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T H E S O L A S TA LG I A PAV I L I O N
NORTHUMBRIA UNIVERSITY: 3RD YEAR SEMESTER TWO 2014
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“What these people lacked was solace or comfort derived from their present relationship to ‘home’. In addition, they felt a profound sense of isolation about their inability to have a meaningful say and impact on the state of affairs that caused their distress. ‘Solastalgia’ was created to describe the specific form of melancholia connected to lack of solace and intense desolation.” ‘Solastalgia’ - A New Concept Health and Identity, Glenn Albrecht
The Northumberland Coast and its residents are victims of open cast mining, the landscape which once promised an idyllic retirement for the mining communities has been constantly desolated and reclaimed., Highlighting man’s dualistic relationship with nature. Its communities are similarly fractured, industrial downturn has created a chasm spanning between generations where the ‘wisdom of the elders is no longer relevant to life in the here and now’ (Albrecht) . The Solastalgia Pavilion is a monument of resilience in an ever changing landscape, a cross generational tool to be used by the communities with roots in the past, present and future .
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DRURIDGE BAY, NORTHUMBERLAND COAST, NORTH EAST UK
MONUMENTAL VERNACULAR
Open cast mining has desolated the landscape and its communities, the building aims to draw on the familiar whilst becoming a symbol of Resilience and happiness despite destruction... The Monumental Vernacular.
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COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT
CLOSE KNIT EX MINING - COMMUNITIES
SOLASTALGIA PAVILION
COMMUNITY EDUCATION
SOCIAL COHESION
EDUCATION
SELF IMPROVEMENT
MEMORY DEPOSITORY
JOURNEY/PILGRIMAGE
NOSTALGIA
CONTEMPLATION
ACCOMMODATION
CLOSE KNIT SOCIAL
SECLUDED
FLEXIBLE LANDSCAPE ENJOYMENT
1. 1926 - 1966 Hauxley Colliery Employment: 494 below, 91 above
4. (-1961) Broomhill Colliery Employment: 540 below 170 above
7. (Unknown) West Chevington Colliery
10. 1894 - 1968 Linston Colliery Employment: 922 below, 192 above
13. 1927 - 1994 Lynmouth Colliery Employment: 1370below, 240 above
2. (Unknown) Togston Colliery Employment: 44 below 12 above
5. 1849 - 1961 Chevington Drift* Employment: 540 below 170 above
8. (Unknown) Widdrington Colliery
11. 1909 - 2005 Ellington Colliery Employment: 1779 below, 164 above
14. Radcliffe*
3. 1892 - 1925 Newburgh Colliery* Employment: 385 below, 122 above
6. -1933 Bullock Hall Colliery Employment: 15 below, 8 above
9. -1949 Ferneybeds Colliery Employment: 176 below, 49 above
12. -1924 Ulgram Grange Colliery Employment: 176 below, 49 above
* Denotes a settlement lost to open cast mining
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DESOLATION OF OPEN CAST MINING
EAST CHEVINGTON
SITE LANGUAGE
“When I visited my mother after the modernisation took place, I felt tears come into my eyes. When I looked down the village the place looked cold and unfriendly. The happy atmosphere that was prominent years before seemed to have gone... Cut off from direct contact with the friendliest people one could ever hope to meet.� Elizabeth Stewart. Three Villages
Even settlements were not spared by the destruction of open cast mining. Residents of towns such as East Chevington were relocated, scattering the communities and their memories; The language of the site provides a juxtaposition to the events of open cast mining, man made structures overtaken by nature.
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EXPRESSION OF SITE LANGUAGE
DEVELOPING AN ARCHITECTURAL LANGUAGE
“Any account of ones emotional reactions to position must include the subject of levels. Below level produces intimacy, inferiority, enclosure and claustrophobia, above level gives exhilaration, command, superiority, exposure and vertigo; the act of descending , implies going down into the known and the act of ascending implies going up into the unknown.”
Gorden Cullen. Concise Townscape
EXPOSED
ENCLOSED
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CONCEPT MODEL - DESOLATION & RECLAMATION
CONCEPT DIAGRAMS
MICHAEL HEIZER - DOUBLE NEGATIVE
“A lesson if only mankind heeds, strength can fail yet gentleness succeeds.”
Horace Hindshaw, poet & resident of East Chevington
The landscapes of open cast mining are constantly desolated and reclaimed, highlighting the contrasting relationships man has with nature. The Pavilion plays with the positive and negative , destruction and celebration.
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PILGRIMAGE
PERMANENCE - MAN’S DESTRUCTIVE NATURE
TRANSIENCE - MAN ENJOYING NATURE
• Permanence amongst an ever changing landscape. A depository of memory in a constant state of flux, an atmospheric journey through one’s own memory •
Transience sits atop the permanence, providing oppurtunities for unprogrammed intervention controlled by the local communities.
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EVOKING MEMORY - RENDERS & MODELS
“Consider that travel once entailed such significant physical duress, such an involving adventure in terms of self redefinition that in many cultures it has become a religious practice. In all religions, the mystic is a loner, a traveller.� Hamish Fulton, Artist
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EVOKING MEMORY - JOURNEY
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CONCRETE MEMORY
EMBEDDED MEMORY
EXPERIENTIAL MEMORY
“I’m impressed by the things that people keep around them, in their flats or where they work. And sometimes, you find things come together in a very caring, loving way, and that there’s the deep relationship... And I got to wondering whether the job the architecture ha set itself was to create these receptacles to house objects.”
Peter Zumthor, Artist
Vertical Board Marks
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Sancaklar Mosque - Cave Like
Bruder Klaus Chapel - Negative Nature
Back Lit Acoustic Panel
Embedded Exhibit
Rough Panels - Temporal
1. The verticality of the void accentuated by vertical board markings 2. A gap allows light to cascade down walls full of texture, the ceiling is undulated to give a cave like feel. 3. Natural elements are used as formwork, casting nature in solid form. 4. Thick Insulation and acoustic panels, separate the space. The silence symbolises man’s defiance over nature. 5. Visitors are urged to embed their memories in the very walls, provoking universal memory i.e. Paris Love Locks. 6. Large surfaces of concrete full of texture, allowed to age over time.
EXPLODED STRUCTURE
RELIEF - A WEIGHT LIFTED
As climax to the solitary journey, a lively and sociable space, reunited with ‘the friendliest people one could ever hope to meet’. In playful allegory to its position in the journey, the space is suspended from the permanence of the building, lifting the weight of its inhabitants.
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BOTTOM LEVEL PLAN - MEMORY DEPOSITORY
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MID LEVEL PLAN - BURIED & SECLUDED
TOP LEVEL PLAN - SOCIAL RELIEF
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1:100 MODEL - NATURE VS MAN MADE
PLASTER MODEL - PLUG IN SERVICES
KIT OF PARTS
“Architecture is too slow in its realisation to be a problem solver.”
Cedric Price.
Systems of transient services and structure allow the building to expand and contract. A transient system in the hands of the community for the enjoyment of the landscape. An Architecture of chance.
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TECHNICAL SECTION - COMMUNITY ACCOMMODATION 1. Wall Construction:
60/60mm untreated larch strips with 60mm open joints 30mm larch boarding with black glazed finish 125/50mm battens/ ventilated cavity Waterproof Sealing Layer 270mm SIPS
2. Floor Construction:
10mm Laminated Timber Flooring 50mm Screed Polythene Sheeting 200mm Insulation 300mm Reinforced Concrete Floor 3. Timber Cavity Closer 4. Double Glazing: 2 x Low e coated glazing 5. Service Cavity
6. Roof Construction:
Northumberland Slate Roofing 30/50mm Timber Battens Bituminous Sealing Layer 30mm Larch Boarding 250mm Rigid Thermal Insulation Between2x150mm/50mm Softwood Beams Vapour Barrier 25/300mm Wood Boarding 150/300mm Glue Laminated Timber Beams 2 x 500/200mm Glue Laminated Timber Beams 7. Rainwater Drainage Gutter 8. Steel Rainwater ‘Gargoyle’
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YOUNG LIT & PHIL: A CENTRE FOR ESCAPE NORTHUMBRIA UNIVERSITY: 3RD YEAR SEMESTER ONE 2013
YOUNG LIT & PHIL
Westgate Road was historically a place of escape through theatre and film. However, by the end of the 20th century it was ‘tatty and decaying’. The recent merger of the North East Film Archive with Yorkshire provides an opportunity to bring North East film back home, whilst returning Westgate Road to its former glory. Offering Newcastle a place of social, fantastical and economic escape.
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HISTORIC CINEMAS OF WESTGATE ROAD
“For Just a few shillings, working class men and women were able to escape their lives, and enter a world of fantasy”
Frank Manders, Cinemas of Newcastle
• Imperial: 1908 - 1932
• Picture House: 1912 - 1927
• New Westgate: 1927 - 1958
• The Brighton: 191 1 - 1963
• Pavilion: 1917 - 1975
• Plaza: 1928 - 1960
• Stoll: 1919 - 1974
• Gem: 1934 - 1960
• Gem: 1911 - 1912 22
• Essoldo: 1938 - 1990
NORTH EAST ON FILM
A GAP IN THE MARKET
A CENTRE FOR ESCAPE
“In a loose allegory of the transition from a manufacturing to a service based economy, many protagonists of Newcastle cinema (e.g. Billy Elliot, Like Father, Brassed Off), became an emblem of economic rejuvenation through participation in the creative industries.” Made in Newcastle: Visual Culture.
INDUSTRIAL DOWNTURN
CREATIVE INDUSTRY
ECONOMIC REJUVENATION THROUGH CREATIVE INDUSTRIES A HOME FOR NORTH EAST FILM & FILM MAKING
ESCAPE
HOME FOR NE FILM
FILM PRODUCTION
Lying on the periphery of the Newcastle, the Young Lit & Phil offers a place to escape from the city whilst providing a home for North East film & film making. Through the encouragement of creative industries, the centre hopes to aid in the economic rejuvenation of the post industrial city.
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EXPLORING THE LANGUAGE OF FILM - CONCEPT SECTION
EXPLORING THE LANGUAGE OF FILM - CONCEPT PLAN
“The art of film involves two diametrically opposed forces - The transience and ephemerality of the medium and the solidity of its container.” David Chipperfield, Works
From the language of film, the building takes an architectural language of contrasting solidity and ephemerality.
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DEVELOPING MASS
‘ESCAPE POD’
Solid elements enclose immersive ‘escape pods’, whether used for fantastical escape or private study the pods are scattered throughout thecity, guiding the way to the centre.
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CONCEPT MODELLING - SOLID VS EPHEMERAL
Two intertwining experiences, navigation via the senses. Heavy/ solid individual spaces and lightweight social spaces with projecting faรงades.
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MONUMENT TO MOVING IMAGE
‘THE MOVING IMAGE’
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FLOOR PLAN 0
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FLOOR PLAN 0.5
FLOOR PLAN 1
FLOOR PLAN 1.5
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HAND DRAWINGS: TEMPORAL MATERIALITY NORTHUMBRIA UNIVERSITY: 2ND YEAR, SEMESTER ONE 2012
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ART INSTALLATION - MANU:FRACTURE
WORKSOP POST 16 CENTRE - A LEVEL ART & DESIGN 2011
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