Northumbria interiorarchitecture 2014

REIMAGINING GIBSIDE HALL: ACADEMY OF MUSIC Photomontage page 31

northumbria interior architecture 2014

northumbria interior architecture 2014

re-imagi ning gib side hall

1

interior architecture 2014 northumbria university

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic, mechanical, photographic reproduction or otherwise without permission. Further copies can be obtained from Northumbria University Press.

Staff: Andrea Couture Ben Couture Ceri Green Paul Ring (Programme Leader) Steve Miller Kelly MacKinon (Master of Architecture) External Examiner: Andrew Stone; London Metropolitan University

Interior Architecture Dept. Architecture & Built Environment Faculty of Engineering & Environment Ellison Building Northumbria University Newcastle-Upon-Tyne NE1 8ST T: 0191 227 4453 F: 0191 227 4561 For more information please look at the following web addresses: http://www.northumbria.ac.uk/interiorarchitecture http://interiorarch-northumbria.tumblr.com/

Introduction This publication celebrates design proposals by year 3 Interior Architecture and year 1 Master of Architecture students at Northumbria University in response to a live project partnership with the National Trust at Gibside Pleasure Grounds.

The opportunity to work in partnership with the National Trust at Gibside as a live client and with the ruin of Gibside Hall as a site, presented our students with a unique opportunity to test their ideas, knowledge and approach to building reuse through a brief that was both challenging and rewarding.

We believe in the authentic learning experience live projects bring to the students in preparation for employment and the opportunity to influence and support local and regional regeneration they bring.

The Re-Imagining Gibside Hall project was the principle design focus for our students, becoming their major design project and occupied a large proportion

of their final year design studies. This live project opportunity brought an exciting live context to their studies and galvanised the cohort towards making a difference to the region through their ideas. They were continually supported

by Mick Wilkes, Gibside Estate Manager, and the wider staff and volunteers at Gibside, to whom we owe great thanks, for the time taken to assist site visits, answer often frequent queries and offer great support and insight during client presentations. Thanks are also extended to the teaching team who have supported the programme, project and students tirelessly and of course, the students who have worked with commitment, determination and enthusiasm throughout.

Paul Ring

Programme Leader; Interior Architecture

Images: Front cover: Gibside Hall site visit (1) Gibside Hall site visit

3

Copyright Š 2014 Northumbria University Press

Foreword

Foreword

5

Historic Context

7

Site Context

9

Project brief

13

Student proposals

14

BA (Hons) Interior Architecture programme information

61

Index

63

National Trust Gibside & Northumbria University Partnership Project: Re-Imagining Gibside Hall

Images: (1) Natasha Kwok (L) & Mick Wilkes (R) client presentations

Gibside is one of the greatest surviving designed landscaped parks of Georgian England with the Hall as the historical focus of the whole estate. Now in a ruinous condition, the Hall was once the social and administrative centre of the estate and was in family ownership and inhabited until the early twentieth century.

By the end of the Great War the estate entered a long period of dwindling attention and fragmentation. Parkland was sold and ploughed; woodlands were leased and extended; buildings including the Hall became ruinous. The concept of unified landscape administered from the Hall was forgotten by all but a few curious, energetic and resourceful aesthetes.

From the 1960’s the National Trust took the courageous decision to begin to reunite the designed landscape and to repair buildings and other farm and garden structures as part of a major landscape garden restoration project.

It is against this back drop that the partnership with Northumbria University was conceived and focused upon possibly the biggest challenge of

them all at Gibside; the Hall. A detailed ‘client brief’ presented Northumbria University students with the task to formulate an end use strategy for the Hall, something which has not yet been considered in great detail.

It has been a pleasure working with the students and my team and I have enjoyed their approach to understanding the site and the stories (of which there are many) woven into the history of Gibside. The end result is a fantastic collection of inspired ideas that have already prompted colleagues to re-think the Hall’s future.

The student’s final work will now form part of an exhibition at Gibside and at Regional Head Quarters and will be used to trigger a series of formal consultations on end use options following detailed condition surveys which are currently underway.

On behalf of my team and I please accept our most sincere gratitude for the careful and considered approach to undertaking this project. Best wishes to all who have taken part.

Mick Wilkes General Manager, Gibside; National Trust

5

Contents

7

Historic Context Gibside Hall & the Bowes-Lyons

Images: (1) Location plan (2) Gibside Hall 1 & 2 courtesy of the National Trust

Gibside Estate and Hall have been recorded in connection with the Bowes family as far back as the 1400’s, with the marriage of Mary Eleanor Bowes to John Lyon, the 9th Earl of Strathmore in 1760’s as a pivotal moment in their mutual family history. This merging of major families brought a spotlight upon the estate as it became increasingly central to the Strathmore’s identity as continuous residents until the early 1800’s, as Bowes-Lyons. It is during the 1700’s when Gibside underwent the

greatest development, but was also a time of greatest sorrow. As chronicled in Wendy Moore’s historic novel, Wedlock: How Georgian Britain’s Worst Husband Met His Match, Mary Eleanor Bowes married Andrew Robinson Stoney, a former Irish Lieutenant, by succumbing to his deceit, and quickly became a prisoner in her own home as he enjoyed the families wealth. Escaping and recapture eventually led to divorce after years of maltreatment, all of which brought scandal to the family.

The family reached its greatest influence and wealth during the 1800’s and influential in the industrialization of the region and maintained a position of influence within social and aristocratic land owners of Britain. The Queen Mother, Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyons often summered at Gibside as a child.

She handed the estate over to the National Trust in 1966, who manage the wildlife, infrastructure and agriculture of the whole estate.

Images: (1) Gibside Hall; north elevation 1 by Photarc Surveys; courtesy of the National Trust

A Scheduled Ancient Monument, this Grade II* listed building was constructed in phases, from 17th - 19th Century and has been unoccupied for well over 100 years, with exception to requisition by the Land Army during the First World War. Damage to the building has been anecdotally attributed to this period, along with general abandonment and neglect.

9

GIbside Hall

11 Images:

Images:

(1) Gibside Hall; west elevation (2) Gibside Hall; interior

(3) Gibside Hall; north west elevation (4) Gibside Hall; detail 1- 4 by Photarc Surveys; courtesy of the National Trust

Re-imagining Gibside Hall Project Brief

Images: (1) Land Army girls outside Gibside Hall, c.1916. National Trust, Scots Gap, photo number 82450

(2) Historical pagent, staged as part of the Blaydon Divisional Unionist Association rally, at Gibside in 1929.

Beamish Museum, photo number 72226

(3) Photograph undated (c.1930) of a Conservative Divisional rally at Gibside.

Beamish Museum, photo number 38729

(4) Gibside Hall; ground floor plan 1 Courtesy of the National Trust.

2 - 3 by Beamish Museum, courtesy of the National Trust.

Concerned with the diminishing condition of Gibside Hall, students have developed a range of proposals to re-invigorate and re-inhabit the ruin, providing glimpses of its former glory and providing visitors to Gibside with the pleasure of experiencing this once famous building again. Their proposals are individually driven, with each student developing a unique interpretation of what Gibside Hall once was and what it could become.

Their approach is driven by an attitude towards our existing built spaces and heritage, an approach that is at the centre of the Interior Architecture

programmes ideology as being one of building preservation through adaptive reuse.

This series of speculative projects propose to save the ruin through occupation, and are wide ranging in their speculation and interpretation.

Each project has been inspired by the historic, topographic, genealogic, literary, architectonic, narrative, wildlife and nature contexts this wonderful site presents. The history of the Bowes-Lyon family and Wendy Moore’s historic novel, Wedlock: How Georgian Britain’s Worst Husband Met His Match play significantly in many proposals, as do Gibsides Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), the Derwent Valleys Red Kite population and the landscape works of William Turner, painted at Gibside.

The idea of a visitor experience is central to each project, with each student working within a specific area of interest to achieve this. Projects have ingrained genius loci, a sense of place, and range from artist retreats, to botanical gardens, observatories and distilleries, to places for retreat and care, hydrotherapy and learning.

13

The following projects are the outcome of a design brief set by the National Trust at Gibside to provide ideas and solutions for Gibside Hall. The brief asked students to draw upon the estates rich history, its managed landscape, its aims and objectives for visitor experience and their future estate development plans when re-imagining Gibside Hall. Currently on the ‘Buildings at Risk’ register, Gibside Hall stands as a significant monument within the region and the social history of this country.

Chet Baines

Confessions: Bowes-Lyons visitor experience The proposal aims to create an imaginative and meaningful intervention for Gibside Hall based upon the lives of its former occupants. The solution developed from a fascination with the unique history of Gibside, drawing upon accounts from media sources, narratives, Eleanor Bowes’ own Confession and the National Newspaper Digital Archive.

The enhanced potency of the Hall’s history is evident as the proposal creates a space for the story of Lady Eleanor Bowes to be told.

Literary Inspiration

May I never feel happiness in this world, or the world to come ; and may my children meet every hour of their lives unparalleled misery, if I have, either directly or indirectly, told one or more falsehoods in these narratives; or if I have kept any thing a secret, that even Mr. Bowes could esteem a fault.

This I give under my hand, and shall never plead forgetfulness, or any thing else, for the truth of one tittle of it. And I do further swear the truth of it upon the Holy Bible : and as a declaration of my sincerity, shall take the Holy Sacrament upon it the next time I go to church, when there is one.

- GIBSIDE, Feb. 3, 1778

Press extracts are at the heart of the proposal within a weightless corridor which broadcasts the media noise that surrounded Lady Eleanor Bowes, told through modern media channels to engage the visitor into the complex narrative.

15

The story culminates with the release of Confession; a book that Lady Bowes wrote on her own terms, clarifying her anecdotes against the press tattle of her time.

Carl Bonas Re_Ima_Gin: gin distillery After years of abandonment and neglect the hall is currently occupied by nature.

The flora and fauna that currently reside within the site provide an insight into the future development of the Hall; inspiring a concept for this proposal based upon the idea of Growth.

Gin was the favoured tipple of the Bowes Lyons family that formerly occupied the estate. To enhance the experience of the estate, this proposal sees Gibside Hall reborn as a Distillery to celebrate all things Gin, from the opportunity to watch the numerous processes required in the making of Gin including botanicals, distilling and mixology; to experiencing food inspired infusions and sample travelling and home Gins in the presence of the Stills.

The distillery will offer Gin tasting experiences with exhibition and events spaces as well as the opportunity to create your own blend of gin whilst experiencing the vistas of the Derwent Valley.

17

The Interventions structure reads as an independent steel framework that sits within the ruinous shell of the hall, supporting the upper floor and roof which pins back the original fabric; growing within the ruin.

Samantha Collins Gibside Botanical Garden Visitor Centre The Georgian gardens, the interests of existing visitors, the former orangery and the estates characterisation as being akin to ferme ornee have all informed this proposal to establish Gibside Hall as an internal botanical garden.

This proposal is concerned with growth.

Close examination of the wych elm, an indigenous tree species on the site, reveals patternisation within leaf and molecular structures. The proposals principle modular form is derived from the hexagonal structure seen within the molecular makeup of the leaf. The proposal forms itself within and around the existing structure, forming and deconstructing its hexagonal pattern into occupiable and traversable spaces, whilst maintaining a relationship with the ruin through juxtaposition.

19

The Centre houses the processes of botany, restoring the indigenous flora and tree species back to Gibside. The visitor experience has four key zonal areas; research, education, conservation and future conservation. Visitors are led through the centre with each zone designed to raise awareness, taking in three internal botanical gardens. A seed shop aims to support future conservation by promoting the restoration of indigenous plant life to the region.

The ornate door

The botanical growing Orangery

Glimpses through the woodland

The Gin bar

21

Gibside Chapel

Paolo Coyle The Butcher, Baker & Gin Maker Guests of Gibside have historically been taken on walks to surprise and delight; this proposal intends to draw upon this important aspect of the pleasure grounds and will reconnect visitors with eventful walks of the past.

In the 18th Century Gibside bred the foundation herd for the Shorthorn Cattle and this proposal sees Gibside beef being processed and showcased inside the Hall as function and spectacle.

The Orangery, once used by Mary Eleanor, the botanist, will be restored

to grow botanicals to be distilled in the Hall and support an on-site Gin bar, built upon the ruined bath house will echo previous social gatherings that were said to take place here.

The proposal also caters for social gatherings and occasions. Weddings currently take place at the Chapel and the Hall will be used for associated events. A timber roof garden, reminiscent of a previous third storey allows views of the Derwent Valley.

Alexander Davies Ornithology Centre & Retreat This intervention proposes to prolong the life of the building, giving the hall a new lease of life. This intervention is perceived as an armature, on which the existing building can sit and rest; akin to a prop or crutch.

The structure of the intervention frames the ruin, providing new positions to view the existing structure from, allowing its history to be prolonged.

23

This proposal creates an education and observation facility, specifically for ornithology. Supporting these outdoor activities are hirable holiday homes within the existing structure where ‘twitchers’ can weekend and use these as a base from which to venture into the hides and expanse of the estate to observe its rich wildlife.

Glass within stacked element of artists studio, with wide ranging views Bi-Steel walling

Existing Hall structure Bi-Steel tunnel channelling visitors through the site

Steel elements cladding walls

Bi-Steel thresholds

25

Entirely glass artist workpods

Weathered wooden doors

Laura Diggens Blakiston Artists Retreat Having gained substantial wealth from coal mining, the family had the celebrated artist J.M.W. Turner to Gibside Hall to paint the surrounding area and the Hall. The significance of such a commission is indicative of their wealth and social standing, from which Gibside Estate is a lasting legacy.

This moment in history has influenced this proposal; an intention to create an artists retreat where artists can reside and work within the confines of the hall, as well as visit and paint the landscape and gardens.

The concept behind much of the materiality and lighting for the scheme is taken from the coal mining history. A tunnel leads the visitors from the Long Walk into the Halls’ basement, creating the sensation of a mine with limited light. Controlling and manipulating light is maintained as a language; steel perforated screens slide across windows allowing controlled shards of light into spaces in variable intensity.

Glass Cider- House works Soaperie

Paddock for grazing

Apiary Historic Orchard

Bats

Worm Farm

Public Education

Livestock Self sufficient Site

Self Re-Organisation

27

Previous agricultural site uses

Michael Dunn Gibside Hydroponic Farm & Cider Works This proposal for Gibside estate aims to establish a working farm.

This is informed by the original landscape design by Stephen Switzer (commissioned by George Bowes) and previous agricultural uses of the site during the twentieth century (such as the billeting of the Women’s Land Army and the beginning of production of Gibside beef), providing a source of income for the National Trust.

Cmnty Gdns

Seed Bank

Manure Previous Potato Fields

Hydroponics

The proposal creates potential for integration with existing Gibside produce such as beef and the Community projects taking place in the walled gardens. The Hall itself proposes to become a hydroponic research facility and domestic farming education centre, heralding back to Mary Eleanor Bowes’ enthusiasm for botany.

Additional agricultural structures, building and landscaping could act as expansions upon the aspirations of George Bowes’ extension of the estate.

29

Ella Foster Earth & Sky Observatoty The 17th century hall’s intriguingly sinister histories bleed through into dramatic and monolithic sensations, which are created through skeletal frameworks. Analyses upon themes of decay inspire strategies which capture and preserve the qualities of the site. Properties that emerge through exposure to the elements inform the language of the built materiality of the intervention; charred timber and oxidised steel.

The intervention creates a site for visitor to experience at day and night, a place

to observe the earth and sky. Visitors can capture up-close activity through confined apertures with enclosed hides, whilst panoramic views observe the surrounding sky-scape and estate.

Resident red kites can be sighted along the top contours of the ruin, while nesting owls, bats and red squirrels can be watched openly or through camera feeds within the ruin. Night access provides facilities for amateur astronomers to appreciate the reduced light interrupted skies whilst remaining in close proximity to the city.

Connor Hewison Gibside Creative Studios & Galleries Inspired by the landscape paintings of Gibside and the Derwent by Turner, this proposal suggests an artist retreat and studios for the Hall.

Enthused by a the overgrown state of the ruinous Hall and the many species of ancient broad leaf trees present on the estate, this proposed insertion attempts to mimic the natural vertical growth present in the form of towers and connecting walkways.

Close - up of leaf tissue

Isolation of shapes from veins

Upwards extrusion of shapes

31

Leaves of the ancient woodland

These towers contain flexible studio spaces on lease to artists and creative practitioners alike, which aim to provide views across the picturesque Derwent Valley and engineered landscapes of the Gibside estate. By travelling a series of walkways through the labyrinthine remains of the hall, visitors experience the ghostly atmosphere within its remnants, seen in contrast to the new independent structure.

33

Andrew Kemp-Dillon Theatre Oculus Gibside Estate occupies approximately 300 acres of English countryside and is famed for its status as a former Pleasure Ground. Gibside Hall grew from a Jacobean manor into a sprawling Hall concealing a history of secrecy, betrayal and entrapment.

This proposal aims to capitalise upon Gibside’s sensational history and a burgeoning local amateur dramatics community to create a venue for a theatrics renaissance; a contemporary intervention of playwright, props and performance within a poignant landscape.

Whilst the estate has diminished in scale and stability, fine details remain. The Octagon Pool particularly influenced the language of the proposed intervention, inspired by its unusual shape within an otherwise organic landscape; the octagon becomes a motif and focal to the scheme, culminating in the oculus.

cafe earth

water

fire

wind

yoga studio

hydrotherapy pool

Hy dro

the

communal kitchen

void

rap

counselling room

y Ca

nce

r re

hab

ilit

ati

on

35

overnight room

Natasha Kwok Cancer Rehabilitation & Hydrotherapy Centre: Holistic Retreat This proposal is based upon the notion of the healing power of pristine landscapes, and as such, aims to re-use and re-inhabit the Hall as a Cancer Rehabilitation Centre and a Hydrotherapy Facillity.

It is said that the three fundamental elements to encourage healing are fresh air, natural light and connection to nature- all of which Gibside estate provides.

This holistic retreat will cater for activities such as yoga, art therapy,

counselling and an option to stay overnight. It will ultimately be a refuge, a stress free environment where people can relax, receive social support and be with their friends and family away from the hospital environment and the city.

By taking advantage of the surrounding picturesque scenery of Gibside Estate and the characteristics of the ruins itself, the proposal develops into a sensitive, comforting atmosphere, created through a taxonomy of materials and language which inform activity type, facility and care.

37

Dimitra Lahaniati Audio Visual Historic Exhibition This intervention into Gibside Hall aims to preserve and celebrate the original building whilst creating a series of new vantages from which to embrace this derelict habitat. The Hall reveals its history through its damaged skin and layers and this proposal seeks to capitalise upon this as points of fixed interest.

Gibside was built in four different stages and this proposal places a pavilion for each, connected by a bridged walkway; a physical timeline through the site.

Each pavilion then reveals a specific period in the history of the building through an audio-visual journey.

Furthermore the connecting bridge is positioned in such a way as to create the illusion of a canopy, thus correlating with the natural landscape immediately surrounding the Hall.

The proposal contains residential pavilions and a bar /restaurant to house social and versatile facilities.

- Idea of insertion within the ruins - Creating a separate structure to celebrate the existing ruins by not disturbing it - Allows new structure to not rely upon the existing element

REIMAGINING GIBSIDE HALL: ACADEMY OF MUSIC Initial Approach

REIMAGINING GIBSIDE HALL: ACADEMY OF MUSIC

Kevin Li Music Academy During the 18th century, George Bowes would entertain his guests with meals at the Hall, desserts at the Banqueting House and musical performances in the pleasure grounds.

Through this proposed Academy of Music, this performative spirit is rekindled by offering space to local musicians to perform and entertain the public.

The academy will act as a centre for creative writing of music, and to allow local musicians and performers to meet, collaborate, share and learn.

The scheme will offer studio spaces and a recording studio where musicians will collaborate, explore and record. An opportunity to showcase live music is provided through a major auditorium, where the public can experience and enjoy the music provided, during day and night.

The spatial language of the proposal is determined by the staged sequencing of the resident bats echolocation, developing a proposal that shifts in scale, organisation and use dependence upon sound wave frequencies.

Initial Planning page 53

39

page 32

Drew Lowe Spa & Hydrotherapy Retreat Jacobean style house built for William Blakiston

Orientated around the Hall, this proposal seeks to establish Gibside estate as a venue to experience both the history of Mary-Eleanor Bowes’ passion for botany and the then emergent 19th century hydropathy techniques.

Extensive work to east wing and courtyard done for George Bowes

Reduced to two floors & faced in ashlar, work done

by John Dobson

A plan was prepared to turn Gibside into a hydropathic establishment

The house was gutted and has been a ruin since then

1713

1760-1790

1800-1810

1889

1920

Access in to the retreat 1620

The Hydro-botanic facility will occupy the principle spaces within the ruinous Hall and will be fully accessible to the public, couples and wedding occasions as catered for by the estate.

Gibside house: the retreat

The design is informed by the engraved history of Gibside Hall and seeks to allow a reading of the original building and the new intervention in equal measure, through a sequence of expressive bathing spaces.

Banquetting house: Retreat check-in Half Bath

The Bath House: honeymoon suite

Head Bath

Sitz Bath

Douche Bath

Perspiration

Perspiration

The Orangery: Reinstated

Access in for the public

41

A selection 19th century hydrotherapy techniques conducted through dense and isolated spaces creates an overall sensual experience for the visitor and houses opportunities to capture the dramatic landscape within which the Hall sits.

Francis Blakiston dies leaving house to daughter Elizabeth

Alison MacLellan

The aim of this project is to save the Hall, and ground it in the estates history for further generations to come.

The project creates a visitor experience that takes the public through the story of the Bowes-Lyons and the Estate by exploring the current shell of the Hall through a series of created experiential spaces. The project aims to evoke an emotive response from visitors, allowing them to glimpse at the lives lived by its former occupants.

The form and language of the project is derived from the shifting flow of water, creating areas of tranquillity and of compressed tension.

The roof structure coordinates this variance, allowing the turbulent history of the family to become the focus of the event. Visitors are led through a sequence of controlled spatial experiences towards an external viewing space for reflection.

43

Quapropter: Visitor Experience

Memory

45

Observation

Shahida Mokhtar Observing Liberty: Theatre & Narrative Space

Perspective

Gibside Hall is known to be the former residence of the Bowes Lyons, linking the estate to the current Royal family.

The story of the Hall is therefore part of the story of our Nation and is a source of inspiration for this project.

The ruin relates largely to its former occupant, Mary Eleanor Bowes who also endured a dark past. Mary Eleanor Bowes was a young heiress who was tricked into surrendering her entire estate to her husband Stoney Bowes.

For eight years she was incarcerated

within the Hall, where her only solace was a compulsion to observe her surroundings.

The design philosophy of this project is routed in the particular nature and practice of observation, vistas and multiperspectives, as she will have viewed the world through a fixed, determined gaze. A space for performance, this project allows views on stage and of the building, the site and the wider landscape as choreographed scenes.

Raja Munnie Raja Gibside Estate Historic Exhibition On entrance, visitors will be taken along a predetermined route, encountering exhibitions in a chronology of relevant histories, each framed is a space made up of existing fragments, rough concrete planes and still pools from which artifacts emerge.

The proposal expects individuals and large groups, and provides education spaces for school groups and outdoor cafĂŠ space for relaxation.

47

This proposal intends to develop the ruin of Gibside Hall into a permanent interactive museum; a place to discover and learn about the family, the estate and the building through a series of staged exhibitions.

Francesca Paul Wildlife Rehabilitation & Education Centre Gibside Hall is the definition of a ruin, where many walls, floors and ceilings no longer exist. Even in its current state, the Hall’s significance in the landscape highlights a potential to attract visitors, bringing the community and natural surroundings together.

This proposal seeks to draw upon the seductive visual appeal of the ruinous Hall and the abundant wildlife locally to provide a community resource where public can bring in injured/orphaned wildlife for medical care with the goal of returning them to their natural habitat.

In addition, the Derwent Valley is recognized for its successful Red Kite reintroduction and the Estate is home to this and other wildlife species.

The hall will provide a wildlife education and rehabilitation centre that will foster a connection between people and wildlife.

A veterinary hospital will be located within the former servants’ quarters, allowing treatment and care to on site wildlife and wildlife brought in by locals.

An education area shows live feed footage, observation and gps tracking of on site wildlife, further immersing the commu¬nity within Gibside and its vast estate.

Medical assessment

Stabilisation

Treatment

49

Conditioning

Release

51

Pirouz Rezvanian Wedlock: Interactive Theatre Experience In the eyes of a first-time visitor, Gibside Hall might seem like a ruin, overtaken by nature after decades of neglect; but in fact, every brick and stone of Gib¬side has a story to tell. Stories of murder, betrayal, abuse and finally triumph of the will.

One deserving story is that of Mary Eleanor Bowes and her struggles after marrying the wretched Andrew Robinson Stoney.

This project is inspired by this particular aspect of the sites history and of Wendy Moore’s historic novel, Wedlock: How Georgian Britain’s Worst Husband Met His Match.

The story is retold through an interactive theatre that narrates Mary Eleanor’s tale, built within the same stones which witnessed her anguish and pain.

Visitors participate in a sequenced performance, shifting through the ruin and the fixed intervention towards a finale that celebrates Mary Eleanor’s release.

53

Liam Smith Diurnal & Nocturnal Wildlife Observation and Education Centre Developed as a response to the estates characteristics, this proposal takes focus upon the view, elevation and the integration of a developing wildlife population; allowing the wildlife and landscape to continue to inhabit the Hall ruins whilst adding specific pavilions that touch the ground lightly.

This proposed facility for the observation of Diurnal and Nocturnal wildlife will be accompanied by associated educational and analysis

facilities for individual, group and specialist research use.

Included accommodation and related facilities cater for visitors partaking in overnight observations and allow for residency for scientific study. Raised walkways and viewing platforms sit within the halls ruins, offering clear views over farmland and woodland, whilst creating ideal locations for the observation of wildlife.

55

Danielle Wai Botanical Research Facility, Gin Distillery & Artisanal Restaurant This proposal aims to re-inhabit, re-imagine and re-use Gibside Hall with inherent attention paid to the surrounding natural SSSI habitats and the estates wider landscaping.

It builds upon the National Trusts core beliefs of celebrating local recognition, sympathetic conservation and creating a ‘commercial’ or ‘community’ through a facility that aids the reintroduction of indigenous species whilst using the land to grow, gather and distill botanicals, vegetables and herbs.

The scheme is designed to educate, inspire and immerse the visitor in the world of botany through sight, smell, taste and sound; with a holistic and sus¬tainable approach to growth, foraging, extracting and refinement into a crafted product.

Plant life can be studies within botanical gardens, eaten within culinary workshops and restaurants and drunk within the gin distillery.

Emma Weeden Rural Market & Events Space Gibside Hall has a history as wide and varied as the estate itself. In particular, the family history is complex, secretive and intertwined with significant figures.

Many elements of the family history revolve around the grand front put on for visitors; welcoming them, pleasing them and in the process showing their wealth and taste.

Event Space

Market

Great thought was put into how visitors travelled around the site with controlled views and managed vistas abound. The intended first view of the Hall faรงade occurs from the darkness of the woods as a frame. This idea of framed, sequenced views is central to this project, where framed thresholds delineate shifts from one space to another; one purpose to another.

The ascent to the event space rises over the ruin with a highly polished brass underside reflecting the existing and providing an atmosphere that immerses the visitor in the essence of the ruin.

57

Whilst this informs language, purpose is in response to rural and estate activities, building permanent place for the regular farm markets and events that take place within the estate.

Bakery

Market courtyard

Local produce

Renee Wong

Ryder Architecture prize for best undergraduate project

Family Retreat

A tree grows in three stages; roots, trunk and maturity and these same stages can be aligned to the growth of a family. As such, this proposal includes a series of family retreat spaces that resemble an integrated series of tree

top dwellings, perching within the ruin of the Hall.

Commendation

The project is a reflection of the forest; communal spaces occur on the lower levels, weaving in between the trucks of apparent trees with each family able to ascend up into their own individually rented retreat amongst the canopy.

Each retreat has a choreographed position to allow maximum opportunity to view beyond and within the ruin.

59

This proposal considers the abundant beauty of the estates woodland areas and the typical visitor, providing a facility that is inspired by the former for the latter.

BA (Hons) Interior Architecture

In Year 1 students study key principles and processes of the subject, which they then exploit within set exploratory design projects. They study themes such as place, space, interior and narrative, working alongside colleagues on our Architecture programme. Students benefit from this relationship, working together within a broader studio culture where ideas and attitudes towards Interior Architecture are discussed and acted upon.

Images: (1) Student residential, Gibside (2+3) Interior Architecture Studio Ellison Building

In year 2 students use more challenging design projects to test strategies for adapting and occupying existing buildings more thoroughly, working with live clients and set project briefs, in groups and individually. Year 3 design projects present opportunities for a deeper critique of the subject and are both directed and self-initiated, often working to live briefs set by live clients.

Final year student work is exhibited at the end of year 3 within our studios in Newcastle and at IE: Free Range in London.

Alongside studio projects, students examine both academic and practical aspects of Interior Architecture such as its history and theory, technology and construction, environmental design, communication and management principles. These subjects run throughout each year of study and are critically aligned to studio based project work, providing valuable preparation for work in practice.

www.northumbria.ac.uk/interiorarchitecture

61

This studio based BA(Hons) degree programme is concerned with the reuse, adaptation and rehabilitation of buildings; be they old, new, forgotten, redundant or in disrepair. It is concerned with the manner by which interiors are conceived and integrated into the existing host site, with an emphasis placed on the recognition of built fabric and site narratives as precursors to the development of an adaption. The programme uses the design project as the central vehicle for learning and is designed to stimulate and provoke imaginative responses to the re-use and adaption of existing architectural space.

Index Foreword

5

Historic Context

7

Site Context

9

Project brief

13

Chet Baines Carl Bonas Samantha Collins Paolo Coyle Alexander Davies Laura Diggens Michael Dunn Ella Foster Connor Hewison Andrew Kemp-Dillon Natasha Kwok Dimitra Lahaniati Kevin Li Drew Lowe Alison MacLellan Shahida Mokhtar Raja Munnie Raja Frankie Paul Pirouz Rezvanian Liam Smith Danielle Wai Emma Weeden Renee Wong

14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36 38 40 42 44 46 48 50 52 54 56 58

BA (Hons) Interior Architecture programme information

61

63

Student proposals

Images: (1) Students on site at Gibside

Copyright Š 2014 Northumbria University Press All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic, mechanical, photographic reproduction or otherwise without permission. Further copies can be obtained from Northumbria University Press.

Staff: Andrea Couture Ben Couture Ceri Green Paul Ring (Programme Leader) Steve Miller Kelly MacKinon (Master of Architecture) External Examiner: Andrew Stone; London Metropolitan University

Interior Architecture Dept. Architecture & Built Environment Faculty of Engineering & Environment Ellison Building Northumbria University Newcastle-Upon-Tyne NE1 8ST T: 0191 227 4453 F: 0191 227 4561 For more information please look at the following web addresses: http://www.northumbria.ac.uk/interiorarchitecture http://interiorarch-northumbria.tumblr.com/

Images: Back cover: Kevin Li