Time/Erosion | Isle of Portland, UK | Unit 21 | 2022

Awarded the Year 2 Portfolio Prize

nan-hao.chen.19@ucl.ac.uk

The programme would be a series of leisure facilities along the coastal path in Portland for hikers and tourists. Each building occupies a great spot for observing various geological features, leading and attracting people to walk through the path to the lighthouse to enjoy the beautiful views of Portland. Doing so boosts the community to thrive and brings a new dynamism to the locals.

The design of the project is inspired by the two forces that erode the coast of Portland, the wave and quarrying. Reversing these two erosions through scripting forms various spaces and lighting for the users to experience and reacquaint Portland through the reading of the architecture.

Time is the key concept that drives the project. By extracting and encoding the wave data of Portland from different time periods into the building blocks, it informs how the geological features of Portland were shaped through time as the users walk through the spaces. With a combination of architectural elements generated by Grasshopper and the composition of spaces inspired by the quarries, it aims to take the users through a journey of exploring the story of the time in Portland.

Project 1: Experimental Architecture

Inspired by ‘The Monument to the Great Fire of London’, the project is examining the connection between architecture and science. Using different scientific data, a pavilion is developed with a composite of various data-generated forms.

Architectural Elements Based on Wave Data

Various architectural elements were generated by extracting the wave data in Portland and encoding it into the determined geometry to ‘erode’.

Gallery: Plans and Section

The Gallery sits on the site where the two erosion (wave and quarrying) merges. The positioning of the gallery responds to the extraordinary site context, leading the users to explore the story while gradually approaching the sea.

Encoding and Eroding

By estimating the time the user will spend in each gallery space, the project determines the time periods of the wave data that will be encoded into the building blocks to erode. The process of encoding and eroding records time into the architecture.