PAU

L R

OB

ER

TS

YEAR 1 : ARCHITECTURE

Semester 1:Urban Portrait.Bifunctional Furniture.Mocap TheatrePoor Priests Hospital

UCA #: 0803886 e-mail: PRoberts2@students.ucreative.ac.uk

UR

BA

N P

OR

TR

AIT

GL

IM

PS

ES

O

F

TH

E

IN

FR

A

OR

DI

NA

RY

“How should we take account of, question, describe what happens every day and recurs eve-ry day: the banal, the quotidian, the obvious, the common, the ordinary, the infra-ordinary, the background noise, the habitual? (...)What we need to question is bricks, concrete, glass, our table manners, our utensils, our tools, the way we spend our time, our rhythms. To question that, which seems to have ceased forever to astonish us. We live, true, we breathe, true; we walk, we open doors, we go down staircases, we sit at a table in order to eat, we lie down on a bed in order to sleep. How?

Where? When? Why?”

Georges Perec: Approaches to What? (1973) In: Species of Spaces and Other Pieces. Penguin Classics 2008. p.210

RECEIVERIn the first phase of the project, we have designed, built and tested a wearable device manipulating the ordinary perception of space. This gadget modifies the senses (sight, smell, hear-ing, taste, touch) in such a way that some of them are blocked (or at least dimmed) while others are amplified or directed in a specific manner.By manipulating the faculties by which the body receives ex-ternal stimuli the perception of the environment is reduced and enhanced at the same time. The obstruction of some senses, allows to focus on the remaining ones and to create a ‘hyper-responsiveness’ in order to receive the infra-ordinary signals of the everyday that otherwise would stay unnoticed.

Rearticulations of public space

When we look at architec-ture we tend to focus on the materiality of the built envi-ronment, on walls and roofs, windows and doors. An in-spection of the infra ordinary could lead us to focus on the minutiae, the component parts that comprise the whole of the forms that surround us. We propose that buildings are a side effect of architecture, that spaces and volumes of space are what is important. This most fundamental of architecture principles is least perceptible to us. We inhabit these spaces and look out from them at their defining boundaries.

Representations of the city concentrate on these bound-aries. We focus on the facades and consider individual build-ings in isolation. We wish to make solid and discernable the public spaces we inhabit every day, to turn vacuum into volume. We will explore how space is articulated by buildings in combination, and re articulated by temporal interventions.

RECORDER In this phase of the project, we undertook an urban drift through central Canterbury using the perception device in order to detect infra-ordinary phenomena of the contemporary city.By employing various techniques of recording (collecting, writ-ing, drawing, filming, photography, etc.) we observed, registered and began to understand the mutual dependence between the urban fabric and the people using it, between space and pro-gramme, between places and the events occurring.

The device compresses space, removing all elevation detail and contour informa-tion. Walking was a challenge, every curb, incline, decline or slight bump was rendered invisible. In some areas a vertical drop of several meters resembled nothing more than a textural change on a flat plane. With no horizon navigation became challeng-ing. Landmarks were lost and in some areas the repetitive patterns of the pavement or an endless expanse of grass were all that could be used to determine orientation. It reminded us of a map, but a map with a very human dimension.

It was as though the map had had every detail entered upon it no matter how insignificant or transitory. The smallest ob-stacle was elevated to the im-portance of the built environ-ment and we considered the posibilities of recording the way in which these obstacles - created by and comprising of the inhabitants of the city - affect the navigable space of the public areas of town.

4 x 4 x 4To examine the ways in which public space is re-formed over time we visited four spaces, 4 times in the space of one day, at 4 hour intervals. All the interven-tions into public space were drawn onto a map. from this we extracted a negative of the space to examine the how these spaces can be rearticu-lated by human agency. For this exercise anything which affected navigable space was documented. This included cars, outdoor eating areas and rubbish bags but also static pedestrians who substantially redefine an envi-ronment.

The Buttermarket area un-derwent the most significant transformations with large crowds outside the Cathe-rdral, parked vehicles and a large outdoor eating ares attached to pub.

Whitefriars changed signifi-cantly less. possibly due to the fact that this area is pri-vately owned and the spaces is blocked from traffic and tightly controlled

AMPLIFIER In the third design step, we had to edit, refine and extend our accumulated research data in order to produce a set of spatial notations relating to the studied topics and the investigated places and events.

Win

dow

Cle

aner

sca�

oldi

ng

sca�

oldi

ng

sca�

oldi

ng

sca�

oldi

ng

2. Whitefriars 5. Buttermarket3. Rose Lane

TCBs

wa�

e va

n

TCBs

Wa�

e va

n

Wat

ch s

elle

r

TCBs

TCBs

1. Longmarket

9AM

1PM

5PM

9PM

Public space is not stable; it is defined by changeable boundaries of varying physi-cality. The blueprint shows very clearly the outer limits of a volume: limits which appear to be as indelible as the ink in which they were drawn. We propose to review the plan view of the city, to examine from above how space is rearticulated by hu-man agency.

Time affects public space. At different times the volumes of the city change. Regular and dramatic shifts including the bi-weekly market reconfig-ure the city substantially, but even a discarded shopping trolley impacts perceptual and navigable space. These interventions will be docu-mented by looking at fixed locations over time. The markets will be considered for their profound impact on the High Street and the Dane John; The Buttermarket area for the intervention of businesses and a survey of static pedestrians; in addition to other isolated locations identified on walking tours of the city.

DISPLAY Finally, we curated the results of their analytical and descriptive researc h by designing and building a spatial exhibition device displaying the artefacts produced. The project ended with the collective exhibition urban portrait - glimpses of the infra-ordinary

REARTICULATIONS OF PUBLIC

SPACEWhen we look at architecture we tend to focus on the materiality of the built environment, on walls and roofs, windows and doors. We propose that buildings are a side effect of architecture, that spaces and volumes of space are what is impor-tant. This most fundamental of architecture princi-ples is least perceptible to us. We inhabit these spaces and look out from them at their defining boundaries.

Representations of the city concentrate on these boundaries. We focus on the facades and consider individual buildings in isolation. We wish to make solid and discernable the public spaces we inhabit every day, to turn vacuum into volume. We will explore how space is articulated by buildings in combination, and rearticulated by temporal inter-ventions.

Public space is not stable; it is defined by change-able boundaries of varying physicality. The blue-print shows very clearly the outer limits of a volume: limits which appear to be as indelible as the ink in which they were drawn. We propose to review the plan view of the city, to examine from above how space is rearticulated by human agency.

We have recorded these spaces using video, and pho-tographic evidence, returning to the same sites at differ-ent times. Plans are used to diagrammatically record data, and the changing states of volumes of space are repre-sented using 2d isovists.

[2 i

n 1

]2 R

E:R

EA

DP

UB

LI

C

AN

D

PR

IV

AT

E

FU

RN

IT

UR

E

DESIGNThe second project of the year focused on the design of a bi-functional piece of furniture and investigated the relationships between an artefact’s structure, material and usage.

We were asked to design and build a performative object combining two different functions. Each artefact was supposed to either create a symbiotic relationship between two differ-ent types of furniture or to emphasize the friction between two conflicting/ competing activities. Additionally the proposals had to work for the private and the public realm alike.

The RE:READ stool has been designed to use the minimum of materials yet maintain a leaved construction that maximises storage possibili-ties and provides adjustable support for magazines, news-papers and other recyclable publications. In the public domain the stool provides a communal seating area and encourages re-use of some of our most disposable and yet regularly consumed items – newspapers and magazines. The stool itself is a mini-ature recycling plant offering people the opportunity to leave a finished publication in its base for another reader. It also promotes a more consid-ered approach to our recy-cling habits and is an invita-tion to philanthropy.

In the domestic environment the stool takes has multiple uses. It can be used as handy storage either permanently for books, journals, or as in the example at the top of the page, sheet music. Or it can be used to store materials in an easily accessible manner until it had been thoroughly read and is ready to be recy-cled. Our design was intend-

ed for utility and ornament, with a web of criss-crossing braces and ever changing textural detail provided by the addition of other materials.

3 stools can be made from one sheet of ply. The furni-ture remains highly portable-and uses only two cable ties as fixings.

IMPLEMENTATIONOn the one hand the invented types of furniture had to catalyse activities in the public realm and extend the repertoire of how exterior urban space is used. We selected a particular site, or a specific type of urban space for the temporary installation of our object. On the other hand the designs had to work in the private realm. After the completion of the project, the artefacts became permanent components of the our domestic environ-ments.

MO

CA

P

TH

EA

TR

E

Th

e

Ve

ss

el

a

nd

th

e

St

ag

e.

Inspirations.

Bruce NaumanTony OurslerNam une PaikStan Douglas - Journey into fearStan BrakhageLen LyeNorman Mclaren - esp Pas de deuxPeter Tscherkassky.

The theatre should be a laboratory for experimenta-tion. technology, theatre and music can be combined to create new types of perform-ance. I propose a hi tech theatre that uses the tech-nologys of procedural and performance animation to provide opportunities for new narrative forms. Instead of one stage I propose several micro stages that contain a discrete dramatic event. The events combine to form the overall narrative in an order which is determined by the audiences perambulations through the space.

Precedents/Inspiration

Idea Development

Final Review.

Final Review.

Chapel

POOR PRIESTS HOSPITALT a k e a p a r t a b u i l d i n g p r o j e c t : C r o w n P o s t R o o f

The first re-

corded history of a building on the site of the poor

priests hospital is in 1175 when Lambin Frese, a Canterbury Moneyer, leased the buildings from

the monks at Christchurch. His previous workshop was adjacent the Christ Church gate and it is thought that he was given an extra incen-

tive to move as it was a fire from his workshop that set light to the choir in 1174. His son eventually sold the buildings to Alexander of Gloucester who established the poor priests hospital

in 1220. By the 1343 the building was in poor shape but from the 1370’s major rebuilding took place and in 1373 it was rebuilt in stone and much of this is extant today.

The building survived the dissolution of the monasteries, but in 1575 was donated to the city for the use of the poor. At this point many altera-tions were made such as the addition of extra floors, stairs and kitchens, evidence of which can be witnessed in the remaining timbers.

Since then the hospital has been used for a range of purposes, it has been a house of correction, a home for the poor, and as a school for orphaned children of local tradesman. More recent history has seen the building used as a furniture store, an organ builders workshop, the Buffs Regimental museum (now above the library), and a

health clinic. Currently it houses the Canterbury Museum.

Chapel

Timber Frame jointing detail

Bell Cote

Octagonal Crown Post

Gablet Roof

Crown Post Roof

Kentish Peg Tiles

Service Wing

Great Hall

Solar

The building comprises 4 distinct sections, each of which have interesting structural variations. The chapel, now split onto two floors, but originally open from floor to rafters contains a good example of a crown

post roof (see page 3 for details). There is a central strut called the crown post that transfers the weight of the roof down to large tie beams. The crown post supports the collar purlin that

runs the length of the roof and in turn supports each common rafters collar. The collar triangulates and strengthens the structure. Where the rafter meets the wall we

see ashlaring, struts of wood that rise from the wall plate to the common rafter, often used to disguise the gap and often covered with lathe

and plaster, but here left on view.

In the Solar leading off from the chapel we seen an-other slightly more ornate example of a crown

roof with an octagonal section used in the crown posts and a bell cote

that has been added at a later date. The timbers

in here have also been treated

with

an ogee moulding.

The great hall contains a crown post roof which is unusually wide and unique as each set of common rafters

has a double collar, possibly due to the length of it’s span. The great hall terminates in a timber frame service wing that would have contained the kitchens.

It is unusual to have an adjoining kitchen are as they were often kept apart due to the fire risk. This section is supported by 9 posts and has a gablet roof toward the south end. The building jettys out

toward the rear and it is likely that it would have done so on both sides but the front has been removed when an outer skin of bricks and dormer windows were added at a later date.

Brunskill, R.W. Timber Building in Britain Victor Golancz, London, 1994

Brunskill, R.W. Traditional Buildings of Britain Victor Golancz, London, 1992

Detsicas, Alec. Collectanea Historica, Kent Archaeological Society, Kent. 1981.