Contents Assignment 1 | Surveying the Line Graphing the Street Casting the City Sectioning Cowgate
Assignment 2 | Uncovering the Hidden City Watching The Lexicon of the Line Developing an Architectural Language
Assignment 3 | Designing a Neighbourhood Platform Development Proposal Post-Review
Assignment 1 Surveying the Line
We chose to survey a quiet close nestled between Cowgate and the Royal Mile. In addition we also experimented with casting textures from the street and, in contrast, to take the form of the street in plan and reduce it to its most basic recognisable form. This literalism of the physical casting was not something I wished to pursue, however the act of creating a symbolic language through simplifying the character of the street was.
New
Transition
Tradition
Old
Graphing the Street We ordered the line in to four distinct areas based on their character. These were given labels; New, Transition, Tradition and Old. I graphed small chunks of this area, reducing their rich characters to the most simple form; a series of lines.
Royal Mile
Cowgate
New Town
Waverley
Casting the City We took a series of four moulds, one for each area we had identified. Each of a different object expressing a different attribute of the area.
In addition to the casted textures, we sketched key scenes in the different areas we had identified to capture their character. Credit: (Left) Catherine Boag
Credit: Siddhartha Thomas
Sectioning Cowgate Surveying the Line
We sectioned Coinye House Close in four different areas to show how it reveals its self to someone on their journey through the city. The close can be accessed through a small opening on Cowgate, after which the space reveals its self as a grand, open paved area with trees and spaces to sit. After this it is restricted again as it approaches the Royal Mile.
Site Plan, Scale 1:500 Credit: Catherine Boag
Section A-A, 1:200 Credit: Siddhartha Thomas
Section B-B, 1:200 Credit: Siddhartha Thomas
Section C-C, 1:200
Section D-D 1:200
Assignment 2 Uncovering the Hidden City
As a personal response to the line, we chose to model different architectural elements of the city, based on those on the line which we had experienced in the previous week, but also exploratory, utilising the act of crafting an object to decide its form. I chose to look into the concept of ‘watching’ and the mechanism of the window.
‘Watching’ The concept of watching was something I found interesting after I had thought of photographing the line internally, that is from inside the buildings along it. The study offered an insight into both the boundary between public and private, but also what could be seen and what you were allowed to see from certain buildings.
Internally Photographed looking onto the line from within
The Lexicon of the Line Uncovering the Hidden City
Following on from the study into watching, I decided to make a series of maquettes which explored the different characteristics of windows as an architectural element. No maquette was premediated. Their forms were not sketched out but rather decided from the act of craft. After I made 20 I sorted them into categories and gave them labels based on their attributes. My team-mates concentrated on elements of their own interest, namely the close and door.
study 1 ledge
study 2 sill
Bar Passing Open Public Cell Threshold
Bar Private Vertical Cross Split Planes
study 3 incline
study 4 reach
Shutter Private Steep Shade Split Cell
Bar Private Restrictive Cell Sill Height
study 5 denial
study 6 grill
Planes Private Slit Tight Block Shaded
Open Public Barrier Bar Block View
study 7 cross
study 8 shutter
Public Planes Block Pass Open Vertical
Shaded Tilt Passage Barrier Closed Private
study 9 fan
study 10 reward
Shaded Block Barrier View Staggered Spectrum
Denial Private Slit Tight Block Shaded
study 11 fin
study 12 apex
Shaded Private Constant Spaced Moments Block
Incline Sill Open Passage Cell View
study 13 focus
study 14 fragment
Fins Barrier Concentrate View Directed Shaded
Moments Spectacle Open Heart View Port
study 15 viewport
study 16 spectacle
Ports Levels Skin Block Open Private
Object Levels Height Open Views Sight
study 17 oculus
study 18 body
Fin Block Above Arc Open Cell
Oculus Directed Lens Shutter Above Concentrated
study 5 alley
study 5 spectra
Height Denied Proportion Sill Ledge Battlement
Shutter Aperture Block Flakes Interact Sills
Developing an Architectural Language Uncovering the Hidden City
After I had collated and defined my lexicon, the next task was to apply the forms I had undovered appropriately and translate my raw lexicon into a coherent architectural language. However to do this I needed a site and a program. Keeping my new lexicon in mind, I returned to the line and looked for a site I could utilize. As such, I had the words but not the paper to write on.
Jeffrey Street / Market Street The site I eventually chose was an empty plot near Waverley Station, just off the Royal Mile. The change in level and views of Calton Hill were what attracted me to the site. The possibility of linking the two levels, Jeffrey Street (above) and Market Street (below), as well as using Calton hill as a spectacle to look onto. I had initially thought to make a public square, extending out towards Calton hill with a building beneath it.
Site Photographs
Assignment 3 Designing a Neighbourhood Platform
After I had chosen my site, I had a number of options for a program. The site I had chosen was in the centre of the Edinburgh literature quarter, therefore I wanted to create a space for creatives (writers, artists and so on) to come together. With this in mind I began sketching out ideas for a building. The early concept was to create a simple cellular building in which each cell would have a different window condition relating to each ‘word’ from my lexicon.
Sketchbook Extracts Earliest schemes exploit the pre-existing tunnels in the wall of the road as workshop spaces, with a central linking volume. On Jeffrey Street level there would be a public square with stairs down to the street below. Early sketches of how the windows would be implemented also present.
Later schemes see the solidification of a ‘bar’ element, a string of workshops connected by a corridor to the rear. For a long time there was an element pushing through the middle. This would have been the public part of the building.
Experimenting with more intrusive public elements
I had then thought to unify the building; not as an intersection and a resulting negitive shape, but as a grid, broken in parts, but part of the same whole.
Creating a simpler form. Diagram with numbers showing the corresponding item in the lexicon.
Workshop windows subtracting the public space showing the fractured nature of the workshops.
Proposal Designing a Neighbourhood Platform
This section includes the final drawings for my proposal, as well as illustrating the new ‘words’ added to the lexicon as a result of the buildings design.
Roof Plan on Site 1:100
N
Floor 5 1:100
N
Floor 4 1:100
N
Floor 3 1:100
N
Floor 2 1:100
N
A
B
A
C
B
Ground Floor 1:100
C
N
Main Elevation (Looking South) 1:100
Section A-A 1:100
Section B-B 1:100
Section C-C 1:100
Extended Lexicon Each workshop space and public space became its own ‘word’ in the lexicon rather than an arbitrary space with an interesting facade. Some have been illustrated and labeled.
POST-REVIEW
Designing a Neighbourhood Platform
After the review it became apparent that the project had lost its link with the street it had earlier. This section covers what I would have done if there was more time to develop the project.
Watching the view in context, 1:2000
Post-review sketches Post-review sketches
Post-review Post-reviewsketches sketches