Design + Research Portfolio
TOM KEELING
contents
This document contains two design and research projects from Tom’s time at the BSA. The work focusses mainly on uncovering unseen layers and landscapes, using them to inform design interventions on an anthropolgical and urban scale. Project content has been cut considerably to keep this document concise for the benefit of the reader. Please see other issued documents for This dossier is just a sample of his works. Included are the following projects::
A Water Treatment Facility for Westbourne Park A critical application of urban metabolism to remedy weakening water-bourne culture in North-West London.
Tara: A Palimpsest Landscape Investigating the historic, archaeological and mythological (re)interpretations of irish synthetic pseudohistory.
urban prosthesis: URBAN PROSTHESIS: WATER TREATMENT FACILITY FOR
WESTBOURNE PARK
LOCATION WESTBOURNE PARK - LONDON Kilburn Great Union Canal Meanwhile Gardens Proposed Site Bus Depot Westway WBP Tube Notting Hill
This project challenges the superficial view that the city is a simple relationship between people, concrete and steel in favour of a more complex corporeal view, where ecosystems, networks and processes work together as part of a metahuman organism. It does this by exposing points of social, ecological and functiuonal crossover within the architecture of a much needed public amenity.
I.]RBAN PROSTHE,SIS METHODS OF CONSTRUCTION AND OPER,ATION FOR THE WESTBOURNE PA.RK AQUATIC TREATM E NT FACI LIry
MATERIAL + AQUATIC SYSTEMS
Westbourne Park is located at the centre of a vast and complex network of waterways, information routes, destructive sites and sensory spaces. The aquatic treatment facility takes advantage of all of these effectors, letting its form be informed by the ever-evolving city. Material will be drawn along waterways from sites of destruction, and beyond that, economic activity and development will trigger programmatic changes.
responsive/reactive
RESPONS
BODY PROJECT NAT CHARD
Exploring the understand the limitations of our depict our experience environment around u Body Projects seek to bodily function in resp the urban environmen designed apparatus.
The water treatment facility incorporates local economic demographics with ecological cycles and the natural flow of commuter-tourist thoroughfare. The result is a dynamic system, bouncing programmatically between the ecological, econimical and social needs of the precinct’s immediate area.
SIVE CORPOREAL APARATUS
RESPONSIVE SYSTEM
TS
ding that r bodies of the us, Nat’s enhance ponse to nt using
The pools of the water treatment facility respond dynamically using flood-gates and pumps to drain and fill according to demand. As a result, a dynamic socio-ecosystem is born.
XRAY 3-B MK.2 (^), BODY PROJECT THREE (V)
dynamic structural components
MOMENT INDUCED PRESSURE-SEAL AND TRABECULAR FLOOR-PLATE Seal detail Water Mass Pivot point Plywood optimised pivot Trabecular floor-plate Direction of moment Original optimised pivot
section
Trabecular tissue can be found in human hipbones. using carefully oriented compressive structures, the hip economically delivers dynamic loads to the femur.
plan
INCORPORATING BODILY FUNCTION Painstakingly crafted from bent planes of ply, this pivoting joint cradles a pool floor-plate made of pine resin and natural fibre. As in the trabecular tissue of human bones, the fibres follow load-paths within the floorplate to effectively navigate dynamic stresses both compressive and tensile. The result is a beautiful structure which rocks and bows as the pools of the Westbourne Park Water Treatment Facility drain and fill seasonally.
cultivating human behaviour
A set of bent ply buttresses form a dynamic support to the overhanging edge of a lap and filtration pool. Materially, this structure lends itself to physical flexibility, but socially, it forms a sheltered cloister - the perfect transition space to the loitering lobby for the three changing rooms provided for the swimming programme of the precinct.
unfolded net.
6.
GROUND FLOOR PLAN
circular features
SECTION C // SPLIT PLAN PROJECTION AERIAL [ABOVE], GROUND [BELOW]
Resevoirs and water movement
Two external resevoirs service the rehabitation of the canal’s water quality, seen here, the ring-shaped laps pool, currently filled with water and filtration plants, will drain healthy water to its source body of water. Below, showers and changing invite moisture and vegetation in through a raised floorplate. To the right, both resevoirs are visible through plan. The differing programmatic values of each body of water is supported by the texture and shape of their containers, with the lido to the left encouraging vegetation and roosting through its roughened texture and shape.
SECTION B // RESEVOIR SHOWERS IN RENDERED DETAIL
AERIAL PLAN
Research Sprint An investigation into the reinvention of irish landscape and folk lore caused by colonial disruption.
The project centres on the occurance fairy rings and Tara, an ancient irish burial site, as a locus for rebuilding historic rituals recorded in the landscape.
Left: Ancient lore suggests a ‘singing stone’, lia fal, was once the a core part of ceremony - crowning the kings and queens or Ireland at Tara. Moved from its original place in c.1800, the stone currently in place is contested to be fake, or out of place.
Lidar, magnetic susceptibility and CFD data are used to infer possible original locations for the sacred stone. In these locations, ritualistic behaviour is inferred by magnetic susceptibility, detailed reliefs show burued structures, and prevailing wind is less turbulant, providing the perfect conditions for the stone to whistle in the wind.
Right: In response to an extended investigation relating to an orthostatic carving, and previous excavations, a proposal is built for sculptural and protective works on the site honouring new and rumoured histories.
TARA: A PALIMPSEST LANDSCAPE
At the core of the proposal, a rotating steel wind organ is placed in the speculated original location of the Lia Fail, where the stone is to be replaced.
When used as a crowning throne, the instrument is designed to play in the wind - a powerful gesture reaffirming Irish history dating back 5,000 years.
TARA: A PALIMPSEST LANDSCAPE
Sculptures placed above burial sites also invite visitors to engage with the
ARTEFACTS INFORMED BYTHE DISCOVERYOF DEATH
bodies buried deep beneath the landscape. Reflecting the excavation wound, now backfilled and healed, above ground. These sculptures will secondarily produce a protective layer for the land beneath them, preserving the remains from harsh
Observersunknowingly appropritate the position of the dead.
weather conditions and wear for years to come.
beds are machined to match contours of archeological discovery.
1m
Original findings are precisely recorded and photographed.
Burials discovered using electromagnetic latency surveillance.
TARA: A PALIMPSEST LANDSCAPE
End.