VOLUME 1 • ISSUE 3
APRIL ‘12
CONTENT 4
...so sarkey...
Cover Story:
The Material World
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Inspiration Corner
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Book of the Season
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Sketch Pad Extracts
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Concept of the Month
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Reflection Period Sarkeytecture magazine is a hectic amalgamation of highly opinionated ramblings and inspirational media ranging from innovative products and crazy concepts to enlightening books and film. Every issue features a main article on topics dear to the editor’s heart, as well as regular ‘ministories’, sketches and design concepts, and critical reflections of such. Graphic content features highly in this publication, alongside strong opinion. This publication is highly layered, containing not only ‘at-a-glance’ material inspiration but also conceptually inspiring thought provoking feature stories.
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‘Everlasting’
On the cover: Arcelor MittalOrbit Tower render courtesy of arup.com Editor: Tom Eddison Production Coordinator: Tom Eddison Designer: Tom Eddison Information is correct at press time. Sarkeytecture magazine is (not) published quarterly by architecture student Tom Eddison. Written articles do not necessarily reflect the official company policy or opinion. © 2012 sarkeytecture. All rights reserved. Reproduction in part or whole without permission is prohibited.
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S A R K E Y T E C T U R E V O L U M E
A wall of wooden scales folds through the glazed facade of this house and studio that Korean architects AND designed for an artist in South Korea. As the panels emerge behind the glass they begin to separate from one another, creating a series of openings that permit views across from the double height studio to the living quarters behind. The wall also curves upward to wrap and conceal a bedroom on the first floor. The two-storey-high exterior walls are constructed from concrete and nestle against a hillside that climbs up behind the house. The artist has been working at home for more than ten years. The subjects of his paintings are nothing special but spaces of his daily life. He has been constantly projecting his gaze at the parks nearby, streets, a small village in a countryside where he often visits. As seen from his recent exhibition titles, ‘A Talk with a Tree,’ ‘Thinking Forest,’ there is no clear boundary between human and nature in his paintings. Furthermore, the distinction between a body and its surroundings, or interior and exterior is only allusive.
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COVER ARTICLE: EVERLASTING
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crawling in and around it, lost in their own magical worlds, at night it became a meeting point, a social gathering for adults to sit and talk and relax and share stories.
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I hosted a Live Project in August for a festival in North Yorkshire. Hosted. I was the only one there. Over the course of the week I built a willow structure for the benefit of Limetree festivalgoers. Using a design-asyou-go principle, a dome gradually evolved to best suit the space that it occupied.
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Originally intended as a simple transitional space between fields, the dome turned out to be much, much more… whilst children plagued the structure during the day,
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The effect that a simple structure can have on a community is astounding, I discovered. The willow used in the construction of the dome was due to be cut back, and would otherwise have been wasted. The willow dome, if given the chance, would have taken root and grown, become firmly fixed in its environment. Can other buildings do this, in a sense? Can structures take root in their environment, and do they have fixed lifetimes? Albert Speer’s master plan for Germania was designed so that as it ruined, it would look
ever more impressive. It was built to be ‘everlasting’. Speer’s architecture was so dominating that during World War II, when the leader of Czechoslovakia visited Hitler in his Chancellory, walking along the imposing corridors he nearly had a heart attack, so was he affected by the scale of Speer’s architecture, along with the prospect
of facing old Adolf. Albert Speer’s architecture is a true wonder, and though very little of it survives, for me he will always be at the forefront of totalitarian architecture.
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the material world
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These alternative bricks are perfectly suited to Nigeria’s intensely hot climate as the sand provides an insulating layer, keeping room temperatures low and creating a fireproof and earthquake-resistant wall. Yahaya Ahmed is heading the project for DARE and explains: “Compacted sand inside a bottle is nearly 20 times stronger than bricks. We are even intending to build a three-storey building.”
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The construction process involves taking used plastic bottles, filling them with sand and reattaching the caps before stacking sideways one on top of the other and securing with layers of mud. Concrete foundations provide a solid base for the residence and reams of brightly coloured string lend a jovial touch to the inside walls.
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This pilot project in headed by the NGO DARE with help from London-based organisation Africa Community Trust, and not only looks to find a sustainable alternative to Nigeria’s immense housing shortage but provide street children with a stable job and a place at the next building project in planning - a local school. Teenagers have been working on the construction project as a first step into full time employment and returning to education.
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One person’s trash is another person’s building material...or so it would seem. In the village of Sabon Yelwa the Developmental Association for Renewable Energies (DARE) has instigated an ingenious scheme to transform the region’s litter problem into a positive future for the community through the construction of new residences.
INSPIRATION CORNER BOOK OF THE SEASON Philip Jodidio - 100 Great Extensions and Renovations
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Home to any and all sources of random inspiration
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Chapel of Rest, Graz, Hofrichter Ritter Architekturen
In his book, Philip Jodidio lists 100 international extension and renovation projects. Each design is given a display of between two to four pages, with color photography dominating as the demonstrative medium. Black-and-white line drawings detail the architecturally significant portions of the design. Most of the designs feature accompanying explanations presented in a side-by-side format in both English and French. This book has been on my wish-list for most of the year, and I’ve finally nabbed myself a copy. I love these visually dominating books, they are saturated with inspirational material and every page is captivating. Being from California, of the 18 listed American projects, 11 are located in his home town, but there is still a wide variety from numerous International countries.
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Japanese micro garden Knife Typography by Farhad Moshiri Cornelia Conrads Floating land art
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Daniel Danger Fantastic pencil line art
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Micro art, Willard Wigan
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The dramatic Express Link West Kowloon Terminus is a new rail station slated for Hong Kong that’s expected to strengthen the city’s strategic position as the southern gateway of China. Designed by Aedas & AECOM, the high-speed rail terminus will access an underground tunnel to connect to the Pearl River Delta and the rest of the mainland.
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I find this an enrapturing piece of art and it makes me proud that at least somewhere in the world, if not Britain, somebody is making architecture worthy of the future we are creating.
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The station will have a footprint of more than 25 acres and connects to a 26 km underground rail tunnel.
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The distinctive terminal will be characterized by arching fins, abundant natural daylighting, and covered with pedestrian paths and green roofs. The Express Link West Kowloon Terminus will be the largest underground facility of its kind, and it will reserve its above-ground area for nature.
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CONCEPT OF THE MONTH
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Bristol Borstal Bristol
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Too right! I am such a big-head that I have included my own design project as concept of the month. This is only because it’s the ONLY thing i’ve even remotely developed in the past month or two. This project has literally taken over my life. However, I feel it deserves a place in CotM because its design is sound, and as my most recent project displays my most updated skill range. The render is a standard clay export from Kerkythea, my new favourite render engine. The rest is Photoshop post-processing to make the image stand out and give it some depth.
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REFLECTION PERIOD
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Quarterly study-based critical reflections January
February
My world is potentially ruined. Over Christmas my computer contracted a virus which wiped it clean. About a month’s worth of work has been lost completely, including many of my dissertation visuals, and a good three weeks lost while I had my computer repaired. Seeing as it’s a graphic novel I am pretty screwed, and with semester one review looming and my design module still struggling conceptually I feel at a complete loss. I’m exhibiting signs of stress now, a new experience for me to be honest, and I feel generally shit. I’m depressed most days and highly demotivated. Need to find a solution…
I have settled in well at my new residence, the other housemates are all sound and I’m feeling a lot more confidence in myself. My design work is plodding along very smoothly; I am designing a borstal rather than a church, it seems more appropriate in light of August’s riots and alongside Bristol’s Young Offenders Institution’s high occupancy levels I feel this is the right decision to make.
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I applied for mitigation for semester one design and dissertation. This wasn’t an option I liked as it means I will not graduate with my friends, but it is better than failing the year. It also gives me time to re-think my design strategy, and I’m just going to have to redo my dissertation graphics. I feel like a massive weight has been lifted but I’m still finding it difficult to get back into the groove of university again.
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I moved house from Dewsbury to Leeds to help focus my mind. I can already feel a change in my attitude, I have been presented a clean sheet and I’m not going to wipe my arse with it. Bring on semester two design! Site: Bristol. I’m excited about this project as I’ve been to Bristol before and I liked it very much. This year’s studio topic is Event or Authority, and I’m already thinking of ideas for an industrial style humanist church.
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We had an Interdisciplinary Studio Workshop to attend in university. This involved designing a project for the old Tetley’s Brewery Wharf site in South Leeds. The event was very interesting as we had a chance to work with landscape architects town planners and project managers (students) as if we were all in industry. The whole event went very well, and afterwards we had to write up and submit our design and work throughout the week. I designed a quaint little booklet and had it professionally printed.
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Design work is evolving. I now have a finished external design for my build, what I would like it approximately to look like. Just have to design the interior now and see how it affects the external shape. The building is designed so as to allow sunlight into certain parts of the building at various times throughout the day. There is also an underlying theme of contrast pervading throughout the scheme. I have two very different forms of accommodation in my borstal; detention centre cells and secure care homes. The architecture I use will highlight this contrast and I will try to embed it as firmly as I can into every aspect of my design.
I have also started experimenting with various render programs such as Maxwell within 3DS Max, as well as KeyShot Pro and Kerkythea. Although they are all standalone rendering programs, my favourite is Kerkythea. The shadows created are of much better quality than anything Vray can do in SketchUp. I have been experimenting with various diagramming methods by overlaying 3d text onto my sites. It is a good way of showing exact locations and general volumes of the spaces which make up my borstal complex.
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I have every intention of getting a job after I graduate, however with the complications regarding my semester one work I will have to complete them over summer, meaning that I will have to wait until November for my official grade. I am nonetheless working on my graphic CV to send to architects in Bristol, London and Newark in the hope that I am offered a conditional placement with one of them. In the current economic climate if I do not manage to get an architecture-based job I shall simply earn money in other ways and continue hosting annual live projects. It is my goal to have built temporary structures in numerous climates globally within five years.
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I have been playing around with Ecotect and Vasari to better understand their user interface, and I’m really starting to get the hang of it. I successfully modelled various wind flow diagrams across my Bristol site. Now I have to find out how to scale down the wind flow vectors to create more useful graphics.
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I spent the last few days modelling the Bristol area for the tech module. I’ve been using multiple plugins for SketchUp to help with terrain modelling, and I don’t mean to blow my own trumpet, but I believe I have now reached ‘black-belt’ status in SketchUp. With the sheer abundance and diversity of plugins available for SketchUp now I don’t think there is a single thing that I wouldn’t be able to model. The only thing left to learn now in SketchUp is ruby scripting, which I am still not familiar with. This will lead me smoothly on to developing my Rhino skills and scripting within other programs.
This semester I have developed many skills which I believe will be vital to office work. My AutoCAD skills are gradually developing, and I will pick up my pace within the program given due time. My Photoshop skills I believe are now highly proficient, my biggest improvement since arriving at university. What I need to improve on as ever is time management. It seems like such an easy thing to comprehend, but on a course which is ever evolving your skills and design processes, naturally there will be speed bumps to trip you up and slow you down. It is these hiccups which I need to take note of and tally, as it is these at the end of the day which are causing all the late nights and unnecessary stresses.
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My design project is turning into a massive scheme. I have been focusing too much on design, yet again I have successfully managed to avoid managing my time well. I have not started the tech project this semester yet as I want the best understanding of my project before I dive into its mechanics.
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