Week_7 27/02/2012

Field Trip_Avignon, France.


The last week I have been on a field trip with some of my other peers to Avignon in France. Our first day was mainly spent travelling to Avignon we initially flew into Barcelona and took an interesting drive up the coast of Spain into France.  


Tuesday
Our first main day in France was spent in Avignon where we were staying and met our host Andy Henderson who took us around Roman Architecture in Avignon.  Our first stop was the 'Palias des Papes' which is the Palace of the Popes, The Avignon Papacy was the period from 1309 to 1376 during which seven Popes resided in Avignon, in modern-day France. The schism ended in 1417 at the Council of Constance after only two popes had reigned in opposition to the papacy in Rome. The last Avignon pope, Benedict XIII, had fled to Perpignan in 1403.  The building and the spaces inside were amazing the quality of the condition of such an old grand building below are some images. 

In the afternoon we visited 'Pont Benezet'  and danced on the bridge of Avignon.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHsER0a7MGA 




Wednesday


On Wednesday we adventured 2 hours North to Firminy to visit Le Corbusier's Unite d'Habitation, Cultural Centre, Stadium and Church. For such large concrete structures the buildings felt very light and airy inside and outside of the space.  The structure of the apartments in the Unite was very interesting how they all slotted together to create a double height space.  The children's bedrooms have a really creative and playful space which would inspire children of all ages to be creative and interactive. 

Athletics Stadium

Theatre Space at the Cultural Centre

Complex roof and column structure inside the Cultural Centre Theatre Space

Church

Unite d'Habitation 

Children's Bedroom inside Unite

Thursday


We departed for Nimes and headed for Foster and Partners Carre d'Art which is opposite the Roman Maison du Carre, which has been kept in near perfect condition over the past 2000 years.  The weather was beautiful and the contrast between old and new was oddly refreshing in the way in which they complimented each other, the glass of Fosters Carre d'Art was constantly reflecting Mainson du Carre to create such an interesting atmosphere in the public square space which surrounded. 

Carre d'Art

Maison du Carre

Roman Arena 

Our final stop of the day was to the Roman Arena which is 1900 years old again it is very well preserved and is used to hold concerts and bull fights.  

Friday


We began our travels back to Barcelona for the evening ready for our departure on Saturday. On the way back we stopped off at a aqueduct in Pont du Gard. Once again is was another greatly preserved Roman Structure which we think used to be used to carry water to Nimes.  On our final retreat back to Barcelona we stopped off at the Salvador Dali museum in Figures to look at the serialist artists work.

Point du Gard

Saturday

Our final day was spent in Barcelona where wondered around the city mainly headed for Antonio Gaudi's Casa Milla and Sagrada Familia to have a quick look around.  It has been three years since I have been to the Sagrada so I was impressed to see the progress of the structure and the completion of the interior space.  It is expected to be completed in 2025 on its 200 year anniversary of construction.  

Week 5_15/02/2012

The past few days I have been looking into the history of 'Playing Cards' and how they might relate to socially within the site today and in Elizabethan times. Below is a brief timeline on how the cards came into England and where they originated from.

It is believed that initially playings cards where brought over to the Britain by the English soldiers in battles in France. The first recorded mention of playing cards was in the 14th Century, however none have survived from such an early date. As card playing became popular it was a Christmas Festivity as monarchs such as Henry VII forbade servants to use the expect for at Christmas time.  Soon after an Act of Parliament was released which prohibited the import of playing cards.  In the Early 15th Century gambling became so popular it provoked a reaction from the church so Monk Bernadine of Sienna preached to the public and a large population of the church religion burnt their cards.

In the 17th Century playing cards mainly became an immoral activity with gambling becoming a recurring problem.  However thousands of cards were destroyed in 1664-1666 during The Plague and The Great Fire of London. When Charles II was restored as King he brought an order and continuity to card game playing and this is where we have surviving packs of cards start emerging.  The Worshipful Company of Makers of Playing cards was introduced in 1628 by Charles II where a tax was taken from each pack of cards and paid to the King. The tax stamp was to be placed on the Ace of Spades of every card, if you look at a pack of cards this is the card which is most decorated to represent the tax mark.  You can also see this on playing cards today.

Later number were added as well as symbols to make the cards more ergonomic so people could fan the cards out. Most cards were plain on one side but the Victorians added detail to avoid cheating.  The Joker or Fool card wasn't introduced until mid 19th Century by workers in Mississippi America where they added the card to create a double trump it was known as 'The Jolly Joker' it eventually reached the English packs in 1880.  Dianne Longley said 'The Joker is the wild-card or the card of opportunity or individuality...' www.wopc.co.uk


While looking into the history of the cards I noticed there are similar familiarities with the Christian Calendar, for example...

Deck contains 52 cards - There are 52 weeks in the year
4 Suits - 4 Season
12 Picture cards - 12 Months
13 Different denominations - 13 the number of lunar cycles a year.


Also when the suits were accepted by all card playing nations they represented 4 classes of medieval society -

Heart symbolised the Church
Pikes (Spade) represented the Military
Paving Tile (Diamond) was a symbol of the Merchant Class
Clover Leaf for Farmers

I think that the representation of each symbol works well on the site there is quite a direct link to all of the meanings.  I am going to look further into this research and how it can help me develop the theory and context not he site.

Week 5_13/02/2012

INTER-CRIT DAY


My theme last week was hierarchy and I began thinking on how I could begin to develop a form or connection with the concept. Essentially hierarchy is an arrangement of items in which they are represented as being above or below one another.  In everyday life people make references to height and hierarchy, we commonly say the phrase 'to look up to people' and the top bunk is always first to be taken when choosing a bunk bed. I also think there is a close link to Classical architecture which uses a hierarchy to define the detail of the decoration and fenestration on the facade.  The windows get smaller as they get higher up the building to demonstrate the social activities which happen in the space, large grand reception rooms on the ground right up to the servants quarters in the attic. 




I began thinking of items in general life which have an hierarchy and thought of playing cards. I then thought of integrating the idea of social hierarchy with playing cards and created my own suit images across the cards.  I then began to piece together the cards to create forms in hierarchal order.  The forms created spaces in between the cards, perhaps the cards created wall structures and features as in the images below.  [Click on the images to make them larger].

   

Card Hierarchy Concept Model

Above are the overlay sketches begining to show the spaces which are being created in-between the cards.  

This is the work which I presented in the inter-crit this morning.  We have had the brief for 3 weeks now and most of the work is conceptual and very much still developing.  However I felt the inter-crit went fairly well, it was expressed that they enjoyed the idea of comparing playings cards with a social hierarchy and wanted me to look into the history of the playing cards and the idea of House of Cards by Charles and Ray Eames. Also what type of cards were around in the Elizabethan period and did they relate to the roles in society at that time.  How was hierarchy used historical in spacial terms, being at the top was not necessarily the best place to be it is very rare to have your front door of your house on the ground floor street level in the city of London.  Where do the Huguenots fit in modern day context and Elizabethan? They encouraged me to be more playful with the card concept maybe to include a 'joker' as a mediator between the court and the general public.  Maybe the Joker challenged the order of the hierarchy.  

Before I move on anywhere I am going to look into researching the history of playing cards and their relationships with hierarchy, social impacts and general information facts which may help to conclude the context of the concept. I will also investigate the architecture of a game of cards, the players or the pack.  

Below are the review sheets from todays inter-crit.  The panel were Michael Richards [Head of MArch], Tim Carlyle [Tutor], Edward Holloway [Architect & tutor guest]. 

Week 4_6/02/2012

Brain Dump Sketch

Previously discussed in the blog was the idea of developing the link of hierarchy and how this could be integrated into the context of the site and building program.  I began my doing a kind of brain dump of information and ideas which were running through my head and noted down the types of people from Huguenots [Immigrants] right up to Noblemen, Kings and Queens. With this I began to look at where the building program would fit into this, what kind of relationship each 'type' or 'grade' of person would have with say the performance theatre or the memorial garden.  

Semi-organised developmental ideas

With this I placed the Performance space at the top end of the scale, its somewhere the rich and royal would have attended, however the poor would have been the actors [called players in those days] of the show.  I think I was a little naive in thinking this after researching into the history now I have discovered that professionals during the 1600's would not have classed acting as a proper career that one could be trained in.  Writing plays was not respected either, Shakespeare was only respected during his lifetime for his poetry.  Similarly, theatres were not nice places to be they were vulgar and classed as places filled with 'sin', some even became brothels and gambling dens.  There were no were women actors if there was a ladies role they would have been played by men or boys.  

So maybe I can develop a modern twist on an old style theatre, it can be located in the site where it covers all levels of class and style but has the grand style which performance spaces have escalated to today, with a variety of seats and levels.  

Sections such as the offices for Huguenots and the doctors surgery are more 'skilled' careers and I would like to put these on a higher level of site to represent the Yeomen to Knights and Noblemen areas of society.  

Over the week I created a concept model to develop a massing and to include the idea of a 'space within a space' concept. 

Concept Model

The idea that the technically richer areas of the site are higher up and in larger detail stuck out as an option to me, and it reminded me of the idea of classical architecture, where stately homes are designed and constructed in a way where the ground level has large open rooms with giant fenestrations. As you work your way up the levels these features get smaller and smaller until you reach the attic rooms at the top which housed the servants of the house.  Again I was thinking about creating a 'modern inverse' on this where the skilled features are on the higher levels of the building and the areas for everyone are lower down... access for all.

Tutorial Sheet No.2

In this weeks tutorial we discussed the idea of levels in society and how cathedrals shows this in the arches hanging over the doors.  The keystone would be where God or Jesus was and as the arch folded out would eventually show the working men.  We discussed how this was a fixed structure in society and people believed that the order could not be changed, inheritance and succession was inevitable and the right way of life. 

The Barber-Surgeons Hall is located in an awkward part of the site, it has positive views onto the roman wall and the garden but it can also see the unattractive site of the Museum of London which I would like to block out. I discussed creating a double eight space around the wall which would enclose the balcony section of the Barber-Surgeons Hall.  

Over the next week I am going to look into the idea of creating spaces and forms along the line of my concept model ready for the inter-crit next week.  As well as investing the history of Shakespeare and the theatres role in society over the years.  I hope to begin planning spaces and locations of the building program. 

Week 3_30/01/2012

This week I have been putting together a timeline since the Tudor period and when the Huguenots began to arrive in England. I have also created a small 1:50 site model for my convenience to help me understand the complexity of the site.  

The above timeline shows a record of the Monarchies of England, which the grey background symbolises the protestant Kings and Queens and the blue Catholics.  It also shows all of the Popes as the head of the Catholic church throughout the time.  The periods of architectural style and popular architects at the time, help to make a comparison between the events of the timeline of what was happening at the time and the architectural movement.  

Below is my tutorial sheet from this week.

During the tutorial my ideas were slightly sporadic as I had thought of odd pieces of the puzzle of how the different types of resources and buildings could fit together on the site.  So we initially just spoke through these ideas then discussed making models to help combine all the pieces together. So I put together a 1:500 site model shown below to see if it would inspire me to link all of my ideas. Furthermore I began sketching out my ideas to see how I could develop them to link together.

1:50 Site Model

Sketch Book - Memorial Space 

Sketch Book - Performance Space

The model shows the heights of the surrounding buildings as well as the different levels on the site location.  The model is quite basic but allows for interpretation and trial and error with testing out massing structures and other ideas.  

The first sketch shows the idea of having a memorial space on the water as previously discussed as the water is reflecting and soothing, I feel that there is a connection between the two.  The second sketch shows an idea of locating the theatre around the roman wall and having it as a permanent feature on the stage.  Therefore whatever show takes place would have to incorporate it into their performance. 

From the model I have decided to look at levels, how they relate on the site and how they could relate in history to the levels of power and wealth which would cover from The King right down to the immigrant Huguenots.  This week I am going to look into how this idea would work on the site in the context and see how this could relate to the materials and building process' I use to produce my final design.  I am also going to do a mapping diagram on the site to show the most 'powerful' and 'richest' locations, which I feel will be at the top of my architectural and historical chain of power.