Emma Cooney: Structural Expression of Collapsed Colour

Emma Cooney / 13400558

Structural Expression of Collapsed Colour

Contextual Architectural Language: Bulloch Harbour Fish Market and Restaurant

Contents

00 Introduction

04

01 Make a Start

14

02 Analyse the Observation

24

03 Embrace your Interest

32

04 Chase the Colour

46

05 Find Your Place

54

06 Hardline Hardline

78

07 Present and Respond

86

08 Drawing Fragments

98

09 Mass and Landscape

106

10 Casting Space

116

11 Structure, Expression, Colour

126

12 Present and Conclude

144

Exhibtion: Collapsed Colour

148

Drawing Conclusions

168

00

Introduction

Intro/ Thesis Group Introduction

Freehand Hardline Thesis Group Context “Drawing is not a transparent translation of thought into form but rather a medium which influences thought just as thought influences drawing.�

The method of drawing and its relationship to the design process is central to the intent of the Freehand Hardline studio. We are focused on adjusting hardline information with freehand thoughts. The resultant propositions, structures and form will emerge from real and abstract observations. The culture of drawing is a continuous, ongoing activity. We are tasked with compulsively sketching ideas and artefacts, to record existing phenomena, generate ideas, develop their potential, and present to others. Regardless of the medium we begin with, drawing is the starting point of our design explorations. Attention to the drawing process is about using the advantage of the speed of thought and drawing to explore the possibilities of architectural expression. We are encouraged to become passionately involved with a condition and to find some inner force.

Le Corbusier: Cow Drawing // Drawing his observations

Le Corbusier: Ronchamp

Le Corbusier: Ronchamp Sketches

Freehand Hardline/ Studio Introduction

6

Intro/ Thesis Group Introduction

Le Corbusier: Visual Arts Center

As a group we referenced the drawings of Le Corbusier and tried to learn from his intense observation skills and ability to extract inspiration from his own sketches and drawings. His drawings are described as being “far from careful, journalistic depictions of surface form, and they show little concern for the accuracy of their depiction or their beauty as end products.

Instead they are ruminations, patterns of analytical lines, a means to intensify vision and memory of a specific place by interpreting a view through drawing.” His intent is to somehow erase the barrier between the drawer and the subject of the drawing by entering fully into the act of drawing.

Drawings are more than passive recipients of their author’s actions; they do more than reflect a way of seeing. They abstract vision and thought, imposing a material presence on the act of representation and thereby on imagination.

Le Corbusier: Visual Arts Center Series Freehand to Hardline

Freehand Hardline/ Studio Introduction

7

Intro/ Thesis Project Intent

Thesis Project Intent Bulloch Harbour Fish Market and Restaurant: Construction of Contextual Architectural Language through Structural Expression, Atmosphere and Colour This thesis project aims to explore the possibility of creating a deeply contextual architectural language that is supported by an understanding of structural expression, use of colour and human experience. The project is concerned with responding to conditions unique to place and programme and hopes to reframe or enhance the atmosphere of its host environment. The project locates itself in Bulloch Harbour as a testing ground for architectural ideas.

The design proposal for a fish market and restaurant in this place serves as a vehicle by which architecture is challenged.

Through a deeply personal, iterative drawing process and the adjustment of both freehand and hardline information, the thesis aspires to take advantage of the speed of thought and emphasise the role of drawing in an architect’s work method.

Emma Cooney / UCD Architecture /

13400558 2019

Supervised by Ben Mullen and Chris Boyle

Freehand Hardline/ Studio Introduction

8

Intro/ Thesis Project Intent

Freehand Hardline/ Studio Introduction

9

Intro/ Site - Bulloch Harbour

Bulloch Harbour The work of the studio Freehand Hardline is based in Bulloch Harbour.

Bulloch Harbour lies between Dalkey and Sandycove on the southern end of Dublin Bay. The harbour developed many centuries ago around a small inlet where a stream ran down from Dalkey Commons to the south-east.

There has been recent research and surveying conducted of this area by Dr Elizabeth Shotton of UCD School of Architecture, from which a highly detailed Lidar scan (point cloud model) has been produced. This provides the studio with some starting hardline information. She has constructed a narrative of this place by comparing the Lidar scan (hardline) with older paintings and drawings (freehand).

Medieval Castle of Bulloch Bulloch Castle was built in the 12th century by the Cistercian Monks of St Mary’s Abbey to protect the fisheries granted to them. the township of Bulloch developed around the castle and was defended by walls and watch towers, one of which was at the top of the steps leading up to Ulverton Road. In return for this protection the monks collected levies in the form of fish from all catches landed at Bulloch. The monks developed underground storage in ice for their fish. There was a small stone quay below the castle walls, partly sheltered by a rocky breakwater in the area of the current pier. Records show that several Viceroys embarked and disembarked at Bulloch en route to Dublin and enjoyed the monks’ hospitality. These included Philip de Courtney, Lord Deputy in 1386, Prince Thomas of Lancaster, Lord Lieutenant, in 1402, and the Earl of Sussex, Lord Deputy, in 1559.

Following the dissolution of the monasteries

by Henry VIII in 1539, the castle was taken over by the Crown and leased to private occupiers.

1837 Map

Harbour and Castle

Western Marine Site

Freehand Hardline/ Studio Introduction

10

Intro/ Site - Bulloch Harbour

Dalkey Granite Dalkey granite was highly valued for construction work and the Dublin Ballast Board (now Dublin Port Company) operated a quarry in the area which now lies between Harbour Road and St Patrick’s Church. On early O.S. maps Harbour Road is name Ballast Office Road. Stone was cut here and shipped from Bulloch around 1750 to build the Great South Wall which now forms the entrance to Dublin Port. Dalkey granite continued to be cut for use on the city quay walls.

Building the Current Harbour In 1819 a new granite pier and walls were constructed to form the harbour we see today.

Stone was cut from the rocks east of the harbour. The pier lies on the axis of an earlier rocky breakwater. Cranes were installed on the pier and this facilitated the transport of stone, and later the use of the harbour commercially for importing coal. Heavy iron rings can still be seen on the rocks outside the pier which were used to winch boats in and out of the harbour. The coal yard later became a soap factory and a boat-building yard. This eventually became Western Marine, who sold the site in March 2016.

Main Pier

Granite Coastal Quarry

Curved Walls of Harbour

Freehand Hardline/ Studio Introduction

11

Intro/ Site - Bulloch Harbour

Granite Quarry

Western Marine Plan

Extracts from Lidar Scan

Freehand Hardline/ Studio Introduction

12

Intro/ Site - Bulloch Harbour

Rock Formations

Rock Formations II

Freehand Hardline/ Studio Introduction

13

01

Make a Start

Granite Rock Formation

Bulloch Harbour/ Coastal Quarry

16

Week 1/ Site Visit

To immediately situate the studio group within a physical context, we visited Bulloch Harbour in the first week of the semester.

The harbour is relatively small, although still maintained as a working harbour, despite its low water level. Inspired by our research on Le Corbusier’s drawing methods, we began to make observations of our own in Bulloch.

This instantly struck me as a complex site with a rich material quality. One thing that was immediately evident was the presence of vivid colour; in the faded pastel colours of the overturned boats, in the carefully painted facades of the harbour cottages, in the fishing equipment stacked along the harbour walls and in the multitude of small storage huts and shelters adjacent to the water.

I spent most of my time that day exploring in the rocky terrain of Bulloch’s coastal quarry, concealed beyond a small opening adjacent to the vacant Western Marine Site. The exposed granite outcrops of this site are incredibly powerful. The colossal scale of some of the rock formations and the striking power of the sea glimpsed between them was the first thing in Bulloch that I observed intensely and recorded frantically through a series of sketchbook drawings. I made several sketches of the various crevices, fissures and folds in the rock, abstracting my observations until the solidity of the granite I was drawing transformed into something more textilelike in its appearance. I attempted to draw the harsh landscape with a softness that I thought to be atmospherically present, rather than from a tactile observation. This softness I observed was due to the gradual setting of the sun behind us.

Bulloch Harbour Colour

Initial Rock Sketch

Thesis Project/ Make a Start

17

Week 1/ Site Visit

Bulloch Rock Photo Series

18

Week 1/ Site Visit

Coloured Pencil Rock Sketch

19

Week 1/ Site Visit

I took these smaller site observations with me to the studio in the following days when tasked with making a drawing that was bigger than myself. My observations of Bulloch granite became my starting point for this exercise. After reading a piece on architectural drawing in “Envisioning Architecture: An Analysis of Drawing� it became clear to me that I had to enter fully into the act of drawing. I was encouraged to work with frantic urgency and with impassioned purpose. My drawings of the Bulloch quarry on site all observed a sense of layering and began to explore the multitude of subtle colours present in the stone.

For my large drawing, I decided to zoom in on the rock formation in order to explore its material quality up close. I started by making a line drawing, representing the various folds and layers of eroded granite.

Bolder lineweights helping me to distinguish the folds between larger faces of stone.

To capture the intensity and striking power of the rock I began to render the line drawing with coloured chalk pastels.

Although referencing a photograph I had taken, I began to draw with darker, more vivid colours than directly observed. The indigenous yellow colour of the lichen remained an anchoring point for me, however I exaggerated the reddish tones of the reflected sunlight and the also highlighted the blue hue of the sky that stood out to me on the rock’s surface. The finished drawing is much darker and more intense than the original observations made. My abstraction of colour and form emerged as the main line of inquiry. The drawing is largely abstract, even figurative, which highlighted to me the power of drawing as a process. I was left questioning why I had drawn the rock in that way. Why did I decide to place pure line alongside intense render? Was colour the main observation? How can an observation of intense colour propel me forward?

Thesis Project/ Make a Start

20

Small Rock Studies

Photographic Reference

Week 1/ Site Visit

Final Large Drawing of Rock Formation 1.8 x 2 metres.

21

Week 1/ Site Visit

Preparatory Line Drawing of Rock Formation

Bulloch Harbour/ Coastal Quarry

22

Week 1/ Site Visit

Extracted Rock Drawing Fragments

Thesis Project/ Make a Start

23

02

Analyse the Observation

Notebook Observations

Bulloch Harbour/ Rock Formations

26

Week 2/ Drawing Analysis

Freehand Hardline Workshop: Upon completing the first task of a large drawing we all took part in a drawing workshop which helped to analyse each drawing in a different way. This process required the use of overlays informed by critical observations. The purpose of the thesis group was reaffirmed through drawing. Reflecting upon Le Corbusier’s “ruminations”, which were far from masterful or journalistic depictions, we involved ourselves in discussion and analysis of each drawing. It became clear that the overlay, the things observed and analysed, were as valuable as the precisely rendered, original drawings. I noted that each drawing should question something, test an idea, help form conclusions and inform an iterative design process. The drawing has a lifetime, one which does not end when the drawing is completed; it should project you towards some other discovery, observation, question or conclusion.

Freehand Hardline Drawing Workshop

Following the large chalk pastel drawing of Bulloch granite, I began to make smaller notebook drawings, reacting to what I had completed the week before. This was an attempt to clarify an interest and a line of inquiry for myself. Some of these sketches involved abstracting the blocks of colour even further, while some analysed the relationship between line and fold. I started to explore the folds present in the rock in greater detail, comparing its form to fabric, something which can be both organic and man-made, much like the coastal quarry.

Block Colour Rock Drawing

Thesis Project/ Analyse the Observation

27

Week 2/ Drawing Analysis

I immediately launched into exploring folding as a structural proposition by making small paper models. I was interested in the creation of crevices and shafts between faces of paper or stone. In retrospect, this exercise, given its origamilike appearance, became overly geometrical and did not encapsulate the essence of the Bulloch rock formation which I had intensely observed in the first week. It could also be noted at this stage that the intensity of colour I searched for in the original drawing was also lost in this study. In reflection, I jumped too fast to a structural solution and neglected the vivid colour of the rocks that had inspired me. I believe that this was a necessary detour at this stage, as it helped to confirm for me my true interests and encouraged me to embrace my initial studies with greater rigour and energy than before.

Folded Paper Model

I began to analyse the wider context of Bulloch Harbour this week in an attempt to decide upon a site where I could begin to focus my work. Following my studies of the rock formations, proximity to this area seemed only natural. The currently vacant Western Marine site adjacent to the coastal quarry emerged as the obvious choice. There have been proposals for the development of this site which have been refused due to the lack of community and marine function so it seemed to me like a perfect site to engage with the program of the fish market. I made a small paper model indicating my interest in this site and its direct relationship to the rocks.

Crevice / Fold / Face

Bulloch Harbour/ Rock Formations

28

Week 2/ Drawing Analysis

Thesis Project/ Analyse the Observation

29

Week 2/ Drawing Analysis

Observations of Colour on Site

Bulloch Harbour/ Rock Formations

30

Week 2/ Drawing Analysis

Design Week Presentation: To conclude the first two weeks of work, “design week” presentations were run on the second Friday with the view to summarising each thesis group. This helped to define clearly the overall purpose of the Freehand Hardline studio. I presented a summary of my work to date in chronological order to outline the iterative drawing process. The main observation gained from the design week presentation was the exploration of colour in my work. I was encouraged at this stage to fully embrace this interest in working with colour and was advised not to jump to structural proposals too quickly.

I took a brief look back at some of the photographs I had taken on site for inspiration. Most of my initial observations involved looking closely at the presence of colour in the harbour. It was useful at this stage to remove myself from the drawing process and remind myself of what had originally caught my attention. Not only is colour widely present in the material of the rock but in everyday objects in the harbour.

Colour is embedded in Bulloch Harbour’s identity. This undoubtedly was my strongest site observation.

Second Workshop Drawing: Brainstorming My Thesis

Design week was certainly useful for me to question what my main interests were. Upon reflection, my folded paper structures veered from my main line of inquiry, however in doing so, emphasised the importance of an iterative drawing and making process. At the end of the week I participated in a second Freehand Hardline workshop, where, as a group, we brainstormed each thesis and its intention.

Thesis Project/ Analyse the Observation

31

03

Embrace Your Interest

Colour Junctions

Bulloch Harbour/ Rock Formations

34

Week 3/ Colour Studies

Following the design week presentations, I decided to set aside the structural paper models and revert my attention back to my initial studies which looked closely at the Bulloch rock formations; observations of both colour and material quality. I began by making a smaller oil pastel drawing of one of the granite outcrops. Similarly to my large drawing, I exaggerated the colours observed in the granite. I made the conscious decision to render only specific parts of the page, creating a sense of layered material. The vivid, coloured strips contrast greatly with the grey lines which represent every second layer of rock. I continued to make notebook drawings based on photos I had taken on site, and the more I sketched, the stronger my interest in colour seemed to become.

There were certainly moments where dominant colours met in the drawings that struck me as spatial. I recorded some of these moments in larger scale photographs.

Words like vibrance, colour dominance, complimentary and contrasting colours, intensity, proximity, depth, composition, illusion, saturation and opacity were quickly becoming the vocabulary used to describe my work.

Oil Pastel Rock Drawing

At this stage I had made several drawings which explored a marbling of colour, in large drawings and consistently in my sketchbook. Although these drawings heightened the intensity of colour, the marbling of adjacent colours made it difficult to establish a structure within the drawings.

Notebook Drawing - Rock Colours

Thesis Project/ Embrace Your Interest

35

Week 3/ Colour Studies

I continued these studies whilst simultaneously researching precedents which could suggest how I might work with colour. One source of inspiration for me at this stage was the work of Lina Bo Bardi; her coloured drawings, the playfulness of her buildings and the attention to small coloured details. Bardi’s Sesc Pompéia Factory is particularly useful when considering the careful use of coloured elements. The playful nature of the window openings and the rectangular red screens behind captured my attention. It became clear to me that the intervention of colour in my project could be a simple, yet powerful singular move. Naturally the work of Luis Barragán also became a reference point for me. His use of vivid block colour and the way his coloured elements contribute to the sequence of space is extremely bold. Again, I noted that he makes a series of strong, yet simple moves which become almost emblematic of the place he creates.

Lina Bo Bardi Sesc Pompéia

Luis Barragán - Colour creates movement through space

Bulloch Harbour/ Rock Formations

36

Week 3/ Colour Studies

Lina Bo Bardi Window Detail

Luis Barragรกn - Casa Gilardi - Bold Colour

Thesis Project/ Embrace Your Interest

37

Week 3/ Colour Studies

Abstract Rock Collage: Making Shapes

Bulloch Harbour/ Rock Formations

38

Week 3/ Colour Studies

I began to consider the potential of block colours, first used in a series of collages.

These collages attempted to represent the rock formations in a different way by exploring depth of field and the integration of vivid colour in a natural landscape.

The first collage involved pasting a series of obscure shapes I had photographed on site and arranging them on a single page to create a dynamic, yet abstract composition. Although this collage captured the embodied energy of Bulloch’s quarry, it failed to represent the depth of space that previous drawings of the rocks had portrayed. The individual pieces in this collage had been extracted from a series of square photographs I had taken at Bulloch.

Each photo now had various openings as a result. I began to layer the leftover square photographs, without gluing together to create the illusion of depth. I combined the rock layers with a layer of vivid colour to explore the power of block colour.

Upon reflection, some of my red openings resonated strongly with my understanding of the Lina Bo Bardi windows. The composition of these layered pages began to suggest volume that existed between them. The layer of block colour, restricted in the background, implied the potential to catch a glimpse of colour through the existing rugged landscape.

Helen Frankenthaler What Red Lines Can Do

Start of Collage Individual Pieces

Thesis Project/ Embrace Your Interest

39

Week 3/ Colour Studies

Bulloch Harbour/ Rock Formations

40

Week 3/ Colour Studies

Thesis Project/ Embrace Your Interest

41

Week 3/ Colour Studies

Red Mark Overlay

Bulloch Harbour/ Rock Formations

42

Week 3/ Colour Studies

Having witnessed the power of block colour in my own work, I started to study examples of this in 20th Century Abstract Expressionist Painting, particularly in the work of Helen Frankenthaler and Hans Hoffman. One thing I was finding difficult in my drawings was distinguishing the ambiguous, unstructured marks from the dominant colours. Hoffman’s painting Goliath (1960), achieves exactly this. In the background he paints abstract, coinciding shapes which, much like my marbled rock drawings are impossible to read as isolated blocks of colour. In the foreground, Hoffman paints strong, orthogonal blocks of colour which dominate the ambiguity of the paint behind. This approach is something that is very easily applied to a piece of architecture.

I had completed overlays of some of my marbled rock drawings, singling out certain colours (yellow for example), however there was a randomness to this process that was not providing me with new information. I decided to make a bold red mark over one of these drawings to create a level of tension that was not present before.

Helen Frankenthaler Canyon (1965)

Hans Hoffman - Goliath (1960)

Helen Frankenthaler Orange Lozenge Colour Field (1967)

Thesis Project/ Embrace Your Interest

43

Week 3/ Colour Studies

As well as the collage series, I began to investigate colour in three dimensions in the form of a coloured clay model. This model explored the concept of quarrying colour, where colour is considered as a material with which to build. This model was an experiment, whose end result was largely unknown at the beginning of the process. I began by making a mound of block colours, then sliced away the edge pieces to create a cube. The appearance of these side cuts reminded me of the process of filleting a fish, where the external surface is cut away to reveal a different colour inside.

When all sides were cut I began to carve the cube in places where blue was visible and later labelled this process as “chasing the blue”, which referred to the process of natural coastal erosion. I took photographs of the model at different stages. One study which interested me was the development of the model’s faces to reveal the spatial arrangement of colour.

Coloured Clay Model - Sliced Face

Coloured Clay - Carved

Start - Block Colour

Bulloch Harbour/ Rock Formations

44

Side Piece - Inside Out

Week 3/ Colour Studies

Photographic Study - Development of Faces

Thesis Project/ Embrace Your Interest

45

04

Chase the Colour

Week 4/ Block Colour

Colour Block Sketches

Bulloch Harbour/ Rock Formations

48

Week 4/ Block Colour

Following my collage and clay work in week 3, I wished to explore the power of block colour in further detail. As well as my continued awareness of blocks or planes of colour in abstract, expressionist painting, I began to look at contemporary sculptors who deal with the composition of colour in three dimensions. Jim Osman’s Walnut Series became an important reference point for me this week; the painted surfaces of his uniquely arranged timber sculptures displayed to me how one might locate colour within a structural proposition. In a review of his exhibition in the Lesley Heller Gallery the following description stood out as being highly relevant to my own design process: “Rather than architectural phenomena that were prototyped, blueprinted, scheduled and constructed the works seem like buildings that whimsically happened themselves into existence, the playful concoctions of creatively wilful trees and blossoms” - Paul D’Agostino, Hyperallergic.

I began my own exploration by analysing my coloured clay model using only block colour. I made drawings of the individual faces of the model to reveal the basic carved language. This removed the previously distracting muddle of marbled colours, and instead began to distill the physical appearance of the face into a single colour which could be read with greater clarity.

Inspired by these simple coloured sketches, I made a larger drawing which was a coloured development of the model’s six faces. This drawing began to articulate a sense of depth and simplified the spatial quality of the clay model into a legible language of block colour, line and fill.

Jim Osman - Walnut Series

Thesis Project/ Chase the Colour

49

Week 4/ Block Colour

Overlays of this development drawing were then made, extracting certain coloured elements that overlapped to suggest structure or form. Some overlays were thoughts about smaller built elements and some continued to explore colour alignments, adjacencies and dominance.

These overlays were compiled together behind the development drawing and hung in studio, adjacent to a light source.

Together the sheets of colour combined to form a resultant drawing which embodied the power of a stained-glass window.

Colours were blurred, combined and projected in a different way.

To conclude the first four weeks, all work to date was presented at a review. The review helped to clarify the purpose of the thesis group. I presented all of my drawings and models in relation to an overarching question and exploration of colour in architecture. It was clear to me that I had begun to extract information from my work about structure and space however the general feedback given suggested anchoring the individual interests in a fixed site and brief. The next step for me was clear even prior to the review - that my interest in colour and structure required a dimensioned thing (whether that began with a program or site) in order to be able to test my thoughts within certain restraints. This referred back to the overall purpose of the thesis group; that freehand and hardline work would happen in tandem, and that one continued to inform the other. At this stage, it was clear that I needed to embrace some hardline studies in order to propel my project forward.

Development Drawing: Block Colour / Chambers/ Alignments

Drawing and Underlay

Bulloch Harbour/ Rock Formations

50

Week 4/ Block Colour

Full Development Drawing

Thesis Project/ Chase the Colour

51

Week 4/ Block Colour

Overlapping Block Colours - “Stained Glass”

Bulloch Harbour/ Rock Formations

52

Week 4/ Block Colour

Full Development Drawing with Overlays Stained Glass Study

Thesis Project/ Chase the Colour

53

05

Find Your Place

Week 5/ Fish Market Brief

Following the first review, it was paramount that I determine a fixed brief and grasp the dimensions of a particular site as soon as possible. The Western Marine site, adjacent to the coastal quarry still remained the most appropriate site to work with. The granite which I have observed intensely for four weeks is inextricably linked with this vacant site. It was also important for me at this stage to settle on a design brief to work within. Defining certain limitations in relation to scale, function, areas will provide a degree of release, providing me with hardline information which can then be overlayed with fluid, yet dimensioned freehand responses. The fish market brief was my starting point. Before attempting any form of site analysis I wished to research the requirements of a fish market and restaurant in greater detail. Firstly, this involved a brief overview of precedent examples, ranging from more traditional market typologies (Venice Fish Market and Budapest Great Market Hall) to more contemporary examples (Fernando Tavora’s Vila de Feira Market and Jean Prouvé’s Maison du Peuple de Clichy). From each precedent I noted a different solution or approach to market design. One common characteristic was the use of large spans and expansive, fluid space. Naturally the presence of colour in some of the traditional marketplaces (India’s bazaars and Istanbul’s great market in particular) inspired me. The temporary red awning of the Venetian fish market completely transformed the space; its relationship to structure and light was extraordinary. Mercado Abrantes by ARX Architects, disguised more like a modern art gallery, stood out to me as a piece of architecture that challenged the composition of market spaces. I referred to Peter Salter’s Thai Fish Restaurant when considering the restaurant in isolation. The manner in which Salter represents this project through drawing relates strongly to the premise of the Freehand Hardline thesis group. Salter evokes an atmosphere in his drawings and concentrates mainly on interior spaces.

Bulloch Harbour/ Site and Brief

56

Great Market, Budapest

Vila de Feira Market, Fernando Tavora

Week 5/ Fish Market Brief

Venice Fish Market

Thai Fish Restaurant Section Peter Salter

Thai Fish Restaurant Interior View Peter Salter

Thesis Project/ Find Your Place

57

Week 5/ Fish Market Brief

Before settling on a defined schedule of accommodation, it was vital that I evaluate the scale of the Western Marine site in order to tailor my brief requirements to its current area. The site has received a huge amount of attention in recent years due to planning applications submitted for the development of a mixed use scheme, consisting mainly of residential units. The community of Bulloch are passionately opposed to this application due to its lack of community functions. This social context provides me with the perfect opportunity to propose a fish market for this site. An understanding of the site and its potential requires a deeper understanding of previous planning proposals and the reasons why they were refused. The planning drawings became a useful reference when tackling the Western Marine site. They were relevant hardline documents over which I could overlay and compare initial thoughts about scale and treatment of the surrounding context. One thing remained clear: it was crucial that I engage with the coastal rock formations.

Door to quarry at end of pier

I began to test initial ideas about the site through freehand sketches, overplayed on a 1:500 site plan of Western Marine and the adjacent rocks. First concepts focused on ideas about entrance, large span space, integration of water, irregularity of structure, overlapping floor and inclined roof elements. I worked first in plan, in order to grasp the scale of the spaces, with reference back to the brief which I had constructed for myself. Alongside overlayed plan sketches, I explored ideas about section and elevation also. The elevation sketches revealed a lot about how the building would be perceived differently from the sea than from the harbour.

Rock Formations

Bulloch Harbour/ Site and Brief

58

Week 5/ Fish Market Brief

Western Marine Warehouse (foreground) adjacent to granite outcrops

Western Marine Site from harbour side

Thesis Project/ Find Your Place

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Week 5/ Fish Market Brief

Bulloch Harbour // Western Marine Site Aerial Photo

Bulloch Harbour/ Site and Brief

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Week 5/ Fish Market Brief

Thesis Project/ Find Your Place

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Week 5/ Fish Market Brief

1837 Site Map

1843 Site Map

Bulloch Harbour/ Site and Brief

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Week 5/ Fish Market Brief

1888 Site Map

Aerial Photo - Present Day

Thesis Project/ Find Your Place

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Site Proposal - Concept Sketch Series - Plan

Bulloch Harbour/ Site and Brief

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Week 5/ Fish Market Brief

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Week 5/ Fish Market Brief

Thesis Project/ Find Your Place

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Week 5/ Fish Market Brief

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Site Proposal - Concept Sketch Series - Plan

Bulloch Harbour/ Site and Brief

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Week 5/ Fish Market Brief

Thesis Project/ Find Your Place

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Week 5/ Fish Market Brief

Elevations from the Sea - Concept Sketches

Bulloch Harbour/ Site and Brief

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Week 5/ Fish Market Brief

Elevations from the Harbour - Concept Sketches

Thesis Project/ Find Your Place

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Week 5/ Fish Market Brief

Roofscape Concept Perspectives

Bulloch Harbour/ Site and Brief

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Week 5/ Fish Market Brief

Thesis Project/ Find Your Place

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Week 5/ Flores and Prats

Flores and Prats Workshop: Paper Theatres At the end of the fifth week, I had the opportunity to participate in a model workshop run by Flores and Prats. Having witnessed their lecture on Sala Beckett, their adaptive reuse theatre project in Barcelona, I was encouraged by their proficient use of hand drawings and sketch models.

The workshop was a chance to explore our projects in a different way, through the brief, entitled “Paper Theatres�. As a starting point we all brought images of places, architectural spaces and objects that related to the project we were making.

We were then encouraged to make paper models of a scenario we imagined in our projects, almost like a stage set; a layered model. Following my initial elevation sketches of the glimpse of my project from the sea, I decided to make a paper scene that described the viewpoint of a fisherman arriving to the market from the sea. I wanted to portray a sense that the building was emerging behind the rocks. I imagined that the buildings general structure would be quite robust, with a heavy, large span roof.

This would provide me the freedom to play with planes of colour and light inside.

Layering Granite

Bulloch Harbour/ Site and Brief

72

Workshop Space

My Workshop Desk

Week 5/ Flores and Prats

Final Paper Theatre

Thesis Project/ Find Your Place

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Week 5/ Flores and Prats

Work In Progress

Bulloch Harbour/ Site and Brief

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Week 5/ Flores and Prats

Paper Theatre Exhibition

Thesis Project/ Find Your Place

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Week 5/ Flores and Prats

Bulloch Harbour/ Site and Brief

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Week 5/ Flores and Prats

Thesis Project/ Find Your Place

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06

Hardline Hardline

Week 6/ 1:200 Drawings

After recording my initial thoughts about the Western Marine site through freehand sketch (scaled to 1:500), it became apparent to me that a jump to hardline drawings of a larger scale were necessary to test these ideas. Along with the brief that I had set out for myself, the hardline plans, sections and elevations could act as a base layer, on top of which freehand explorations could occur.

Without this layer of dimensioned, hardline information, the freehand explorations avoid any form of measured analysis. A jump in scale from 1:500 to 1:200 was also helpful at this stage in order to represent ideas about structure and interior finishes.

I began with a 1:200 plan drawing, with the aim of distilling my freehand plan series into a single, scaled drawing. This plan drawing, although overly complicated and obscure in parts, represented an idea about two main anchor spaces (the market and the restaurant) which would be articulated differently. Ideas about overlapping floor plates and roof structure were also present.

I noted that the layered vertical elements i had explored in my Flores and Prats paper theatre had been lost here. The vertical structure needed to be simplified.

Quarry site showing existing wall and opening to harbour beyond

Following the plan I began to explore my initial concepts in both elevation and section. I thought that the market space would read differently to the materials of the restaurant. A further investigation was needed of the varying approaches to the sea side and harbour side elevations. Questions were raised about building envelope; what is external/ internal, private/ public etc. These drawings were not made with a finished product in mind, but were used as a testing ground for ideas about the architecture I wanted to make in this place.

Granite formations and sea

Bulloch Harbour/ Site and Brief

1:200 Draft Plan Fish Market and Restaurant

Thesis Project/ Hardline Hardline

Week 6/ 1:200 Drawings

Bulloch Harbour/ Site and Brief

Week 6/ 1:200 Drawings

Thesis Project/ Hardline Hardline

Bulloch Harbour/ Site and Brief

Thesis Project/ Hardline Hardline

07

Present and Respond

Week 7/ Review Week

In preparation for a review of the project, I continued to work on a series of 1:200 hardline drawings that tested ideas about my fish market and restaurant in terms of structure, form and scale. This set of measured judgements, although unresolved, provided a base layer on which to build further architectural ideas through freehand sketches and overlays. Freehand drawing undoubtedly increases my speed of thought. When overlaid on a series of scaled, dimensioned hardline drawings, I find that my freehand work can become both energetic and equally measured. Before the review, I responded to the hardline plans, sections and elevations of my fish market by drawing quickly over them in oil pastels. I identified that the structure was largely unresolved and lacked any sort of overarching logic. This is something that needed further development and consideration at this stage. The oil pastel drawings began to suggest an atmospheric quality that the hardline, pencil drawings lacked.

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Bulloch Harbour/ Review Discussion

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Alongside the 1:200 drawings, I began to model the Western Marine site and the adjacent quarry at 1:500. It was helpful to explore spatial concepts in three dimensions. The model highlighted immediately questions about structure, envelope and atmosphere. The duality that had been present in some of my sketch elevations (both quarry side and harbour side) had been lost completely in the model.

This highlighted to me the importance of retaining the existing fisherman’s cabins and warehouse adjacent to the pier, which would create a definite edge of industry along the south west elevation. The fragility of the watercolour card model allowed me to question the building’s exposure to the elements; the powerful waves, the prevailing winds and the coastal storms at Bulloch.

Was the structure appropriate for such a place? How could the building withstand the conditions of its environment?

Hardline plan overlays

Scheme Sketches

Week 7/ Review Week

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1:200 Plan Sketch - Colour as Mass

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1:200 Plan Sketch - Block Colour

Thesis Project/ Present and Respond

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Week 7/ Review Week

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1:200 Sketch Plan - Restaurant Route

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1:200 Sketch Plan - Program and Structure

Bulloch Harbour/ Review Discussion

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Week 7/ Review Week

1:500 Site Model

Quarry - Granite Contours

Thesis Project/ Present and Respond

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Week 7/ Review Week

It struck me that this project could come alive in the interior spaces of the market and restaurant. Before the review, I wanted to be able to represent initial thoughts on the internal moments of this building.

The medium of paper collage seemed like the perfect way to explore this, as there was no requirement at this stage to link a perspectival image with a point in plan or section, it could, for the moment, exist on its own. I printed photographs of places I had travelled to that explored colour and light in a very specific way (Venice Fish Market, Nordic Pavillion, Scarpa’s Italian Pavillion, a fish tank exhibition at Moderna Museet) and began cutting block of colour or structures out of these spaces and overlapped them together. I wanted to define a primary concrete structure within the views, which was holding up a large roof above. The blocks of colour I placed in the images appeared like vertical planes that were only secondary structure. Was there a way in which the colour would become primary? An important question that was asked was “if the colour was removed, would the building still stand up?”. I noted that the views were still quite planar, which related to the “paper theatre” that was made in the Flores and Prats workshop. Perhaps a study of the internal spaces through model would help to strengthen the role of colour in the project.

Colour Block Collage

Pieces of Structure

Bulloch Harbour/ Review Discussion

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Week 7/ Review Week

Thesis Project/ Present and Respond

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Week 7/ Review Week

Interior Collage One

Bulloch Harbour/ Review Discussion

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Week 7/ Review Week

Interior Collage Two

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Week 7/ Review Week

Review The second review provided time to reflect upon work to date and also helped to clarify a definite line of inquiry within my thesis project. The role of colour in architecture had occupied my mind fully throughout my work and this was physically present in the work I had pinned up on the wall.

I expressed my various explorations and interests, such as abstraction and amplification of colour, depth of field, compression of the visual plane, colour dominance and structure. The discussion at the review allowed questions and remaining challenges emerge. Colour was central to the feedback. Colour was considered as solid mass, as a structural element in itself.

Words that struck me most were mass, bulk, atmosphere, light, feeling, compression, heavy, amplification, deception, image and view. It was suggested that I rid myself of the burden of solving an entire site plan and focus on the interior spaces and the creation of atmosphere for a time. What was the character I was trying to achieve?

The scale of the project was also questioned and it was suggested that I not be too precious about the brief areas I had scripted for myself, that the size of the market was flexible. The review emphasised to me that the project was a vehicle by which I could test theories about colour and space, and the resolution of the project itself was of little importance. It was also suggested that I design in fragments, in parts of the whole and that this study would inform the overall project. An important point was made about the mundane nature of this place; that the ordinary is just as valid and as present. Comments were made also about the tension between the orthogonal and natural forms of the site and it became clear to me that an interesting tension occurs when the two interact and overlap. A study of materiality, light, internal linings, surface and atmosphere I think will only help to refine the qualities of the current work.

Bulloch Harbour/ Review Discussion

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Colour Studies

Collage - Interiors

Large Rock Drawing

Week 7/ Review Week

Review Discussion - David Leech, Shumi Bose and Dorte Mandrup

1:200 Plan Sketch - Block Colour

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08

Drawing Fragments

Week 8/ Part of the Whole

After drawing a potential scheme at 1:200, it was important for me to look closer at the detail and materiality of my project.

This detailed study of a “part of the whole” would hopefully inform the role of colour in creating an architecture appropriate to Bulloch. This brought me to think about the importance of the roof in my interior spaces; its weight, colour, soffit, material and form.

I began to make abstract judgements about how this roof might appear from below.

This began to suggest the importance of defining certain conditions or views within the project, which would be reflected in the “whole”. The roof itself emerged in my drawings as a mass of colour - mostly red.

The refinement of a colour palette at this stage also helped to define the potential atmosphere I wished to create. I worked with a limited set of colours, which included colours native to Bulloch (the yellow lichen on the granite, the blues and greys of the sky, the deep blues and reflective quality of the sea) and also a bold, amplified red which I would introduce as a heavy mass (the roof).

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Sketch - Roof/ Wall / Floor

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Bulloch Harbour/ Detail and Interior

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Week 8/ Part of the Whole

Floating Wall Holding Roof

Viewpoint - Deceptive Structure

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Heavy Roof/ Light Structure

Thesis Project/ Drawing Fragments

Floating Wall Sketch

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Week 8/ Part of the Whole

Stained Glass Windows - Framed Views

Bulloch Harbour/ Detail and Interior

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Week 8/ Part of the Whole

Thesis Project/ Drawing Fragments

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Week 8/ Part of the Whole

Porous Market Floor

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Week 8/ Part of the Whole

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Stained Glass Windows

Porous Market Floor

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09

Mass and Landscape

Week 9/ Rocks, Sea, Sky, Horizon

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My fish market and restaurant proposal for Bulloch is a vehicle by which to test ideas about structure, colour, lighting, atmosphere, materiality and human experience. My interest in exploring these things is clear, despite the lack of a fully resolved scheme. The project involves the construction of a deeply contextual architectural language and programme which is unique to the environment of Bulloch. The programme of a fish market and restaurant is supported by the direct making of architectural elements (walls, floors, pools, apertures, roofs, gates etc.). The project seeks to enhance the atmosphere of the host environment by framing particular views and collapsing the hyper dimensionality of the place into a compressed visual plane.

In order to be able to explore these ideas with intensity, I believed the programmatic layout of the scheme needed to be slightly more defined. This would allow me to work more freely on smaller building elements, by understanding their relationship to the whole. I worked through freehand drawing to simplify the brief and spatial arrangement and adjacencies of function.

Working through overlays of pencil drawings grants me with speed of thought that I do not receive through any other medium. It is possible to make important decisions fast, and testing these variations against hardline information as a baseline helps to inform the scale of the project unlike anything else.

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Sketch Plan Series

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Week 9/ Rocks, Sea, Sky, Horizon

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Thesis Project/ Mass and Landscape

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Week 9/ Rocks, Sea, Sky, Horizon

Sketch Section Series

Bulloch Harbour/ Building Elements

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Week 9/ Rocks, Sea, Sky, Horizon

Thesis Project/ Mass and Landscape

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Week 9/ Rocks, Sea, Sky, Horizon

I also wanted to test the presence of dualities within this place and question how my project might respond to these; natural and imported, open and closed, intimate and shared, industry and leisure, reflective and absorptive, public and private, compress and release, foreground and background.

I believe that the building elements within my project will be of a shared architectural expression. The market and restaurant only vary in the conditions they present to the existing environment; the relationship to the existing wall, the visual connection to the rocks, the lighting and acoustic qualities of the spaces.

I explored the creation of controlled views from my restaurant space, which is nestled in the corner of the north-east boundary of the Western Marine site, lifted above the wall in order to gain a different perspective of the granite quarry. The restaurant does not open up completely to the landscape - its architectural elements control the view to the rocks, sea, horizon and sky.

Glimpses - Bulloch Harbour

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Week 9/ Rocks, Sea, Sky, Horizon

Framed View Sketches -Perspectives

Thesis Project/ Mass and Landscape

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Week 9/ Rocks, Sea, Sky, Horizon

Horizontal Conditions - Controlled Views

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Week 9/ Rocks, Sea, Sky, Horizon

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10

Casting Space

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Week 10/ Cast World

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To control views to the undulating Bulloch landscape, various apertures and openings had to be explored through model. By exploring this idea in three dimensions, I could test how the fish restaurant’s architecture could achieve this. I began these studies by making a series of sketch sections which spoke of the same architectural language (heavy vertical structure and a lightweight, coloured roof) but identified potential conditions along an existing quarry wall. I had explored the method of layering of space in previous works, such as early rock collages and oil pastel development drawings and this collapse of depth of field I thought could play into how I represent a series of related, adjacent conditions.

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I began to explore the prospect of a cast concrete world which would be capped by a lighter, red roof that could extend beyond the wall, over the granite landscape. A set of cast models at 1:50 helped to represent ideas about adjacencies of structure, the manipulation of light and the control of the visual plane across an assemblage of building elements. These models are not literal translations of a building plan but rather aim to describe the relationship between the fish restaurant, the adjacent stone wall and the landscape beyond.

Section Studies - Existing Wall

Bulloch Harbour/ Building Elements

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Week 10/ Cast World

Views/ Apertures

Thesis Project/ Casting Space

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Week 10/ Cast World

Casting Process - Layered Sections

Bulloch Harbour/ Building Elements

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Week 10/ Cast World

Thesis Project/ Casting Space

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Week 10/ Cast World

Cast Model 1:50 - Section 1

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Week 10/ Cast World

Cast Model 1:50 - Section 2

Thesis Project/ Casting Space

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Week 10/ Cast World

Cast Model 1:50 - Section 2

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Week 10/ Cast World

Thesis Project/ Casting Space

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11

Structure, Expression, Colour

Week 11/ Fish Market and Restaurant

Bulloch Harbour/ Program and Site

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The market is accessed via the existing courtyard between the Western Marine warehouses as the project reveals itself as a series of lichen-covered walls, reflective pools and a vivid red metal roof overhead.

There is potential for the entrance courtyard to have a cast concrete fish counter, with access provided for small vans carrying morning deliveries. Beyond a floating wall of lichen, the market space opens up onto a landscaped area in the centre of the project.

A bridge over this landscape provides the only direct view from the ground floor level to the granite quarry beyond. Abutting the existing Castleview wall lie a series of stores, ice rooms and WCs. The restaurant kitchen is visible on the opposite side of the landscaped area and the restaurant floor is accessed via a stair and lift core adjacent to the car park and deliveries yard. The fish restaurant sits at first floor level, which speaks directly to the datum of the existing wall. The restaurant consists of a bar area, which overlooks the market and landscaped area, a communal dining space which wraps around a central, structural chimney and a series of private dining rooms and paired courtyards which line the edge of the site and control the views to the landscape beyond.

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A closer look at the design of building elements (walls, roof, sills etc.) strengthened the restaurant’s visual connection to the landscape. It became apparent to me that the project must also look inwards, through an analysis of internal layouts, circulation, structure and atmosphere. The first step to achieve this was a deeper analysis of the scheme at 1:200. The method of drawing and redrawing freehand over the hardline site plan allowed for a previously overcomplicated plan to simplify very quickly.

The project gained a spatial logic in terms of access, circulation, functional adjacencies and structure. The architectural language of the project is described mainly through two spaces; the open market and the raised restaurant floor.

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Week 11/ Fish Market and Restaurant

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The metal roof of the restaurant does not follow the line of the existing wall and the dining rooms behind, but projects out into the landscape.

The tension between the natural, undulating forms of the rock and the orthogonal geometry of the roof always interested me. In earlier sketches, there were thoughts about how the plane of the roof could be punctured from above to let light in. This could also be possible in the floor plate of the restaurant.

Alongside the 1:200 drawings of the scheme, a representation of atmosphere and experience of the project is crucial. This could be achieved through a series of internal views and material studies.

Thesis Project/ Structure, Expression, Colour

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Week 11/ Fish Market and Restaurant

Bulloch Harbour/ Program and Site

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Week 11/ Fish Market and Restaurant

Thesis Project/ Structure, Expression, Colour

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Week 11/ Fish Market and Restaurant

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Week 11/ Fish Market and Restaurant

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Week 11/ Fish Market and Restaurant

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Week 11/ Fish Market and Restaurant

Thesis Project/ Structure, Expression, Colour

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Week 11/ Fish Market and Restaurant

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Week 11/ Fish Market and Restaurant

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Week 11/ Fish Market and Restaurant

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Week 11/ Fish Market and Restaurant

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Week 11/ Fish Market and Restaurant

Section Studies - Existing Wall

Bulloch Harbour/ Program and Site

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Week 11/ Fish Market and Restaurant

Views/ Apertures

Thesis Project/ Structure, Expression, Colour

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Week 11/ Fish Market and Restaurant

Coloured Elevation Elements

1:200 Part Model - Red Roof

Bulloch Harbour/ Program and Site

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Week 11/ Fish Market and Restaurant

A series of coloured elevations were drawn over the hardline drawings of the scheme to isolate particular building elements (roof, walls, chimney etc.). These emphasised the power of a red roof datum over the natural Bulloch quarry. Along with these studies, a 1:200 part model of the restaurant helped to define the proposed materiality of the project.

This model shows the heavy concrete world of the restaurant which consists of cast walls, counters, tables and sills as well as a lighter roof which is anchored by the central chimney.

The elevation on the quarry side is the more successful of the two, with the horizontality of the roof playing with the slanting line of the existing boundary wall. On the yard side, the elevation reads as a planar surface, however the screen with the vertical slits is unconvincing as it is of a different architectural language than the other elements.

1:200 Restaurant Model

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12

Present and Conclude

Week 12/ Making and Materiality

The final, formal discussion focused on materiality and making. This provided me with a platform upon which to discuss that which I had been exploring in recent weeks; structural expression, atmosphere, human experience and viewpoints. The thesis project had to be described through the creation of a strong, contextual architectural language which had become unique to Bulloch in my mind. The building’s attitude to colour, structure and atmosphere all related back to the various conditions which had been discovered on site. It was suggested that the structural elements be pronounced by embracing their datums. The heavy arrangement of fins might also be complimented with columns. The method of model making was encouraged in order to explore this.

It was important that I briefly describe fish market and restaurant itself, in terms of its functional layout and scale. I emphasised that the project was a vehicle by which to test other ideas, that its programmatic resolution was less important. An introduction to the building opened up a conversation about structural elements and elevation studies. The dualities present in Bulloch (e.g. the orthogonality of the warehouses vs. the natural granite quarry) helped me to justify my approach to the individual building elements. The planar elevations of the restaurant compared with the quarry-side elevation of concrete fins, sills and columns became central to this discussion. I believe that the detail of this could be explored in greater detail, and at a larger scale.

The description of individual moments or a journey of moments within the building was also central to the feedback discussion.

It became clearer that to describe the building’s architectural language, the building itself may not need to be fully resolved. The description of a journey, through a series of internal views, could be crucial to the representation of the fish Bulloch Harbour/ Program and Site

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Week 12/ Making and Materiality

restaurant’s expression. It was suggested that the central space in the restaurant take in more of the natural landscape, possibly through more controlled views or voids in the floor and roof planes. I was also encouraged to consider the views towards the building more closely, looking from the outside in. Christopher Alexander’s freehand perspectives were presented as a point of reference.

An important part of the review’s discussion centred around representation. The strength of the hardline information was questioned as I was encouraged to redraw with greater legibility and site consciousness.

The scale of the drawings were also questioned. It might be more useful in future to embrace the large scale drawings as a method of representation. Colour palette was also discussed in detail, and it was noted that the more refined palette was that of fewer colours. The stained glass view drawings would remain central to this. It was suggested that I limit the vivid, contrasting colours and question every coloured mark I make.

What is the colour in reality? Is this an abstraction of colour or an atmospheric drawing?

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Exhibition

Collapsed Colour

Exhibition/ Collapsed Colour

Following the reviews, it was important as a group to reexamine the relationship of Bulloch as our testing ground with the contextual potential of each of our projects. Central to this process was the production of a 1-200 Site Model which would take in the Western Marine Site, the granite quarry, the nursing home and the castle. This provided me with a means of testing my building’s direct relationship to the surrounding environment. By making individual inserts which slotted into the group model, we could each test ideas about view, experience, journey and adjacencies.

It was an extremely useful method to tie our freehand thoughts back to a carefully measured place.

Through the making of my own completed 1-200 model of my fish restaurant and market, I began to test the building’s direct relationship with the landscape. By taking model photographs at certain key viewpoints, it was possible to describe a journey through this place. The photographs helped to reaffirm an idea about duality; the expression of the building varied depending on which way it was viewed. The watercolour roof of the restaurant, sitting in contrast with the dark maroon of the model helped to articulate the strong datum of the restaurant roof. It embodied a powerful, orthogonal presence next to the natural forms of the quarry.

View through Rocks

View from Harbour

Bulloch Harbour/ Program and Site

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Exhibition/ Collapsed Colour

Building in Context

Quarry Side

1:200 Group Site Model

Thesis Project/ Collapsed Colour

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Exhibition/ Collapsed Colour

Photos taken within the 1:200 model helped to capture the potential for the building to become a device in the landscape which controls experience. The structural elements of the restaurant act as a filtering system by which to orchestrate the visual experience and collapse the expanse of Bulloch in a series of views or moments. The cast concrete and lichen walls as well as the red roof which projects out into the quarry compresses the viewer’s perspective into carefully constructed frames of colour and texture.

Another model which helps to represent the experiential element of the project is a 1:25 cast model of a part of the restaurant.

The model casts the corner of the space where the open, finned elevation to the north meets the planar elevation on the harbour side. The half cement, half plaster mix captures the texture and light quality of the cast concrete world of the restaurant’s primary structure. The model also describes the relationship of the space to the existing wall. The chimney to one side is expressed as a structural anchor which extends through the roof. The chimney functions at ground floor level as a smoking room for fish in the restaurant and acts as a sculptural element in the restaurant above.

The model takes in a dining space which overlooks the landscape beyond the existing wall and varying structural elements which control the view out. The introduction of a red roof which helps the compress this view and allows light in at a local, circular opening. Even the process of making the formwork for this model, in all of its layers, helped me to think about the void and space between the built elements.

Existing Framed Views

Glimpse Through the Rocks

Bulloch Harbour/ Program and Site

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Exhibition/ Collapsed Colour

Up and Out

1:200 Model View

Circular Roof Opening

Red and Concrete

Roof Opening / Wall / Rocks

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Exhibition/ Collapsed Colour

1:25 Cast Model Process

Bulloch Harbour/ Program and Site

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Exhibition/ Collapsed Colour

1:25 Cast Model and Red Roof

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Exhibition/ Collapsed Colour

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The final few weeks involved distilling the work of the semester into a final exhibition layout which would express the interest and energy of the freehand hardline process, as well as the clarity and functionality of the design proposal. In order for the 1:200 pencil drawings to become more legible, they were transferred to computer in order to provide greater control and flexibility over lineweights and colour rendering.

This process involved many different tests and iterations of the same set of drawings. Judgements calls were made in relation to fills, hatches, use of colour and representation of context. It was important at this stage that the colours already present in Bulloch Harbour would be visible in the drawings. A rendered ground floor plan helped to describe the overall strategy of the project and the use of colour and shadows helped to provide a level of depth. The context in this plan emphasises the duality of conditions present around Western Marine. As well as the ground floor plan, the first floor restaurant plan was developed in greater detail also. A strategy for the cultivation of lichen on north-facing walls was also considered.

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Rendered Drawing - Void, Context, Sky. North Elevation

Bulloch Harbour/ Program and Site

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Section and Plan Sketch

Layering of Information in Plan

Exhibition/ Collapsed Colour

Hand Pencil Drawing North Elevation

Computer Line Drawing North Elevation

Rendered Drawing - Fill and Context North Elevation

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Exhibition/ Collapsed Colour

West Elevation Bulloch Harbour Fish Restaurant

Section through Harbour Bulloch Harbour Fish Restaurant

Section through Quarry Bulloch Harbour Fish Restaurant

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Exhibition/ Collapsed Colour

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Exhibition/ Collapsed Colour

Ground Floor Plan Market and Restaurant

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Exhibition/ Collapsed Colour

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Exhibition/ Collapsed Colour

1:200 Restaurant Plan Line Drawing

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Exhibition/ Collapsed Colour

1:200 Restaurant Plan Render - Lichen Strategy

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Exhibition/ Collapsed Colour

Along with a comprehensive set of final project drawings, it was crucial that the intent of the thesis be described through a sense of atmosphere and materiality.

This was always going to be possible through a series of internal views of the restaurant spaces. It was important to capture moments within the building where people dine and interact with the landscape through a powerful visual experience. Model photos taken in both the 1:200 site model and the 1:25 cast model were utilised as starting points for these explorations as the light produced in these would be scaleless and true to life. The views chosen described the relationship of roof to horizon, of wall to sky, of sill to sea and so on. The presence of colour was particularly striking when overlaid on the light and shadow from the model.

The introduction of people in these spaces meant that the restaurant gained a sense of scale in the eye of the viewer and began to read as space rather than composition or sculpture.

The final drawing produced was a large scale, chalk pastel perspective of one of these internal views. Along with the semester’s first chalk pastel drawing of the rocks, the perspective would dominate the thesis project’s exhibition space. The vivid red of the roof, in contrast with the blues of the sea and sky and the lichen of the walls helps to draw the eye into the space and includes the viewer of the drawing in the world of the project. Placed alongside each other, the rock drawing and the red roof perspective help to bookend the work of the semester and the intent of the thesis project. The project is wall, roof, sky, sea, rock and horizon.

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Exhibition/ Collapsed Colour

Thesis Project/ Collapsed Colour

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Exhibition/ Collapsed Colour

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Exhibition/ Collapsed Colour

Thesis Project Final Exhibition Layout

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Drawing Conclusions

Emma Cooney/ Drawing Conclusions

Structural Expression of Collapsed Colour Construction of Contextual Architectural Language: Bulloch Harbour Fish Market and Restaurant

Thesis Intent This thesis project aims to construct a unique architectural language which is rooted deeply in place and human experience. This is explored through structural expression, use of colour and a phenomenological reading of Bulloch Harbour and its environs. An architectural attitude towards each of these elements is informed by the conditions discovered in this place.

The project seeks to enhance the atmosphere of the host environment by controlling the building’s relationship to the landscape and by collapsing the hyper dimensionality of the place into a series of moments or views. This flattening of the visual plane provides the building with an opportunity to play with its relationship to foreground and background. The design proposal for a fish market and restaurant at Bulloch Harbour is simply a means by which to examine these architectural interests.

The direct making of coloured, structural elements (walls, floors, roofs, sills, etc.) control the building’s spatial relationship to the rocks, waves, sky, wind and horizon.

Thesis Project/ Thesis Intent

Thesis Report Emma Cooney / 13400558 UCD Architecture / 2019 Supervised by Ben Mullen and Chris Boyle