Valley Gardens

EWAN MALLOCH MASTERS OF ARCHITECTURAL AND URBAN DESIGN DESIGN 2 DESIGNING FOR EVENT- tS s ert’P vilonaP

THE UNIVERSITY OF BRIGHO T N

2184536 AIM18_20

EWAN MALLOCH STUDENT NUMBER: 21845363 MASTER OF ARCHITECTURAL AND URBAN DESIGN DESIGN 2: AIM18_2022 2022 SUMMATIVE PORTFOLIO - 02/06/22 (EXTENDED DEADLINE) APPLICATION FOR ADDITIONAL CONSIDERATION THE UNIVERSITY OF BRIGHTON

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Ewan Malloch

Master of Architectural and Urban Design

2021 - 2022

CONTENTS 01- PROJECT OVERVIEW — 06 02- VALLEY GARDENS AND THE LEVEL — 08 03 - DESIGNING FOR EVENT — 18 04 - CRITICAL POSITION — 28 05 - PRECEDENT STUDIES — 30 06 - DESIGN STRATEGY — 34 07 - ST PETER’S PAVILLION — 40

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Ewan Malloch

Master of Architectural and Urban Design

2021 - 2022

01. PROJECT OVERVIEW. Starting Point Following on from Design 1: Urban Strategies, Design 2 widens the scope for potential intervention. For me this meant expanding in scale from the Old Steine Gardens to the scale of the whole of Valley gardens. Working on this more urban design scale brings an increased level of considerations and analysis in order to reach a holistically successful design. Especially given the complex processes, flows and crucially events that take place throughout valley gardens. The title of my project “Designing for Event” incorporates the many events that have occurred, continually occur and those that may occur in the future. For instance previously my Old Steine Gardens project focused on geological events such as the Wellesbourne river and the resulting river valley. The wider scope brings new event considerations such as monumental events (St.Peters Church, War memorial), Historical events and previous uses, Seasonal events and the everyday flows and events (cycling, walking, gathering, etc.). Furthermore, considering not only the events themselves but the resultant memory of each of these events.

The challenge will be to provide interventions that can provide agency for these events as they come and go.

Nolli map, illustrating valley gardens as a substantial area of public space.

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Ewan Malloch

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Master of Architectural and Urban Design

2021 - 2022

VALLEY GARDENS AND THE LEVEL SITE RESEARCH + ANALYSIS.

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Ewan Malloch

Master of Architectural and Urban Design

2021 - 2022

The Valley Gardens, How it works?

New Trees Elm, arboretum and grove trees.

Soft Landscape Gardens, lawns, flower meadows.

Hard Landscape Footways, cycle ways, new square.

Highways General traffic to the East. Public traffic and taxis to the West.

Public Realm Hard and soft landscape with existing trees.

Traffic Commuter Flow Pedestrian Flow Built Environment Trees/ Organic Material Grass

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SITE BUILD UP.

Valley Gardens is a main artery route through the centre of Brighton and connects the waterfront and Brighton centre to the Patcham, Lewes and the North. The transport focused nature of this site brings a number of complexities. The heavy transport on either side of the valley gardens makes it very difficult to create enjoyable, relaxation spaces down the centre of the gardens. The initial mappings of this space focused on these transport flows in order to understand the contraction and releases of this area. Recent developments on the site have attempted to address these issues and have separated public transport and taxis (on the East side) from general traffic (on the west side).

Splitting the traffic across both sides of the gardens has improved pedestrian accessibility to the gardens and has been successful in calming previously traffic dense areas along the gardens. However the noise, air pollution and high speed nature of the site still remains. The second mapping on the right illustrates the current build up of valley gardens following the recent developments. New paths follow identified user journeys and wide spread planting has resulted in a more environmentally diverse path. However, even with these developments some key opportunities for urban improvement remain.

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Ewan Malloch

Master of Architectural and Urban Design

2021 - 2022

Brighton’s Growth Mapping The Valley Gardens in particular stood out as a critically important centre point for Brighton’s urban landscape. Not least due to its persistent and ever present nature as a backbone of Brighton’s historic growth. The mapping on the left shows the urban sprawl of Brighton (and later Hove) stemming from valley floor. The persistent nature of the undeveloped area now referred to as Valley gardens was explored in depth during my previous Design 1 project.

However, during this project the focus shifted from the geological forming factors to the social forming factors. Beginning to assemble these ideas within these mapping drawings helped to build a more holistic impression of how Brighton’s landscape is the way it is today. - A clearer more refined drawing could explain this transition better.

The Level Social History Historic Timeline

Cricket was played on The Level from at least the mid eighteenth century. The northern part of The Level was laid out as a cricket ground for the Prince of Wales in 1791.

1700’s

1791

Brighton Toy Fair was held at The Level. Pony racing took place Early 1800’s on The Level and a sheep fair selling South Down Sheep was held.

The Great Peace Festival to mark the overthrow of Napoleon Bonaparte took place.

1814

The Level was now the only recreational area in the town. The coronation of George IV was celebrated by the roasting of two bullocks at a public dinner on The Level.

1817

The present area of The Level was formally laid out by A.H.Wilds and Henry Phillips. Union Road was constructed to link the Ditchling and Lewes Roads. The land to the north was sold to James Ireland who laid out the Royal Gardens.

1822

The coronation of Queen Victoria was celebrated by a large public dinner with the roasting of an ox and some sheep.

1838

An avenue of elm trees, a gift of the Earl of Chichester, was planted.

1844

A public celebration to commemorate peace with Russia was held.

1855

The building at the southern entrance to The Level was a branch police station from about 1865 - until 1919. Following use as a police building it was used as main ofces for the Brighton Parks Department.

1865

The Level was enclosed by railings and planted with shrubs.

1877

Between 1921 and 1926, the Open Market was held on Rose Walk.

1921

The children’s playground designed by Bertie Hubbard MacLaren was laid out with a boating pool, bridges and pergola. MacLaren, the Superintendent for the Brighton Parks Department. MacLaren previously designed Preston Park in Brighton.

1927

Part of The Level was occupied by Royal Engineers and the northern section taken over by Nissen huts. The army stayed on The Level until 1955.

1944

The skate park was built.

1979

Brighton Peace Camp, intended as a protest at the arrest of 44 women at the Greenham Common, remained on The Level for over two months.

1983

Many of the elms on The Level destroyed by The Great Storm.

Replacement trees were subsequently planted, of different ages and species to avoid a repeat of such wholesale loss.

1987

New playground equipment was installed.

Drawing of cricket match

Brighton Police Station c.1905

Removal of railings 1923

Boating lake 1923

The Playground 1927 The Playground 1927

The Level 1935

Digging trenches 1939

Late 1990’s

The columns and pergolas were taken down.

2007

Parks for People.

2011

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Open market on Rose Walk 1920

Children skating 1955

SITE MAPPING.

The Level was open grassland set within an agricultural landscape. The two streams which ran down the valleys of London Road and Lewes Road converged here and The Level was marshy and prone to ooding.

Damage from 1987 storm

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Ewan Malloch

Master of Architectural and Urban Design

2021 - 2022

Site User Analysis

Identified opportunities as a result of this research.

Source: Valley Gardens Report 2018 Brighton and Hove City Council

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RESEARCH.

Due to the recent developments taking place on The Valley Gardens and Old Steine Gardens I managed to obtain very thorough user analysis for the site. Orchestrated by The Brighton and Hove City Council their questionnaire outlines the key uses for the site as well as including the communities opinion of the site. Whilst largely traffic based, a number of interesting pieces of information can be gathered.

One of the most striking outcomes of this survey is that 85% of the users surveyed use valley gardens for travelling from A to B. The second most common use is catching a bus (52%) which again is a travel based use. This seems to highlight an opportunity as proximity to work and travel via car begins to change as a result of a sustainability conscious, big data, societal shift. Is there an opportunity to slow down the pace of the site and introduce opportunities for diverse, multipurpose spaces for people to stop, work, relax, exercise and interact within? It’s also important to note that one of the top use responses was attending events. Events only take place within the site at certain points in the year. However, they’re a large part of the character of not only Valley Gardens but Brighton as a whole. Is there a way to provide agency for these events when they occur but also provide alternative uses all year round?

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Ewan Malloch

Master of Architectural and Urban Design

2021 - 2022

Giggamapping idea assembly.

As my considerations for this project began to grow in complexity it was important to see how all these factors interacted and what the connection was between all these influencing narratives. This gigamapping style visual mapping was attempting to bring all the design research considerations into one place. From here and as result of studio discussions it became evident that I was approaching the site from an event based standpoint. Perviously this was geological events (such as the valley forming wellesbourne river) and then are into social events, historical events, daily events and annual one off events. This was a key point for the realisation of my critical position and the formation of my personal brief.

Hidden Underworld

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To the illustate the precense of the influential forgotten about underworld.

Ray Traced Section of Brighton Rhino Model. Conceptually speculating on the world below.

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Ewan Malloch

Master of Architectural and Urban Design

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2021 - 2022

DESIGNING FOR ‘EVENT’ STRATEGY DEVELOPMENT. “As we have amplified our ability to shape the world, so we become more responsible for the long afterlives of that shaping. The Anthropocene asks of us the question memorably posed by the immunologist Jonas Salk: ‘Are we being good ancestors?”

Robert Macpharlane

Gigamapping of all research considerations, trying to identify their connections and determining how they might interact.

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Ewan Malloch

Master of Architectural and Urban Design

2021 - 2022

Geological Events The site holds a strong geological history. I explored this in much more detail in this courses predecessor Design 1. However, it’s important to carry this information as it certainly applies to this project as well. Geological events such as the formation of valley gardens by the now underground Wellesbourne river could help to inform the interconnectivity of more modern events and could also inform the visual narrative of any design interventions.

Diagram produced for Design 1: Urban Strategies

Strategic diagram illustrating the old Wellesbourne rivers impact on the flat and untouched nature of The Valley Gardens.

Diagram produced for Design 1: Urban Strategies 20

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Ewan Malloch

Master of Architectural and Urban Design

2021 - 2022

Monument Events Throughout the site there are a series of ‘monumental’ events.

Monuments that highlight an important person, event or period of time. Their location is important when considering interventions on the site. These visualisations layer the monuments throughout the valley gardens. These images begin to represent the possibility of one form of event informing another. For instance the columns of the war memorial and the level park. Although constructed at different times and for very different purposes they begin to relate when viewed in this way.

A site wide strategy can also begin to bring some of these monuments back to life. The war memorial for instance has been dried out and has fallen into disrepair. The Levels park has also fallen into disuse and is a fragment of what it once was to the community.

New monuments have also established themselves as key areas within valley gardens. Such as the skatepark. Although not a monument in the traditional sense the skatepark is a permanent testament to a thriving skate community.

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Ewan Malloch

Master of Architectural and Urban Design

2021 - 2022

Historical Events Childrens Playpark and Boating Pool

Daily Events and Flows

The children’s playground designed by Bertie Hubbard MacLaren was laid out with a boating pool, bridges and pergola. MacLaren, the Superintendent for the Brighton Parks Department. MacLaren previously designed Preston Park in Brighton.

Military Congregtion The Great Peace Festival to mark the overthrow of Napoleon Bonaparte took place.

Key routes

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Royal Promenade

Public Buildings Green Space

THE LEVEL

Practice trench digging and air raid shelter construction during the first and second world wars.

The Level was used as a take off location for hotairbaloons for tours over East Sussex.

The Level was now the only recreational area in the town. The coronation of George IV was celebrated by the roasting of two bullocks at a public dinner on The Level.

The children’s playground designed by Bertie Hubbard MacLaren

Cricket was played on The Level from at least the mid eighteenth century.

The northern part of The Level was laid out as a cricket ground for the Prince of Wales in 1791.permeation up to the urban world above.

Practice trench digging and air raid shelter construction during the first and second world wars.

Giancarlo De Carlo Speaking of Places

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Ewan Malloch

Master of Architectural and Urban Design

Seasonal Events At certain points throughout the year Brighton is home to large scale events that draws in large amounts of visitors. Previously quiet areas of Brighton become heavily populated and drastically change in character. The Valley Gardens in particular is heavily involved in the Brighton festival, pride, the Brighton marathon and is used for numerous other smaller events throughout the year. Including markets and foor and drink festival.

2021 - 2022 Burning the Clocks (Dec) Not literally. Burning the Clocks is the winter solstice, Brighton style, and it takes place through the centre of the city. The whole culminates with a massive lantern bonfire on the seafront, a big middle finger to the excessive commercialism of Christmases past and future. It takes place every year on December 21.

London to Brighton Bike Ride (Sep) Each year, thousands of cyclists take part raising funds for extraordinary charities across the country.

Sussex Beer Festival (Mar) Brighton Racecourse is the venue for one of the best beer and cider festivals in England, as more than 150 brewers come together to provide the thirsty thousands with some seriously good plonk. The food selection is pretty excellent too.

Brighton Fringe (May) All things chucklesome are embraced at Brighton Fringe, a month-long arts festival that takes place in May. This is the largest open-access arts festival in England, a veritable buffet of creativity and artistic excitement.

Brighton Festival (May) Brighton Festival takes place across the entire month of May and is a celebration of all the arts, from live music to theatre via dance, art and plenty more. The festival has been running for more than half a century and continues to stand tall as a celebration of creativity and inventiveness.

The Great Escape (May) A three-day festival that takes place every May, The Great Escape has grown from humble beginnings into one of the UK’s most beloved musical extravaganzas. More than 300 bands wow crowds at around 30 venues across the city, with past acts including Django Django, Stormzy, Frank Turner and IYP favourites And So I Watch You From Afar and Future of the Left.

Naked Bike Ride (Jun) This protestival isn’t ironically named, there are no jokes, this is not a test. The Naked Bike Ride is, yes, exactly that — a big naked bike ride around Brighton. Get in touch with the organisers if you’re interested in riding in your birthday suit, although we can only imagine the damage it does to certain sensitive areas.

Brighton Kite Festival (Jul) There are few sights as instantly nostalgic as that of a colourful kite flying high above the beach. Brighton Kite Festival is this on steroids, as masses of the things are found above Stanmer Park in the city. This might be Brighton’s most colourful festival, which is some going when you take into account the UK’s largest Pride festival.

Paddle Round The Pier (Jul) Paddle, paddle, paddle. The clue is in the name with this one, as thousands of daring fools make the most of the English summer and take to the sea armed only with a paddle and board, in a desperate attempt to paddle as though their lives depended on it. It is a whole heap of fun.

March of the Mermaids (Jul) Have you ever seen hundreds of mermaids follow each other into the sea, mimicking lemmings with long hair and glitter? No? You haven’t lived! The March of the Mermaids takes place in Brighton every July. Get yourself there.

Brighton Pride (Aug) The UK’s biggest Pride Festival takes place in Brighton every August, and the city certainly lives up to its reputation as the LGBTQ capital of the United Kingdom. This is not your average Pride festival, far from it, as hundreds of thousands of people descend on the city for the parties, the live music, the workshops and the rest.

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Event locations

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Ewan Malloch

Master of Architectural and Urban Design

2021 - 2022

04. CRITICAL POSITION. Critical Position As a result of site and user analysis I have developed a critical position for this project. I have established a profound interest in the ‘event’ and the sudden influx of event activity as large scale events take over the site. A site which largely acts as a threshold between A and B throughout the rest of the year. These different primary (daily), secondary (regular), annual, geological, historical events that have taken, currently take and will take place on the site should have a symbiotic relationship with one other. I am opposed to the ‘all or nothing’ event narrative that has ruled over this site for decades. Employing a more ‘ebb and flow’ attitude towards events, allowing events to leave a physical trace or residue as they happen and interact all year round.

There are sustainability benefits to this outlook as it combats single use infrastructure and limits the associated impact of large scale events coming and going. Furthermore it will encourage consistent use of the site. This site is woefully undervalued on a daily basis given its central location and scale.

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Ewan Malloch

Master of Architectural and Urban Design

2021 - 2022

05. PRECEDENT STUDIES. Bernard Tschumi’s Parc de la Villette - Paris Bernard Tshumis approach to architectural design does not separate the form and the user. These two things are intrinsically intertwined. He is equally concerned about the events, actions and stories that take place within architectural space as the form of the building. The Parc de la Villette is a series of programmatic pavillions that allowed him to explore architectures detachment from function. In many ways the Parc de la Villette in Paris could be considered to be one of the largest buildings in the world. Discontinuous, yet each of the grid orientated, individual follies, act as one part of the whole. Described in the parks competition brief as “an Urban park for the 21st century”, the park was a lot more than a simple landscape redevelopment. It involved the development of a complex programme for cultural and entertainment facilities. Tshumi’s considered and thorough grid based proposal that successfully navigated the intertwining of narrative, form and function is likely to have been the reason his entry won the competition, out of 470 international competitors. Opposing the park ethos of the period where parks were intended to be separate escapes from the city. Parc de la Villette incorporates the city and embraces the stories of the existing landscape and of people that the building facilitates. - Sourced from an essay written for Critical Readings Module, by Ewan Malloch.

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Ewan Malloch

Master of Architectural and Urban Design

Play Contract - Superflex - Billund

2021 - 2022

Designed in large part by children, Plays Contract in Billund, Denmark is a series of five sculptures surrounded adapted landscape. The large scale block ‘playground sculptures’ invite a variety of uses and encourage different interaction year round. The sculptures connect through materiality and form.

Arco da Apoteose - Rio de Janeiro - Oscar Niemeyer

A distinctive piece of event architecture, the parade square, used for frequent large scale events also has daily event functions. Beneath the ‘stands’ built into the structure is a school, offices and multipurpose public space.

Beşiktaş Fish Market - Istanbul Located on a triangular, unusually shaped site the Beşiktaş Fish Market in Istanbul is an example of event orientated architecture. The structure comes to life when the market takes place and provides electricity, shelter and lighting for the marketeers and the market goers.

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Pyramid Stage - Glastonbury - Temporary Architecture The Pyramid stage at Glastonbury is another more contemporary example of event architecture. The stages structure remains throughout the year and is then built upon once a year to form the full pyramid stage seen by hundreds of thousands of people at Glastonbury music festival. This additive attitude towards architecture could provide a solution to consistent and wasteful arrival and departure of event structures.

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Ewan Malloch

06.

Seasonal Events

Master of Architectural and Urban Design

2021 - 2022

DESIGN STRATEGY DEVELOPMENT. Event Diagrams

Monument Events

Historical Events

Geological events

Daily Events/ Flow

Monument Events

Historical Events

Points of Intervention Daily Events

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Ewan Malloch

Master of Architectural and Urban Design

2021 - 2022

Design Development Tschumi inspired grid layout for the design strategy. Using my research and analysis of the events taking place within valley gardens I highlighted key areas of intervention and marked them on the grid.

These were places where seasonal events took place (came and went) and where daily events took place, such as bus stops and heavily travelled areas. As well as historical events such as st Peters church, statues and fountains. I then began to analyse the interaction between these events and identify areas where there was a high level of events taking place. The lazy grid that Ive implemented here helps to give structure to this process.

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Scale 1:1000

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Ewan Malloch MAAUD

Ewan Malloch

Master of Architectural and Urban Design

2021 - 2022

Design Strategy What emerged from the event mapping was this design strategy that identified a series of points along valley gardens that would benefit from an event orientated pavilion or intervention to allow for changing events to take place without constant disruption. Similarly to Tschumi’s Parc de la Villette and the Play Contract park in Billund these interventions would maintain a similar form and materiality in order to unify the strategy.

For the purposes of this project I have narrowed the scale in order to focus on just one of these points. The area in front of St Peters church was identified as an area of distinct event interaction. This was due to the numerous seasonal events that take place through out the year, the distinct lack of interaction throughout other times of the year and the large amount of through traffic of commuters and people getting from A to B. I also used the grid to inform the form of the interventions and the position of the repeating structures.

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Ewan Malloch

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Master of Architectural and Urban Design

2021 - 2022

PROPOSAL ST PETER’S PAVILLION.

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Ewan Malloch

Master of Architectural and Urban Design

2021 - 2022

Roof Plan

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Floor Plan

1:500

1:500

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Ewan Malloch

Master of Architectural and Urban Design

2021 - 2022 A

Roof Plan

Floor Plan

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1:500

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1:500

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Ewan Malloch

Master of Architectural and Urban Design

2021 - 2022

Section A - A

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Ewan Malloch

Master of Architectural and Urban Design

2021 - 2022

Section B - B

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Ewan Malloch

Master of Architectural and Urban Design

2021 - 2022

Summer

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Winter

3

During different times of the year the pavilion facilitates a variety of uses. During the summer the pavilion can house the temporary festivals that perilously would take over the site and destroy the grass and result in unnecessary energy use and waste. In the winter the space can provide shelter for weekly markets and Christmas events and festivals.

To further the versatility of the pavilion a canopy can be installed to extend the size of covered space. For the larger events taking place this could be useful or for an unexpected turn in weather during pre planned events.

The fold out canopy would be stored in St Peter’s church and be made publicly available for hire, and rental and different sizes. The diagram above shows the varying scales of the canopy cover and how the folded canopy clips together.

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Ewan Malloch

Master of Architectural and Urban Design

2021 - 2022

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To aid temporary market stalls and pop up shops and vintage sales the pavilion features numbered areas that similar to the canopy could be booked online prior to the event. Thus ensuring the required space and availability for sellers. These can be identified through the engraved numbers on the concrete elements. During the market fig 1-3 Outwith the market fig 2-4 52

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Ewan Malloch

Master of Architectural and Urban Design

2021 - 2022

Materiality Given the context of the site in front of St Peter’s church it was important for the materiality pallet to stay fairly neutral and simple. Varying paving help to distinguish and partition different elements of the site. Concrete slabs, asphalt and rough poured concrete. The roof of the pavilion is made from steel sheets that reflect the surrounding environment slightly. The concrete seating elements house the steel columns that hold up the roof structure.

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Ewan Malloch

Master of Architectural and Urban Design

2021 - 2022

Structure

The roof structure is built up of internal steel structural elements with the steel sheets being welded above and below to encase the structural elements. The structural columns will also act and pillars for the extending canopy to attach to.

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Ewan Malloch

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Master of Architectural and Urban Design

2021 - 2022

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Ewan Malloch

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Master of Architectural and Urban Design

2021 - 2022

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Ewan Malloch

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Master of Architectural and Urban Design

2021 - 2022

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Ewan Malloch

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Master of Architectural and Urban Design

2021 - 2022

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