huddarchtha1840jan15

Sam Eadington U1275772 University of Huddersfield THA1840

Changing Landscapes 1914 saw the start of World War 1. This war, thanks to artists such as Paul Nash and his paintings which recorded the scenes from the battlefields, changed the way people perceived landscapes. Previously viewed as calm and unchanging, the war revealed that landscapes could be transformed over night from peaceful sanctuaries of nature to shredded reminders of death and turmoil. What was once viewed as permanent, was unsettlingly revealed to volatile and temporary.

Inspired by Nash and his eye opening works, I have taken the changing landscape, or townscape, of Huddersfield and used it to develop my own conceptual objective for this project:

To create a design which explores and questions the notions of temporary and permanent

Changing Townscape Since 1914 the streets of Huddersfield and the life between these streets have evovled and changed as the needs and requirements of its people have moved along with time.

Despite the changes, many of the streets in the centre of Huddersfield have remained the same, and could therefore be considered more permanent elements in a constantly changing and fluid landscape.

This drawing shows the steet plan of 2014 (top left) compared agains the street plan of 1914 (bottom left) to reveal the streets which have remained as permanent fixtures (centre left) over the last 100 years.

Through reduction (centre) and abstraction (centre right) I have derived a form (top right) for my design. This form represents what is percieved to be permanent within a an otherwise turbulent and temporary landscape.

Frames I have interpreted the streets which have remained constant over the past century as permanent frames between which a wide variety of temporary activities exist and thrive.

This interpretation is directly transfered to my design and is explored in this concept model.

Frames This drawing explores temporary spacial and structural ideas within a permanent framework and how they can overlap with one another both physically and through time. The permanent structure is purposefully non prescriptive and ambiguous, allowing interventions to be varied in their response to, and even encouraging them to break the framework.

Huddersfield, 2014 My design is located in the space next to Huddersfield Bus Station. This area has been the area of greatest change within the last 100 years thanks to the construction of the ring road and bus station in 1966. This completely reconfigured the relationship between central Huddersfield and its surrounding areas. The space is at present hugely underused despite it’s location in the centre of the town.

The open public space next to the bus station is surrounded by a number of different retailers, offices and services. The uses of these surrounding buildings are not related and draw people into the space for a number of different reasons. The primary use of the space is as a circulation route servicing the bus station which operates between through most of the day.

The site slopes down from the bus station with a height difference of 2 meters between the top of the site and the bottom. This slope is noticeable but not severe. In some areas the slope is responded to with the use of steps and in others it is sloped.

The site is cluttered with a large amount of street furniture including benches, street lights, litter bins, large bins, advertisement boards and bollards. This street furniture fragments the space and defines the primary routes of circulation.

The fragmentation of the space and the circulation routes creates a lack of focus for the space. This is accentuated by the erratic combination of uses inhabiting the surrounding buildings.

My design, a form and structure derived from a concept relating to the streets of Huddersfield, is not merely dropped on the site without consideration for, or relation to, the surrounding context. The abstract intervention intends to work with and enhance the current public space.

The scale of the structure relates to the size of the site, surrounding buildings and circulation routes. The scale intends to create two distinct areas on the site; within the structure and outside the structure. This creates two more focused areas rather than the scattered unfocused uses which take place on the site at present.

The orientation of the design is crucial the success of the public space as a whole. The main considerations impacting upon the orientation are the sun path and the circulation.

The final scale and orientation of the design accommodates the current circulation routes and allows the sunlight to penetrate through so as no to detract from the space to the North of the structure.

Having considered the response to context, the more finite requirements of the function are examined and the design’s response to these refined.

The structure is designed to accommodate a variety of different temporary structures, therefore a variety of different spaces are required if this objective is to be met.

The plan of the structure creates spaces of different forms and sizes, however, with all the walls being the same height, the variation is limited to the plan.

The heights of the walls have been varied to assist the structure in meeting its intended functional requirements as well as further softening its scale to sit more comfortably within the context.

The varying heights of the walls are less confrontational and rigid, making the otherwise linear structure a little more organic.

The different wall heights create a greater range of spaces.

The structure is now more adaptable to greater variety of temporary structures to occupy it.

The final walls.

The construction of the walls begins with a public interaction art installation where the public are invited to paint on a large stencil on the floor where the walls will be built.

The stencil is removed to reveal the plan of the walls.

A hole is dug and the foundations cast to create a sunken seating area which can be used as a public space before the next structure is constructed.

A timber floor is suspended over the sunken void to continue the ground level.

A temporary scaffolding structure is constructed around where the walls are to be built.

The formwork for the concrete walls is built within the walls.

Spaces for public inhabitation are also carved out of the structure allowing for exhibitions and usage of the temporary structure during the construction of the final walls.

The concrete is then poured into the formwork within the scaffolding. The ground anchor bolts are fastened to the top of the taller walls.

The scaffolding is then gradually removed over time

Plan 1:100

Upper floor level

Timber scaffolding

Canvas

Concrete formwork

Steel reinforcement for concrete wall

Scaffolding Structure Ground floor level

The scaffolding structure is built as an inhabitable concrete formwork. The detail model (left) shows a section through the timber scaffolding formwork before the concrete has been poured into it. The scaffolding is a simple grid structure which can be easily assembled, demounted and reconstructed in another location.

The interior image (above) demonstrates an example of how the structure can inhabited and used as for events such as exhibitions.

Subterranean void

Stepped concrete strip foundation

The concrete for the walls is poured directly into the formwork within the structure. Once the concrete has set, the scaffolding structure can be gradually removed to reveal the finished concrete walls.