1999 Tripos Five

1999 Work

TRIPOS STUDIO FIVE

Public Space and Private Place

This year studio five has been investigating the architecture of Public Space and Private Place. From sculptures at the beach, through the development of an urban strategy, to the testing of ideas in the Politician’s House and Public Library, we have looked to appropriate existing landscape, materials and buildings for the making of public and personal havens in the contemporary city.
The Beach

We started the year working with Landscape Artist Chris Drury at the Seven Sisters Country Park on the Sussex coast - an exercise in developing intuitive / responsive reactions to a landscape free from urban reference points.
The Precinct

Re-sensitised to the city, we then examined the area around Old Street, between City Road and Farringdon Road. Using the Architecture Foundation’s ‘Car Free London?’ competition brief to work away from, studies were developed into initial ideas for an urban strategy - re-balancing the system of social, economic, and physical structures underpinning an urban landscape.
The Residence

The studio then carried out a formal sectional study of the area around St Lukes church before identifing four, highly constricted, sites appropriate for a small house. The houses were occupied by a Politician of each individual‘s invention and the proposals examined what it might be like to be a public figure living in this new vision of urbanity.
Barcelona

The studio visited Barcelona at the beginning of the spring term to look specifically at public buildings and their interaction with public space.
The Library

Our work on the Library started with an examination of the architecture library at Scroope Terrace and proposals for an intervention in the landscape immediately outside. This dealt explicitly with the landscape of an existing ‘room of knowledge’ and was followed by a short building precedent study.
The site for the Library was the precinct of St Lukes Church - an important and historic open space in the area, dominated by the now derelict church - and it became essential to consider the public and private landscapes (both external & internal) as a development of the earlier urban strategies. The Library itself is a typical modern local library accommodating lending and reference libraries alongside The Registrar’s (Births, Marriages and Deaths) Office and other local community facilities. The initial landscape proposals were developed through a series of environmental, structural and construction workshops into an attitude towards new and existing buildings and landscape.
“Beauty anyhow. Not the crude beauty of the eye. It was not beauty pure and simple - Bedford Square leading into Russell Square. It was straightness and emptiness of course; the symmetry of a corridor; but it was also windows lit up, a piano, a gramophone sounding; a sense of pleasure-making hidden, but now and again emerging when, through the un-curtained window, the window left open, one saw parties sitting over tables, young people slowly circling, conversations between men and women, maids idly looking out (a strange comment theirs, when work was done), stockings drying on top ledges, a parrot, a few plants. Absorbing, mysterious, of infinite richness, this life. And in the large square where the cabs shot and swerved so quick, there were loitering couples, dallying, embracing, shrunk up under the shower of a tree; that was moving; so silent, so absorbed, that one passed, discreetly, timidly, as if in the presence of some sacred ceremony to interrupt which would have been impious. That was interesting. And so on into the flare and glare.”
Virginia Woolf - Mrs Dalloway, 1925

Students
Simon Buss, Hiu Kwan Cheung, Alison Crawshaw, John Gage, Sharon Giffen, Phil Glover, Candy Ho, Richard Horsley, Akiko Kobayashi, Lefkos Kyriacou, Liz Rosambeau, Joanna Secker-Fairclough, George Venning, Joseph Wrigley

Staff
Alan Mitchell, Patrick Monaghan

Thanks to
Biba Dow, Peter Carolin, Chris Drury, Marcial Echenique, Helen Grassly, Mark Hewitt, Deborah Howard, Alun Jones, Jeremy Lever, Selina Mason, Mark Power, Wendy Pullan, Ron Slade, Bernard Stilwell, Dalibor Vesely.

First Year

Tripos Studio 1
Tripos Studio 2
Tripos Studio 3
Tripos Studio 4
Tripos Studio 5

Diploma Studio 1
Diploma Studio 2
Diploma Studio 3
Diploma Studio 4

	Public Space and Private Place This year studio five has been investigating the architecture of Public Space and Private Place. From sculptures at the beach, through the development of an urban strategy, to the testing of ideas in the Politician’s House and Public Library, we have looked to appropriate existing landscape, materials and buildings for the making of public and personal havens in the contemporary city. The Beach We started the year working with Landscape Artist Chris Drury at the Seven Sisters Country Park on the Sussex coast - an exercise in developing intuitive / responsive reactions to a landscape free from urban reference points. The Precinct Re-sensitised to the city, we then examined the area around Old Street, between City Road and Farringdon Road. Using the Architecture Foundation’s ‘Car Free London?’ competition brief to work away from, studies were developed into initial ideas for an urban strategy - re-balancing the system of social, economic, and physical structures underpinning an urban landscape. The Residence The studio then carried out a formal sectional study of the area around St Lukes church before identifing four, highly constricted, sites appropriate for a small house. The houses were occupied by a Politician of each individual‘s invention and the proposals examined what it might be like to be a public figure living in this new vision of urbanity. Barcelona The studio visited Barcelona at the beginning of the spring term to look specifically at public buildings and their interaction with public space. The Library Our work on the Library started with an examination of the architecture library at Scroope Terrace and proposals for an intervention in the landscape immediately outside. This dealt explicitly with the landscape of an existing ‘room of knowledge’ and was followed by a short building precedent study. The site for the Library was the precinct of St Lukes Church - an important and historic open space in the area, dominated by the now derelict church - and it became essential to consider the public and private landscapes (both external & internal) as a development of the earlier urban strategies. The Library itself is a typical modern local library accommodating lending and reference libraries alongside The Registrar’s (Births, Marriages and Deaths) Office and other local community facilities. The initial landscape proposals were developed through a series of environmental, structural and construction workshops into an attitude towards new and existing buildings and landscape. “Beauty anyhow. Not the crude beauty of the eye. It was not beauty pure and simple - Bedford Square leading into Russell Square. It was straightness and emptiness of course; the symmetry of a corridor; but it was also windows lit up, a piano, a gramophone sounding; a sense of pleasure-making hidden, but now and again emerging when, through the un-curtained window, the window left open, one saw parties sitting over tables, young people slowly circling, conversations between men and women, maids idly looking out (a strange comment theirs, when work was done), stockings drying on top ledges, a parrot, a few plants. Absorbing, mysterious, of infinite richness, this life. And in the large square where the cabs shot and swerved so quick, there were loitering couples, dallying, embracing, shrunk up under the shower of a tree; that was moving; so silent, so absorbed, that one passed, discreetly, timidly, as if in the presence of some sacred ceremony to interrupt which would have been impious. That was interesting. And so on into the flare and glare.” *Virginia Woolf - Mrs Dalloway, 1925*
Students Simon Buss, Hiu Kwan Cheung, Alison Crawshaw, John Gage, Sharon Giffen, Phil Glover, Candy Ho, Richard Horsley, Akiko Kobayashi, Lefkos Kyriacou, Liz Rosambeau, Joanna Secker-Fairclough, George Venning, Joseph Wrigley Staff Alan Mitchell, Patrick Monaghan Thanks to Biba Dow, Peter Carolin, Chris Drury, Marcial Echenique, Helen Grassly, Mark Hewitt, Deborah Howard, Alun Jones, Jeremy Lever, Selina Mason, Mark Power, Wendy Pullan, Ron Slade, Bernard Stilwell, Dalibor Vesely.