MACKEY Portfolio of UNDERgraduate architectural works
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Cover Image: Stairs Northen Stage. First year city drawing project. Acrylic on canvas 2
William Mackey
PROJECTS
ACADEMIC PORTFOLIO
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Strictly Dance Inferno
An eclectic collection of dance studios aimed at deconstructing dance culture in Blackpool.
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Parc Strata
Alteration of disused factory space for theatre company.
ESSAYS
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Vermeer and the Dreamer
Essay on 17th century portrayal of domestic life
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The Political role of Performance Space
Dissertation Extract
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STRICTLY DANCE INFERNO An eclectic collection of dance studios aimed at deconstructing dance culture in Blackpool.
Studio: Stage: Tutors:
Pleasure Beach Second semester Third year Matt Ozga-Lawn, James Craig
The studio focused on architectures of pleasure that aimed to reinvigorate the decaying seaside town of Blackpool. Strictly dance inferno began by an interrogation of the existing Blackpool tower - A relic of a past golden age of a holiday town. As the surrounding buildings decline, the ballroom at the towers base still attracts large crowds. Its popularity is due to tit being the setting of reality TV dance competitions such as strictly come dancing. This project seeks to capitalize on this trend by creating a second tower with facilities for dance within Blackpool. This second tower is a deconstruction of the form of Blackpool tower as well as the activ-
ities occurring within it. It aims to exaggerate the experience of dance culture in Blackpool so as to further popularize it. Providing a more novelty setting for these TV shows. This involves a spatial reconfiguration of the mixed typologies of tower and ballroom. Creating several levels of dance within the tower instead of a single one at its base. Taking dance in its essence to be a cathartic expression of emotions. The tower allows participants to act out their sinful desires. Each studio link’s to a particular sin identified in Dante’s Inferno and programatically organized by this text. This exposition of human emotion is the essential element in creating reality television.
The television popularisation of dance in Blackpool has involved certain changes to the form of 5
Above: Site axonometric. Right: Evolution of Blackpool tower into the studios. 6
Blackpool Tower
Tower inversion and ballroom deconstruction
Tower legs follow the steps of a waltz
Consolidation of leg structure
Arrangement of studios
Combination to form new tower 7
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Canto IV
Canto V
Canto VI
Limbo
Lust
Gluttony
‘We came to the foot of a noble castle, seven times circled by high walls, defended round by a fair streamlet.This we passed as if hard ground; through seven gates I entered with these sages; we came to a meadow of fresh verdure.’
‘I had come to a place mute of all light, the bellows as the sea does in a tempest, if it be combated by opposing winds.The infernal hurricane that never rests carries the spirits along its rapine; whirling and smiting it molests them’
‘I am in the third circle, that of rain eternal, accursed, cold and heavy.’
This level of the building is designed based on the castle described, with seven sides, seven layers, and a meadow inside. It is designed around the limbo dance which has its tradition in being performed at wakes and is symbolic of an emergence or life after death this therefore sets an appropriate tone for the building.
On this level wind is created by fans which also to keep tension in the levels bubble structure. The room is set up for pole dancing due to its lustful nature.
This level is an overindulgence in the glittery flashy aesthetic. Here confetti and all manner of weird substances rain on the dancers.
The idea of this sludge symbolizing the empty sensuality of overindulgence.
Canto VII
Canto XI
Canto XXXII
Wrath
Heracy
Trechary
‘We crossed the circle to the other bank, above a fount that boils and pours down through a cleft that proceeds from it.The water was far darker than perse; and we, in company with dusky waves, entered down through a strange way. A marsh it makes that is named Styx’ In this level of the inferno souls are submerged in the Styx. Competitors can take a chance to relax in this halfway pool.
Contestants are grilled by the judges. ‘here are the heresiarchs with their followers of every sect, and the tombs are much more laden than thou thinkest. Like with like is buried here and the monuments are more and less hot’ This level recreates the atmosphere with a confined hot space. The dance is a tango due to its fiery connotations.
‘I turned and saw before me, and under my feet, a lake which through frost had semblance of glass and not water’ The deepest circle of hell is frozen. This level will therefore be an ice rink. Couples must now compete against each other for the prize.
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Above: Physical models exploring the towers form.
Above: Physical models exploring the towers form. Right: Section showing the progression of dance studios.
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Left: Detail of studio meeting the structure Right: Exterior perspective
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PARC STRATA
Alteration of disused factory space for theatre company. Studio: Stage: Tutor:
Can Ricart First semester Third year David Mckenna
Can Ricart is an abandoned factory complex in the old industrial area of Pobleneou in Barcelona. Its varied history is visible in the material layers of the remaining buildings. This proposal seeks to re develop the area for the theatre company La Machine, providing a workshop and a public interface as part of the wider cultural regeneration of the area. Inspired by the juxtaposing strips of material on the building. Strips of varied programs, from themed gardens to play areas form the public space. These strips also work with the sites programatically
unstable nature, as individual strips can mutate and change without effecting the whole. This creates the possibility of unlikely social interactions happening between strips. The building itself fits in with the layered structure of the public space by appearing as a new layer simply sat on top of existing buildings. This creates a floor of sheltered spaces below for chaotic functions such as the workshop and cafe and gathering areas. In contrast the roof itself creates a long narrative journey though exhibition spaces providing relevant views of what happens below. The logic of the journey is the same as that of the public space where one moves between layers for a change in experience.
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The urban design strategy above shows how some of the existing factory buildings are demolished to create pedestrian connections accross the block. Pedestrians can wonder from the park to the south to the central pedestrian route. Sandwiched inbetween these are the strips of public space.
Parti diagram explaining the narrative journey through the roof. How one passes between different layers for a change in experience.
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Start of gallery route
Sculpture gallery
Viewing gallery
Office and Admin
Projection room
First Floor Plan
Reception
Cafe area
Workshop
Viewing Galley
Workshop Store
Ground Floor Plan 17
Section through the workshop and viewing areas above it.
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Technical report showing structural build up.
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Exterior perspective with a La machine creation leaving the workshop.
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Interior perspective showing the cafe area with the exibition space hanging above.
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Vermeer and the Dreamer Does Vermeer’s portrayal of domestic life concur with or refute gaston bachellards idea that the “house protects the dreamer”? And what can we learn about house and home from Vermeer’s work? Gaston Bachellard said in his book the poetics of space that if he were to name the “chief benefit of the house” it would be that “the house shelters day-dreaming, the house protects the dreamer, and the house allows one to dream in peace”, and when looking at Vermeer’s paintings of the domestic environment we see they feature a dreamer. “The art of painting” is a good example of this. The woman wears her pearls, staring longingly at a letter from a beloved. She is in an archetypical state of daydream. But, despite often having a dreamer as a subject, in his domestic scenes, does Vermeer agree Bachellards fundamental idea that home’s function is to “protect the dreamer”? Firstly I think it’s important we realize Vermeer painted in an idealized way. The symbolic nature of his paintings suggests he wasn’t purely a realist. His paintings had a deeper narrative although not necessarily explicit, this would suggest he was somewhat influenced by classicism. In fact it is argued in Vermeer And Plato: Painting The Ideal that his paintings are underpinned by classical philosopher Plato’s ideas on natural philosophy. Explained in the most basic way, it’s the notion that in another dimension there exists an ideal object for every object that we see in our world. And that everything we see in our world bears some essence of this but it is only a shadow in comparison. By this logic Vermeer would have believed in the ideal house. And as he painted almost exclusively domestic scenes, his paintings could be likened to some kind of a visual dialectic to get to this ideal house, or at least to capture some fundamental essence of the house. I think it is quite obvious in his paintings that he did try and capture certain essences, as although the scenes are all different, there are certain recurring themes: the general composition and perspective, inclusion of personal objects from his own home, a window dramatically lighting the scene, and most importantly the subject: the dreamer. So if Vermeer believes one of the essences of the ideal house is a dreamer, I think its starting to look like he agrees with Bachellard in that “the house protects the dreamer”. But of course what is this protection the house gives? What does Vermeer do to shelter his subjects daydreaming? Firstly I think its important to point out the mood of calmness and serenity Vermeer achieves in his domestic scenes (in contrast to the rowdiness that many of his Netherlands contemporaries portray); in the simple act of the milk pouring in the milk maid, it feels like one would be able to hear it if22they were there. I think this kind atmosphere, although not a particularly tangible
thing, is a kind of protection of the dreamer. A thing that can be created in the house that allows a kind of inner calm. Is this home? So to go further we must first try and define house and home. The house I would say is a place for dwelling, in which one can make their home (note that this requires action on the part of individual). Therefore home is something unique to the individual, something they build through experiences and effecting their environment. Karsten Harries more elegantly puts it “To make their home in the world, that is, to build, human beings must gain more than physical control, they must establish spiritual control. To do so they must wrest order from what at first seems contingent, fleeting, and confusing, transforming chaos into cosmos.” This idea of spiritual control ties in nicely with the protection of daydream. We could say a house protects daydream, allowing for the establishment spiritual control that makes it home. So where do we see this spiritual control happening in Vermeer’s work? Vermeer often featured personal household items in his paintings. White-wine pitchers in Delft porcelain, or leather-upholstered chairs from the home kitchen appear in many of his paintings. He even went to the effort of bringing his mother in laws heavy oak kitchen table upstairs into his studio for a few. Going to this effort shows he thought a big part of creating a home environment was to adorn it with personal objects, objects with meaning and memories unique to the individual. Juhani Pallasmaa says “our constructed world helps us to remember who we are” so in adorning, arranging, ordering, effectively constructing our environment from personal objects we gain a spiritual control, and identity. We make our home. So with this order and memory in the house, daydream is encouraged. The dreamer is protected. We have now seen that Vermeer paints a domestic environment that protects the dreamer, providing a retreat from the world. An environment, which also helps define, and give a foundation to the individual. So we could say Vermeer in this way would agree with Bachellard, in that “[the house] is an instrument with which to confront the cosmos”. But this quote, along with what was previously said, conjures up other ideas on house and home as well; namely the juxtaposition of the intimate and infinite. His painting “the Geographer” is a good example of this. The subject is engaged in the intimate act of contemplating the map, yet he looks out of the window to the actual vast and infinite world, (this use of the map in comparison to
reality highlights a huge contrast in scale) it gives the feeling that one’s home is the corner of their world. We see this juxtaposition again in another one of Vermeer’s recurring themes- the singular window. Because of his masterful way of showing light (arguably his greatest quality as an artist) we get sense two very separate worlds: the darker, calmer, dream inducing intimate home, and the infinite nature of the world beyond the window. As another note on Vermeer’s use of light, he did some of his paintings in the chiaroscuro style, Essentially creating drama and an odd focus with a high contrast of light, and areas of deep mysterious dark. “Woman holding a balance” would be a good example of this. Juhani Pallasmaa says in his book the eye’s of the skin that “[the shadow] provides a realm from which fantasies and dreams arise” So in these chiaroscuro paintings Vermeer could be creating a stronger shelter for the dreamer, and even encouraging the viewer into a similar state of daydream. In conclusion, I believe Vermeer would have agreed with Bachelard on his idea that “the house protects the dreamer”. Although there are many many different versions of housing throughout history, and across cultures, the successful ones all share an essence that is to protect the dreamer. Vermeer also dealt with the idea of home, with it being something unique to the individual, a spiritual calm that they create consciously and through their experiences, that it defines them and helps them to confront the cosmos.
Studio: Stage: Tutor:
Place of houses Second year first semester Peter Kellet
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THE POLITICAL ROLE OF PERFORMANCE SPACE
Theatre royal Newcastle Upon tyne Capacity 1900 Built 1837 as part of ‘Grainger and Clayton’s redevelopment of its city center
Newcastle’s growth in manufacturing during the 1800’s further defined social strata and class divisions.This was due to the lower classes earning an hourly wage whilst upper and middle classes gained their income from the surplus wealth generated from this production. This chapter investigates how its 1837 Theatre Royal: a building that simultaneously hosted these disparate classes for the collective ritual of entertainment, shaped social relations between them. Class division was defined straight away by entry into the theatre. The cheapest seats in the gallery were reached from a small side entrance on Shakespeare Street, the more expensive seats in the stalls from a separate entrance on Market Street, and the most expensive seats in the
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boxes and the dress circle, via the grand portico at the front of the building. This neoclassical feature referenced the power and wealth of the Romans to the privileged patrons who walked through it, marking their social position above others. Separate circulation spaces as well as occurring in the theatre, were also part of the typology of English stately homes at the time. In these buildings separate stairs kept servants out of sight and were therefore a constant reminder of their lowly social position in relation to the owners of the house. Could we say perhaps that the spatial segregation of different classes in the theatre also had a similar purpose? In 1986, as part of the interior alteration of the building by
Studio: Stage: Tutor:
RHWL, a single staircase was constructed to connect all tiers of the building. This may have been a tacit acknowledgment that the separation within the buildings circulation was a tool to uphold a hierarchy that was no longer appropriate.
to separate classes in the first place.
The spaces classes were split into also ranged in quality. In the gallery at the top of the building the lower classes sat, (or on a crowded night), stood. They were rowdy and uncivilized to a point where the floor had to be ‘covered with lead to prevent nuisances.’ The contrast of this behavior to the codes of politeness observed by higher classes is indicative of a vast gap in living standards at the time. It well have been the reason it was considered necessary
Although this allowed a society with large inequalities to enjoy the same performance at the same time. It did strengthen the identity of classes by associating them with different behavioral codes which arguably increased inequality.
To further neutralize this behavior the gallery was quite isolated. It was ‘elevated so much above the level of the stage that the lower tones of the actors [were] almost inaudible.’
By having the means to pay more, one could get a much better experience of the performance, in increasingly opulent surroundings. For example those in the stalls had
Dissertation Third year Andrew Ballantyne
better chairs and were closer to stage. Different levels of opulence to signify class were further likely to strengthen the idea of a hierarchy. The upper classes sat in the Dress Circle, named, because it was obligatory to wear evening dress when sitting there. This shows the importance of displaying a hierarchy. The intention of displaying those at the top of the hierarchy is even more apparent in the design of the boxes. They contained the best seats for the upper classes, and were positioned either side of the stage at an angle so as to enable the rest of the audience to view those inside displaying their wealth, connections and class. The boxes had a less than optimum view of the stage, highlighting the impor25
tance of this display. They even had their own curtains and arches so that they resembled small versions of the stage further stating that the lives of those inside was also a performance to be watched. This optimization of the boxes to display particular patrons’ wealth, and furthermore the isolation of the lower classes in the gallery, shows that the theatre was a place for reinforcing the hierarchy seen in society. As Paulo Friere says “The oppressors do not favor promoting the community as a whole, but rather selected leaders.” Interactions between audience and actors were reduced by the theater’s design, Earlier theaters such as the 26
Globe or Greek theaters, positioned the audience all around the stage, which encouraged a dynamic relationship between actors an audience. However in the Theatre Royal the proscenium arch marked the division the stage from the spatial domain of the audience. Those closest to the stage were also seated encouraging more sedate behavior compared to previous theatre spaces such as the Globe. This also meant there was a lower density of audience close to the stage. These factors served to limit the participation of audience members gradually silencing them. In effect, performances at the theatre became less of a collective ritual and more of a passively consumed spectacle. Limiting notions of community between theatre goers and there-
fore possibilities of reducing social hierarchy. We see here evidence that the Theatre Royal manifests the ruling ideology of its time; that of strong class identity and divisions. Furthermore we see that the relationship between architecture and society is symbiotic: as the way in which people inhabit the theatre in turn influences their ideology. In this way the theatre was political. It could be an instrument of power to maintain the social divisions that the ruling class required of it.
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