INVITATION & ESCAPE Fire, at The Empire Palace Theatre (re-visited).
INTRODUCTION ESCAPE Life preservation in the event of fire is an important social and architectural concern. Scottish Building Standard 2.9 requires that ‘every building be designed and constructed such that in the event of a fire, occupants are provided with opportunity to escape before being affected’. The technical standards include detailed prescriptions on building form, layout, construction, and materiality, so as to ensure the possibility of safe egress. INVITATION Fire-escape regulations – focussed on an exceptional condition of circulation – can distract us from, even prohibit, more everyday concerns; the staircase of a public building, for instance - once its central social and symbolic feature - is today typically separated and compartmentalised, reduced materially and socially. The architecture of fire-escape, then, can be less than inviting. This studio, however, will contend that there is something inviting about escape. It will ask students to explore the ‘invitation character’ of the built environment, contending that will regulation inscribes specific ‘affordances’ into building, inviting occupants to act. It will ask students to study escape, then, not to ensure life-preservation or legal compliance, but in order to develop an architecture of invitation. THE EMPIRE PALACE THEATRE The vehicle for this exploration will be a re-visting of LDN Architect’s 1994 remodelling of the Empire Palace Theatre (now Edinburgh Festival Theatre). Students will be asked to respond to the original brief for this project; they will add a new front-of-house and reception spaces to the remains of the original ‘Empire Palace’, partially destroyed in the spectacular fire of 1911, an event which itself catalysed the development of modern fire-regulation in Scotland.
CONTENTS LEARNING OUTCOMES BRIEF ASSESSMENT APPENDICES
ADDITIONAL DOCUMENT
A: B: C: D: E:
EMPIRE PALACE THEATRE: The 1911 Fire ESCAPE: Scottish Technical Standard 2.9 INVITATION: Gibson’s Theory of Affordance Style Guide, Templates, Submission Guidelines Edinburgh Festival Theatre Drawings
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