Westminster Portfolio

Page 1

form follows fetish. A pilgrimage to experience what one finds‌..?


INITIAL REACTION ПЕРВОНАЧАЛЬНАЯ

РЕАКЦИЯ

The initial brief required an installation which would both represent our intentions and our individual decided fetish. In my case, I decided on the redolent sexuality in religious Baroque statues as a point of departure. An area of interest which I find entertaining, as within a belief governed by such prudish attitudes which profess such purity of heart has architecture littered with scantily clad statues full of sexual innuendo. Statues worshiped and often kissed or caressed by devout believers. Statues which mark the end of pilgrimages involving obsessive, knee bleeding journeys where the mark of devotion comes from completing the trip on ones knees. Statues which remain in stasis, overlooking during prayer, in rooms filled with brunt frankincense and Latin coir song. Statues which not only represent a religious message with an inherent sexuality, yet also become part of the architecture, whether free standing or embedded within some sort of structural system. My initial reaction to the brief was to explore consumerism, paying particular attention to how consumerism has now become a higher power that, in a sense, we no longer control. How we covet, obsess, and then cherish these items of our decided interests. I began to suggest consumerisms comparisons to an uncompromising devotion of religion, more evident in history, but a devotion which still exists today. I explored how Britain became open for export, but had unfortunate consequences. The wired, mobile lifestyle is better than the analogue years; ‘around the world shopping’ for the best, the fastest and the cheapest. I’d like to concentrate on the eighties, nineties and early noughties, almost 30 years of increasing consumerism which hadn’t quite reached the threat of global terrorism or recent financial crisis. Despite the racial riots of the eighties, multi cultural Britain embraced globalisation where Britain went out to the world selling itself. Britain ranked even above America in the export of cul¬ture and creative products; from rock music and fashion, to Harry Potter.

Architecture, Art and Pop Nigel Coates

During the nineties, New Labour’s Architect was Nigel Coates. Coates has continued to explore the communicative and experiential potential of architecture as a language drawn from the commonplace. He believes that the city is best understood if explored as a living organism, and that popular experience and culture are central to the experience of architecture. His work plays on psycho-geographic as sociation between the built environment and desire. Time and motion, he says, is the dynamic partner to the fixed, physical world. “I go for architecture that overlays and enhances. By blending observation and wit with reason, I want my work to generate a sense of the unexpected, and the seemingly spontaneous.” Julian Opie Contemporary London artist and former trustee of the Tate Gallery; Opie studied at Goldsmith’s college and is quoted as saying; “I am simply using that which is available to describe that which is experienced.” Blur Blur were one of the biggest bands in the UK during the Britpop movement of the mid-1990s. The band was composed of vocalist/keyboardist Damon Albarn, guitarist/vocalist Graham Coxon, bassist/backing vocalist Alex James and drummer/backing vocalist Dave Rowntree. The band helped to popularise the Britpop genre and achieved mass popularity in the UK, aided by a famous chart battle with rival band Oasis dubbed; “The Battle of Britpop”. In mapping each individual group, I’d like to explore their popularity in terms of the consumer and would like to represent it over the chosen time scale; the eighties, nineties and pre credit crunch noughties.

is Consumerism our new religion?


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KEY


Moscow & a time to reflect on the journey

Galway & Childhood fear.

designed by elements collected enroute & explored collectively with a little help from Dali and Tschumi.

an investigation of the domestic alter.

London & Westminster with informed commentary and reactions.......?

Paris & Starck's cigar bar with a mind to Tschumi and disassociating realities.

Santiago De Compostela & in search the answer to take to take to Moscow & realising it was the 'experience of A journey'.

Villa Savoye & La Tourette for an honest piece of modernism.

Embarking on a pilgrimage of architecture to Moscow & rationalising Mary Reynold's Beliefs............ !

Dali: Tschumi:

disassociating realities combined to create new and believable circumstances. inhabiting space is when architecture becomes complete.

A perslnal journey....


Paris & Starck's cigar bar

Galway & Childhood fear. an investigation of the domestic alter.

Santiago De Compostela & in search the answer to take to take to Moscow & realising it was the 'experience of A journey'.

with a mind to Tschumi and disassociating realities.

Villa Savoye

Villa Savoye

Imagining inhabiting space & complete architecture.

for an honest piece of modernism.

Commercial Pilgrimage

Commercial Pilgrimage

Commercial Pilgrimage

Commercial Pilgrimage

Commercial Pilgrimage

Commercial Pilgrimage

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Galway

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LONDON

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Paris

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Lyon

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Santiago de Compostela

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Moscow

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101212

110120

110205

110220

110212

110225

Galway

London

Paris

Lyon

Santiago De Comp

Moscow


To develop the idea of the Fetish, I not only adopted the redolent sexuality of baroque statues which exist within architectural systems as a design strategy, but I decided to explore the fetishised nature of the souvenirs we collect following or own pilgrimages, secular or religious. We collect souvenirs which represent our interests and beliefs, or simply remind us of a time with connections to memories.

Investigating the domestic altar and becoming obsessed with the souvenir.


A journeys record offering ideas of form.......?


Continuing on the religious theme and taking inspiration from Julian Opie, I found examples of baroque and religious iconography with the intention of abstraction. In an effort to create a variation of ‘Pop Baroque’ I begin to formulate an aesthetic control over later design decision making. During the abstraction process I began to discover direct connections to both church stained glass and contemporary artists Gilbert and George.

Abstraction Абстракция


Cigars, Mary and Martinis @ Fume Rouge, Paris


‘'The fume rouge'’, in isolation the room displays a message of hedonistic behaviour; martini drinking, late night encounters and an overt hint of sexuality and a potential for a highly fetishised experience. Yet when combined with a statue of Mary, the room suddenly displays characteristics of devout religious worship, where sexual encounters are locked to the back of ones mind, so not to distract or offend.


Recoding a journey & encountering a church pared back to the structure of the stone work & remaining with none of the iconography‌........ ?


Fetishised Pop Baroque Post Modernism


Baro q

ue


Red Square

The Kremlin

Site location plan, figure ground and major view axis Central Moscow 55째45.15N, 37째37.12E Scale 1:5000


Elliptical structure

The painting says: the new man has to free himself from the past. This is depicted by the image of a birth from an egg. With curiosity, the child watches, being protected by his mother, the birth of a man from a plastic egg. On this globe, which has been turned into an egg, the continents recede. Here comes into being the symbol of the new order, a new beginning of a perfect world. The longing of all men comes to be expressed in this noble sculpture.


Elliptical truncation


Parabolic Catenary Supporting structure


Simple Harmonic Deflection

I’ve used simple harmonic motion to develop the curvature of the grids deflection. Where the grid is structurally necessary it continues as normal. On the other hand, once the structural support of the Borromini Dome has been resolved the excess grid system begins to deflect using simple harmonic motion as a method of gradual uniform deflection. Simple harmonic motion, a memory or salute to the most fundamental building block of every screw (helix or double helix), bolt or engine developed during the industrial revolution and sustaining today, graphic geometric complexity to develop visual or spatial simplicity.



North elevation section



Roof Plan


The stations of the cross and a journeys end


traditional verses Pop Baroque

I


Pilgrimage Cell Wall

II


Sacred Catenary Axis

III


An Eastern Arrival

IV


Baroque Nymph

V


Grotesque

VI


Borromini's Influence

VII


Borromini's Distortion

VIII


Divine Light from above

XI


Pilgrimage Scalloped Egg

X


Point of arrival, at a journeys end

XI


Final Steps

XII


A cell to reflect on ones journey and prepare to return.


A late arrival



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