Concrete Waffle slab

Much of my work at the moment is focused on the embracing the existing site conditions, one such site condition I seem to have held onto is the eccentric waffle slap which permeates the existing car-park space. In the case of the waffle slab in this building one can see how as the slab extends away from fenchurch street deeper into the surrounding urban context, it fragments and breaks/moves according to the urban condition. Where the road bends/adjusts slightly, the order of the slabs waffles breaks down . Such an interesting condition of the built environment probably exists throughout many mid 20th century London blocks. However, many may not be visible, because walls, rooms and other interventions would disallow someone from viewing the entire slab/waffle condition as one. As such, one aspect of this site I have decided to focus on exaggerating, highlighting is the waffle slabs eccentric form.

Further to this idea of looking at the waffle slab, I like the idea of taking a building material and pushing it to its practical limits so we may view it as more than just a building material. Taking it out of its usual context as a waffle I thought perhaps the waffle shape could be adjusted/ stretched so that it may become a vault in a crypt. One of my rooms is going to house a crypt underneath the main assembly hall. In such a place I would like to see the vaults become something more than just a room. I want to express the concrete as something more than itself, or perhaps find the "essence" of the material. As Martin Steinmann tells us, there is a trend in contemporary Swiss architecture wherein banal materials are being pushed to places wherein we see them as something more than the building material we are used to seeing them as. In such an instance, I could Imagine the vaults of the underground crypts becoming waffle- shaped vaults, so you experience the waffle as something completely different!!! how mad is that!!

Moving up a scale

After spending the last fortnight jumping between 1-500, 1-200 and 1-100 I have now start working at 1-50. Since a lot of my work concerns a phenomenal experience of interiors, the views out of those interiors and those views relationships to the city and the existing structure my photomontages are concerned with photos from inside the building. As such I have had to move up a scale.

Where to go from here & thesis plan

Currently looking at how the experience of a journey through and to a building can involve someone in the architecture of the city and how heighten ones sense of self and involvement and participation within that city. Through materiality and a journey through a building, revealing and concealing particular moments through this space is the way I am going to acheive this architecturally. I will reveal old/new, City/building/self, structure/volume/space. The way these are revealed will capture the specific relationships between them along the journey. The final view, will reveal some of these moments along the journey, with another view of the city so one can understand the relationship between them.

The main assembly rooms of the building will do something different and offer a reversal of place. Whilst along the journey one has been the observer, looking out, seeing themselves as part of the journey to where they are now, the assembly rooms and perhaps the meeting spaces will offer a reversal of perspective wherein the subject becomes the observed. I enjoy how the potential of an assembly space doing this opens up a conversation of what an assembly room or building can be. 

With all this in mind I cannot forget that at the end of the day this building is there to help facilitate public gathering in the city. So whilst I can have fun, playing games with space, journeys, and place within the city, I mustn't forget that this place has to eventually work for public gathering events.

Precedent Study

Looking at Kolumba museum, Koln, by Peter Zumthor to help with an analysis of space. The Kolumba museum by Zumthor is a journey through a series of spaces varying in size and shape. The spaces are open volumes intersected with rendered volumes which contain the space. At particular moments along a journey a view is framed through a window. The spaces and journey are highly structured, despite the openness of the architecture. The volumes of the rooms in the building seem to float in space, and the movement through the space is articulated through the movement of these volumes around you. This sense of movement, materiality, mass as one moves through the museum is a feeling I wish to apply to my building underneath the car park. At the moment to help what these places could feel like I am producing a series of photomontages as well as models of the interior spaces to help we with decisions.

The journey constructed by Zumthor in the Kolumba museum is one example of how a journey through a building can involve someone in the architecture of a place. However I feel the space of the car park can offer much more, in terms of the relationships between a person, a building, a place and a city. The framed views, the old and new, the structure, the volumes can all be used and the relationships between them and a person can be articulated through a journey.

One place I have visited wherein the relationships between a place and its environment and the journey through the two articulate them is St Davids Cathedral in South Wales. As a brief study I looked at how the relationships between a place, its spaces and its history is articulated through the journey you take to get there. In St Davids for example the old entrance to the site is the same as the one taken by pilgrims hundreds of years ago. How does one make an entrance to a building so special and important that it will remain the same for hundreds of years to come, even if the use or architecture of the building changes? On the journey to St Davids too, at a particular moment traveling through the city, one catches a glimpse of the cathedral tower, juxtaposed against the roofline of the new houses of the city. In this moment one understands the spatial and temporal relationship between the city and its cathedral. I did initially look at how the landscape of the surrounding areas of the cathedral could literally be translated into a program for the assembly hall. After a discussion with my tutor I came to the conclusion that literally translating the relationships between a place and its landscape into a building program strategy was very difficult.

I want to transpose these moments into a building so that perhaps, one catches a glimpse of the old structure and roof, contrasted against a new wall and the view of the city outside. A final view could be, the old, the new, the city and the journey. Maybe a view of the entrance to the building somehow.

Finally back to doing my Blog

After the introduction of the final project, I had been set the task of coming up with a spatial concept or strategy for the project. My site is the old aldgate tube station, where the temporary daytime clubbing event was proposed. For that event I proposed using existing conditions of the site and levering them to perhaps unexpected places. The use of temporary and permanent architectural interventions such as a staircase, hoarding, lighting and sound system allowed me to engage with the site temporally as well as spatially.

For my spatial strategy for the new project in which I have to design an assembly building for meetings I want to take my approach to the clubbing event and apply it to the rest of the site. So as with the daytime clubbing event I proposed leaving a lot of the existing spatial conditions, so I will work with the new site in such a manner.

Initially I looked at potentially placing a new building on the existing site however, once I started visiting the site a lot more, I realised there were many moments and conditions within the site, moving around the site, that were in fact surprisingly beautiful. I then began to think how these moments within the site could be highlighted through ones experience of the space.

What I most enjoyed about the site was the car park area, wherein the extremely deep ground floor space set up a condition which was very rare. The depth of the volume allowed the facilitation of curious and unexpected moments under the car-park wherein the highstreet was framed by the waffle slab ceiling and the dirty car park floor. The depth of the car park volume intersected with structural columns was similar to the spatial and structural conditions set up in an underground space. After visiting St Martin in the Fields church as a precedent for the assembly hall I noticed how the vaults of the church presented me with a space which was reminiscent of the space under the car park. From here I began looking into how the spaces of the church could be transposed into the car park. I also began looking into how vaults could be used on the site in a new assembly hall.

As well as the structural elements of the car park working for the spatial experience of the space, volumes created by the brick walls intersecting into the space of the car park created a playful sense of movement throughout the space. As one moves around the car park, the brick volumes juxtaposed against the structural elements moved around you, and the framed view of the high street moved around that. As such ones sense of being in the city and being in the building was heightened. And at particular moments this relationship between self, architecture and city was realised in a particular framed view of the city. As an Idea and feeling of space, this is what I wanted to lever into presence through a piece of architecture.

To exaggerate this feeling of being in the city and framing particular views the use of new materials throughout the entire floor would help acheive this. Juxtaposing, new/old, building/city, exterior/interior along a journey will accentuate ones sense of self and being within the piece of architecture. However once one begins to set up a journey within the city, the question of destination arises. What is the purpose of the destination? What will the destination do? How will it make the subject feel? I intend to place the subject alongside the city, so that the person can see them self as part of the city and its architecture. This feeling should be revealed through the journey- implicitly- then revealed explicitly at the end in the final destination. Perhaps a view, a moment, a material expression, a detail? Maybe a view of the journey they have taken? A view of where they have come from, and the city? Yes!