PSYCHOGEOGRAPHIC CARTOGRAPHY OF CYCLING LONDON | London, UK | Unit 21 | 2014
COPENHAGEN ARTS TERRAIN | Copenhagen, Denmark | Unit 21 | 2014
Awarded Distinction for Design
Mapping Experience of Urban Fabric from Cyclist’s Perspective
The project aims to map the unique experience of urban fabric from the cyclist’s perspective. A situationist drift- dérive journey is taken, where a camera is attached to the helmet to capture and the cyclist’s point of view. A GPS application is used to track the route taken. Together these act as technological extensions of the body’s sensory apparatus, which is in itself an instrument of spatial cognition. Through the journey the phenomenal environment of the cityscape is altered and perceived through the behavioural spectacles of cycling. The project seeks to create a cartographical language that would capture this unique experience and begin to explore the relationship between mobile body and space.
Copenhagen Arts Terrain
Central to the project is the idea of reconceptualising the conventionally static user as mobile, and hence as an active space producer. The influence of de Certeau and Lefebvre’s works result in the proposal putting the user’s spatial experience at its forefront. The empowerment of the body and the acknowledgement of the spatially productive qualities of corporeal perception allow elements of play, adventure and imponderability to re-enter the everyday. The project attempts to achieve this by treating architecture as a loose framework that hints at and creates opportunities for uniqueness and creativity. This is programmatically manifested in the revitalisation of a disused railway landscape in Copenhagen’s Vesterbro, into a terrain dedicated to local and global arts initiatives.
In its original state the site appears landlocked between two major transport arteries, making the initial encounter one of looking in. Experiences of travelling by train, cycling, walking and driving are explored to create an architectural language derived from the mobile perspective. A network of spatial boundaries is derived from a series of existing and designed moving viewpoints and frames. This acts as a framework for the design process. In this way, the framed view of the train window becomes the spatial boundary within which the proposed architecture is created. The vision cone is carved out, extruded, contoured or offset, creating the enclosures of the Art’s Terrain. This relationship exists at multitude of scales, forming a distinctive architecture for both the 5km/h scale of the pedestrian and the 40km/h of the train. Materiality, detail and form become crucial in differentiating spaces produced from and for specific viewing experiences. Thus each mobile experience is encouraged to formulate a unique relationship with the proposal, employing corporeal creativity against homogeneity so as to create an active architecture.
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