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Architecture for Change: The Sieve Machine

Part 1 Project 2009
Ted Schauman
 University of Plymouth | UK
Architecture for a Change - The Sieve Machine
Colin Campbell Court, a socially deprived area of Plymouth city centre, stages the framework of this project. The brief, titled Architecture for a Change, requires an approach that stresses the interplay of elements occurring within the site and its relationship with the rest of the city. The intended outcome of the project was a Community Centre, based on the synergy and tension between different users, uses and functions.
The meaning of the words ‘community’ and ‘community centre’ in their conventional sense is changing. The existing information society has diminished the need for humans to interact physically. Social interaction can be done ‘online’ on the internet on various interfaces. The information age has shattered the mould of the traditional life cycle, which used to be built on social categories – education, going to work, career path and retirement.
Communities are created by individuals who have their own personal identity. This identity is developed through an understanding and a clear picture of the surrounding phenomena. However, with today’s multiplied access to information on interfaces online, this identity has become blurred while socially excluded individuals lose the understanding of reality. Therefore, instead of developing a scheme based on the conventional meaning of a community centre, this project creates a scene where communities in today’s society have a chance to occur and develop. The centre of Colin Campbell Court is occupied by the new heart of the area, the ‘community centre’ which takes form as an interactive library.
In today’s society we perceive reality in two ways, through physical perception and through cyberception. Physical perception is based on the understanding of space and reality through haptic experiences while cyberception is based on the understanding of reality through transpersonal technology, which moves away from surfaces, towards living systems. It is this technology that enables us to transcend the limitations of our bodies. It gives us insight into the interconnectedness of all things and events.
This project explores the possibility of merging these two ways of perceiving reality through individual experiences. CCCIL [Colin Campbell Court Interactive Library] becomes a place which enhances our individual identities through new ways of exploring ourselves.



The main challenge of Ted's project is the question: If contemporary local communities are ideologically constructed fakes, and our cities are inhabited by tribes gathering their members based on life-styles rather than on location- then how can local community centres be sustained? What is the need for the ‘local community centre’ real local community does not exist?

Taking into consideration communication shift, which not only changed objective structures of our social realm, but also the way how humans perceive the space, the proposed building combines rigid logic of post-enlightenment thinking with contemporary rejection of post-modern irony and hesitation. Ted's project is looking for new universal values, and for truths: scientific truth combined with truth constructed by the performing human body. The project is a fascinating attempt to propose a new type of community centre for a post-community society.

The designed building is a materialized conundrum, “the sieve machine” forcing people to act in order to be pleased, to become active users (active citizens?) rather than mere consumers.
The project is also a challenge for us- tempted, like our modernist ancestors, by the idea of heroic humans overcoming their weaknesses, of progress in the name of good.
It asks the essential question – could cognitive capitalism be still democratic?

Dr. Krzysztof Nawratek

Tutor(s)
Dr. Krzysztof Nawratek
2009
Architecture for a Change - The Sieve Machine
A diagram explaining the conceptual develoment based on various mapping exercises.
Urban Strategy - considers the scale, density, independent retail and transport of Plymouth city centre
An investigation of the approach towards Colin campbell Court through concept models. The exercise explores the openness and enclosure of the future site when developed to its full potential. Today Plymouth city centre lacks high density residential housi
Site plan & strategy. The drawing shows the relationship of the developed site within its context in the heart of Plymouth City Centre
Floor Plans: Each floor in the library is dedicated to a certain theme (or for the inhabitor interest), which provides a place for indiviuals with common interests. The social interaction between these individuals is enhanced by the separation of the con
Site sections showing Colin Campbell Court and its relationship to its context
Long section, inhabitation and detail
EXTERNAL PERSPECTIVE - the eastern square is characterised by the solidness and calmness of the physical world
The hydraulic ram structure is located at the connection point of the ‘conventional’ section and the interactive section. It is this structure that enables the interconnectedness of the two parts and provides the possibility of an interactive section whic
LONG SECTION - spatial organisation and construction detail, illustrates the contrast between the solid and the light-weight structure
South Elevation
East Elevation
SCENARIO - the childrens section. Experiences based on both physical interaction and interactive media are combined in order to create a situation where individuals are engaging with the ways we perceive today’s world. The physical and the virtual worlds
INTERNAL VIEW, ARTS SECTION. Illustrates the calmness of the conventional library. The perception of the space is not interrupted by inessential detail.
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