SCULPTING WAKEFIELD

I have writer’s block over this one, which in a way is rather appropriate. This building is all about form, if you missed this on the approach, the form branded tea towels will get you in the gift shop. Undoubtedly the building is a response to context, but such a high profile gallery landing on the edge of Wakefield leads to quite an interesting contradistinction. Bleached eyes, induced by the white glare of the galleries inside and the large amount of art borrowed from the Tate could disorientate your mind; but huge square openings allow for views out onto and over the river towards the Chantry chapel placing you, the gallery and Barbara. The gallery is deceptively large and perhaps it’s size is responsible for some of the cheap finishes inside but in a way would it be right to build a spanking new gallery out of solid gold at the moment?  

The collection if fantastic and listening to the general chatter of revellers and combined with the fact there was a queue to get in before it opened the Hepworth will prove a veritable asset in boosting the image and success of Wakey. This is an international gallery with a Yorkshire twang. Go visit, but maybe take a picnic.  

Block off the old Chip

David Chipperfield Hepworth Gallery, Wakefield. 

Barbara Hepworth's maquettes.

Unavoidable clues that you are in West Yorkshire.

PERSPECTIVE COLLAGE

The days (or weeks, depending on how optimistic you are) are counting down until the hand in for this year’s project. Although the overall design is constantly being refined, we must think about which drawings are needed and how. Here are a few images experimenting with materials and the key views I’d like to explore to illustrate the main intent and ideas behind the scheme. 

SEQUENTIAL SKETCHES

Here are some excerpts from the latest tales of the Moleskine. Some sketches to find out the nature of the spaces I'm trying to create. 

WESTMINSTER CATHEDRAL

This year’s studio has been focused around Westminster Cathedral and the public space surrounding it. Currently a piazza exists in front of the main entrance to the cathedral. This piazza, created in the late 70’s allows for a direct relationship between the Cathedral and the busy arterial route of Victoria Street. This was a bold intervention revealing the impressive front façade, but new developments and the scale of Victoria Street appear to dominate the space, competing in scale with the cathedral. This proposal aims to close off this link, reinstating oblique lines sight on approach to the cathedral. The public space is shifted to the side of the cathedral revealing the long façade, aiming to form a relationship with the residential mansion houses that surround the site. In a stroke of genius the square has been named Westminster Square.  PLEASE COMMENT!

Existing Piazza

Front facade, currently facing Victoria Street.

Side Facade details.

site plan for new square.

SKETCH A MINUTE

A series of quick elevational studies done this week. I have also been reading Rob Krier's 'Urban Space', this and the interview in this month's AA files with Leon Krier with Christopher Pierce & Thomas Weaver, has lead me to James Stirling's Black Book. Fantastic set of drawings in this book, can anyone recommend more publications worth looking at?

GOING UNDERGROUND

I wrote this dissertation last year as part of the BArch course. If you would like to read a copy please email me.

Abstract

Deep beneath the city streets of Manchester lies a network of reinforced concrete tunnels known as the ‘Guardian’ Underground Telephone Exchange.

Today, this ageing relic of the Cold War operates silently as a piece of infrastructure facilitating the lives of the urbanites above. Little information regarding the ‘Guardian’ is readily accessible and the subversive nature of the structure acts to entomb the reality of the network’s operation. A lack of information allows facts to be replaced by myths, fostering numerous perceptions of the same intangible space.

The ‘Guardian’ Underground Telephone Exchange was constructed during a time of escalating international tensions as a ‘hardened’ bunker to protect vital communication links in the event of a nuclear attack upon Manchester. However, this defining characteristic of protection was lost as advances in bomb technology rendered the tunnels redundant. The bombproof tunnels still exist but the condition of nuclear confrontation does not. This dissertation focuses on how perceptions of the redundant, hidden spaces change through time by: looking at the people that seek to explore abandoned buildings in the city, the public who may not even know of the systems existence and comparisons of similar wartime architecture alongside the effect that the invention of the ‘bomb’ had across the wider discipline of Urban Design.  

WESTMINSTER PIAZZA

This year's studio project is based around Bentley's Westminster Cathedral and the public space in front of it. 

ONE LEICESTER, TWO DRAWINGS

Introducing a new genus…MOLESKANS. It is a shameless pun that in real terms equates to scans from my Moleskins. Arguably the best sketchbooks out there.

Some 70's tower blocks as seen from Victoria park, Leicester. I didn't get round to drawing the Stirling one next to these two for some reason.

ARCHAEOLOGY'S PLACES & CONTEMPORARY USES

I was lucky enough to be involved with this two week intensive workshop Venice, hosted at the IUAV. The workshop was a bringing together of architecture students from Manchester, Venice, Barcelona and archaeology students from Catania. There were four archaeological sites situated in the Veneto region, each requiring a form of protective cover or structure. Students were put into mixed groups containing 2-3 architecture students and 1-2 archeology students. The output from each group was then to design a cover for the chosen site. I worked with a student from Barcelona and collaborated with three students of archaeology to design a scheme for the ruins at Altino. There were four schemes for each site, 16 in total, which on the last day were judged by a jury made up of architects, archeologists and officials from the sites in question. Our scheme ‘DIS-CONNECTION’ came in at 1^st place out of the schemes for Atino. The workshop was a great opportunity to work with people from different schools/disciplines/countries and I had a fantastic time. All of the projects have embarked on a traveling exhibition around the contributing schools and I think it will arrive in Manchester sometime next year…I hope my model hasn’t fallen to bits by then.  www.iuav.it/archeoplaces2

Here are the presentation boards for our proposal. The scheme was about opening up the site to visitors in a way that would communicate the ruins in context. This was done by use of a path that moved from the museum to the ruins gradually lowering and then terminating at a point as to reveal/imply the original city walls of Altino. 

Exhibition organising students that all speak different languages to an Italian schedule…logistical nightmare.  

HOME AND SOCIAL LIFE IN VENICE

Here are a selection of drawings that were done as part of a 5^th year project entitled ‘Home and Social Life in Venice”. The site used is archetypical of the many Campi found in Venice, that are the basis of the city’s urban fabric. The site was annexed by the imposing Chiesa san Barnaba and the square in front has been the location for many films including ‘Summer time’ (1955) starring Katherine Hepburn. A canal with towpath ran alongside the length of the site leaving a narrow, yet interesting space to work with. The programme was meant to confront the issues of living in Venice including the vast numbers of tourists that can be found there. In my case as a response to the site’s history as a place of gambling and gaming, I decided to model an international Bridge tournament (The Venice cup) hall with local bridge club facilities.