The three veils were assigned different degrees of ‘slump’ to their forms and so appeared to almost melt under the forces of gravity and were sandblasted at their base to obscure any light source added in future.
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When the veils were lit from within to mimic Otto Piene’s original artwork an added layer to the story was apparent. Although the glass did not incubate the candle completely, the puckered edge of the veils did not allow enough oxygen to enter the space underneath and so the candle was quickly extinguished without the need for an external force. The resulting effect is a fountain of trapped smoke from the candle that hits the top of the domed veil and pours down the surface of the glass whilst the heat creates steam on the inside face of the object exaggerating the obscurity of the smoke show even further. Artwork 3: Photographs documenting the movement of smoke from an extinguished candle inside the veils
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Artwork 3: Detail of initial smoke dispersion
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Artwork 3: Detail of smoke dispersion after 5 seconds
urban futures (group work)
scappling roughing out ‘Scappling’ is a group based exercise in Masterplanning to map the civic future of a particular part of the Dalmarnock area. The masterplans (stories) will inform the narrative context for the later building proposal. Dalmarnock is a fascinatingly unusual site due to the absence of civic identity. The lack of built environment has left residential developments isolated and civically unsupported with little to no facilities to service the community. In the past, Dalmarnock was a thriving industrial area but only fragments of this old character remain.
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The masterplans will imagine the development of Dalmarnock over time, through the next 10, 30, 50 and 70 years. The building proposal for a new Further Education College will compose the first part of the new civic future for Dalmarnock.
site 2 (SUDS) Site 2 lies between the River Clyde and the primary civic Dalmarnock Power Station chimney demolition, 1980
anchor in Dalmarnock; the train station. Dalmarnock Train Station has recently been redeveloped following an injection of funding as a result of the post Commonwealth Games regeneration project yet still remains detached from the fragmented community. The site is divided by two territories that split its usage. The first, the train track, runs down the western edge of the site dalmarnock sewage treatment works to the south-west. The second is formed by the show people community that reside in the centre of the eastern expanse of the site. The show people punctuate a large stalled space below the train station that houses disused industrial buildings and lighter industries that still operate in the area. The south-easterly portion was previously home to Dalmarnock Power Station and, since its demolition in 1980, the land has remained contaminated and idle. In recent years, the regeneration project has decontaminated the land and so for the first time in decades, there is an opportunity here for development.
site 2 dalmarnock train station show people community railway
dalmarnock sewage treatment works
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discovery site photographs
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These photographs were discovered and recovered from a stalled space in Dalmarnock, to the north of the site just below the train station. The photos were developed on 21st of October 1999 and appear to be documenting the construction of the sustainable urban drainage system (SUDS) that mitigates the excess flood water from the River Clyde. Fascinatingly, although they had been discarded in a wasteland surrounded by debris, the photographs were found in relatively good condition and, to an extent, had preserved each other. The photographs are a remarkable find and help to tell the story of Dalmarnock before the Commonwealth Games and before our stories begin. The discovery of the photographs sparked the notion that a community can be formed though the act of construction and making and not just through the final physical built form. This is an idea that we took forward in our masterplan stories and conceived the notion of ‘The Meanwhile’.
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group work
10 year story Using relative examples of built projects as a reference for scale and density, collages were made for the 10, 30, 50 and 70 year stories to show how our civic future for Dalmarnock has developed. Glyphs are used to indicate the usages of our proposed interventions.
collage references the meanwhile
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To counteract the tendency for the now decontaminated land to remain useless to the community, we introduce the notion of ‘the meanwhile’. Whilst the FE College is constructed to the north of the site and a multi use sports centre is built to the south-east, ‘meanwhile’ activities occur in the large expanse of surrounding land. These include a drive in cinema, football pitches and a market. People now use the land throughout the year and the community of Dalmarnock feel as though they have regained a sense of instant civicness. The kids play football, after school and the show people migrate down and set up burger vans while construction is underway. The market that grows along Strathclyde Street is the beginnings of Dalmarnock’s new High Street where the vendors are local; butchers, barbers and ‘greasy spoons’. The markets sell local produce, fake handbags and football merchandise. The market implements a sense of stability in the area, and after a few years, successful market stalls are given permanent units. Meanwhile, the concept of the Baltic Street Adventure Playground has been adopted for the large strip of ‘SUDS’ land to the west that is unfit to build upon. A small pavilion also opens on the waterfront to provide rentable bikes and boats for the hotter months.
co-housing
Walter’s Way London
playground
Baltic Street Adventure Playground Glasgow
music venue
Berghain Nighclub Berlin
further education college Forth Valley College Stirling
parkland
The Meadows Edinburgh
sports centre
St. Leonard’s Land Edinburgh
Between the train station and the FE college a music venue/ nightclub is built, encouraging a student population onto the site. The show people have also begun to expand northwards and are constructing a co-housing scheme as their numbers grow. The sewage works in the far west of the site remain necessary for now.
market
Camden Market London
river side pavillion Princes Street Pavillion Edinburgh
glyph key
adventure play freeplay sports greenspace trade space filmography market space retailer courier information education game developer cinematography photography arts library sports club commerce barber allotments mixologist cafe bakery gastronomy music
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group work
30 year story housing After 30 years, market along Strathclyde Street has now developed into a small high street. An artisan market is still held along the high street on weekends. The co-housing set up by the show people 30 years ago has not developed as significantly as anticipated and so the land has been sold to create student housing to service the further education college. The ‘meanwhile uses’ to the south of the site have now migrated across the train track to the west where a portion of the sewage works have been decommissioned. A high quality modern housing development has been built in place of the disused land with two storey front-back housing with shared gardens establishing a new civic presence in Dalmarnock. The land across the railway is now being decontaminated to prepare for this residential development to expand if it is to be successful.
collage references
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new housing development
Newhall Be, Alison Brooks Harlow, Essex
student housing
Pollock Halls Edinburgh
high street
Box Park London
group work
50 year story live/work The 50 year storey sees the expansion of the highstreet along Strathclyde Street spanning the whole width of the site. This new high street links with the high street proposed in the civic story of Group 4. The high street is now more established with reliable Dalmarnock artisinal brands that community invest in and trust. The market space has also expanded and links underneath the railway line that has now been elevated breaking down an existing barrier in the site. The co-housing and student housing have both expanded and no stalled spaces remain on the site. The success of the housing project constructed 20 years ago has allowed its expanse westwards and has now been replicated on the decontaminated land across the railway, inhabiting the site from the high street to the Clyde. A riverside apartment project has also been constructed on the river bend and offers a different housing typology for the new residents joining the community. Live/work studios neighbour the new housing in the west and facilitate the new artisan traders joining the high street. This offers a new type of living for the Dalmarnock community and encourages a trade network to establish itself in the area. A success story of the new live/work space is the micro brewery that sells its product to the well established local pub at the end of the high street; made in Dalmarnock, sold in Dalmarnock. The land to the south-west has begun its period of decontamination.
collage references
live/work studios Hackney Wick London
shorefront housing
Bath Western Riverside, Alison Brooks Somerset
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group work
70 year story artisan trade network By 2086 there is a fully formed trade network that operates in Dalmarnock and broader Glasgow. The Dalmarnock name is not a recognised brand that the people that live in the area are proud of. The people of Dalmarnock nurture a sense of civic pride established by the new ‘Artisan Trade Network’. The Artisan Trade Network logo is seen in windows of butchers and barbers alike an represents a brand that people know and trust. Traders can have their business approved by the trade network by stocking the local Dalmarnock brands that operate in the live/work studios. These studios have now expanded in the newly decontaminated land as the sewage works have now been replaced by a new grey water system across the Clyde.
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logo credit: Max Milton
group work credit: Nutthanee Banditakkarakul Andy Ly Eleanor Marshall Max Milton Rachel Smillie Freddie Steel
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group work
high street credit: Freddie Steel 10Y
30Y
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50Y
70Y
group work
riverside credit: Freddie Steel
10Y
30Y
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group work
live/work studios credit: Eleanor Marshall
10Y
30Y
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50Y
70Y
group work
night club credit: Eleanor Marshall
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30Y
further education college & tectonic resolution
fettling & ARris forming the object & junction and connections apologia
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Dalmarnock is an area with very pronounced territories, both existing and imposed. The territorial nature of the show people define zones that are strictly private. Dalmarnock’s homes were destroyed to make way for the Commonwealth Games; the community’s own territories were taken from them. The new sports facilities establish not only physical boundaries but financial boundaries as well. Overall there is a distinction between what is owned by the community of Dalmarnock and what is owned by the developers; where kids can play football and where they can’t. The further education college must break down the barriers that already exist and engage with the community, on a civic level. We can assume that in Dalmarnock, like many deprived areas, there may be a resistance towards further eduction; the college must represent an opportunity for something different; something new and exciting. To achieve such a distinct sense of engagement, the building will approach the community in as many ways as possible. From the train platform level, commuters are offered a view into the workshops, from street level visitors are encouraged to peel up and down into the building and at night the building illuminates revealing a whole new character.
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demolition
show people
velodrome
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College Zone with most confluence, everyone meets
High Street Main artery of confluence
Sports Centre Secondary zone of confluence
civic surfaces community confluence
Existing Residents Pre-regeneration Dalmarnock residents
Industry Traders in the area
New Residents Post-regeneration Dalmarnock residents
Retail Live/Work Artisans
Visiting Commuters who travel to Dalmarnock to visit college
Other Visitors using additional facilities
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railway wall
train station
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There are very few remnants of the old Dalmarnock that remain today. The railway wall runs down the western edge of the site, and although it creates a boundary, it symbolises resilience. The college should nurture this.
The train station is Dalmarnock’s primary connection to greater Glasgow. It is a valuable asset and the college must utilise its proximity to encourage the community to engage with the opportunities that the further education college will provide.
music venue
further education college
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The music venue neighbours the train station and occupies a ‘noisy’ portion of the site. The college and music venue are complimentary and movement between the two buildings will be encouraged though a small exhibition space on the street front.
The college’s form is dictated by the ways in which it hopes to engage with the community. The back walls are butted up against the train platform to engage with the community in alternative ways. The orientation of the college allows for a large open space to the front of the building that embodies civicness. A low rise exhibition space positions itself up against the pavement in an attempt to encourage the community to look into the building. This exhibition space will present the objects created by the students to the wider community nurturing a sense of civic pride.
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Lower Ground Floor -1.5m
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Upper Ground Floor +1.5m
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First Floor +4.5m
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Basement -4.5m
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long section showing relationship to street level 1:200
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long section showing relationship to street level 1:100
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public entrance vs. school entrance detail
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roof upstand sheet aluminium covering roof sealing layer oriental strand board two layer rigid foam thermal insulation steel trapezoidal section steel t-section
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roof construction single ply membrane roof (Sarna) polyurethane thermal insulation sealing layer reinforced concrete on steel trapezoidal section sheeting
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glass wall construction u section glazing units with sandblasted surface okapane translucent insulation cavity u section glazing units with etched surface aluminium frame
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catwalk for access/maintenence glavanised steel grating steel square hollow section frame
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ceiling construction spray applied acoustic plaster plasterboard insulation slab steel supporting structure reinforced concrete on steel trapezoidal section sheeting black polyurethane coating
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concrete wall construction 300mm cast in place concrete rigid insulation precast concrete panels
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floor construction screed sealing layer 250 mm concrete ground floor slab insulation (rigid) damp proof membrane sand
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U-section glazing unit head detail 1:5
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sketch section from train track to road
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front entrance perspective with civic surface
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evening perspective with illuminated exhibition space
end
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Appendix
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section through workshops and cafe
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section through main building workshop
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section through library