Thesis Alexandra Oliver

ARCHITECTURE IN BETWEEN How can architecture activate the connection in the liminal space between city and water?

Alexandra Oliver

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For my Family.

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Contents - Abstract - Introduction

Context 15 - Liminality -

Turner & Hockney

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Three Conditions

Venturi 35 -

The Difficult Whole

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Glove & Mitten Metaphor

Sheds 43 -

Sheds & the Junctions

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Duck & the Decorated Shed

Project 57

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Project by Design

- Conclusion - Bibliography

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Abstract The concept of liminality, which can be understood as existing in a threshold state, was first applied to human development by Victor Turner [1967], but the idea of ‘betwixt and between’ can also be applied to physical space. In identifying the boundary between city and water, an analysis of the type of building that inhabits this space can be carried out.

What is it about the location, use and aesthetic that are interesting and unique?

Analysing five differing locations where the transition from city to water creates opposing conditions was a starting point for the research. The building that occupies the ‘threshold’ or ‘liminal zone’ must cater for both city and water.

How can a building with many functions sit on this boundary and have one identity?

‘Concerning the positions of the parts, for instance, such an architecture encourages complex and contrapuntal rhythms over simple and single ones.

The ‘difficult whole’ can include a diversity of directions as well’ [pg 88, Venturi, Complexity and Contradiction].

Venturi’s analogy, ‘the duck’ & the ‘decorated shed’, categorises buildings into two groups. He states that the duck is a ‘building – becoming – sculpture’ [pg87, Learning from Las Vegas], whereas the decorated shed uses the symbolism of the ordinary over that of the ‘heroic and original’ [pg101, Learning from Las Vegas]. Through this a question of how the building becomes a piece of architecture and if it takes on the attributes of ‘a duck’ or ‘decorated shed’ arises.

Left: [1] Five Locations - Hybrid

The thesis design component explores the building as a ‘difficult whole’ combining several functions. These functions do not need to have a relationship with each other except through necessity for location. The resulting building should be a united form masking the functions within.

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‘As architecture of complexity and accommodation does not forsake the whole.

In fact, I have referred to a special obligation toward the whole because the whole is difficult to achieve … The difficult whole in an architecture of complexity and contradiction includes multiplicity and diversity of elements in relationships that are inconsistent or among the weaker kinds perceptually.’ [pg 88 Complexity & Contradiction]

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Introduction

This thesis aims to explore the different edge conditions prominent within the city environment. It goes on to consider the ways in which the typology of the shed can function on the water’s edge with reference to Venturi ideals. By adding a playfulness in combining the functions of the space, the building can become a successful whole. It may be the case that introducing complexity within the shed structure in the same way as the Vanna Venturi house may be a way of activating the connection in the liminal space between city and water.

The condition of the ‘edge’ where the fabric of a city meets water is diverse. History and progression of the ‘place’ shape how this boundary is dealt with, whether it is a harsh sea wall with a promenade above merging into the city or the gradual slope of a slipway entering the water. Local tidal conditions, location, potential usage and climate are factors that provide a context for the building of structures in the transition of land to water and the creation of liminal space. Throughout this thesis several ‘edge conditions’ will be examined and a hybrid developed to work with the site connecting the building and the city to the water.

The obligation towards a ‘difficult whole’ will be analysed in conjunction with the typology of the shed and how this has been and can be used on the threshold space. The key idea of the ‘difficult whole’ is drawn from the work of Venturi (2002) which illustrates how the functions of a building are able to mix together to make a single form with one identity. This is particularly significant in this piece of writing due to the chosen mix of program merging with pre-existing functions on the site.

Left: [2] Dundee Aerial Photograph

The dualisms contained within this thesis - the comparisons made between ‘land & water’, ‘building & architecture’ and ‘the duck & ‘the decorated shed’ - lead to the product of the ‘difficult whole’ and whether this can be realised as a single form with a distinct connection to the water and an air of mystery about the hidden mix of function within.

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How can architecture activate the connection in the liminal space between city and water?

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CONTEXT

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Liminality Etymology: < Latin līmin-, līmen threshold + -AL suffix1 gen. Of or pertaining to the threshold or initial stage of a process. rare. Cultural Anthropol. Of, relating to, or characterized by liminality.

Oxford English Dictionary [UoD Online Resource]

The concept of liminality was first developed by Victor Turner [1967], and can be understood as existing in a threshold state. However the idea of ‘betwixt and between’ applies more appropriately to physical space. By using this term to identify the boundary between city and water, an investigation of the type of building which inhabits the space can take place.

In Sharon Zukin’s definition, ‘liminal’ refers to ‘urban edge zones, places of ‘underdevelopment’, which might become spaces of hope and change for anarchic urban groups’ [Zukin 1991].

Left: [3] City-Water Threshold // Dundee Waterfront

In this work the word ’liminal’ is considered to capture the sense of potential in the 17 transition between the built environment and water.

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Turner & Hockney

Art has frequently engaged with the interaction between land and sea.

Turner’s ‘Snowstorm – Steam-Boat off a Harbour’s Mouth’ captures the way in which the boundaries between land, sea and air can dissolve. Ruskin describes the scene ‘where the harbour begins, or where it ends ... are matters past our finding out’ [Tate 2014].

Left: [4] Snowstorm - Steam-boat off a Harbours Mouth Above: [5] The Bigger Splash

More recently David Hockney has offered an alternative take on the theme of transitions between land and water. Instead of the water being linked to shipping and commerce, he uses water as leisure in the form of a swimming pool.

In the ‘Bigger Splash’ the relationships between water, air and land are captured in bright light and bold acrylic colours, yet still retaining the complexity of Turner’s vision. Hockney’s diving board encroaches into the pool space and the object/ person making the ‘splash’ is no longer visible. Turner’s Snowstorm becomes 19 Hockney’s Splash; water engages with air.

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Three Conditions

Left: [6] Five Locations

Three significant ways in which buildings and land meet water in five urban environments.

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Water Infiltrating the building - forming an internal or sheltered dock Somerset House [7 & 8] Active Trade // Functional water’s edge A building which historically had access to the Thames for trade.

Venice [9 & 10] Active Trade & Passive Leisure // Functional & Aesthetic water’s edge A city which has evolved around the waterways and the connection the whole city has to the water.

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Past and Present Industrial Historic Dundee [11] Working Industrial // Functional water’s edge Harbour and Dock area forming an edge to the city.

Salford Quays [12] Passive Leisure // Aesthetic water’s edge Quayside acts as landscaping feature and access point for leisure in the shipping canal.

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Recreational Putney Embankment Slipway [13] Active Leisure // Functional water’s edge The gradient of the bank slopes towards the water therefore the tidal areas create a changing aesthetic.

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Above: [7] Somerset House - 1817 Below: [8] Somerset House - Post Embankment 1874

Water Entering the Building Somerset House // London // Sir William Chambers

The building becomes the threshold with the water and the fabric of the building drops down into the water. This was observed at Somerset House in London, designed by Sir William Chambers [1723 – 1796], where the stonework of the building drops down into the Thames with lock gates allowing access for boats to come directly into the harbour located at the heart of the building. This gives the illusion that the building rises up out of the water much like the majority of the city of Venice still does today.

‘The introduction of the Embankment had the effect of distancing the river from the buildings along its north bank, particularly significant for Somerset House, which had been designed to rise directly from the water. The new embankment truncated the elevation of Chambers’ masterpiece; the Aberdeen granite base of the Embankment Building was concealed by the substructure for the road, the two Watergates were demoted to being entrances from the new raised carriageway, and the Great Arch with its two adjacent barge-houses became landlocked’ [Somerset House, 2014].

This characteristic changes the ‘edge condition’ considerably because it does not allow pedestrian access to one side of the building and relies on the water entrance. This way of engaging with an edge condition could be useful in Dundee as it would allow the building to have a physical connection with the 23 water and make a strong architectural statement with its eventual form.

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Venice // Edge Condition

‘Venice is a unique artistic achievement. The city is built on 118 small islands and seems to float on the waters of the lagoon’ [UNESCO 2014].

Left: [9] Ca’ d’ Oro – Arcade Entrance Below: [10] Canal in Venice

The presence of canals and waterways in Venice has knitted the architecture and infrastructure together so tightly that the historic city has remained predominantly unaltered. In the context of a water-based city, trade and transport have been compelled to develop differently to land-based cities.

Vaporetti [water taxis], gondolas and riverboats are a way of life.

‘The form of the Venetian palace evolved from the basic need of its noblemerchant owner to combine his trading headquarters with living accommodation for himself and his family. The unique physical conditions of the city also had an enormous impact on the development of palace architecture’ [RIBA 2014].

Venetian palazzo line the Grand Canal, ‘Often erected on long and narrow plots of land, most of the palaces had both land and water entrances, as the latter was essential for the unloading of goods’ [RIBA 2014]. The water entrance onto the canal would, depending on the design, have an arcade surrounding a water inlet. As the palazzo were altered these turned into portals, which were slightly elevated – the doorways are quite often reached by several steps.

If utilising this building typology in relation to the site in Dundee, direct water access to the building would be useful. However considering pedestrian links crossing the southern water side of the building, this could be much more of a challenge.

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Industrial // Historic Dundee

An industrial city, Dundee historically relied on the docks for the transport of trade – jute as an export, pan tiles and oranges as an import from Spain which arrive as ballast. The city’s formal edge was the rear of the Caird Hall where a series of docks and harbours formed an edge before the water of the Tay estuary.

City // Infrastructure // Harbour // Sea Wall // Water

This formation provides a barrier between the city and water, which allows for walking, driving and trade. It is an intermediary zone; a no man’s land, which often teems with life.

This area began as a modest sized harbour but grew as the population and the volume of trade conducted in Dundee increased. With the modernisation of industry the harbours were gradually filled in, increasing the city to the south.

The space created by relocating the industry was disused and zoned irresponsibly for badly planned infrastructure. Replanning of this space is now underway, however returning the waterfront of Dundee to a port and harbour lined zone is both unnecessary and inappropriate.

Industry in Dundee still remains but is no longer as connected to the city, having moved to the eastern extremity of the ‘Waterfront Masterplan’ in the zone designated for the port and the development of new renewable industry.

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The ‘Central Waterfront’ is currently being zoned to include residential, commercial and leisure accommodation taking on the block structure leading on from the existing city. The interaction with the water will become passive leisure with any of the active industrial connection taking place to the east.

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Industrial // Regenerated Salford Quays

Media City, the Imperial War Museum and the Lowry in Salford are examples of an area that, after industrial decline, was abandoned and then regenerated. It is now includes a media hub for the BBC and ITV, along with two large public buildings.

This area has utilized the way the landscape has changed from the time when they served the purpose of allowing access for ships. These stretches of water [inlets – shipping basins] now provide an aesthetic aspect to the site – views down the waterways and relaxing landscaping to link the buildings together. The area also uses the water for leisure – pleasure cruises with tours of the Manchester Ship Canal and a watersports centre, which makes use of the sheltered nature of the site.

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City // Quayside // Basin // Quayside // Basin // Quayside // City - Repeats

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Recreational // The Slipway Putney // London

The slipway on the embankment at Putney was laid out by J. C. Radford, a parish surveyor, in the late 1800s. The boathouses on the bank retained a relationship to the river Thames due to the slipway acting as an extension of the footpath, only that the ground materiality and gradient is altered. The embankment, according to Radford’s townscaping programme, designated the area as recreational based on the existing rowing clubs and historic boathouses.

The scale of the edge condition in Putney is quite low and does not impose on the river. The boathouses are set back from the footpath/roadway at the top of the slipway following an established line. However this line is not clear when viewing the boathouse whilst they are in use, due to the presence of large doors opening straight out onto the pavement.

There are several boathouses on the embankment, which have remained predominantly unchanged and hold historic merit. The London Rowing Club dates from 1871 and is built using London stock brick – still retaining the Victorian iron balustrade. The Imperial College Boat Club built in 1937 and designed by Brian Sutcliffe, is built in an art deco style, with clean white lines, in comparison to the more Victoriana London Rowing Club. One of the boathouses on the embankment which has been substantially modernized is now an architect’s office but was formerly ‘Edmund Norris, Oar and Scull Manufacturers’. The façade penetrations have been altered to allow in more light, the timber deck has been replaced with a metal structure and the ornamental brickwork has been painted white. Despite all these alterations, the building is still in keeping with the context.

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The way this edge has been dealt with on the embankment has changed over the years - the boatclubs originally had timber fences, hedges or short walls around the forecourts similar to those still in front of the architect’s office. This has gradually evolved due to the clubs’ preferences for enhanced manoeuvrability for the boats and vehicles in the forecourts.

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Analysing these five places with the three conditions they present provides an understanding of the ways in which these can be implemented onto the chosen design site in Dundee. Combining elements of each of these conditions creates a hybrid which retains direct access to the water whilst keeping the fabric of the building physically separated from the water. Additionally, by stepping the building back and integrating the slipway into the quayside it is possible to retain the pedestrian footfall along the waterfront to city quay.

An analysis of both active and regenerated docks is still relevant to the design proposal. However due to the open nature of the Dundee site the tranquillity and calm aesthetic made in Salford cannot be created here. Reflecting back to the way Dundee was in the past gives a good idea of the trading sheds which inhabited the waterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s edge and the access they retained to the water.

The tightness of the canals in Venice does not match the way the site in Dundee works due to the open Tay estuary to the south. However the aspect of the water entering the building where the foundations of the city of Venice meet the canal could be transposed onto the Dundee site, marrying well with the chosen function for the building. This element is also outlined with the historic Thames building Somerset House where the water access carried boats to a courtyard harbour at the centre of the building.

Left: [14] Five Locations - Hybrid

The slipway condition offers an active leisure access to the water and an ever changing aesthetic with the tidal fluctuation. The Putney embankment slipway is able to offer a vast access catering for many buildings of the same function. For the site in Dundee this element would be a little more isolated but would still offer the same functional and aesthetic enjoyment.

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VENTURI

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‘The Obligation Towards a Difficult Whole’

In Steven Song’s essay ‘The Architecture in the Givenness – Towards a Difficult Whole Again’ [2011], the Looshaus in Michaelerplatz is discussed. He considers that the building is ‘neither modern nor traditional’ and describes how ‘clear ambiguity’ through the combination of the classical and modern elements is generated. The building’s upper sections speak the language of the city and the lower parts address the function of the building – the symbolic appearance of the entrance illustrates the function of a church.

Song [2011] also analyses Sir John Soane’s Bank of England building in London. He states that the building’s aim is to represent the institution as a ‘selfsufficient whole’ on the exterior in order to hide the ‘intricacies and fragmentations of the inside’. The building holds many functions and fits together as a smart and neat building – appearing as one single element to observers.

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Above: [15] Looshaus Right: [16] Floor Plan Sir John Soanes Bank of England HQ London

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In addition, Venturi and Scott-Brown address the appropriateness of the façade on in the Sainsbury Wing of the National Gallery. The five elevations each address their context with differing levels of appropriateness. These vary with the playful and inviting elevation on a diagonal in contrast to others that react to the adjoining building following the ‘scale and rhythm’ of the existing context. In Complexity and Contradiction [2002], Venturi states, ‘Designing from the outside in, as well as the inside out creates necessary tensions, which help make architecture’. However in Architecture as Signs and Systems, Scott-Brown [2004, p153] states, ‘If all is exception, exception is not interesting anymore’.

The exterior of the Muller House, according to Loos [qtd in Song 2011], ‘has to look inconspicuous … the house does not have to tell anything to the exterior; instead all its richness must be manifested in the interior’. At first this appears to be a contradiction, but is consistent with the Venturi and Scott- Brown ideal of ‘the obligation towards the difficult whole’.

Below: [17] Muller House Right Above: [18] Model made by VSBA Right Below: [19] Five Elevations of the Sainsbury Wing of the National Gallery London

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Glove & Mitten Metaphor Venturi and Scott-Brown

Below: [20] The Glove and the Mitten Drawing by Denise Scott-Brown

‘Gloves are shaped to hold each finger and gloves are graded by size.

The mitten limits hand movement to grasping but it allows wiggle room and can fit a wide range and hand sizes’ [Venturi & Scott-Brown 2004].

The mitten illustrates a building that is designed for change and flexibility through time. In contrast, the glove is akin to Loos’ metaphor for function, a ‘Custom fitted English suit’; everything has its place and a function.

Where this is relevant to the ‘difficult whole’ is how a building of many functions can appear to be one. It holds a level of complexity exemplified by the Sir John Soane Bank of England Building, London which is both a ‘difficult whole’ 41 and a ‘glove’.

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â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;An architecture of complexity and contradiction has a special obligation toward the whole: its truth must be in its totality or its implications of totality. It must embody the difficult unity of inclusion rather than the easy unity of exclusion.

More is not lessâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; [pg 16 Complexity & Contradiction]

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SHEDS

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Sheds & the Junction The Shed as a transitional building.

The industrial shed is a simplistic structure and a well-explored typology. It is the type of structure that suggests a function, perhaps agricultural or industrial.

The shed structure has been utilized in the design of the building on the waterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s edge as part of the Dundee Waterfront Masterplan Analysis.

In the following section an analysis of the form and the connection to water of buildings of interest is undertaken. Some may hold a contradiction - the façade may look like a public building but in reality the it may be a private house or it may take on the structure of a simple industrial shed but feature intimate spaces within.

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Right Above: [21] Melbourne University Boat Club Right Below: [22] Marina di San Vincenzo

Melbourne University Boat Club // Australia Lovell Chen

The Melbourne University Rowing Shed Extension by Lovell Chen is on the banks of the Yarra River. This building is an addition to a period boat shed.

Therefore it had to fit in with the collection of boathouses that lay along the river bank addressing the city, but also be a compliment to the existing boathouse – the oldest boathouse in the country, built in 1909. A public footpath runs alongside the river, dividing it from the boathouses, much like the condition in Putney. However, the tidal difference in Melbourne is much smaller. Therefore the slipway is much shorter at only a couple of meters.

The extension is sensitive to the shape of the existing buildings, but utilizes the space and materiality in a different way. It plays with the levels of the building internally. ‘From the outside, the three-storey steel-frame extension appears to be two storey, just like its neighbour. This effect is helped by the timber trellis that forms part of the cladding … The two structures are timber clad, with matching gable pitches and corrugated iron roofs’ [Lovell Chen 2014].

Marina di San Vincenzo // Italy Fabio Barilari

The marina uses the typology of the low level industrial shed but also explores how water can enter the building to create an inlet or internal boat shed.

This internal boat shed is similar to the loading docks under the Venetian palaces – giving a covered entrance into the building and mooring space for the boat. 49

Hepworth Wakefield // Yorkshire David Chipperfield Architects

‘Conglomeration of differently sized trapezoidal blocks, responding to the scale and roofiness of the surrounding small scale industrial buildings’ [Chipperfield 2013].

Both this building and the Turner Contemporary in Margate use industrial influence in selecting the shape and materials used and have a relationship to the surrounding bodies of water.

The influence of water and light in these spaces is captured through Turner’s paintings, which depict the sky and the water, appearing to merge in what he sees as a magical setting.

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Below: [23] Hepworth Wakefield Right Top: [24] Gormley Studios Right Below: [25] Turner Contemporary

Gormley Studios // Kings Cross London David Chipperfield Architects

This use of the industrial warehouse – a series of sheds – is used instead to create a collection of both intimate and large scale spaces. It responds to the ‘industry vernacular by creating a seven-bay structure distinguished by the proportions and placement of the openings in its façade’ [Chipperfield, 2013].

Turner Contemporary // Margate, Kent David Chipperfield Architects

William Turner’s way of depicting light and water, referred to at the beginning of this thesis, is very closely tied to the coast, merging water and sky in a misty haze. The Turner Contemporary in Margate, Kent designed by David Chipperfield Architects is, ‘Designed to maximize both the dramatic setting between sea and land and the extraordinary light conditions unique to this area that inspired Turner well over a century ago’ [Chipperfield, 2013, P.308].

‘The new Turner Contemporary in Margate, on the north coast of Kent, celebrates the town’s association with the English Painter JMW Turner, who exclaimed ‘...the skies over Thanet [the north eastern tip of Kent] are the loveliest in all of Europe’’ [Chipperfield 2014].

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Left: [26] Plans Sections & Elevations Right Top: [27] Constricting Stair Right Below: [28] Front Facade

Vanna Venturi House // Philadelphia Robert Venturi

This house has a monumental façade and suggests a different function to what is really a modest private house. Venturi designed this house for his mother, Vanna Venturi in 1962 as a challenge to prevailing modernist orthodoxy.

Venturi [2002, p118] describes the house as ‘open and closed as well as both simple and complex’, ‘big and little’.

‘This method of walls - layered for enclosure yet punctuated for openness – occurs vividly at the front centre, where the outside wall is superimposed upon the two other walls housing the stair. Each of these three layers juxtaposes openings of differing size and position. Here is layered space rather than interpenetrated space’ [Venturi 2002, p119].

As such, they offer a way of designing a building that is neither as solid as the enclosed space of a harbour wall, nor fully open to the world. Just as the Marina di San Vinchenzo shed allows water into the building, there is a dynamic tension between inside and outside. The complex spaces offer a sense of nothing being quite what it seems. There is no clear edge and in many ways all of the space can be seen as liminal, ie. in the threshold.

The internal arrangement of the house is interesting as it is a contradiction, to the exterior and how the internal arrangement should appear. The spaces created are ‘complex in their shape’ and the plan is symmetrical, however the symmetry is distorted at times to cater for the type of space it is accommodating.

The most striking element in the design is the way the staircase constricts as the stairs are ascended. This added element of playfulness adds an unexpected element to the design.

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‘The Duck’ & ‘the Decorated Shed’ Learning from Las Vegas

Robert Venturi [1972], offers a categorization of how a building ‘is’ and how it ‘can be’. He names the two types: ‘the duck‘ and ’the decorated shed’.

The duck is a building that has no explicit label. The function is implied by the exterior and is an example of literalism in architecture and in advertising. This idea is illustrated by Venturi with the ‘Long Island ducking’, a large white duck set back from the expressway in the Eastern coast of America, which was built to sell ducks and duck eggs from a local farm. This building is loud and proud, ‘building - becoming – sculpture’ [pg87, Learning from Las Vegas], a special symbol.

In contrast, the decorated shed can be in a more simple form with a sign overhead or a well defined front façade. The ornamentation is separated from the architecture and the appearance of the building appears to be secondary to the function of the building. He argues that, rather than seeing this as a lesser form in relation to ‘ducks’. The decorated shed can use more subtle architecture to denote its use. The decorated shed uses the symbolism of the ordinary over that of the ‘heroic and original’ [pg 101, Learning from Las Vegas].

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Considering buildings that occupy the junction between land and water, an example of a modern ‘duck‘ would be the SOMA designed Theme Pavilion in South Korea. This building depicts a white wave and is known locally as ‘The Fish’.

This expo pavilion with its exoskeleton skin – curving from inside to stretching over the rooftop - illustrates movement and fluidity. The building’s function aims to embody ‘the living ocean and the coast’. The viewer recognizes the symbolism of the wave structure. Unlike a ‘decorated shed’, which may include a sign or symbol, the SOMA building implies its connection with the sea through the very fabric of the building.

Left: [29] SOMA Theme Pavilion Right: [30] The Duck and the Decorated Shed VSBA

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Thesis by Design

The design component of this thesis has utilised the research of differing edge conditions and Venturi ideas to create a form which mixes unrelated functions together in order to unite them, forming a cohesive building with a single identity.

The functions which have been accommodated on the site benefit from the location, views, direct access to the water and surrounding infrastructure.

Tay Road Bridge Control

This existing function could be contained within the new building. It allows the building to become a beacon looking over the Tay estuary and the bridge whilst also providing high quality ancillary spaces for bridge workers.

Sailing School / Club

The water is in direct reach and a sporting focus could be created for the site. Dundee does not boast a purpose built sailing school. The university and city sailing clubs would benefit from such a place. Integrating the physical connection of the water to the building would make it playful and intriguing to incoming visitors approaching the city from the south.

Police Rescue Boat Hub

The form of the boatshed and water access is already established for the sailing school so accommodating this into ‘the whole’ maximises the usage of space within the ‘shed’.

Cafe / Bar / Function Space

Integrating a socialising space into the roof of the building which caters to both the sailing school and outside trade would become a contributing element in making the building successful. Additionally, it makes the most of a location with a beautiful south facing view.

Left: [31] Exploded Axonometric

Wrapping four functions up in to one coherent ‘whole’

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Conclusion

When taking into consideration the studies examined throughout this text, a hybrid condition has been developed. By analysing five locations which posses three different conditions, a number of features important to the site in Dundee have been identified. Certain aspects work well within the current design context whereas other elements which are not appropriate for the site has been discarded.

The text has gone on to consider how the Venturi and Scott-Brown ideals of ‘the duck’ and ‘the decorated shed’, the ‘glove and mitten’ and ‘the difficult whole’ can combine with the typology of the shed. Where these collide at the junction point between land and water, it has potential to create a playful and interesting building at one of the gateways to the city of Dundee.

By introducing the term liminality, an understanding of the occupation of the space ‘in between’ and therefore the ‘threshold’ has been developed. The site lies on the boundary between city and water and the question is how the building can interact with both while catering for the many functions it will contain and remaining as an identifiable ‘whole’. Turner and Hockney attempt to recreate this feeling of being on the edge through painting and printing. Although each are very different they bring similar concepts to the site. The ideas of Turner highlight the capturing of light and making the boundary between land and water dissolve.

Whereas Hockney links water and land through an illustration of leisure - but still showing a different type of boundary, this one much harsher.

Left: [32] Result

Through analysing the form of several of David Chipperfield’s sheds as well as the Vanna Venturi House, an image of a simple form which is able to straddle the junction is understood. However, the contradiction within is only realised when the unrelated functions mix and the true playfulness of the façade 61 and interior is formed.

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Referencing Research Methods/Summary: Meeting with Tay Bridge Control Manager Aspirations for the site and the most important functions for the building.

Meeting with Allan Watt – Central Waterfront Coordinator What the council has planned for the Bridge Control Site.

Meeting with Prof Rob Duck – Dean of the School of the Environment Expert on the Tay – Consequences of changing the sea wall.

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Brawne, M. (2003). Architectural Thought: The design process and the expectant eye. Oxford, UK: Butterworth Architecture.

Brownlee, D. (2001). Out of the Ordinary: Architecture, Urbanism, Design. Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown and Associates. Philadelphia, PA: Yale University Press.

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....................................

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