Studio sessions

If you can't find me, I am probably here...

Draft concept model

I have started to think about concept models and development work and final artifacts for the final presentation in December... it is a scary thought to think we only have 6 weeks left of this term!

So, I have been thinking about the layers in the city, how one building, mass or object can reveal many aspects, stories and histories that have evolved there over time. This combined with my thoughts of how you can be in emptiness despite being surrounded by large built forms has lead me to develop my first concept model that is a closed, compact, opaque box, a solid at first glance. We see that, with a little exploration, the layers within the box are revealed and taken out leaving a hollow box, an empty shell. Whilst this concept model works as an initial step, I need to refine my ideas a little more.... so I had better get to it!

The theory behind the thinking

So, having been reading a lot about the theory of the city from the likes of Rossi, Benjamin and Barthes, I began exploring another theory strongly connected to my areas of study. I am reading about the theory of the sublime, particularly the words of Kant and Burke.

Many of these theories are all interconnected to my studies and I have tried to summarise the key thoughts, representing them in the collage below. There are five subheadings, 1. the city and its artifacts, 2. over time, 3. primary elements, 4. terrain vague and 5. sublime.

Once upon a time...

Here are a few old maps I have found of the Liverpool, the River Mersey and the Docks. The turn of the nineteenth century is a key time period when looking at the history of the site.

Overview of site

Just a quick aerial shot to highlight the site in relation to the city centre...

A bit more detail about the site

It is important to clarify the distinct differences as you walk from the residential areas of Liverpool, underneath the railway arches, past the warehouses and through to the docks, finishing at the River Mersey. This diagram emphasises the characters of these different areas and questions whether, in fact, the residential housing areas and the former industrial dockyards are totally disconnected...

A closer look towards the dock areas reveals a striking contradiction. Although these areas are rich in culture and heritage with large built masses and stunning structural work lining the watersides, they are incredibly empty. The shear scale of the warehouses and the voids inbetween provide an evocative language...

I walked around these areas (or until I couldn't get through some barriers!) and tried to distinguish where the emptiness was both physically and in a metaphorical sense. For me, the most interesting of these areas are seen around the edges of the built artifacts and it is these areas I have looked towards and sketched in a little bit more detail.

The return to the site

Last weekend I revisited the site in order to view the insides of the large warehouse buildings, particularly the tobacco warehouse. This proved a less-successful-than-anticipated trip. The Heritage Market held at the warehouse every Sunday was only based in the south warehouse on the site, ie. not the tobacco warehouse, much to my disappointment.

It was still useful to see this space and to actually be allowed within the boundary wall (and to take a few sneaky photos of the wonderful tobacco building). These are a few of my more useful images from this third site visit. On a side note, the weather was very dismal, dreary and generally depressing which gave an even more atmospheric feeling to the site.

Site scenes...

A couple more details...

Inside the warehouses...

Collage

Having spent a few weeks thinking about, researching, drawing and photographing the site, I decided to interpret the site in my own way, how I see it, what I think when I am there, what I like in the area etc.

I have done this in the form of a mixed media relief collage...

The piece explains the materiality, structure and detail of the site in a busy and haphazard way which reflects the busy atmosphere that would at one time been evident with the Stanley Dock area. The collage emphasises the variety of materials, colours and textures on offer in this region of Liverpool.

Photobooks

I have developed some photos and compiled them into separate books in order to organise my thoughts better and to help explain to others the different aspects of the site that I am looking at. So far they are proving very helpful...

back to basics

Today has been a literary day.

I have spent most of my Saturday with my head in 'The Architecture of the City' by Aldo Rossi. This is a very important text for any architect, urban designer, planner and perhaps most of all, student. With any piece of writing of this stature, there are going to be many issues raised. I have chosen a few key phrases that have been stored in my mind that relate (in some way) to by project work.

"When we consider the spatial aspect of primary elements and their role independent of their function, we realise how closely they are identified with their presence in the city. They possess a value 'in themselves', but also a value dependent on their place in the city. In this sense, a historical building can be understood as a primary urban artifact, it may be disconnected from its original function, or over time take on functions different from those for which it was designed, but its quality as an urban artifact, as a generator of a form of the city, remains constant."

"Primary elements are elements capable of accelerating the process of urbanisation in the city and they also characterise the process of spatial transformation in an area larger than the city."

"Amorphous zones don't exist within the city, or where they do, they are moments of a process of transformation; they represent inconclusive times in the urban dynamic."

"In cities, a tension is created by urban artifacts and primary elements and between one sector and another. (This is) caused by urban artifacts existing in the same place and must be measured in terms of space and time."

"Transformation of parts of the city over time is closely linked to the objective phenomenon of the decay of certain zones." (This is widely referred to as obsolescence.)

"Urban artifacts have their own life, their own destiny."

I am off to the Heritage Market tomorrow. This is the market held at the Tobacco Warehouse... well, the ground floor of it at least...

on film

roll bridge sketches

site reflections

site visit 01

October 1st: my first site visit since term has started.

The weather was beautiful, a crisp, clear thursday morning provided me with vivid colours, stunning shading and a quiet, reflective atmosphere amongst the docks and warehouse buildings of the Stanley area.

I took numerous photos concerning the different aspects of my site; materiality, signage, structure, built form, views out/in and detail. Here are a selection of some of these images...

Materiality

Signage

Structure

Built Form