Joanna - Tech

Technical Dissertation

Year 3

UG3 2021-2022

SN: 18068726

Joanna van Son

This project proposes a school of Painter-Architecture squatted on the empty commercial plot of E3 2JH. Technicalities of the approach and execution last over a period of 12 years, with most importance placed on the first year of survival, let alone the first 28 days. When anything begins, everything reacts against you, which is why this project will investigate the painter-architects ability to provide and produce a closed circuit economy of learners surviving through the use of pigment dust, the basic painter’s tools, forgotten timber, and colour as a reaction to change in the nature of Hackney/Fish Island. It is an investigation into creating and surviving a life of a painter-architect in line with the current UK legislations of squatting.

Design units, ranging from undergrad dropouts to people yet to start their masters, will experiment with the materiality of the site through the labour of the painter. Following the sequence of painting itself, the project will ingrain pigment and paint mixing at the heart of the study and space investigation. Spaces that fall between painting, space and painted space through the manipulation of light, texture, composition and colour, experimented with in P1, will address neglected aspects of architecture in the form of a school of (painterly)-architecture on squatted grounds.

Painting will not only envelope the architecture, but will be tested as a process of design engrained in changes throughout the life of the building and squatting-educational institution.

Welcome to Fish Island, East London.

1.0 Site

1.1 Access

1.2 Key Landmarks and climate

1.3 History

1.4 Building Proposal and Programme

1.5 Structural Strategy

1.6 Environmental Strategy

2.0 Admissions Process Sequence of Intervention Preparation Colour Break In

3.0 The 1st 28 Days DIY Squatting Preperation Canvas and Condition Changing Foundations

4.0 The 1st Summer Leylandii Japanese Knotweed Chicken

5.0 In Preparation of the 1st Winter Paint Tests

6.0 Lessons Commence Composition Light Binding Circulation Binding Over Time

7.0 Examination Egg testing

8.0 1st Winter

9.0 Surviving another 12 years

E3 2JH

Aerial

04

Site plan analysis

E3 2JH, located on Fish Island on an abandoned and partly demolished industrial site.

The site can only be accessed by climbing over the fence. Under anti-squatting legislation, if anything is broken during break-in bailiffs have the right to remove the squatters from the land.

Observation from the break-in points

1.2 Key Landmarks and Climate

visual path from within site

parkinglot

rose in winter

New developments

Site and adjacent structures

Industrial zones Schools

The Olympic Legacy

“The Olympics have just been a huge engine for pushing through the corporate developments and the remaking, the rebranding of the whole area; it’s been the thing that’s made that happen faster,” he says, adding: “Basically it’s a conjuring trick to generate financing for a perpetual state of building and enclosure and an alphabet soup of crazy quangos that are telling you how wonderful everything is and talking up a spurious legacy which is in reality just a huge Australian shopping mall.”

Rise and Fall of the Factory Village

1800s Fish Island was filled with industrial warehouses making everything from rubber to matches. Before the 1850s decline of industrial factory villages in England, on the site of this project stood the largest phosphorous match factory in England. The brand, known as Lucifer’s Matches, inhabited the site uptill the beginning of the 20th century.

As British factories closed, the site has seen little care or activity. The last structure built on site was a factory in the 1980s. In the late 1990s it was demolished and the site has been left bare with exposed concrete foundations every since.

a factory village

Aerial view of site in 2021

Lucifer’s Match Factory

Fish Island, Hackney Wick

Phosphorous

‘Phosphoros’ (Greek) = “Light Bearing

Remnants of the Match Factory

White Phosphorous:

1670: Discovered by German alchemist in search of the mythical Philosopher’s Stone by fermenting and distilling large quanitities of his own urine. The white residue left over fluoresced in the dark.

Initially used by Lucifer’s Match Factory. As a result women were deformed with phossy jaw.

Today it is used as a cruel and illegal chemical weapon in warzones.

white phosphorous (toxic)

Red Phosphorous:

1840: Discovered when white phosphorous was heated by 300 degrees celsius in the absence of air.

It soon replaced the whitee phosphorous matches. It is significantly safer because it only combusts with friction and doesn’t put you at risk of (white) phosphorous poisoning.

Today red phosphorous is rare and running out. It is also used for meth.

Lucifer’s MAtches

Made: heating up white phosphorous

Rare pigment

Agriculture: Fertilizer

red phosphorous (non-toxic)

Found: preserved deep in soil

Phossy jaw

London Matchgirls Strike of 1888

Raw Material Map

Hackney Wick and Fish Island have historically been key locations for the production and trading of raw materials such as timber and plastics. Located stratigically on a canal, multiple industries thrived here throughout the duration of London’s period of industrialisation.

Timber Textiles

Plastic

Program Overview

12 years on: Land Claimed

1. break-in points for possible land expansion (next plot?)

1b. Entrance/exit

2. 1st settlement & studio (long term)

3. informal police force

4. ampitheatre

5. electrician/janitorial spaces

6. plumbing stations

7. garden

8. lecture hall

9. fire pits and open spaces

10. light/colour experimental studios

12. hand-drawing studios

13. computer studios

14. painting studios

15. collaboration clusters

16. library

17. cafe

18. communal dining/kitchen

19. -lodging students (term-time)

-painter-architect residency (non-term-time)

20. changing rooms/lockers

21. carpentry workshops

22. toilets

Not Entirely a Success

10-14, 20-21: decided by studios in control of the space and their ability to work together or even keep some aspects of their design exploration seperate from other studios.

As shown spaces are also empty. Unoccupied forces before 12 years would’ve been seized by bailiffs.

When you catch something in motion, it’ll apear to not be there...

1.4 Failed Attempt

Why did it fail?

Attempt 1: 30th of October, 2021

Tower Hamlets Council removed tenants after having occupied the space for 9 years. The Architects occupying the commercial land were busted on acounts of;

-‘fly tipping’ (not managing waste properly)

-illegally using electricity from the energy grid. Neighbouring developers tipped off the council when a mass gathering of 200 people was seen entering the lecture theatre.

Next attempt due: 30th of June 2022

Iterative Structures

garden expanse (from moving shit around) of colour, even if it means there are

Old lecture theatre

waste shit colours

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student factory, not good, too BArtlett Optimal proggression at 12 years. (might take many 12 years) Death -->Gameover Studio units fail secure envelope test: startover 1st 28 days high risk C O E M N M U R N E T Y year year year year 8 year 12 program

Plan annotated

occupier’s

notice

1.4 Remnants

Iterative Structures

Remnants from previous painter-architect attempts to occupy the land will be referenced to throughout the project. As shown, the remnants left by painter-architects at different stages of the squatting process will be re-used in the next attempts to establish ownership over the period of 12 years.

perspectival view from the outside, into the site

perspectival view from the outside, into the site with remnants

1.5 Structural Strategy

Next attempt due: 30th of June 2022

A Structural Collaboration with Failure

Breaking in Invading in tents

Invading and Occupying

Squatting and re-squatting the site within the premises of squatting legislation (Section 144 of Legal Aid 2012) will determine the structural strategy of the school of painter-architecture.

Material Sourcing

Due to this temporary relationship to the site, timber frames are used and reused. Foundations change as the historic concrete foundations crumble, so the foundations are shifted as well into cage framed piled foundations.

Living and working into temporal structures

Construction sequence collage

Timber skeleton remnants re-configured skeletons Cycle

new pile foundations, made from old concrete foundations

Summer strategy

black water pipes on windows heating up water pipes for cooking

wind tower

Winter strategy

timber frame absorbing and storing heat collected during the day

low south facing windows

black piped roofing

cross ventilation

thick cotton and dust insulating walls

stack ventilation

cooling basement

1.6 Site Potential

Capacity

Given the conditions of the site before architectural intervention of the painter-architect, the site would have the potential of being cultivated into a plot capable of sustaining 10 lives daily for a year. With this in mind, deciding the footprint of the intervention will need to mitigate with the initial sustainable potential of the site. This will be done by looking at roof strategies as well as controlling a decreased contact with the ground.

Entrance via ladder

(emergency) Exit (escape) via ladder

leylandii brought to site for privacy looted

looted failed attempt

1st fire after 1st 28 days

1st fire during 1st night future masters site for 12 years:

after 12 yearsof survival, masters project designa library

and archive opento the public

transfer of materials

1st erected structures in the first 28 days of the squat

shaded entry for depth misordering and mis-signaling for bailifs sent by the council water tank

painting of entrance with notice of squat

Preparational Reading

An alliance with architecture

Ted Cruz, a California based Architect working alongside Kotti & Co, designs an informal ‘Gecekondu’ architecture that act as a set of functional urban operations towards new interpretations of infrastructure, property and citizenship.

‘wohnunsfrage’

Proposed retro-fit/wasteland upcycling domestic architecture

The new factory-village, Tijuana Wasteland

Embracing informal squatting architectures

gaps in growth: spaces for circulation

core ‘Gecekondu’

Urban Wasteland, Tijuana

Admissions: Colour

Requirements

An understanding of spatial depth performances of colour as performed in the painterly-architect way.

A test referenced from P1 of the depth misperception and misordering experimented within a painter’s studio in Hackney Wick.

Painting-Painting: The space depicted in a section being what it could be. Using both imaginations and presencees of the painter and the architect to draw a painting in painted reality.

Planning your Break-In...

What are your essentials?

What time is it?

Where can you hide?

What can you find?

What should be seen?

Are you able to move all your things all at once?

timber stretcher bars (and wedges)

Requirements

Entering without ‘breaking’ anything requires a lot of planning as all materials brought on site must be taken in consideration of the bodily scale of the student. There is no right or wrong answer, only time will tell.

tool: mallet and hand

30 paint brushes

Chicken (alive)

tool: nail gun and nails new lock and key

Japanese Knotweed seeds cotton canvas roll (+10m) rope

Are you alone?

Pre-Arrival Fabrication and plan of site with 1 dwelling on it and remnants of the last attempt...

Fire as a heat source. Dry out old foundations for new beginnings. sketch of preperations for the first live-in admission

Setting up the first Occupation

possibilityforfuturegrowth:controllingopeningsand windows

Testing a DIY structure set up in 1 night with painting canvas stretching supplies to last the first 28 days in which the squatter claims the land.

Section of 1st tent made from canvas and frames

Reference: Land squatters tent (1970s)

found wood and canvas (tarp-like material)

DIY Squatting Preperation

Test 1:1

A prepatory test for entering the site in which the student makes a one person structure/tent out of a painter framing components. The aim is to expand on the ways in which cotton canvases can be conditioned from painting into dwelling.

painted canvases

hammer or mallet

stretched canvases

canvas stretcher bars

cotton canvas

stool (for comfort) on stool: nails and staples staple gun

arms and legs for labour

old paint bottles

waste for on-site piling foundations

* test demonstrated at 1:1 by the painter architect

DIY Squatting Preperation

Process

when stretcher bar joints are different sizes, consider them to be timber beams joined by nailed instead

Process as shown from first hand view.

using painterly canvas frame joint mechanisms

joining irregular angles with a nail front view of frame skeleton

stretcher bars and wedges

DIY Squatting Preperation

Process

details perspectival view

Securing frame joints from shifting movements with canvas knots and canvas stapling at joint intersection.

front view

side view

DIY Squatting Preperation

Process

Attaching the surface of canvas onto the structure, not in tension.

Inb this case, the canvas was applied from above in one big sheet in a tent-like manner.

view: from inside looking up

view: from below looking up the frame with canvases hung on it

Components

Recording the process and understanding it’s lived potential in the site.

painting joints together stretching joints together with canvas tying joints together with canvas

tension --> sag

45 degrees

angles for canvas waterproofing

application of canvases to frames

canvas frame with wedges wedges

growth of the test

Using the 1:1 test as the base for spatial expansion on site.

extending in line

tensioning inwards

stretching canvas over ribbed and arched wall panels

Test details

cotton tension waterproofing

The test consider water flow and water absorption when cotton is tense or slacked. This will determine how water can be transfered via roofs and slanted walls in thee project, as well as consider how these stretched painting dwellings will fare in outdoor wet conditions

cotton canvas + water

diagram for water proofing testing

yellow = water flow/spillage

cotton slacks

cotton taut

These photographs depict an overhead view of water coming down on to a strip of cotton canvas heald on both sides.

water flow (excess)

canvas stretcher bars

black pipes to heat water tensile canvas-->tension waterproofing

central timber beam

water collection tank (drinking and cooking)

axo diagram

section sketch of pipe

detail section of canvas tensile roofing, water collection and water heating

diagram of Tijuana squat reference

Canvas conditioning

reference to Robert Rauschenber canvas bed mixed media installation

A bed stretched between stretcher bars layered with canvas and paint

perspectival section of wall panel detail sketch

1:1 frame dwelling model stacked with paintings

steel fastening plates

stretching and sagging canvas between timber beams front side

Changing Foundations

Old to New

In this section, the overarching relationship between the building and the conditions of the site are interrogated to consider changing foundations as the squat transitions from temporality to a more fixed stategy.

This section also demonstrates the process of using fragments of the existing weathered concrete foundation to create more stable gambit cage pile foundations.

attached to timber post

exacavated then piled in with high force

0.5 m concrete

waterproofing through acrylic painting (essentially a plastic layer)

supporting timber structure pile

painting waterproofed layers between foundations

Security & Testing

In this section, the overarching relationship between the building and the conditions of the site will be interrogated.

mobility legal notice

elevation of the secured entrance

elevation of the studio entrance

axo of the secured entrance

axo of the studio entrance

moveable leylandii

obscure entry

Japanese Knotweed

entry

Securing the 1st Night

A hedge associated with over 17,000 reports of neihbourly violence including murder. This tree has fueled disputes over light as it is able to grow up to 30 meters high, at a rate of 1 meter per year.

Leylandii is a practical buy and can grow unrestricted in pots, which will make it useful for the beginning stages of squatting the site.

Growth: 1 meter a year

Environment: As an evergreen, Leylandii are very tolerant of winds and even pollution, making the dusty and sunny conditions of the site perfect.

15 years

Unrestricted growth in pot up to

growth will push back on the forming walls of the project

molds around timber structure

rainwater pipe

potted plants retain more nutrients in their soil

Spacing & Privacy

pots spaced every 60 cm for thick hedge

Leylandii leaf

Japanese Knotweed

the bulb and roots can live throughout the year in UK climate

the roots spread horizontally and violentally. Foundations must be protected by thick tarp and separation from affected grounds.

Cow by a knotweed bush in Summer

New weeds can reach the height of a meter in a couple of weeks.

stems sprout early spring

able to sprout through concrete cracks

Root Management

Consumption

Pigment

Growth

The stem in summer is like rhubarb. Skin and boil to make a knotweed compote

The compote can be dried to extract a honey orange pigment powder from it.

Chicken

# of chickens at that point in time

The Chicken Residence, Egg Factory & Security System

28 days 1 year 12 years

How many chickens?

paint and eat eggs every day, but only eat 1 chicken a year

1 1/2 chickens per student

obscure entrance to protect the chickens

280 eggs per chicken in the first year

The Egg cycle, perpetuated by chickens

chickens remember up to 100 faces: they are able to differentiate between intruder and student

section of chicken coop

x6

Strategy & Testing

The strategy in preparation for winter is to use paint as a mechanism of insulation that reacts to the intimate environment created in a space as a result of its use.

This will be executed by testing the qualities of different binders and pigments, brought to or found on site.

Binder Paint Pigment

Pigment characteristics & bindeability

How will painted surface change the nature of a space and what will affect it in regards to the

Application (stroke) Composition

Colour Form & support material

also known as dust

particle size: determining transparency and dispersibility (the larger the less dispersed and more opaque)

more easily binded and more opaque

*colours chosen in paint tests are representations of those found on site

Control Samples

Ultramarine pigment powder: sourced art pigment supplier

sawdust: sourced from old timber beams on site

Consistency and Purity

Control variant to the following tests.

In these photos have kept a pure record of a chemical reacting pigment (ultramarine) and a bone pigment (sawdust).

These samples demonstrate the conditions of these mixtures in a state unexposed to other pigments, binders, surfaces or air qualities.

(Stored in a cool dry area)

O: Linseed oil, including most oil based binders, do not dry. They harden over time.

O: Linseed oil brings out the vibrancy in the pigment, providing more depth

+Linseed oil:

+acrylic binder:

O: acrylic polymer binders dry with 10 minutes when applied in thin layers

O: acrylic dries matte and lightens the colour

O: The saw dust binded with polymer becomes what is essentially wood glue.

(Saw)Dust

O: The saw dust binded with polymer becomes what is essentially wood glue.

Different ways to insert structural reinforcement from timber construction dust into

O: can dry with sturdy undulations

O: it becomes moldeable

... notion to the sculptural aspect of painting

O: Harder than a timber beam.

Using

O: dries with a shine, even though acrylic often dries matte

O: Post test remarks the sawdust/acrylic combo is stuck to the acrylic and can’t be removed unless disolved with boiling water

Sawdust + acrylic binder painted on acetate surface

the paint

the sculpted ridges to hold thin steel reinforcement poles for deflective strength.

sawdust + acrylic binder control sample

Paint Tests

(1) was difficult to stick to the vertical surface. hardened after 1 month. Can be scratched off in thumb sized chunks

(4) flexible bonding of perpendicular ply surfaces

(2) painting in thin layers off of the surface: mixture was too brittle.

Detail 4: upright, holding together perpendicular surfaces

mixing acrylic paint with a bone (sawdust) to support the surface

Mixtures applied:

(p) pigment + (b) binder = (P) paint

p =

sawdust/claydust + powder pigment

sawdust claydust

b =

gum arabic

beeswax + turpentine

linseed oil

acrylic binder

pva glue

egg tempera

* pigment does not dissolve in water, dyes do (pigment particle size larger than water molecule)

* water = a paint vehicle (can transport pigment without activating it)

Painted surface:

(1) sawdust/ultramarine p to linseed oil b ratio 5:1

(2) sawdust/pthalo green p to gum arabic b ratio 3:1

(3) sawdust/ultramarine p to beeswax turpentine b ratio 1:3

(4) a mixture of all combinations mashed at the intersection of plywoods

(3) thick application holds form but relies heavily on the ply wood support

side view: upright

front view: bent and pressed down 45 degrees + without snapping

* different colours signify different material compositions of paint

Modeled Test

Reality:

a thin layer of air-dry clay on a plywood base

Modeled reality:

broken timber posts weathered concrete foundation

Small model

These tests are being performed on a scaled model in order to test how components are binded together in the context of a space. This test does not look at structural validity as the sawdust and paint strokes are not adjusted for the 1:20 scale.

perspective view 1:20 model

Ground plan view 1:20 model

Tent structure plan view 1:20 model

Timber structure plan view 1:20 model

dry time at 1:20 scale=12 hours

sawdust becomes a structural support that can bind with paint on to different surfacesand molds

Limitations:

The grain of the saw dust is both too large for the model, as well as in real life.

As a result, the paint comnbination with sawdust does not chemically combine with the binder to create a colour, rather it creates a support surface that can then be painted on.

Dust particle sizes would need to be used in real life construction to create a ‘colour’ reaction.

As a result, saw dust collected from old timber beams will be used and designed with to pose as a bone/structural support for the pigments made and transfered in the building.

looking at prefabricated methods of making painted sawdust walls on site

perspective view 1:20 model

front view 1:20 model

working from the imagined scale and leaping to 1:1 labour of painting it on a surface.

This is a plan drawing that considers how sawdust prefabricated painted walls would work on site in regards to its placing and relationship to the process of building inside and outside of the structure.

sawdust= thick, opaque and concealing

humans in site constantly transfering timber and moving around dust as a result

plan view 1:20 model

painted thickness of 5 cm in 1:20 model =12 hour dry time

elevation of hand painting in wood (painting surface)

1. Testing a beam of solid acrylic paint

2. Testing a beam of sawdust with acrylic

3. Testing a beam of sawdust with acrylic (separated)

sawdust+acrylic paint

sawdust+acrylic binder

sawdust+cadmium red pigment + acrylic binder

sawdust+acrylic paint pure acrylic paint

sawdust+cadmium red pigment + acrylic binder

preperation scale

1:1 labour of painting it into a structural surface

This test will research ways in which paint and sawdust paint can be used structurally to replace broken timber beams and put cotton stretched surfaces back into tension when it sags.

Resultingly, all fully dried.

(1) took a week as the surface would dry and seal wet innards. It needed to be moved around to fuly dry into a paint brick.

(2) fully dried and able to hold its own structure to be extended/built upon. 2 days complete

(3) fully dried. Sawdust sandwich of pure paint enable pure paint to fully dry faster than in test 1 2 days complete

For use

These tests represented the beginnings to a 1:1 beam that could be used to tension sagging fabrics as well as add support structures, that due to their rough surfaces, also increase the collection of dusts and pigments travelling from the outside in.

Becoming beams

fabric stretching acting as fabric support system when creating the beam in situ

pushing fabric tensors

sectional diagram

axo diagram

Sectional cuts of the beam tests

Teaching, Painting, Learning

Building upwards. This diagram looks at the design logic behind the studios in the school for painterly-architecture.

As students enter the field they are asked to validate their own light as they work into their studio.

The individual goal is to create a flexible working space for both painter and architect.

The collective goal is to adapt to conflicts between painter and architect

armaturesIntroducingremoveableandforpaintings,airchannels

temporary

frames used to direct light adjust contact of interior spaces to exterior spaces to enhance dust and pigmentcollection

high angle diffused light

low angle diffused light

timber frameworks stretched with cotton

Lessons Commence

Light in kelvins

Desired light during daylight lower contrast and glare higher range of colours visible, especially for oil painting and egg tempera

conditioning of light

customized light angles determines the use of the space.

ultimatley notions users to surfaces that fit their eye corners used more frequently attracts more dust carried over from around the site

collection of colour and insulation

dust sacks

scaled to the hands, eyes and feet of the painter-architect

The angle of light coming in determines the type of line making and or painting that is suitable for the space.

Angle 1: light comes in at 20 degrees above the canvas providing reflected ceiling light for low contrast lighting beneficial to hand drawing.

Angle 2: 45 degrees above the canvas, provides the most directional light, which will result in less glare when painting with oil. (the angle used by Francis Bacon).

Angle 3: almost 90 degrees from above the canvas, a low north facing window will provide more bounced light that makes colours and strokes have higher contrasts. (useful for impressionistic painting, which is almost thick and sculptural.

re-using irregular shapes of timber

collaging into the space

The first collective studio.

Bringing together components of the tests in an attempt to collage it together in space.

This also marks the movement away from the canvas teent structure into spaces that are more permanent to grow the squat exponentially onwards.

general timber structure with load sketch

canvas + water pipe roofing system (water and transfer of dusts)

paint+sawdust protected canvas

cotton dust sacks (expanding)

leg for scale

painting prefab beams on canvas dust grinding: decreasing particle size to be binded into paints

sawdust paint structural joining of surface

Circulating Pigment

Creating dust and spreading dust

These tests look at the transferal of dust accross the site and how that affects the walls and coloured exterior structures of the site. This will be used to determine how dust can travel in and around the site as mechanisms of the painter architects spaces. This is also vital to surviving the winter as it will inform how walls are design to collect airborne dusts and pigments for insulation.

pigment grinding room detail

Circulating Pigment

undulating surfaces for movement of dust, separated grinded from ungrided parts

Collecting and grinding down dried paint and dust from the workstation of the preevious tests to imitate dust collected from studio conditions on the site.

old materials to grind sourced from previous tests

manually shaving down paints to source paint dusts small enough to rebinmd into scattered and painted surfaces.

Circulating Pigment

details

Bringing together oil and acrylic and egg-tempera binding methods to test structural effects of going against painting rules of thumb.

test mnanually peformned by blowing gusts of air on piles of pigment on the metal flat surface. Using representational colouring to show the dispersion of the pigments.

rough ssawdust surfaces to catch pigments

prefab sawdust walls moveable to catch dust in different areas

zone for dust dispersion

Surfaces with binder: wax to seal dust landing on surface

wall: vertical displacement of pigment

before: top view

moving dust through cotton

ground: horizontal displacement of pigment

after: top view

Circulating Pigment

Outcome

The airborne nature of the pigment allows itself to be moved arounbd the site, being caught by the rough sawdust skin walls and stretched canvases. This enables a structural build up of these canvas like walls. When the pigments are then binded into the walls they become a condition of their dust movement meaning that cooler windier areas would attract more insulation and structural support.

building on to dusty surfaces

sectional sketch

wall thickening from dust

detail on studio section

Start date: 1st of july 2022

First Summer month 2-4

Binding old foundation to the new using pilings and dust sacks

Year 1: 10 people, dig large hole for submerged dwellings

Waterproof old foundations

old concrete foundation

Construction Sequence

Day 1-28

source labour from local artists and carpenters

timber framework executed before winter

prepare 1st squat for uprooting

The first squat

Binding over time

Construction Sequence

Last stage, to be adapted over 12 years in accordance to #s of students, labourers and livestock.

timber frame --> temporary ply --> cotton dust/pigment bags hardened and/or drieed to thick insulating surfaces sagging and stretched between timber joinery.

Notation of binder used on the surface

Examining

Examination happens outside on the dust circulation paths within the site.

The paintings of architecture are presented to the tutor in protective armatures that move for scale of the frame and detail of the stroke.

In the diagram this feature can be seen alongside a rainwater pipe system.

cotton + dust insulation sacks installed below floor boards

cool dark space with high contrast in colour

Leylandii serving as hedge of privacy from on-looking neighbours

sagging cotton lined with acrylic paint to transport water

Examination

on the glow of can-

in

to

candle fixtures

A task conducted by the painter architecture to test hardness of line and stroke through painting architectural details of the candle holders.

Also testing reflectivity...

Tests of egg on a surface.

Translucency, illumenance and reflectivity

detail of candle fixture

human fist for scale

research

dlelight

regards

its vicinity of non-reflective or reflective surfaces moveable candle hinges locateed on timber joinery, working the same way as canvas frame joints.

dispersion of light of a candle

purifying and stress release qualities of a candle section of candle holder detail

candle fixtures with reflective surfaces

A test conducted on a graphite hand drawing.

This test considers the merging of painterly surface and architectural surface in regards to light and linee hardness.

This test wasn’t particularly useful other than to demonstrate the liquid and messy state in which the school of painter architecture would produce work.

painted section of candle holder with egg and wax

Egg Testing

egg tempera

egg + egg on cotton: dries yellow

egg + ultram. acrylic: dries ultram. slightly more shiny than acrylic cracks

Pigment + egg tempera tests

1 egg clay dust pallette (mimicking construction dust conditions of site)

saw dust

crimson red (chemical reacting pigment)

Ultramarine acrylic

Eggs in Dry State

Looking at thee characteristics of the egg tempera surfaces in contact with pigment and other binders.

As surface skins flow into one another, becuase of their dry times (those being dependent on the rooms condition) surface materials must be tested in their most unpure form.

Egg tempera was found to dry yellow on its own, uyet when mixed with a pigment, not have any effect on the conlour and drying with transparency.

shine from egg on canvas

cigarettes crystalised together from the egg

cigarettes only browned the egg slightly

Egg shells and candle holder

From the copious amount of eggs used on site, egg shell waste is prolific. Egg shells are a form of pure carbon that don’t decomnpose.

can be used to interact with harsher sun light from the south

egg shells painted together with saw dust

Diagram

water + pigment solidified

of paint

Reaction

Energy and Heat

Water systems

Permeability of Light and Air flow

Living Recycling Heat

Reducing use of gas

tautcanvaswaterpipedrainage

Keeping the heat of the summer throughout winter

dry coal fire, extra heat risen into space and pumped into foundation and loorboards

depicting control of inhabitant over light

situated on remain concrete foundation of site (RAFT FOUNDATION)

crusts

Kitchen: fat + pigment making oil paint

hanging japanese knotweed

system

timber floor boards

green room in steam room

cow slaughtering space

fecal sludge manageament

Steam Shower

Steam Eggs

Steam Sustainability

6 eggs for every 1.8 L of water at 65 degrees celsius steaming for 35-45 minutes

eggs

detail of makeshift aga saving gas heat by reusing steam heat in a cycle with the steam shower directly above

recycled steam eggs stove

heat cycle detail section

The result of humans and cows meandering parallel spaces.

Fertilizer

Bloodmeal

Living with Cows:

It takes survival to realise how much effort and energy is required to slaughter, drain, chop and eat an animal, let alone one as large as a cow. This section is picked apart to consider the technicalities behind the anual slaughter and consumption of a cow, and the spatial requirements that determines the output available to the painter-architect from the cows death.

Ultimately, the materials sourced enable the painter architects to create a painting from cow.

15 cm boning knife 20 cm butcher knife

beef spreader with 2 chains and a hook

dry, clean and dust free area for the slaughter cow painting

smoke extractor and dust collector

supply of clean cold water: winter rainwater

39 liters of blood per adult cow (60 ml/kg) (36,000 ml)

Blood

Outside: Free roaming (Wet)

Inside: Draining (Dry)

Outside: Execution (Dry)

Section cutting through smoke and dust extractor

draining area accesible below the cow

waterproofed canvas sacks lined with acrylic paint

Sterile metal butcher table

Section through shower, kitchen and dust pit during anual cow slaughter

Ingredients for a cow painting

Living with Cows.

waste processed in to submerged pumped sewage treatment tank

Indian yellow pigment: made from aged cow urine

unprocessed waste used as fertilizer in greenhouse

cycle with agricultural waste

Processed waste energy pump

heat moved along foundations concrete septic tank

cow dung funnel

outdoor (winter) cow grazing zone outdoor heated cow space

Indoor heated residential space smell ventilation and cross ventilation

cotton sag for winter heat insulation

The result of humans and cows meandering parallel spaces.

Years

Trying dearly to survive...

Urban life has a repressed Other which it keeps out of sight/site, but which, like the repressed elements of the unconscious, returns...

Squatters are one such Other, and my research into the squatters’ way of life has led to the articulation of a marginal architecture that is able to sustain itself in the midst of a wasteful superstructure (eg. economically motivated residential development).

A consideration of the production of pigment, and the subsequent recognition that it is a byproduct of a closed ecosystem, catalysed the development of this project.

It occured to me that this singular element could not be considered separately from the whole, leading towards tangential investigations that revealed the ideal organic unity of the designed living space, and the contrasting reliance we have on non-sustainable patterns of consumption, especially as painter-architects within educational infrastructures.

I found that paint, in particular, is hard to source, and yet its production could be part of a cycle that ensures its utility.

Concretely, the processes that generate heat and edible food for the squatters also produce paints that make these very processes more efficient.

This and other fucntions of my living space are mainstays against changing environmental conditions that allow for further adaptations.

The survival of the site, in particular in the longer term future, is made possible by acceptance of risk, failure and a necessity for such adaptations.

https://www.handprint.com/HP/WCL/pigmt3.html

https://www.meteoblue.com/en/weather/historyclimate/climatemodelled/hackney_united-kingdom_2647694

https://www.getty.edu/publications/resources/virtuallibrary/0892363223.pdf

https://www.jstor.org/stable/25040813?mag=a-history-of-human-waste-as-fertilizer&seq=9

https://jameselkins.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/what-painting-is-2.pdf

https://squatting-manual.squat.net/manuals-sorted-per-country/uk/squatters-handbook/

http://www.essentialvermeer.com/palette/palette_anatomy_of_paint.html

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1977/45/section/6

https://www.inkworldmagazine.com/issues/2019-03-01/view_features/pigment-manufacturers-face-numerous-challenges-in-2019/

https://www.dezeen.com/2019/09/02/kaiku-nicole-stjernsward-design-food-waste-pigment

https://anhuimke.en.made-in-china.com/product/kFHQqfbKfAVZ/China-High-Purity-7723-14-0-98-5-Purity-Red-Phosphorus-Used-for-Match-Production-or-Chemical-Test.html

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2021/02/phosphorus-pollution-fertilizer/617937/

https://www.phlorum.com/japanese-knotweed/identification/

https://willkempartschool.com/art-studio-lighting-design/

https://mymodernmet.com/history-of-the-color-green/