Ominous Stay - Year 3, Semester One

From concept to space

It has been quite the challenge trying to express the concept and atmosphere I'm trying to achieve to a building. The conceptual section below shows in essence an external envelope that looks quite normal from the outside that leads to different rooms in an internal space of which the structure and layout resembles the way Charles Peace used to remove bricks under the bridge to construct his space of inhabitation. The route a person would follow towards his room seems quite normal but it masks a peculiar interior "courtyard" which is only revealed by the view from each rooms window. The space one sees from the window is quite daunting since the existence for this space is concealed/masque at all points of the user's journey to his room. Acoustic relationships between units bellow or above each one's unit only enhance the feeling of something is about to happen and the notion of sinister activities taking place.

A Sheffield Masque

Just a conceptual model trying to investigate how everything comes together in one building with a narrative in the same form of John Hejduk's in Lancaster / Hanover Masque. Sequential sketches are to follow...

Psycho, Sweeney and a Masque...

So yeah we are designing a Hotel/Hostel/Motel of some sort to accomodate 30-40 people but that's about it... the rest of it is up to us (surprise surprise)

So I took the opportunity of finding opportunities to do things in the site from my character (see post below) like hide a person / dump a body / hide something (stash of some sort?) or enter the site without being seen and used this as a form of site analysis.

I also explored the site vertically using as case studies the movies Psycho (1960) and Sweeney Todd: The demon barber of Fleet Street and deducting common themes between them and see how the conceal the sinister in the building. This is achieved by having a public ground floor where all is good and then sinister things going on underground or on 1st floors which actually makes sense. 

And going further with that masking of actions with a building I studied a bit about Lancaster / Hanover Masque by John Hejduk (head of the Cooper Union for several years) which is different structures that accomodate different scenarios and different inhabitants (similar to my case) and how these masks also conceal actions.

Let's see how I can implement all of these now in an actual building...

New year, new beginnings

First project of third year and we are designing a.... a.... what? we don't know what we are designing. Yeah that's third year for you! So we don't have a building we have a word! Yes a word! "Stay". No brainer here, we will be probably designing a hotel of some sort. However the project has 3 introductory assignments before we get to the actual designing the building bit.

Do a section and a plan of a bag they said. And identify a protagonist to be travelling from/to Sheffield. My site is in Eccelsall road (yes we have a site but not a building yet... that's third year for you once again) So I did a bit of history digging and found out about this interesting character Charles Peace, notorious thief/burglar/murderer that lived close to my site and killed his neighbour because Peace was having an affair with his neighbour's wife (!!!) And this is how his bag looked like when he was escaping Sheffield the night of the murder:

Then (still having no building) we were to design a room for our character to sleep in for a night. So my character found refuge under the bridge in my site (how convenient!) by removing bricks and creating a space for inhabitation under the bridge providing him security and a good hideout from the police. How that's going to inform the building though... no idea.

Next Step: actually find out what the building is!!!!

CAA Summer Workshop 2012

Cyprus Architect Association Summer Workshop 2012 revolved around the theme of creating interesting geometries through parametric design and modular unit structure. The video above is the process and result of the 7-day workshop (edited by myself)

Special Study: Rectify Buffer Zone

A new blog has been launched to help me document my special study/dissertation and to investigate the public opinion about rectifying Nicosia's buffer zone which is the main theme of the special study.

Please help me circulate the blog and get the feedback of the public: http://rectifyzone.wordpress.com/

Updates will be done as the study progresses.

Perspective Views

Cinema down below

After a long absence from blogging my stuff, without further ado, I present you the underground cinema (with cinematic exhibition space, film restoration and archive, offices etc as a genuine architecture school project where you can't have just one thing). More information will follow over the next few days as the review is coming closer.

I would love to get feedback on the presentation technique which I'm looking always to improve.

Conceptualizing Film, War and Architecture

While trying to understand the expressionism in films such as "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" and the paranoia in films such as "Metropolis", "Rosemary's Baby", "Rear Window" and "Hiroshima, mon amour" I realised the importance of recognising the protagonist in each case. The protagonist in our brief is the visitor to the film centre in Sheffield. In this context, studying Sheffield's History and watching short films and "Threads" about the Sheffield Blitz helped me connect everything and decided to make my building about understanding the Paranoia of the War (Sheffield Blitz) through an expressionistic style building that would reveal gradually layers of information to the protagonist-visitor. This is what is the conceptual model about: firstly seeing texts, newspapers and reading information about the war and moving towards the core of the building going through photographs and getting finally shocked watching the film footage in a cinema room that will complete the experience. The building is not meant to be a comfortable journey; it will be uncomfortable in a similar way that the protagonists in "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" were forced to follow. Following this logic and recognising the historical context of the site (a bombed dropped just metres away from the site and a near-by building was an air-raid underground shelter) it only makes sense for the building to be in the form of a shelter, having everything underground and using the ground floor for an outdoor event space. In order to accomodate everything the building might go as deep as 4 floors underground giving a more dramatic feel for the protagonists-visitors of the building.

Video: Sheffield on the move

A video we created tracing the route from Park Hill through the Sheffield Rail Station to CRQ area focused on framing various views of interest and people's daily life routine. The tinted effect is to make the viewer focus in the movement and points of interest instead of the colours.

Film and Architecture

Next project is investigating Film and Architecture resulting in a Film Centre in Sheffield as a collaboration of British Film Institute and Sheffield City Council.

The excerpt above shows how spaces are associated to objects and social behaviours. Watch to see another point of view on this.

I watched the Metropolis (1927) last night. Despite it's over two hours length seemed to be quite interesting and kept me wanting to see the end. Plot with twists and turns, political and social messages going across many times during the film and it's worth remembering the context and location it was projected (Germany, post-WW1). Also architectural paradoxes were apparent giving different layers of meanings associating space and social class. A movie well worth watching.

Waterloo International Terminal - a model comes to life

3d Model Detailing

A lot was gained by replicating details of the structure on CAD and on actual model form. We now realise as a group that understanding the project wouldn't be possible without the modelmaking.

Another year, another project

First project of this year is a group project understanding and analyzing the structure of Waterloo International Terminal. First day into the new project and already a scale model was produced! Nice work group! (Kerry, Nur and Alexandra)

Year Two, Semester One Portfolio...

Open publication - Free publishing - More architecture

Study mode: ON - will be back soon!

Happy New Year!

a section for the extra mile...

A major attraction on the project is the fact that there are extra prefabricated parts that can be placed for additional space in the top level apartments. One bedroom apartments can have an extra bedroom or a study room to be attached. A skylight on top of the containers can be removed so the space for the staircase to land into the existing apartment is already there which makes the option for expansion very easy and requires minimum extra workload.

Detail + Plans

An update on the project: I've finalised my plans on how the dwellings are formed together solving the issue of having ground floor apartments in relation to privacy with the street, disabled access on all apartments and also insulation of the walls and detailing.