A place of Observation - Formby Beach

THE BEACH EVENT:

I used the narrative of a voyeur observing events marked by 7 memory stations along the beach.
The memory stations being physical signposts related back to Formby.

MUSE LINES

These events are then layered with muse lines to reconstruct the beach visit event, which generated the section-plan form for the place of observation.

EVENTS

Narratives of voyeurism generated 7 zones from which to examine voyeurism in exhibition and installation form.

ZONES

These are 7 container boxes for 7 voyeuristic events.

Zone 1 - Macro Tele-proximics

Zone 2 - Micro Tele-proximics

Zone 3 - The Voyeur’s Device - a Camera

Zone 4 - The X-Ray’s necessity for porosity

Zone 5 - A Panopticon Box for the Voyeuristic Artist

Zone 6 - The Environment watchdog

Zone 7 - Global positioning satellites - mapping devices

CONCLUSION

The projects output was through a series of coded graphical sheets with scratch models used to explore aspects of voyeurism - The place of observation was produced in model format - layered in context using photoshop into Formby Beach.

Semester 02:

‘Worrying the Carcus of an Old Song’ UNIT 2

Project Title: “The Sheep Shearing Institute” - A reconstruction

Intervention:

This envolved a connection across the Dam, both physically and virtually. The physical connection is via a walk bridge. The virtual connection is via a CCTV camera, translating images to a monitor installation at a selected site in Birmingham.

Mapping:

Having identified a host-site and responding to its placeness and using a para-site narrative, a series of decomposed and layered images are mapped onto the host resulting in the initial para-site form.

Nano-Surgery:

This narrative is used for the reconstruction of the para-site. The nano narrative has evolved from the phenomenon of spatial compression. The shearing robots are used as metaphors of surgical nano robots to reconstruct this decomposed parasitic form.

Surgical scars are used as incision points for these robots. A structural spine is also inserted to fix the parasite to the host site. The external skin is smoothed out with a series of shearing blows.

Appropriations:

A series of vital systems are appropriated for integration into the project.

A metaphor or transhumance is used in response to the physicality of the steeply sloped site.

Using the process of construction the tower crane is appropriated for the transhumance metaphor with the implied swing used as the structure for the lift.

The tower crane is also used to fix the LCD panels and solar panels.

Being There:

People use 8 interactive pods to control a series of CCTV cameras inside the parasitic form, with the imaged translocated to the LCD panels.

This technology is used to overcome the pragmatics of building. You no longer need to physically ‘Be There’

Roadside Culture:

This metaphor of how we as nomads use roads is also appropriated into the project in the form of portaloo`s, take-away vans and parking.

Conclusion:

The project has been produced in a graphically coded form, with keywords introduced as metaphors to decode the project.


Semester 1 - Veejay Taheem

Mapping Spaces

The objective of the programme was to explore the relationship between the formal expression of architecture and its role as a container of our psyche.A dialogue between the physical and the metaphysical,a dialogue between memory and event,space and form.Through developing a narrative that becomes the programmatic device for generating a form that engages in a specific context with a specific event and function.Hence the (architectural)form becomes an expression and a sense of discovery of a dialogue between the real and the imaginary.A place that embodies the totality of our being.

Semester 2 - Colin Pugh

'Woorying the carcass of an old song'
The unit title derived from an R. S. Thomas poem (Welsh Landscape), defines the aim of the programme: to explore and redefine issues of programme and context in relation to contemporary technology. This exploration resulted in a highly original and complex layering of tutonic and electro-tectonic narratives in Declan's proposition. The relationships between embodied and virtual experience are convincingly reconciled in a proposal which significantly distills the essential construction process into narrative. The project is both rational and allegoric - a testament to the student's intellect fueled by prescribed reading and the courage to experiment, reflect on and refine critical readings of the work. The whole is delivered with a quiet authority remarkable at undergraduate level for its acuity and profundity. This 'philosophi-cool' veils an intense passion for both the subject of architecture and the profession of architect. The desire and ability to illustrate and decode the work convincingly reveals a concern for proxis which recalls Frank Lloyd Wright's assertion that one should only be an architect if one cannot do anything else. - Declan quite clearly in my mind cannot do anything else.