unit B
the unseen landscape Sarah Stevens, David Grindley, Maita Kessler
2011-2012
2011-2012 www.unitb-responsivearchitecture.blogspot.co.uk Editors Amy Wong, Sarish Younis, Sarah Stevens
c
2102 by Sarah Stevens & David Grindley. All rights reserved. All opinions expressed within this publication are those of the authors. Published by Oxford Brookes University
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, or transmitted, in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any other information storage and retreival system, without prior permission.
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unit B
the unseen landscape Sarah Stevens, David Grindley, Maita Kessler
The Unseen Landscape Site
Yr 2 Diana Grecu Harry Hawkins Izabela Zoryk Matt Turner Molly De Courcy Wheeler Rosie Sinclair Sophie Walker Zoe-Maria Osborn
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10 14 16 18 22 26 30 34
Yr 3 Amy Wong & Sarish Younis Amy Wong Anisa Nachett Avi Saha Dan Sweeting Jon Wilson Katie Rudin Laurence Deane Martino Gasparrini Matt Rosier Matt Sawyer Oli Cradock Tom Hall Sarish Younis
38 40 44 46 50 54 58 60 64 68 72 76 80 84
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Year 2 Molly De Courcy Wheeler, Anthony Fitheoglou, Diana Grecu, Harry Hawkins, Zoe-Maria Osborn, Lucy Peart, Rosemary Sinclair, Matthew Turner, Sophie Walker, Izabela Zoryk Year 3 Akcasu Atamert, Tomislav Biberovic, Oliver Cradock, Samuel Deane, Martino Gasparrini, Thomas Hall, Anisa Nachett, Matthew Rosier, Katie Rudin, Avishkar Saha, Matthew Sawyer, Daniel Sweeting, Jonathan Wilson, Amy Wong, Sarish Younis
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unit B
the unseen landscape Sarah Stevens, David Grindley, Maita Kessler
The unseen landscape billows and flows across the land. Once just the realm of histories, beliefs and memories waxing and waning over the physical terrain, now virtual mountains team with immortal information, the demise of forgetting. They loom over mercurial valleys of merging and shifting continents where time and place are forgotten constraints. A growing population unseeingly navigate this landscape, increasingly liberated and detached from the physical, where anytime anywhere can be anywhere anytime, in a constant mist of information bombardment. Lost in this uncharted landscape, without borders and outside of time, inhabitants seek physical manifestations of belonging and identity. Grasping at labels, things, for long sort meaning, to receive only hollowness in return. Leading them on an unceasing quest for more, newer, bigger, brighter, faster in the attempt to fill the void. Building a need beyond value, beyond reason, its implications escaping into the physical world, draining and poisoning both planetary systems and society. Physical existence in time and space is the last barrier to complete immersion in the unseen landscape where they dwell yet cannot live, but this is a tie which cannot be broken. A lifeline for return. For at least the last century we have been moving deeper into the unseen landscape, increasingly inhabiting a human socio-political construct separated from the physical world. Heidegger noted increasing de-realization and loss of being, Baudrillard expressed ‘the technological mediation of experience’ and hyperreality. George Perec wrote of how we do not look. Today Lars Svendsen speaks of a lack of belonging, meaning and a growing emptiness. Peter Zumthor notes ‘even reality itself seems to be dissolving in the endless flux of transitory signs and images.’ Turkle expresses how identity is now ‘fluid and multiple’. Pallasmaa notes the dominance of site, the loss of temporal existence and asks for a quest for the haptic to counterbalance a starvation of the senses. Born of the physical yet now freed of those very constraints, inhabiting a 24 hour society, and ignoring circadian rhythms we float free, yet helplessly adrift, in currents we do not see. The way this landscape is moulding us is becoming increasingly clear. Government reports cover concerns over the implications, medical research reports an increase in cancer, increase in depression, increase in demand for surgery to remove the traces of time with which we can no longer cope. Do we need the ties that bound us? This year we charted the unseen landscape, revealing its outline and mapping its tides. We began by momentarily removing ourselves from its influence through sustained observation, to enable us to illicit its outline. We then built compasses and sextants so others might navigate our path, widening their experience and re-engaging their senses. Barometers of the Unseen were then constructed to reveal the weather of society, the traces of memories, outlines of histories, ghosts of beliefs weaving unseen across the land. Our journey ended with the founding of a new Ministry of the Unseen Landscape, uniting the physical and unseen realms. We traced a path to the physical, re-embracing time and its implications; decay, renewal. Reuniting inhabitants with the earths systems, time, identity and meaning, from which they have become dislocated, before society destroyed itself, its members and the planet that supports it.
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Victoria Tower Gardens
Projects Seeing We began by revealing the unseen landscape in our midst. Eliciting its outline through sustained observation, being still and removing ourselves from its grip. Tracing the unseen Through a site dissection we exposed the overlooked, and then built compasses and sextants so others might navigate our path, widening their experience and engaging their senses. Touchstone A small precious object was made as a repository of conceptual ideas, a reminder of the site or agendas. Barometer We then developed the first of the two insertions into the city fabric, the Barometer. This was the first commission of the newly formed Ministry of the Unseen Landscape. The Barometer is tasked with expressing the weather of society, the traces of memories, outlines of histories, ghosts of beliefs tracking across the land. Revealing the unseen whilst cartographers chart it. When unseen storm clouds gather it will thunder, drawing people back to the physical. Ministry of the Unseen Landscape With this exploration behind us we then addressed the Ministry of the Unseen Landscape itself. It was to be unlike any other ministry. Part retreat part outreach, its aim is to reunite us with the physical, to maximise the potential of our experience, to bring the unseen and physical into harmony, securing our future and that of our habitat. The Ministry was to be a highly site specific and reactive expression of our non-linear world, within the ever evolving ecosystem of the city. Individual agendas formed the basis of the ministry with everyone developing their own brief. Year 2 explored retreat, and year 3 addressed both retreat and outreach. These main projects were augmented with exploratory tasks to progress and explore individual agendas. Site Our site, which we worked with all year, was in the heart of the city, in London, where the Unseen Landscape’s influence is at its height. Taking the seat of Parliament in Westminster for our site for the Ministry of the Unseen Landscape we began by exploring Parliament Square as the site for the Barometer. Victoria Tower Gardens directly next to the Houses of Parliament and the Thames was then turned to as the site for the Ministry itself.
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N
Portcullis House Millenium Eye 10 Downing Street
Westminster Underground
Foreign & Common wealth Office
St. Thomas medical school
Parliament Square
St Johns Gardens
Home office, HM
Transport House
prison service HQ
Houses of Parliament
Station
Ministry of Defence H&M Treasury
Pub Tesco Caffe Nero
Big Ben Clock Tower St Margaret’s Church
Westminster Abbey
Victoria Tower Gardens
Westminster House
King’s building
Dept Environment
Garden Museum
Dept Environ, Food, Rural affairs
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Year Two
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Diana Grecu SPACE TO BREATHE
Politics has an effect upon everyone. Personal use of power harms the people, and in return the bad things happen to those who have the power as well. Initial moments are followed by chaos which then goes back to the place where decisions are being taken. Political is “relating to or concerned with public life and affairs as involving questions of authority and government; the theory of practice of politics.” The government is founded upon the consent of the governed. However people are affected by a vast number of decisions taken “for” the people. As Foucault says that power is in the hands of the government and is exercised by particular institutions, such as the army, the police. But not only by these systems, but also by organisations that seem to have nothing in common with the government. One small decision can have a powerful effect. Analysing the butterfly effect - in the chaos theory - this is the sensitive dependence on initial conditions. This analysis has lead to the conclusion that people are lost from reality. They need to be reminded of the true reality, taking them away from the government’s power and fixing their eyes on themselves and on the natural environment. These reality perceptions are changed and grounded in the different patterns of society and culture. Design Concept In order to take people to reality, their reality, the concept of breath, and breathable clean, fresh air has been analysed. The process of algae has been known to transform CO2 into clear oxygen.
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Barometer axonoemtric
Flute, Flute Device on Site & Touchstone
Interior Spaces
Watercolour sketches of plan and algae photobioreactor
Ministry Drawing of Experience
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Entrance between algae tubes
Ministry Plan & Section
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Harry Hawkins
PHILHARMONIC WAVE ORCHESTRA
The barometer from the first project in parliament square is up and running. And while people are using it to speak there mind, the Ministry have become increasingly aware that people’s connection with the soundscape is very week. We walk about our lives processing countless sounds without actually really noticing them. Initially after its birth, the barometer provided a fresh new way to experience UK politics. However it has now become part of the sound¬scape. People have become used to it and therefore take less notice. With the Ministry’s aim of reintroducing people to the forgotten soundscape at victoria tower gardens, I will explore spatial qualities with good sound aspects near water. Caves for example. Its as important to allow people to remove them selves from the unseeing of soundscape, as it is to place them in a new.
Barometer Elevation View
To do this the ministry should incorporate different changes in sound quality. From the Road to; the Noisey Cafe Chat, to the cleansing of silence before the 5th symphony and to the water. Realizing that lapping waves exist in city center London is a interest and unique to the only beach front along the London Thames, at victoria tower garden.
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Barometer Concept Montage
Barometer Section & Perspectives
Ministry Site Model
Ministry Exploded Perspective
Ministry Exploded drawings & Site Plan
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Matthew Turner
LONDON’S ALTERNATIVE PARLIAMENT “Space is fundamental to any form of communal life; space is fundamental to any exercise of power” Space, Knowledge and power: Foucault Society has developed but the parliamentary enclosure has not. The project analyses and questions the current condition of parliament. It seeks to create an alternative parliament for London. By not only having a symbolic connection to palace of Westminster (being built and constructed upon axis of the House of Commons) but also the events which take place within it will influence how the official parliament is used and seen by the public. This is a change not made by force but by people and the symbolic power of architecture in creating a type of anti-monument. The new type of debate is created by taking existing parliamentary conditions deconstructing and manipulating their force to promote a more democratic space. By creating heterogeneous space it allows for the masses to be incorporated into the political architecture. In creating conditions for multiple spaces and multiple ideas to be perceived at the same time; it creates not chaos but a new order. This in turn creates a political transparency not by the failed and deceptive method of glass but through the perception and understanding of carefully arranged overlapping spaces and sounds.
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Barometer Interior
Device Axonometric
Acoustic analysis
Touchstone
Seeing Device
Layered Site Anaylsis
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Parliament Outline Module Interior
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Parliament Concept Model
It is easy to see the political relevance of multiplicity insofar as the One-Multiple division roughly correlates with “the impotent spontaneity of anarchy and the bureaucratic and hierarchic coding of a party organization�. According to this classical division, the choice of organizational structure is either the pure chaos of anarchic movements or a rigidly structured hierarchy. What the concept of multiplicity seeks to think is the between of these two, in which the multiple itself takes on an immanent organization without reference
to an extrinsic ordering. The building also stands to dissipate and dematerialised political space. It does this by projecting and sound into the landscape and allowing for views which cut through the building from a distance and overlap different aspects of debating parties. In doing this it completes the progression from the closed of environment of current parliament to semi enclosed environment of the alternative parliament, to the democratic conditions of nature and nonenclosed space.
Parliament Detail Plan
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Molly De Courcy Wheeler DIGITAL RETREAT The evolution of the digital world has led to dehumanisation. The population have become more dependent on technology as we believe it to be essential in getting through our day to day lives. As we slip deeper into this virtual world we lose our attachment with the physical and devalue the fundamental encounters with the real world and with nature. Our sense of what’s important has become blurred by the cloud of technical authority that forces us into an artificial reality. The retreat creates an awareness and understanding about the harmful effects of technology on humankind, and aims to provide a haven from this fast pace, artificial world. By altering familiar spatial conditions, the public will be forced to question their own sense of reality and reassess their environment. The sanctuary, placed deep in the ground, focuses and realises the nature of weather conditions and encourages a direct engagement with them. At the end of the pier, an observatory encourages the public to closely study the changing elements into the microscopic to enable a detachment from the virtual world. Specific tactile qualities and framed views will engage the senses and achieve this shift in perception.
The Catographer mechanism is powered with electricity with the main body moving alond a single pole that runs the length of the wall.
The steel framework is connected using bolts anmd pinjoints that allow it to easily rotate.
There are three arms that can move to achieve the accuracy needed.The mechanism is a constantly moving and dynamic installation that will attract people from the street into the Park. The end point scratches into the concrete surface.
Wall erosion timeline
0 month
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The arms can rotate up and down by 40° for flexibility. The information runs through electric currents down the side of the steel framework.
Cartographer detail
1 month
3 months
6 months
1 year
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
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11 12 13 14
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Concrete roof cantilever Electronic catographer arms Water collection from roof Water channel for filteration Gravel Porus boards Underfloor heating Lean Concrete Damp proof membrane Geothermal energy pipe for underfloor heating Steel rod reinforcement Insulation Screed Drainage pipe
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3 4
5 67
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1112
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Structural Section 1:75
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Riveted steel panels
Recycled sheets bolted together
1. Catographer mapping wall 2. Cafe for visitors 3. Sanctury indoor/outdoor space
London scrap metal - islington
Stained oak
Oak screen
Oak
Bricks
4. Walkway and wall framing the view lead to the pier 5. Pier and observatory
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Partially painted with a matt varnish
Oak slats cut to form a sliding door screen
Old, dried oak used for handrails throughout building
UK Oak company Corby
Reused brick layed for flooring
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Demolished house in victoria
Steel
polished Sunny Limestone
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Crafted to form the catographer machines
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Pre treated slabs brought to site Stainton quarry Stainton
Rough concrte
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Exploded design showing materiality
Rough concrete poureded onsite
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FIRST LEVEL, + 6 METERS
GROUND LEVEL, +1 METER
BELOW GROUND LEVEL, -2 METERS
4.7
4.5
4.4
11:00
Street
9:00
Staff entrance to Cafe and Kitchen
Park
12:00
Staircase to accomadation
Rainwater collection from metal clad roof
Larder and fridge for ingredients.
Seating built into the wall
Public Toilet
Opening to corridor
Image showing water channel running past concave seating area. Light floods in from above
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View down coridoor depicting dramatic light quailities. Glass roofed room lies below.
A
The perferated steel ramp creates constantly changing patterns that paint the space. The stairs and sky meet above. .
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Photovoltaic panels Energy used to pump water.
Mesh systems filter collected rainwater.
Concrete
Concrete
Blue black slate
Bricks
Stone
Water is piped to filter system underground to become grey water for toilets.
Light studies
Water channel from roof Clear sliding doors
Servicing wall diagram
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Rosie Sinclair ABALON APPLE ORCHARD
“Memory really matters...only if it binds together the imprint of the past and the project of the future, if it enables us to act without forgetting what we wanted to do, to become without ceasing to be, and to be without ceasing to become.� Italo Calvino Our culture has become ever more transient as communication technologies grow. Families no longer grow up living together in the same area, but move all over the world. There is no longer commitment to place. Through this design I want to create a small but strong community. The relationships not the architecture will create a good building, but the architecture will be the instigator of community and a backdrop to daily life. I am going to try to create a common meeting place, where there can be a sense of ownership over the public space. I believe that sustainability isn’t just about resources, but people too. I want to get across the reality of time and not just our Modern view of a perpetual moment. To do this I am going to design an Apple Orchard in Victoria Gardens, London. Run by a few permanent managers and then volunteers within the community. I am expecting local employees to come during lunch hours and or after work or families and tourists visiting the site. Volunteers will be rewarded with credit to be spent in the Orchard Cafe or to stay overnight. [All food will be based around the Apples]
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Moments of interaction
Apple Orchard Concept Montage
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Apple Orchard Plan
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Apple Orchard Process Axo
Apple Orchard Section
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Sophie Walker RETREAT FOR RE-EXPERIENCE
Due to the lack of engagement with the site, the richness of experience is missing for people. People need to focus back on the site and be grounded back into its reality. Through re-engagement with the experience of the site, the journey to one’s own experience can begin. Victoria tower gardens connects to different points within London through its location next to the river and the surrounding views. From different levels and points in the park, views across the river and down the streets can be seen. By uniting people with these views, they can become fully aware of their experience within the park. Through the Retreat for Re-experience, a journey through the levels of the site is established to help focus people on the unseen aspects of the site, and this allows for the realisation of their reexperience. The ramp creates a journey down to the underground level and the river’s edge, where the library/archive space, accommodation and café are. The journey back up into the site culminates in the arrival at the contemplation space. This is situated above ground level, and lies over the water. Through its positioning, the contemplation space looks back through the trees and over the site. It becomes a space in which people can sit and experience the site from another level, and allow their own thoughts and experiences of the site to emerge.
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Axonometric & plan of camera obscura
Perspective view of entrance to camera obscura
View up stairs into contemplation space
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Ministry site plan
32 Underground plan
View up ramp
Section through retreat for re-experience
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Zoe-Maria Osborn The Signal-Free Bench and the Technology Addiction Rehabilitation Centre In the first semester I used my initial investigations into light and technology to inform the design of my bench. The delicately balanced canopy falls when sensors intercept incoming radio signals, and blocks them using the principles of the Faraday cage. The installation shows people the extent to which they rely upon their mobile phones and keeps a count of the number of triggers per day. Having identified this modern problem, my second semester project is an attempt to facilitate the return to a more balanced, less technology dependent life. Patients of the centre journey up and away from daily life, and learn to reintegrate with society through living together in a small, self-supporting community. The building itself has no artificial lighting installed, which is intended to prompt a return to more natural and regular circadian rhythm.The month-long program of activity includes daily exercise and learning new skills such as papermaking, creative writing and cookery along with some traditional group talk therapy and several individually tailored meetings with a healthcare professional.
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Short section
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Year Three
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Amy Wong & Sarish Younis
ESSENTIAL BLISS: GARDENERS TOOL BOX Eating the Details of the Site
The richness and deep histories of the site, for example Westminster Coronation feast, is now lost under the thick layer of tension, negativity and sadness in the site. This generates a sort of disappointment towards what should be the heart of the City. With a huge history to deal with, the concept of the device is simply one of these ideas, one detail of the richness hidden in the site. The device is a small sextant for the gardener at the park. The gardener will use his device to process the lavender, giving them to visitors to encourage them to notice the beautiful flowers and little details that are missed. They can take them home and use them for teas, eating, fragrance. To experience the reminders of history; when lavender vendors flooded london. In the Victorian era royalty were especially fond of this plant. Lavender growing on the site is strictly seasonal allowing the gardener to plant more, giving more colour to the park, as opinionated from visitors the “lack of colour”. The garderners’ experience of the site is very familiar and repetitive, his job has become a dull and dissatisfying activity. One’s mood is a crucial part of how they experience a particular place.
Working prototype TheUse and Making of the Lavender Oil & Pouches
Sieves Drawer
Vessels
Lavender pouches and oil
Hoe first touches the ground to moving the soil or the leaves
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Seasonal gains of oils
As the Hoe touches the ground it then rotates the wheel
As the wheel spins it rotates the pivot which then turns the As the gear rotates it turns the chain which The gear mechanism turn and rotates the The lavender processes through gear mechanism connects to the top gears supported but steel grinders the funnel into the grinders structure
The crushed lavender sieves throught the drawer into the vessel of oil and dried lavender
The Detail of The Essential Bliss; Gardeners Tool Box
The Detail of The The Essential Detail Bliss; of TheGardeners Essential Tool Bliss;Box Gardeners Tool Box The Detail of The Essential Bliss; Gardeners Tool Box
The triangular supporting structure for the tools box
The Oil vessel
The triangular supporting structure for the tools box
The Clip on attachment to the Hoe
The Oil vessel
The Chain
The connestion/ attachment of t
The Clip o
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Amy Wong
LONDON MUSHROOM PIE SCHOOL
We are enslaved by speed and have all succumbed to the same insidious virus: Fast Life. Fast Life has changed our way of being and threatens our envi-ronment and our landscapes. May suitable doses of guaranteed sensual pleasure and slow, long-lasting enjoyment pre-serve us from the contagion of the multitude who mistake frenzy for efficiency. Slow Food Concept.
The portfolio follows a journey through the concerns of and solutions against the 24 Hour Society, displayed at the heart of the city, Westminster, London. Time of Tea: The first step in healing society. Immersing people in TIME, the change of seasons. Stop and enjoy the moment and beauty that is all around, in the busy heart of city. The ministry The mushroom pie school sits in a cultural and historial heart of London. It is the heart of realigning the city’s 24 hour society lifestyle. By luring in people who visited the Barometer: Time of Tea, and passerbys, the ministry steals time from them by enforcing an intensive training to create a mushroom pie from scratch. The time length exceeds 9 months if they are also involved in the farming of wheat, in a division down the river Thames.
Final drawing barometer
A festival after each period celebrates the realignment of these individuals and attempts to reground the city as a whole back into natural time, by sending out pies in the underground which have already become mushroom farms and witnessed by everyday commuters of the famous Tube of London. These pie trains interrupt the daily schedules of citylife sending out tastes and smells of joy combating the unhealthy gains of fast life and fast food. By appreciating the lengthy time of preparation of a simple pie, we are regrounded back into happiness of life outside the 24 hour society. 40
Change of tea over time, from water to warm drink
Barometer time of tea exploded axonometric in context
Summer section
Home grown oyster mushrooms
Time stealing process, home made mushroom pie
Kitchen roof section
Initial experience sketch
Wind Tea-maker: The strength of the tea is determined by the changing rhythms of the wind over time, a cup of tea enjoyed in the hands of nature and time. Initial massing model
First Floor plan mushroom pie school
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Mushroom pie school exploded axonometric
Mushroom pie school aerial view
Mushroom pie school riverside cafe
Mushroom pie school section
Mushroom pie festival at Baker Street
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Anisa Nachett MINISTRY OF CHOICE
As society enters into consumerism more and more, it has led for a less satisfied society due to the paralysis in decision making in which consumerism can cause, as a result consumerism has led to the paradox of choice, whereby choice no longer governs liberation within society anymore. The Ministry of choice will aim to filter out the misconception of satisfcation within choice. In order to achieve this .The ministry will create an environment in which society can gain satisfaction through limited choices and the opportunity for a creative making process
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Journey collage
Device
Touchstone
Section elevation
Concept image
Slice into landscape
Interior shot final
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Avi Saha
MINISTRY OF INTERCONNECTIVITY
The Pauli Exclusion Principle proves that we are all fundamentally connected, specifically on an atomic level; this formed the basis for the Ministry of Interconnectivity. This idea of interconnection is about viewing each of the bodies in our environment as entities with different energies. And so the Ministry was formed at the threshold where a multiplicity of systems meet, where a series of forces are brought to bear. Victoria Tower Gardens provided and estuary for the generation of energy which would draw from the natural as well as the urban environment. Human presence has been increasingly viewed as having an adverse impact on the environment; The Ministry tries to see it as non-detrimental, and rather it combines our rhythmic patterns with that of the environment. Utilizing CO2, Sunlight, algae from the river and wastewater the Ministry combines these to grow algae in photobioreactors. The algae is then converted into bio-fuels and electricity, which is used to power the building, thereby acting as an example of how energy production in the future can be come super localized and sustainable. The bioreactor acts as an agent to bring these people together while connecting them to the latent qualities of the site. There is a relationship fluctuating between symbiotic and parasitic, between the Ministry and its landscape, it inhales resources such as CO2 and wastewater, and then provides clean water and Oxygen for the site.
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Barometer construction section Lighting perspective section
Ministry - view from Algae collectors
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Incubator internal view
Dewatering plant axonometric
External view at night
Algae servicing platform at night
Interior Concept
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Dan Sweeting
MINISTRY OF SUBVERTED RESTORATION
Through sustained, pre-packaged tour guides and routes, the city of London is reduced to nothing more than a series of visited Icons. Gone are the days of industry and smog, instead the river bank is lined with polished buildings and carefully manicured parks. The Ministry of Subverted Restoration aims to subvert London’s once vibrant industrial heritage back into the very fabric of the city, leaving reminders of this past for today’s tourists. As tourists and the digital tagging of images continues to create a shifted reality of the city, we must be forced to re-engage with the everyday rather than the spectacle.
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Touchstone
Image Restriction Device
Barometer external view
Sectional perspective barometer
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Foundry internal montage
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Imperfection revealing device
Historic map plan
Dock view material layering
Initial river industry concept model
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Jon Wilson
MINISTRY OF OPEN SOURCE International assembly for online sharing, collaboration and research “Open Source� is an idea which promotes the notion of online, virtual sharing and collaboration. The building provides the public with a debating chamber, research laboratories and a large forum to encourage online sharing and collaboration, whilst improving worldwide standards of data and future use of the internet. So much can be gained through collaboration and sharing experience and knowledge, however, the virtual information we access in today’s society is limited, inaccurate and often comes at a price. The world ministry of open source is the heart of open source. The building acts as the physical gateway into the virtual community, promoting, regulating and distributing free information for everyone. The building draws upon the site, integrating the flow of the river into the system. It harnesses the power of the river, generating energy to help power the building and additionally use the water to cool to electronic archive. The flow of water is the physical symbol for the flow of virtual information. The site and the building work in harmony to become a living machine. An immersing space will blur the boundaries between the virtual and the physical, allowing people to observe the latest breakthroughs achieved using open source sharing and collaboration. This space will be a large public chamber and will promote community, communication and discussion. An innovation lab will provide space for specific research projects. This will allow collaborators from around the world to come together and work on projects, taking their virtual concepts and ideas into a physical reality. The ministry will encourage and promote online sharing community. The ministry of open source information will not promote the sharing of copyright material. Owners of copyright material such as musicians, film and software companies should be entitled to charge for their work should they choose to. Related issues involving internet piracy, website hacking and copyright issues are of growing concern and online criminal activity is on the rise. Action to prevent and control these issues has recently led to a number of debates, protests and virtual campaigns. The building will facilitate space for such debate and discussion to take place.
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The Gnomon
The escapement device
Gnomon aerial plan 1:500
Ministry of open source external
The debating chamber
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Ministry of Open Source Elevation 1:500
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Exploded orthographic
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Katie Rudin
MINISTRY OF THE SEDIMENT ZEPHYRS
The brief for this project was for a Ministry which would reengage society with the small and seemingly insignificant histories which occur everyday. These changes, uncharted and unknown have huge changes upon the way not only society behaves but also mean our senses have been deprived and with this, we are becoming strangers to our own cities. The new ministry will chart these everyday changes, recording features from all sense realms, creating a rich and colourful appreciation of the reality in which we live, not the one we have come to know.
Concept models
Through the collection of the moving sediments of society, the Ministry will reengage the individual with reality and they will have a full appreciation of the everyday world they once passed so quickly. Alongside this, cartographers of historians, archaeologists and archeaometrists will work together to create weekly exhibits of the history of city from detailed studies and collections from the landscape. It’s mission will be to slowly allow the individual to immerse in a fully sense fulfilling environment in which the acceptance of the sensory stimulation will reengage and ground the individual in the exact, time, place and nature of their surroundings.
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Concept page
Initial experience study inside archive space
Concept model exploring form and material qualities
Systems Research
Section of device
Study space looking over park
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Laurence Deane
Ministry of the symbiosis of the Urban and Natural World
Man’s self-centered instincts have consumed the original marshland of London and enveloped the landscape so far into the unnatural that simply imagining the original environment has become inconceivable. The Ministry Building responds to the natural world working in harmony. The building plays an active role in fulfilling the ministry remit, making the architecture an inherent part of the solution. The design contains spaces that accommodate for research into the complexity of our surroundings in order to understand how complicated the natural world is. This will contribute to the understanding of the cumulative effect that ignoring the natural world has on our surroundings.
Barometer elevation
Space for people to re-engage with the natural world in relation to the unnatural, urban world is necessary for the re-grounding process to begin. As the area progresses and the landscape becomes increasingly connected to the natural surroundings, the dissemination will become apparent. However, the speed of this process will be controlled by natural influences. The ministry is an expression of working with reality, rather than an attempt to dominate or manipulate reality.
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Systems research human interference
Sunpath model
Tidal measuring device
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Ministry approach
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External southern view
Bird box cladding
Library
Upper floor plan
High tide external view
Future landscape projection
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Martino Gasparrini MODERN BRITISH ACADEMY Barometer: Mobile Protest Unit The objective of the Mobile protest unit is to allow a deeper connection between citizens and politicians, and this is done in a physical sense by allowing a visual connection between protesters and politicians inside of the house of Commons. This is done by have a number of screens that transmit live feed images of protests both in Parliament square and any other protesting site in the UK into the House of Commons to make politicians more aware. Modern British Academy The Modern British Academy aims to prepare young citizens for their future though educating them and allow them to think more for themselves. The Academy is a modernized adaptation of Plato’s Academy where there is an emphasis on learning though debates and personal exploration through reading and interacting with your peers.
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Touchstone
Mobile Protest Unit
Barometer: House of Parliament Interior
Modern British Academy Ministry Perspective Views
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1. Steel reinforced concrete foundations 2. Sliding Glass doors which open up the central atrium to the outer courtyard 3. South Facing Solar Shading reducing the direct sunlight on the ground floor and debating area 4. Suspended Glass facade held up by steel connections and trusses 5. Steel connection joining structural columns to glass facade 6. 200 mm round structural columns 7. Suspension roof connection attaching the glass facade to horizontal load beam 8. Steel frame roof, covering over atrium space by being connected to the brick structure expanding over until the glass facade 9. Horizontal Steel I-beams 10. Inner timber cladding reducing noise diffusion and reducing environmental noise from the exterior 11. Steel frame fire security staircase 12. Roof windows that open to allow warm air to exit the building to take advantage of the stack up effect 13. Double layered brick load-bearing wall 14. Increased sound insulation to reduce noise in quite study areas 15. Glass Study windows located adjacent to study desks with view of the Palace of Westminster 16. Small windows to allow rays of light to entre the library space, lightning it up and giving small views of the Palace of Westminster 17. 3 meter glass windows that opens the building up to the outer square allowing visual contact between the building’s users and people in the park 18. Stone paving for the outer courtyard 19. Foundations with drainage pipes 20. Concrete ground floor slab with floor heating 21. Timber cladding to increase comfort for users to sit in the debating area 22. Structural steel I-beam grid holding up the intermediate floors 23. Timber furnishing proving seating for the cafeteria space 24. Steel frame sustaining glass panels 25. Laminated glass for noise reduction, allowing the library space to be quieter and not get effected by the noisier atrium space
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Materiality and Structure Section Scale 1:50 East Facing
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Ministry Section
m ovember 2013
Ministry Elevation
weekend draws to a close, David walks to the north end of the site to catch the tube back home. As he leaves he realizes how much more there is too know and how ant knowledge is to modern society and to the common citizen in order to take the right decisions in life.
3D Section
Ministry Interior View Ministry Exploded Drawing
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Matt Rosier
MINISTRY OF NETWORK CITY
With the introduction of NETWORK CITY to London; a system that will form a link between online and wireless activity and the physical infrastructure through forming two-way relationships between users and the city, London may hope to return to what it once was: a thriving landscape of fresh connection and cultural activity. A system such as this is a mammoth undertaking - and requires a suitably bold centrepiece; the Ministry of NETWORK CITY is at the core of this system; feeding, regulating, responding and revealing the network functions that many may otherwise disregard as manifesting independently and without consequence all over London. The MNC primarily serves as a functional and highly integral part of the NETWORK CITY infrastructure - however it also invites and encourages public interaction. It is key that people can explore and feel that there is a transparency within the work undertaken here, as NETWORK CITY cannot work without public trust.
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Barometer perspective section
Entering the data streams
Camera Obscura Device
Systems Research Wireless hat
Tower Section
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70Ministry - Inside the Server Tower
Exploded construction layers of tower
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Matt Sawyer EXPLORATION
The project addresses the social concern that the current urban fabric no longer explores the city landscape. The inhabitants progress through the metropolis with no deviation or experience content on speed rather than fulfillment. Through the year the projects have had this concern in mind; the Ariadne device was created to inhibit exploration, the touchstone required exploration to unlock its secrets, the beacon began to force exploration and the guild of cartography began to record the movements of the city inhabitants. The Beacon initially blocked all transmissions within an area that forced exploration. This project continued onto the Guild of Cartography, which mapped and recorded the movements of those new explorers. The maps were large and they recorded the journey through cutting the surface. Through cutting spaces emerged which were inhabited with suspended walkways. Through this act the visitors were retracing the movements of previous explorers when moving through the building, and map. The building also harnessed the environment by growing plants within the site, which is used to produce inks. These inks are used to evoke and record feelings and thoughts of the journey that are expressed onto the maps. Through exploration we gain a greater emotional connection to the city around us and through this connection we have more experience. By using the architectural fabric and old navigation techniques we no longer require the use of digital satellite navigation devices, which drain all excitement and joy from the city. Only by exploration can new spaces, views and moments be captured which truly inspire and fulfill.
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1,2 Ariadne device 3 Globe touchstone
The Beacon Final
Condensation Harvester
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Ministry
External approach
Ministry technology section
Box structure construction
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Oliver Cradock LIBRARY OF MEMORY
One of the basic human requirements is the need to dwell, and one of the central human acts is the act of inhabiting, of connecting ourselves, however temporarily, with a place on the planet which belongs to us and to which we belong. This is not, especially in the tumultous present, an easy act (as is attested by the uninhabitable no-places in cities everywhere), and it requires help: we need allies in inhabitation. Charles Moore, Foreword, In Praise of Shadows
In response to the increasing loss of personal identity evident in this current modern climate, we must celebrate and remember what makes us truly individual and forges our identities - our MEMORIES. A Ministry of the unseen landscape is to be constructed. Unlike any other ministry, it aims to archive a collective human identity through the gathering and sharing of individual personal identities - projected through our memories.
Touchstone
Users will be invited to record a memory, no matter how meaningless or seemingly insignificant. These will be archived within what is essentially a LIBRARY OF MEMORY, which they will then be invited to explore themselves, and have an insight upon the memories of others. This is a physical representation of the specialty of holding evident the human presence in architecture. It is the hope that by reading another’s memory, no matter how mundane or insignificant, that perceiving the World through another’s eyes for only a moment, will unlock a door to reflection upon one’s own life and related experiences. So little do we take the time to truly look back upon our experiences amidst the busy system of the City and modern life.
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A Pensive pavillion, garden of contemplation
Wind delineation device
Library of Memory River Approach
Concept Massing Model
Dual walkway construction & exploded views
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Timber Casket
First Floor plan
View through lower walkway over river
Library of Memory interior
Recording Room
North East Facing section
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Tom Hall
MINISTRY OF STORIES “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights In the current system, the government not only controls how we access information, but what information and history is kept. The Ministry of Stories aims to mend this.
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‘Boris’s clock’
Barometer Interior Perspective View
Site story recorder
Barometer Section
Ministry of Stories construction
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Ministry of Stories library
Ministry River side Elevation
Ministry Section Perspectives
Ministry of Stories research pod
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Sarish Younis
THE WEAVING CABINET: MINISTRY OF FLAX TO LINEN CULTIVATION To revealing the Richness of the Unseen, its traditions, its celebrations, its events, it rituals and bringing back a greater depth of meaning in current rituals in London’s society.
People come and go on the site but there is no sense of meaning, a sense of an gathering and celebration. As in history Westminster was a place to celebrate and gather, the House of Parliament was closely connected; being the main ceremonial route for all rituals and celebrations. The history was rich in its culture and traditions which has been lost in current situations on the site; losing the cites celebrative identity and its meaning.
Above: Parliament and Everyday Rituals-system research. Below: The Hidden Event touchstone, The loss of gathering and meaning a concept model .
The ministry try’s to reveal a modern day ritual ‘shopping’ through a material in is containing in 70% of our everyday objects; Flaxx to Linen. “No herb is so needed and has so many uses to mankind as flax”, said Bartholomew This ministry is working together in relation to the seasons changes and how they has effect on the growth of Flax which effects the overall production system, this therefore makes people aware of time and the importance of different times, bring them close to nature and gardeningand ainly the reality of making a Fabric and valuing its making procedures. This modern loss of meaning of this ritual is challenged of its superficiality through enriching the process by making it real and bringing back in the making and celebration of all the stages, as presently the actual making of the garments is unconsidered. As they are made and completed the people engage with others and find meaning there, not in the garment itself. So the process, the being with others and also being tied into something to do with place, with the seasons, with process working towards growing, weaving, spinning and tailoring gives a sense of meaning rather than just a desire. 84
Poetry of Small Things: movement drawing device
Barometer Interior View looking Towards Answer Pavilion. Above: Exploded drawings of The Barometer
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Section Scale 1:50
The Hidden Landscape; The Ceremonial Ritual of Question & Answer
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Ceremonial Enterance Central Table Central Light Tube The hanging shelves The Current Year Shelves Opening to the Auditorium The inner Space for the viewing video Seating steps
Barometer Ceremonial Ritual Drawing, Plan, Section, Ministry concept drawing of the 85 interior loom space.
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Flax to Linen conceptual models, interior space looking towards the loom & ministry cross section
Flax to Linen Ministry Ground Floor Plan
These perpsective views shows the flow of yarn weaving through the Loom
Above: Flax to Linen Ministry- 3D models Perspectives views & Long Section
These viewssamilar shows the flow ofcompelxity yarn weaving the Loom Illustrating how the Loom becomes theperpsective space and using material withthrough other functions inside the building
Illustrating LoomThese becomes perpsective thewith space views and using shows samilar the flowconnected material of yarncompelxity weaving with other the Loom functions inside the Showing the detailshow of the overhanging pods hanging fabric lines to linearthrough structures building
Illustrating Showing thehow details the of Loom the overhanging becomes the pods spacewith and hanging using samilar fabricmaterial lines connected compelxity to linear with structures other functions inside the building
Showing the details of the overhanging pods with hanging fabric lines connected to linear structures
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unit B
the unseen landscape Sarah Stevens, David Grindley, Maita Kessler
2011-2012 Oxford Brookes University Sarah Stevens sstevens@brookes.ac.co.uk www.unitb-responsivearchitecture.blogspot.co.uk
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