Frames and Pockets:
G14HJ Arts School
Susanna Boreham
Daytime. Heaviness of stone, the texture of brick. Feet clanging on a steel walkway. Light filtering through a lattice of walls, the glimpse of crumbled brick and rusted steel outside, framed by white walls. Daylight fades, light glows through mesh. Activity revealed through a solid façade. This building is born out of the everyday truths of architecture: it is a simple response to a brief for a 5000sqm fashion college in the centre of Glasgow, with a focus on rich material presence and a logical spatial approach. The site on the bank of the river Clyde is on the periphery of the city’s rigidly structured urban grid, occupying a place of transition between the loose and the rigorous. Four urban conditions found in Glasgow city centre are overlaid on the site to create a paradigm of the city: courtyard block, scattered building spread, hard surface and green space. At street level, the resultant building becomes an extension of the city; a rich ground scape is scattered with pavilion buildings for public use. Above, the working program is arranged within a lattice of long spaces held by 5m deep structural beams, forming a dense courtyard block punctuated by a green pocket. From the exterior the building appears as a monolithic mass held above the ground. Fashion is seen as an industry, as the art of fabrication. The studios are designed as large container boxes flooded with light from above, diffused by a saw tooth roof that reflects the industrial past of Glasgow. Adaptable devices such as temporary walls and pop-up spaces move on runners, allowing the students to change and adopt the space as their own. The architecture forces the students to cross between studios to circulate, which facilitates cross-fertilization between year groups and enables a rich, non-hierarchical learning experience. The spatial conditions of frame (long spaces) and pocket (pavilion, pop-up) create the form which mirrors the arts school’s programmatic requirements. The building is a delicate recast of the existing urban condition of G1 4HJ, aiming to create not a sense of otherworldliness, but of familiarity and permanence.
CONTENTS
I. Context Existing Site Condition
II. Fashion as Industry Programmatic Approach
III. Filling a Gap Urban Strategy & Spatial Response
IV. G14HJ Fashion Institute Final Drawings and Models
I.
CONTEXT Existing Site Condtion
Glasgow Urban Plan Scale 1:5000
Identifying Urban Conditions of Glasgow Scale 1:5000 Urban Condition 3: Loose Building Spread
Urban Condition 2: Dense Courtyard Block
Urban Condition 1: Greenery
Urban Condition 4: Hard Surface
Existing Site Plan Scale 1:1000
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ildi
elic t bu
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A Gap in the Urban Fabric Site Photos
Site Photos Details, Materials
II.
FASHION AS INDUSTRY Programmatic Response
Studio Culture Adaptable spaces Non heirachical spaces Good lighting conditions in studios Fashion as Industry Fashion as an industry, fashion as making demands an industrial response - wide open spaces Programmatic Response separate the program into public space on the ground floor, and student space on the upper floors. There should be no heirarchical spaces within the school
5000 sqm Fashion College
sqm
Basement 2 Lecture rooms 200 Lecture theatre 200 Meeting/seminar rooms 150 Plant room 100 Library 200 Ground Floor Reception 30 Gallery 150 Shop 50 Fitting rooms 50 Bar/Café 250 Exhibition space 250 Fabric Shop 100 Lower Floor Computer room Wardrobe workshop Printing & dying workshop Offices Crit rooms Student Café
120 100 120 250 320 200
Upper Floor Studio 1 350 Studio 2 350 Studio 3 350 Studio 4 350
Hadspen Studio, Unit 7/ David Grandorge
Tinctorial Textiles
Fashion as Industry - Precedent Study for Appropriate spaces Rough Materials, Adaptable spaces, Still-in-the-making Aesthetic
Oast Barn, Caruso St John
Finnforest Pavilion, Unit 7/ David Grandorge
III.
FILLING A GAP Urban Strategy + Spatial Response
Urban Ideas Sketches and Block Models, scale 1:500
Proposed ground floor condition
Dense Courtyard Block
Hard Surface
Loose Building Spread
Existing urban conditions of glasgow have been fused, to create an urban form which is within the context of G1 4HJ Glasgow City Centre
Urban Strategy
Proposed upper floor condition
Greenery
The ground floor of the Fashion Institute consists of a rich ground surface with scattered pavilions. The upper two floors are a dense block, penetrated by a planted courtyard.
Urban Strategy Block model, scale 1:500
Proposed Ground Condition Scale 1:1000
Ground Floor Concept Inspiration Photo shows garden + pavilions
Free Space
East / West Or
rganised Space
North / South Organised Space
Solid Spaces Regulated Space housing working program of building
Void Spaces Free Space containing pavilions and circulation Lets in light to Solid Spaces
Concept and Organisation Diagram
Structural Precedent Allied Works: Contemporary Art Museum St Louis
Structural Strategy 5m Deep Structural Beams support and organise space Creates interesting overlay between floors
Structural Model Scale 1.100
Long spaces framing site, voids letting in light from above Rough Working Model
Facade Skin unifies facade and gives the effect of hovering mololithic mass. Copper Mesh Panels allow light into spaces with losing the ‘solid facade’ effect
Ground Floor Study Sketch
Ground Floor Study Cast Model, Scale 1:200
Roof Study
Saw Tooth Roofs - Central Station and Fashion Institute
Model Making Processes
IV.
G14HJ FASHION INSTITUTE Final Drawings and Models
Road Surface Original Pavement Surface Proposed Surface - Circulation Proposed Surface - Places of Purpose (shops, bars) Proposed Surface - Service Spaces (toilets etc.)
Ground Scape Study Scale 1:500
Basement Plan Scale 1:200
Ground Floor Plan Scale 1:200
Level 1 Plan Scale 1:200
Level 2 Plan Scale 1:200
Section A - A Scale 1:200
Section B - B Scale 1:200
Section C- C Scale 1:200
Section D - D Scale 1:200
Day Facade 1:200
Night Facade 1:200
Exploded Axonometric
Facade Study 1:50
Detail Model 1:20
Detail Model 1:20
Studio Space 1:20
South Facade 1:200
Floor by floor 1:200
Ground Floor - Open Space
Middle Level - Workshop Space
Middle Level Circulation Space
Middle Level - Crit Room
Upper Level - Studio Space
Material Study - Referencing Materials found on site Rough Finished Concrete (structural)
Corten Steel for Pavilions
Polished Floor Tile
Smooth Floor Tile
Rough Floor Tile
Ground Floor
Steel frame for mesh skin
Copper Mesh for external skin
Permeable Favric for Studio Pop ups
Plywood for adjustable walls
White Plaster Board lining for Studios etc.
Polished Concrete for Floors
Middle and Upper Floors External Skin