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Continual Lifecycles of Architecture: Shifting Perceptions, Opportunities and Ownership

Part 2 Project 2017
Helen Allsopp
 Oxford Brookes University Oxford | UK
The proposal takes place over 100 successive years, focusing on the decay, deterioration, growth and renewal of Dungeness, a unique, coastal site in Kent. It explores an alternate present, through the eyes of four protagonists: Derek Jarman, a British film director who moved to Dungeness in the 1980s’, the Black Redstart, bird and ‘conossieur of ruins’, Derek Jarman’s garden ‘a paradise in a desolate landscape’, and The Landscape itself.
Helen Allsopp
Tutor(s)
2017
This project outlines how four protagonists successively occupy Prospect Cottage and Dungeness as it deteriorates over a period of 100 years. The proposal is an experimental strategy deployed to rethink the afterlife of all buildings across this landscape
Derek Jarman’s Principles of Gardening as outlined by his journals have been translated into design methodologies exploring concepts of chance, opportunity, growth and re-use.
The black redstart, is a lover of Dungeness’ obsolete places. The bird known as ‘a connoisseur of ruins’ takes ownership of the abandoned structures it uses to build its nest.
If Derek Jarman came to Dungeness in 1986 to come to terms with the end of his life, why then should Prospect Cottage be preserved in the state that he left it in? With the death of Derek Jarman dies the his ownership over the cottage.
Following on from the deterioration of Derek’s health, the cottage also begins to deteriorate and decay. In doing so opportunities for the occupation of the other protagonists are revealed.
This project presents no ‘final’ proposal, but many iterations along a lifecycle of 100 years. Architectural interventions are deployed to control the state of decay towards the needs of each protagonist or user.
The process of decay and deterioration is controlled through a series of architectural interventions in order to create environments to suit the needs of each protagonist and a shift in ownership.
the style of Gordon Matta Clarke the first intervention ‘conical intersect’ is cut through the centre of the cottage. Strategically placed cuts ensure that the corners and the edges are preserved- the most important spaces for the black redstart to nest w
The vision for the landscape of Dungeness is one that is haunted by a continuous spiral of decay, deterioration, life and renewal. What we may see as obsolete and decaying can be transformed into architectural opportunities for renewal and growth.
As this continual spiral of shifting opportunities evolves, the process begins to infiltrate into neighbouring sites, beyond the invisible boundaries of the cottage and its garden into the proliferation of the wider landscape.
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