PANORAMA | London | Unit 21 | 2013
PAVILION | Tremenheere Art Park, Penzance | Unit 21 | 2013
LANDSCAPES OF LIMINALITY | Tangier, Morocco | Unit 21 | 2013
The Ambiguous City
45 Degree aerial imagery is captured from low-flying aircraft, providing us with a detailed and spatial panorama of the City of London. These photos are processed by machine, and stitched together for complete panoramic view. Errors in the coding for photography stitching has produced a new way of seeing our city. Space as we originally perceived it has now been, in some instances, duplicated, deleted, shifted and rotated, giving us moments where our understanding of the city is unclear.
Tremenheere Kinetic Pavilion
The project proposes to construct a new exhibition-like pavilion in Tremenheere sculpture gardens in Cornwall, UK. The idea being that the pavilion will add to the collection of ‘visual pools’ which are part of the gardens, including two James Turrell built works. There is a growing collection of sculpture and art around the site. The client Dr. Neil Armstrong owns the site and has sculpted, cultivated and built on the land for the last 12 years.
Part art holding, part art experience itself, the pavilion seeks to provide a dynamic new landscape in which visitors can explore unique experiences.
The pavilion proposes a landscape of hydro-electrically powered kinetic light modules which creep out from their retracted position in the sculpted hillside site. Their motion is reversed back in the opposite direction once the end of the rail is reached and the modules slowly dissolve back into the hillside. Each linear set of modules operates with its own cyclical time scale (from 30 minutes to 12 months), at a glance these movements are often too slow to notice, unless up-close. The ever-changing configuration of the modules provide multiple layers of perpetually transgressive states of opacity. These semi-transparent moments lighten the existence of the pavilion. It focuses on the interstitial zones created between the kinetic roof and the natural landscape below, a ‘middle landscape’ of shadow interactions.
Users can expect a unique experience upon visiting the pavilion, based on three factors; the ever-changing spatial configuration of the landscape of light modules casting unique shadows, the natural landscape below (through a series of seasonal low level planting and green walls), and the daily atmospheric conditions, whether it is sunny, windy, rainy, cloudy, misty, clear, cold, hot etc.
The kinetic landscape operates completely independently and separately from the enclosed pavilion below. Given this is the case, the enclosure below (referred to as the Glass Box) will react to the different environmental scenarios thrown at it in conjunction with having past through the layer of light modulating roof. For this, a best and worst case scenario has be calculated i.e. hottest day of the year with light modules in most open configuration possible (maximum solar gain), and the coldest day with most closed configuration possible of the light modules (minimum solar gain). From this we can say that the building will always operate somewhere in between these two extremes and will react accordingly. The shifting light modules combined with the natural planting below create a mesmerising play of light inside and outside the pavilion for all visitors to enjoy.
Internal view of shadows and green wall interaction
An overlay of three times of day for this internal view gives a sense of the changing visual effects that the dynamic landscape above will create on a typical day. This view was taken on 02/07/2013 at 06:13:21, 08:13:21 and 11:13:21. The light panel movement is minimal over this time, and it is the sun light which effects the shift in shadows the most. However as previously discussed, this configuration of light panel, sun position, atmospheric conditions, and plant growth will never be repeated.
[Hydrodynamic] Landscapes of Liminality
The Masterplan insertion deals ¬with thresholds of old and new in the city of Tangier. Clusters of tidal powered roof-scape create multi-layered events of kinetic oscillations, fluctuations, fragmentary vision and perceptions of space. The unpredictability of these events are explored through the drawing of technological and experiential datascapes. The series of notation systems give glimpses into perceptions of space underneath the kinetic canopies. Time-based drawing shows a snap-shot of four specific times of day overlaid into one unique image, an image which would be appear completely different at any other occurrence in time. The ever changing landscape for this centrally located insertion draws the new tourists into the city during the day, and reveals pockets of space for local children and fishermen to utilise during the evening.
