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The Garden; Film and Photography School in Dungeness

Part 1 Project 2010
Kazushige Ina
 University of East London London | UK
Dungeness in Kent, is well known for its shingle peninsula, its nuclear power station and as the home of the late British film director Derek Jarman. His film ‘The Garden’ was filmed in Dungeness.

This project is inspired by Dungneness’ history, culture, human inhabitation and activity, by senses awakened and emotions felt during the physical experience of the site. The method for the project is based on the process of touching and using real materials; sense of gravity, density, smell, tactility through my hand.

One of the most prevalent experience of the Dungeness landscape is the rolling surface of the shingle ground; its tactility and rhythm gives a strong sense of being in Dungeness.

The film and photography school is located adjacent to the power station site at the periphery of Dungeness, where the shingle landscape slowly rises towards the south to form sea defences. The concept is that of integrating the new users; students, staff and tourists into the landscape and current use of the site, such as sea anglers and nature observers.

The aim is to give Dungeness a space where different users can meet, a place of co-existence; like a garden.

The work produced by the school’s students intends to document and preserve the memory of Dungeness and to potentially involve locals and visitors to allow for new interpretations of the area.

The building is organised around a ramped circulation hall following the slope of the landscape, from arrival through a wide entrance, through to a communal library in the heart of the building. Studios, lecture theatre, canteen and so on sit at the edges of the circulation hall. Several of the school's facilities would be open for public use.

The volume of the building opens up at the periphery, providing externalised courtyard spaces and gardens in between rooms, both connecting to the landscape and allowing for incremental future expansion as the demolition of the nuclear power station advances.

The materials experienced are on the exterior; marine ply, hammered metal, and copper, and on the interior; wood end grain, white concrete with seashells, and plywood.




The unit worked in Dungeness in Kent. Students were asked to explore the notions of authenticity and the local vernacular prior to proposing new architectures responding to the spatial, social and environmental changes affecting Dungeness. Not least, the pending and lengthy demolition of the Nuclear Power Stations Dungeness A and B.

Through his work, and inspired by the writings of Pallasmaa and Heidiegger, Kazushige Ina successfully captured the spirit of Dungeness: He worked by crafting a series of models from 1:500 to 1:1, alongside a collection of evocative material samples, drawings and sketches. This painstaking approach sought to address both the physical and metaphysical aspects of Dungeness, developing an understanding through his own body and mind. The result is an outstanding portfolio; with a material awareness and a sensitivity towards placemaking of a standard rarely seen in degree work.

In his project, entitled ‘The Garden’, a film and photography school positioned alongside the nuclear power station at the western edge of the residential settlement, a strong connection to the Dungeness landscape is maintained. Ina employs a wide ramped and stepped circulation route through the centre of the building as a device to continue the landscape into the interior space. In addition, a series of external courtyards and gardens provide a rich and varied relationship to the building’s surroundings. The spatial organisation supports the strategy of the building expanding slowly over time; a cunning take on a construction principle revealed through a survey of a Dungeness railway carriage home.

The project's generous social agenda is elegantly adapted into the spatial strategy and layout. Ina intends for the building to be well used by students, visitors and locals alike, and indeed it is possible to imagine that this would be the case; its scale, complexity and sophistication manage to strike a perfect balance for a building of new size, typology and use in this unique landscape.

Ina’s work speaks to the heart, mind and senses; an individually driven piece of work arriving at a proposal that truly belongs on its site.



Tutor(s)
2010
History, Landscape, Inhabitation and Memory.
Dungeness memory map.
Reading Dungeness: Sketches of objects possessing the Dungeness feeling.
Tactility of materials inspired by the shingle ground.
Building on the Dungeness landscape formed by shingle over thousands of years. The site model is made from hundreds of layers of textured and coloured paper. Building cut from solid hardwood. Scale 1:500.
Imagining the entrance area of the school. Graph paper with ink and oil pastel - and paper with ink. Below: development of the plan
Floor design through model making: The intricate ramped floor was developed through a series of hand-crafted models: Chiselled wood model, scale 1:200. Card board and paper model, scale 1:200. Carboard and wood model, scale 1:50.
Model studies exploring the spatial organisation with a public library at the heart of the building and the building branching out allowing for future expansion. Model in plywood, cut by hand, scale 1:300.
Inhabited section through the ramped circulation hall. The main construction is timber frame clad with plywood and there are segments of load-bearing white concrete walls. The ramped floor surface is wood end grain sat within mortar on a concrete slab.
The nature of courtyards studied at REHAB Basel for the proposal 'The Garden'. Ink on paper, watercolour on paper, cardboard + tinted resin.
The evolution of the building; starting out as a small school with public accessible facilities and gradually extending as the neighbouring nuclear power station is being demolished.
Anatomy of the building 01: The timber structure on its base. The building exterior creates small garden and courtyard spaces at the periphery. Pencil and coloured ink on paper. Scale 1:200
Anatomy of the building 03 & 02: Load-bearing white concrete walls set out the spatial organisation and enclose the library space & The building in the landscape. Pencil on paper. Scale 1:200.
Material making: Copper roof, scale 1:10 and concrete wall samples made from white cement, silver sand, water, sea shells, scale 1:1.
The film and photography school in the landscape: The building sits low on the ground, shaped to deflect the strong winds from the sea. The interconnected copper roofs collect rainwater, which is stored within a double-skinned concrete wall.
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