 TRIPOS STUDIO FOUR |
Harlech, Gerona, CambridgeThis studio studies the nature of placement, both in relation to the horizontal- definition of periphery in terms of what is central, and vertical- the working of ground. We have been concerned with landscape, which we understand as an economic and spatial entity comprising both the urban and rural. For 5 years, sites in London’s East river and the Cambridge Fens were investigated, involving careful calibration of minute level-changes; this was followed by radically-engineered topographies in Arizona, Southwark and Spain. We have undertaken workshops such as ‘Still Lives Upon an Inclined Table’ with which we explored both physical and thematic interpretations of ground. This year we have been concerned with issues of displacement and translocation. The act of building inevitably results in both the destruction of existing environments and creation of new ones. Addressing this theme of displacement we have worked in Harlech, North Wales, Gerona in Catalonia, and the central Cambridge site of the Lion Yard. Harlech is gateway to the largest slate quarries in Europe. These vividly exemplify destruction of a place by its literal removal, for construction of cities around the c19 world, and social deprivation following their abandonment. Here we proposed a project for the relocation of ground upon a site bounded by the Castle (1181), a run-down hotel, a carpark, visitor centre and playground at the edge of a town overlooking the national Park of Snowdonia. Gerona presents a densely packed medieval, walled fabric, hewn from and built out of stone. Here we identified two voids, one at the centre, the other extramural. A collapsed house against the built-over Roman wall provided the possibility of connection with an existing City museum and garden 10 metres above. The unfinished termination to a fine existing linear park outside the medieval walls offered possibilities of landscaping, and poetic interpretations of displacement. This second site is bounded by a Romanesque monastery and under the shadow of the Cathedral. Central Cambridge possesses one intensely urban site. Behind the Market Square of the country town lies the ragged edge to an archetypal 1960’s shopping centre. The site is bounded by this, a 200m multi-storey carpark with its downramp, major 1960’s University buildings and the 60m c19 Corn Exchange, now a concert hall. Nearby are the Magistrates’ Court and Central City Library. In the midst of this institutional diversity and amongst complex levels and alignments we proposed a Centre for Public Dissemination of Environmental Issues. The common brief comprised a 100-seater multi-use chamber, smaller meeting rooms, exhibition area, computerised archive and library, and ‘hot-desk’ offices for local pressure groups was adapted by students with particular interests. The constriction of this site suggested deep excavation in order to create a new public square. |
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