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Science and Technology Museum, Londonderry, N. Ireland

Part 2 Project 1999
Tim Fleetwood
Robert Logan
Queen's University Belfast | UK
The issue of qualitative proportion was explored in relation to the design of a Science and Technology Museum, Londonderry, N. Ireland. Many of the claims made about proportion were tested in this scheme i.e. can there exist a richer Sentience between Man and Archetype. Whether it was wholly successful was of less consequence than the fact that its use was tested and measured. The parameters of the project were expanded to include master planning of the area around the Guildhall encompassing this museum, a theatre and a pedestrian interchange. The interchange includes a new tourist information office and a
pedestrian footbridge proposed by the Derry Civic Trust. Not only does this master plan seek to reverse the trend of recent development within Derry, which tended to isolate the city from the river, but also seeks to increase the opportunity for primary civic space adjacent to the river. The museum is arranged on a proportional grid (BODY) in both plan, section and elevation which is then distorted to give the design life (SOUL). A large wall is the primary organisational element dividing public and controlled museum space. The planar roof unifies the various building elements.

Tim Fleetwood
Robert Logan


Science and Technology Museum, Londonderry, N. Ireland
Robert Logan

Londonderry is an historic walled city which has outgrown its enclosure with no formal urban planning guidance and with one main artery reaching down to the river formed as the main trading route between the water and the city. It was the student’s aim to re-establish the importance of this route as a threshold to the city and to illustrate a way of re-defining the new edge of the city. His project extended across the 300m wide river to incorporate a new footbridge and pedestrian interchange. The resolution of these planning issues in a single scheme was a triumph in itself, but this was only the lead into his thesis project as he went on to explore issues he had discussed in his brilliant fifth year dissertation regarding qualitative proportion in design. Neither did he draw the line there - he explored the possible nature of a science museum and how this particular building type could be a learning tool in itself.

Robert Logan is extremely dedicated, a strong conceptual thinker with good technical abilities who enjoys being challenged in discussion about his design proposals. This synthesis of urban planning theory, architectural design theory, and concept technology is the key to the building of great architecture.


Jane Burnside, Architect & Rome Scholar

1999
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