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Vertical School of Architecture

Part 1 Project 2003
Stefan Tribe
Terence Tang
 London South Bank University | UK

The school of architecture project was largely dominated by a long, non-linear process where pieces were selected, or became key to the project, for their aesthetic and compositional qualities. In this way the process becomes an extensive palette of work, all bound together by recognizable traits, which ultimately is used as reference when making decisions about the finished building.
Using Jean Nouvell’s Arab institute as a precedence study provided a launchpad from which the process began, as well as laying down some basic principles concerning layering, light and transparency which were put into practice, at least initially, on the work which was being produced. These principles were added to and refined as the work commenced.
Concerns about public misconceptions as to the way in which architecture is studied were introduced to the project when a publicly accessible ’route’ leading up the building was proposed. This was done in an attempt to expose the public to the multimedia, arts and experimental side of studying architecture, as opposed to the ‘counting of bricks’ image of studying architecture shared by most other students and members of the public. A member of the public would be guided round and up the tower, and allowed different views into the various studios, workshops, display areas and classrooms of the school, of architecture. In the same way as someone subconsciously takes in what they see when walking past shop fronts on a high street, one would soak up the essence of a school of architecture whilst making their way up to the shops, lecture rooms or restaurant at the top.




This project was initiated through a series of experiments where concepts were evolved by translation from one media to another. Techniques such as photography, collage decoupage, video computer animation model-making and plain old photocopying were used to develop evocative pieces of work from waste material which were tested on a vertical armature.
Architectural precedents were examined, used and abused and their visual characteristics transformed playfully using a wide range of experimental investigative techniques and radical changes in scale. The process of testing and evaluating decisions was not linear rather based on an intuitive sense of what felt right.
The process elaborated and a rich personal spatial and architectural vocabulary was evolved.
The journey became a personal odyssey into all the stuff that architects love, layering form, space, technology and detail never losing the lightness of touch of the original experiment.
The experimental process both informs and interrogates the proposal for a Vertical School of Architecture and demonstrates the education of a young architect.
In this sense, the project takes a real pleasure in the making of architecture and is very much about the drive to find a personal architecture.


Tutor(s)
2003
1) A collage was made from waste materials, loosely based on the work of Jean Nouvell, in particular the Arab institute.
A large painting was done from the collage as an exercise in observation and manipulation of scale.
This relief was made which further explores the ideas of layering, scale and composition.
4) The relief was photocopied many times, and the photocopies evolved through various techniques of combination and layering
Film 1 describes the way in which 2 photocopies where selected and used to generate a 3 dimensional shape
6) Film 2 introduces the idea of a publicly accessible route running through the building. This is done to give the public an insight into the workings of a school of architecture
7) This picture shows the interwinding of the public route through potential spaces in the building, and placing the object on site
This sheet describes the potential special, hierarchical and structural qualities of the 3 D object
9) This sheet describes the potential material variation and combination of the 3 D object
10) The 3 D object was put on site and cut into 18 horizontal slices, represented here in plan and axonometric.
11) The plans were considered unsatisfactory so were recombined together to produce a new set of 10 plans, which were refined
12) These floor plans were introduced into a new 3 D model, and stacked up. More photocopies were produced to inform a potential façade
13) The 3 D model was worked into to produce the final building. All prevbious works were used to inform details in the design
14) The public and private circulation routes around the building can be isolated and viewed independently
15) A second view of the completed building
16) A detail of one of the hung office modules
17) A view of the building on site
18) A panorama of the surrounding area with building on site
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