Diploma Year 5 Thesis
Harriet Comben ‘Lavanderie Manual_Instructions’
The thesis is the place where Year 5 students have the opportunity of developing the theories which underpin their work, whether this is derived from science, cultural theory, technology, architectural history, philosophy or the psychology of perception. As a result, a reflexive relationship is created between the portfolio and thesis, each informing the other. Peg Rawes, Mark Smout T hesis Co-ordinators
My thesis accompanies the design portfolio in the aesthetic search for a relevant architecture for the Lavanderie Venezia, a proposed industrialised laundry in Venice. The study is titled 'Manual_Instructions' as it explores and studies the 'requirements' to design a rationalist architecture. It investigates the Rationalists, in particular, the architecture of Giuseppe Terragni (1904-1943) to indicate whether it is possible to create a rationalist Italian architecture. Definitions of rationalism are explored, investigating the link to Futurism and the continuation of the Italian Classical tradition. A consideration of rationalism as engineering highlights how a functional architecture can be construed on different levels, and that a definition of architecture is dependent upon the reaction of the viewer. Thus, the intellectualised rationalism between form and function in Terragni's buildings is analysed, especially with reference to the spiritual and poetic functionalism which inform the Casa del Fascio, Como.
This page left: Harriet Comben; right: Dean Pike.
Dean Pike ‘Pockets for a Memory Place’ This thesis accompanies my design proposal for Camden Town Hall - a social, political, cultural and religious construction in the heart of Camden Town. It also orginates from my inner experience of the Villa Muller, a work of Adolf Loos. The idea of a building that looks at itself aroused my curiosity about ideas of masks and creating spaces that are highly interior, imaginary or dreamlike. Through assembling and combining the metaphoric and spatial logic of three themes - the Pocket, Mask and Jacket the thesis collages real and imaginary spaces which create 'unreal' conditions of space. These devices link the diverse factual and fictional aspects of the social and political heriarchies for the proposed Camden Town Hall, distorting our common sense of space and time, and enlivening the joyful task of making small intimate spaces, nooks, rooms and pockets that make up the interior architecture.