Charlie Harris - RIBA Part II Graduate

Reigniting a brewing legacy

Nottinghamshire has a history in brewing that dates all the way back to medieval times. In fact, drinking water was known to be so bad that most Monasteries and the aristocracy brewed and drank beer instead – because it was safer! This is because brewing beers, meant they were sterilised so it therefore was deemed safe to drink

Mansfield Brewery – which boasted the country’s largest independent brewery, However, when Wolverhampton & Dudley Breweries took over, beer production was moved to Wolverhampton.

When the move happened, the taste of the beer changed, as the water was different in Wolverhampton. Then followed the winding down of the other brands of what once was the major employer in the area, and shortly after, Mansfield Brewery was finally laid to rest. The brewery closed in 2001 after 146 years of production with the buildings on the site being demolished several years later.

The site was cleared by demolition contractors in 2008, with many local residents feeling that the destruction of the brewery’s brick chimney by twelve explosive charges brought to an end part of the town’s cultural heritage, and officially marked the end of brewing in Mansfield.

The land on which the brewery once stood was immediately put up for sale. However, in 2019 year, the site is still undeveloped. However, the application for the construction of 75 dwellings with associated access, infrastructure, re-grading of site levels and car parking on land to the west of Great central Road, Mansfield, was approved at a meeting of the authority’s planning committee in August 2018.

Old Maltings

Previously Mansfield Brewery

The Maltings

Existing Ground Floor

Existing Lower Ground

Charlie Harris BA (HONS) BRIGHTON 2019

A Latin Provocateur : Monuments to Jara

“Copper

Salvador Allende, July 11 1971

In the three years of Allende’s Popular Unity government, Victor Jara supported Allende perfoming at rallies and galvanizing workers. Jara championed Chilean culture and music, he stood against the tide of trite coca-cola culture imported from the US. Just as Allende was attempting to prove that there was a ‘Chilean road’ to socialism and justice, the artists and musicians of the Chilean New Song Movement were working to develop a sense of their own culture.

Jara saw the multi-national corporations as thieves that profiteered from Chile’s resources and Jara wanted more stringent land rights to secure the nation’s wealth and began to mobilise the masses to defend Chile’s copper.

They took their music to factories, copper mines and isolated villages. Jara saw it as his business to support the struggles of ordinary people by telling the truth about their lives in song. ‘My guitar is a worker,’ as he sang in Manifesto.

is the salary of Chile, just as the land is it’s bread”

Monument : Peña

Monument : Processo

Monument : Informacion

A Peña is a meeting place for groups of musicians or artists in various South American countries. In Chile in particular, the term came to mean a cheap, popular venue where folk music was played and simple food and drink were available. Because of its association with the Unidad Popular Government of Salvador Allende, the concept of a Peña is often associated with social justice and grassroots culture.

The design therefore took a utilitarian aesthetic to reflect the industrial vernacular. The space functions as a workers cafeteria with the possibility for music and speeches to be perfromed from the stage, all whilst overlooking the surrounding factory. This kind of music, popularised by musicians such as Victor Jara in the 1960s and early 1970s, usually had an underground nature to it. However in this proposal the space has been elevated to the top of the building and is in open air, to be celebrated.

A monument which commemorates the production of copper, Chile’s main export. The monument aims to educate the visiting public to the physicalities of the process through an interactive installation. The exhibits are housed in the form of the shell of a hydrocyclone, a machine which is involved in the process. The design borrows from the architectural language of machinery by reimagining the machine’s scale, making it an inhabitable structure.

As visitors circulate through the monument they are able to become a participant in a miniaturised copper factory. With scaled down machinery it is possible to interact with each stage of the copper production process, grinding ore, hoisting the rubble with pulleys, smelting and refining until eventualy they are able to make a small piece of copper. This happens alongside an educational process and a viewing platform offering views into the surrounding copper factory.

Vicor Jara and his message of freedom of thought and expression are still powerful and he remians a national icon in Chilean culture. The themes of his songs focused on love, peace, and social justice.

The monument will feature a cinema, gallery space and a space to hear his music. The cinema located within the monument will exhibit documentary footage that focuses on the Chilean coup, Nueva Cancion as well as shorter clips that champion workers rights and socialist ideas. The level directly below the cinema is a quiet and reflective space that will feature an auditorium with ramped seating. The public will be able to collect a set of headphones that will play a collection of Jara’s work with his discography available to listen to. The space has views out into the factory to see the workers that Jara sang of and championed.

telephone traders receive clients’ orders and provide a commentary.

ring clerks put orders into ring and keep record of transactions.

ring dealers conduct business across the ring with other dealers.

Metal futures are traded at the London Metal Exchange (LME) sessions and conducted in 5 minute intervals for each metal.

This drawing attempted to codify the performative nature of ring trading. By tracking both movement and hierachy a narrative unfolded around the ring.

10:00am TRADING OPENS BIDS AND OFFERS EXCHANGED

HAND SIGNALS USED TO COMMUNICATE

10:05am SESSION ENDS/ RING RESETS SILENCE AS FINAL MINUTE APPROCHES

Modelling both physically and digitally concurrently allowed rapid spatial developments. By recomposing some important spaces and reconsidering the circulation between these masses a new form was developed. This new design was capable of intersecting the existing Millenium Mills building and swept around it to reveal a view to the historic royal docks.

Re:framing Rottingdean

After surveying Rottingdean two points of interest were Beacon Hill and Newlands Barn. Beacon Hill famously used for signalling the approach of the Spanish armada, and Newlands Barn a Trigonometric station used to map Britain. These two locations have a direct viewline between them.

Using Beacon Hill as my starting point and finishing at Newlands Barn trig point mapped 3 differing paths which have been selected for their views of Rottingdean, with points of interest dotted along each.

These maps shall be used along with the the device, which is fixed to the beacon. It’s intended f use is for walkers to investigate the landscape. This could offer a means to engage the public with Rottingdean once again and gives purpose to the currently redundant beacon and trig point.