8 minute read
Unit G
A City Walk - A development of urban spaces of recreational activities reviving a dead space, YR3 Ahmed Ashour: e.14 Sectional Collage of proposed promenade section e.15 Proposal at night
Bird Observatory, An Interface with Nature- that is focused on the local environment. More specifically, the birds located in the area, and helping them thrive. The environmental centre will also be open to the local community for various activities. Tourism will also be a major factor. As it will help fund the activities that happen within the centre. YR3 Paul Marshall: e.16 Long section e.17 Render of the proposal e.18 Proposal collage of a moment of the building along the hill attached to the site. e.19 Villa Stein-de-Monzie (le Corbusier)– View from Moment This photoshopped render/collage shows the view the user would receive once getting to the balcony.
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COASTAL ECOLOGIES
Hwei Fan Liang, Christian Groothuizen
Between the built-up townscape of Margate and the sea, lies a wide strip of land that includes under-used lawns and carparks, a steep chalk cliff face, concrete sea defences, and a sandy beach that reappears and disappears with the tides. Coastal paths at the top and bottom of the cliff run along this wide edge, and ramped roads and stairs cut across it. This coastal territory was the site for Unit G to propose architectures that responded to: the provision of habitats for biodiversity and local ecology, local social needs, and weather, climate change and a sense of place.
Margate was developed as a sea-bathing resort in the 19th Century, it thrived as train and ferry connections brought crowds of day-trippers and holidaymakers from London. However, as foreign holidays took over the town’s fortunes faded, alongside its built attractions such as the lido and sea baths. The town has a long connection with artists including JMW Turner who settled there after leaving London and believed the skies to be “the loveliest in Europe”. More recently many creative industries have chosen Margate to relocate to, as London becomes increasingly expensive, bringing opportunities as well as potential problems to the existing residents.
Historically storms have brought major periodic change to the townscape, and as the town seeks to revive and redevelop, projects along the coast need to consider more extreme weather events as well as everyday weathering and the passage of time. This piece of coastline is part of both the Thames Estuary and the North Sea and is an important habitat for marine wildlife including large expanses of chalk reef.
Each student developed an individual brief, proposing hybrid programmes relating to people and nature; some students immersed themselves in the immediate and surrounding landscape to draw out an understanding of the relationship between town and sea, whilst others focused on themes including ecology and resource use, art as a means of social connection, and developing new industries that might offer local employment and skills. Several proposals identified existing users including the Thanet Coast Project volunteers, local kite-surfers and the Walpole Bay Swimmers.
Unit G are interested in temporal, material and spatial qualities of architecture – to make proposals that are oriented around inhabitation, narrative and human experience. We are interested in taking a cinematic approach – exploring how film and photography can inform and represent architectural process and spatial concept, and to understand our proposals over time.
Students:
Y3: Abu Abdul Mahzar, Akiko Higuchi, Simone Russell, Jamie Osborne, Luke Fowler, Michael Gonzalez Jaramillo, Raquel Vieira, Sajat Rai.
Y2: Aaliah Tailor, Adam Emmerson, Alex Jovanovic, Alex Malden, Andreea-Camelia Ciuc, Fabio Magalhaes, Filippos-Pavlos PerrakisKollias, Julian Roncancio Luna, Maja Oparnica, Marcelina Nowak, Maria Ruiz Vela, Naghma Butt, Nick Franklin, Roberto Lopato Ricorico, William Fullick.
Website:
www.uel-unIt-g.blogspot.co.uk
Visiting critics and guests:
Anurag Verma, CJ Lim, Harald Trapp, Ian Troake, Jayden Ali, Jeff Tidmarsh, Katherine Clarke, Ken Rorrison, Mirsad Krasniqi, Olga Lucko, Virginia Rammou, Wilf Meynell, Will Beeston.
Special thanks to:
Dan Thompson, Jon Spencer, Nick Dermott, Sam Causer, Tony Child, The Walpole Bay Hotel, Turner Contemporary and Thanet Visitor Information.
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Before going to the edge of the land and sea we grounded ourselves with a short project developing an imagined interior space, explored in model and animation. These were inspired by interpretations of precedent buildings or Turner paintings, and for some students acted as anchoring concepts for the main proposals. g.2 Entropy Observed: “The Decline of the Carthaginian Empire” recast as nature’s inevitable reclaiming of manmade spaces (Jamie Osborne). g.3 “Seascape with a Squall Coming Up” viewed from an occupied sea-wall, with memories of longing and waiting (Luke Fowler). g.4 Imagined space using natural elements from “Fishing upon the Blythe-Sand, Tide Setting In” (Akiko Higuchi). g.5 Sunlight study in the living room of Ken Rorrison’s North House (Filippos-Pavlos Perrakis-Kollias). g.6 Structures for “Rocky Bay with Figures” (Raquel Vieira). g.7 Jon Broome’s bathroom (Fabio Magalhaes). g.8 Revealing the garden at Juergen Teller’s studio (Naghma Butt).
Descriptions of sites used a wide range of techniques including animation and orthogaphic drawing, to include seasonal, tidal, diurnal, textural and inhabited aspects as well as physical and topographical. We also met with three ‘voices’ of Margate who each gave a description of the town that together wove a rich narrative encompassing its ecological, urban and social stories - and its many and varied connections with East London.
Previous page: g.1 Looking West over the Walpole tidal pool at low tide; Looking over the pool from the North-West seaward corner (Nick Franklin). g.9 Seasonal beach study, Walpole Bay (Fabio Magalhaes). g.10 and g.12 Day and night animation and axonometric of Art Deco lift (AndreeaCamelia Ciuc). g.11 Cliff studies, Palm Bay (Julian Roncancio Luna). g.13 Walpole tidal pool emptied for its twice-annual draining (Nick Franklin). g.14 Rendezvous site observations (Maria Ruiz Vela). g.15 Cliftonville Bowls Club plan and section (Alex Jovanovic).
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Proposal progammes responded to a range of possibilities for future industry and economy in Margate, including council-supported intiatives to revive the town through art, holistic health and recreational sports tourism, employment skills and training in hospitality, catering and modern agriculture, and small-scale manufacturing using locally abundant seaweed. Birdwatching and swimming activities animate the land and sea. g.16 and g.17 The Art Community Centre, studio model interior and promenade approach (Maja Oparnica). g.18 Walpole Bay Cliffside Diving Centre with vertical training pool, development collage (Adam Emmerson). g.19 Greenbay Spa, sketch view of lower pool area and treatment rooms (Alex Jovanovic). g.20 Haeckels seaweed processing and facilities for Walpole Bay Swimmers, massing model (Fabio Magalhaes). g.21 Surf School with new pier, cafe and community hall, development model (Naghma Butt).
g.22 Educational facility including student-run bar and space for Thanet Coast Project public activities, view from the sea towards proposal inhabiting cliff face (William Fullick) g.23 The Stack Cave kite-surfing club and café, knapped flint elevation (Filippos-Pavlos Perrakis-Kollias). g.24 Hanging clifftop birdwatching centre, early massing study (Julian Roncancio Luna). g.25-27, 30 A Canopy for the Arts: seafront artists’ studios, gallery and multi-purpose venue close to the Turner Contemporary; allowing views through to the sea from a new sheltered sculpture garden and landscaped access down to the seafront. Early sketch and model studies, view from shared studio into double-height venue (Maria Ruiz Vela). g.28-29, 31-32 Thanet Coast Ecology Centre and Walpole Bay changing rooms: shutters enable the building to transform between defensive storm state and open to the sea-view, the stepped chalk gabion sea defence replenishes the chalk reef. Section and interior model with open shutters, massing models includng bird-watching tower and swimming shelter (Nick Franklin).
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