I used to visit the NT *alot* as a kid. Loved going to the theatre to see all sorts of plays - a good chunk were Shakespeare - as well as ballet and dance performances. I’d like to start doing that again at some point.
Also, apparently “fuck mugs” is a thing. Time to check urban dictionary again…
Popped up to London on Saturday to get some photography practice in. Also popped up incase I wanted to attend Pride, but I didn’t in the end as it isn’t any fun when you’re not in a big group.
I really need to get myself a smaller camera for some things. Walking around Borough Market with a gigantic (comparatively) 5D MkIII, and feeling comfortable taking photos, is well, difficult. Its like I’m jumping in front of people’s faces going “HEY DUDE! YEH DUDE! IMMA TAKE A PHOTO OF YOU NOW! HAHA!” Yeh. Cue hanging the camera around my neck taking shots at chest level. But then I feel like a creepy stalker. *sigh*
I also love passing by and just watching folks at the skate park underneath the Southbank. It is the only place along that stretch that feels human, feels alive.
Whilst terms like “unzipped wall” “cathedral” & “iceberg” have all be used to describe the pavilion, I’d use “murmuration”, “scales”, “tesselation”, “shoal”.
Yesterday I attended the Serpentine Architecture Programme Conversations panel, moderated by Vicky Richardson. Part 1 was with Bjarke Ingels (BIG), who was invited to design this year’s Serpentine Pavilion; and Part 2 was with Kunlé Adeyemi (NLÉ), Barkow Leibinger, Yona Freidman & Asif Khan who were all invited to create the Summer Houses.
The talk itself was incredibly interesting - an insight into the minds of professionals, as well as a brief history lesson of the Pavilion programme as well.
Ingel’s pavilion is primarily made of hollow fibreglass cuboids, which were manufactured at a facility in central Denmark, using a method were the fibres were pulled through a mould with the resin added just prior. Why fibreglass? The intention was to investigate less frequently used materials, and amongst other reasons - fibreglass provides a glow which enhances the aesthetics of the pavilion.
During questions I asked what Bjarke Ingels would do to make housing cheaper, more modular & more efficient, and he mentioned a project over in Gothenberg which is using shipping containers as a basis to create low-cost, modular, rapidly fabricated student housing which is going for about €400-500pcm iirc. These pods float on the waterfront, and are transported by sea from their manufactory in China, to Poland and then on to Gothenberg.
In Part 2, the architects spoke of how their approached the design process for the Summer Houses. The brief was to respond to “Queen Caroline’s Temple”, around which the Summer Houses are installed.
Asif Khan mentioned that he dug into the history of Caroline - taking an archaeological approach as it were. The temple itself is designed for one specific day of the year - Caroline’s birthday - as that is when the entrance is perfectly aligned to cause the sunrise to flood light into the building.
Kunlé Adeyemi spoke of how his practice takes a transformative approach - ensuring that the architecture learns from its environment, as well as distilling the primary reasons for the Summer House to exist - that is to enable play, relaxation, and provide a hangout or shelter for people. Their use of material - sandstone - reflects that of Queen Caroline’s Temple, which is made of the same material, quarried from Derbyshire.
Next, Yona Friedman spoke of how Architecture is Composition - that is, the sum of many parts, and not just one thing, and that ultimately, it is the User who determines how that Architecture is received & used: i.e. despite what the Architect may have intended.
Barkow Leibinger spoke of the experimental freedom in the brief and approach taken, and how being able to occupy the summer house was very important - it is a piece of architecture, not sculpture.
One interesting question that was fielded from the audience was - what happens to these structures after the exhibition? The pavilion over the years have been sold, transported & installed elsewhere - where they go are sometimes a condition of the sponsorship arrangements, but in each case it is because the Serpentine Gallery needs constant funding to stay active, and it only gets a small amount of core public funding. The Summer Houses have yet to be discussed - as it is the first year that the Summer House brief has been done.
Lastly, we were all invited to visit the Pavilion (it had just been completed that day), although in true British Summer style, a thunderous downpour decided to occur. Still, I went over to have a look, and some more pictures of the interior will follow. I’m intending to revisit the structure at some point over the summer, as I did not get the chance to visit the Summer Houses, or the second Serpentine Gallery. Also, the photos were taken with the phone, since I didn’t bring my camera up as I expected the weather to be uncooperative.
So, I attended the private view for the FE & Grad Shows at UCA Canterbury yesterday.
Amazing.
Foundation alone (ok, I may be biased having just finished Foundation) had many, many awesome pieces of work on display, and Arch, MArch & IAD just blew my mind. By the time I’d gotten around to BA Fine Art & BA Graphics, I was kinda numb.
The exhibitions are open to the public from Saturday 28/05/16 to Friday 10/06/16 (excl. Bank Holiday) between 10:00 and 17:00. If you’re in Canterbury, it is well worth the visit.
Popped up to London yesterday, primarily to go to the V&A. First time I’d actually been to the V&A - much preferred going to the Science & Natural History museums as a kid. Managed to get some sketching done, but most of the time was spent wondering around the place, as it is quite the maze. It is definitely the kind of place you can spend an entire day or more in, sketching. I’ll inevitably end up going back over the summer.
The other reason to pop to the V&A was the Elytra Pavillion. The modular structure is fabricated using robotic weaving techniques applied to carbon-fibre. The research and design is lead by a team at the University of Stuttgart. If you’re in London on either the 17th or 18th of June, they’re doing a live build of a module - so you can actually see the robotic fabrication method at work. There is also a Biomimicry & Design Symposium at the V&A on Friday 17th June, which is ticketed.
Also went to see the new X-Men film - was awesome. Especially the costumes at the end. That trip took me over to “The O2″ (nee, The Millennium Dome), for the first time since its construction back in 1999. I understand now why it took a while to figure out what to do with the space - you can fit 5 storey buildings in it. I feel that they missed a trick though. It would’ve been awesome if they turned it into a multi-level botanical park & public hydroponics facility.
Here are most of the models & maquettes I made this week to test out ideas and just plug away at the ideation phase.
One of the design points I have settled on is the predominant usage of wood in the design - bamboo, plywood (1-2 ply), pine. Things I’m still undecided on include whether or not to use gravel/stones in the final design, as well as deciding between using a projector or a CRT (cathode-ray tube monitor) to display the video interviews.
Design points which I need to figure out next week include how to ensure that the bamboo behaves - i.e. remains upright; and whether the “weave” effect of the plywood & bamboo can indeed be achieved (even 1-ply is quite stiff). I’ve decided against making furniture for the installation as well - I do not believe that I’ll have the time. The exception to this being the plinth that will house the projector & speakers - this I will need to design as well.
Additionally, the video interviews still require editing. Mhm. I still have an awful lot to get on with, and we’ve only got 2 weeks till the Easter break. Ho-hum. I miss having objective, precise, criteria in a project.
So, it has only been two weeks, but this project has already undergone several transformations. This weekend, I need to figure out how to tie all of these threads together into a coherent trail of thought.
I’m also setting up video interviews next week - both for research purposes, and also to display as part of the final installation. Speaking of, at least I have finally decided on what form this project will ultimately take - that of an installation. I’ll be drafting the questions to ask during the interviews as well this weekend.
Shown in this post are two images - one from the student protests back in 2011 (of which I was a part - feels like a lifetime ago now), and the same image broken down into what I felt were the consituent parts of a protest:
Protestors - Purple
Placards - Red
Police/Stewards/First responders - Blue
Members of the public - Dark Grey
Physical structural boundaries - Yellow
Since I had some spare time in the studio after finishing photographing the models, I wanted to investigate some lighting set-ups applied to a human (in this case, me). I sketched out some lighting ideas, and Colin Jackson - the studio tech - set the equipment up for me & kindly took the shots. (Next time I’ll happily do it myself, but I was nervous as hell, and my mind was completely blank). These are the two that made the cut.
Incidently, I don’t know what it is about a studio setting, but as I walk into one I feel that I immediately forget how to be a photographer which causes my nerves to ratchet up to 11/10. I think I’ll look into booking the studio, take along a few things, and just ensure that I can be left to my own devices to play around, make mistakes (without breaking anything).
I finally managed to get the photography studio booked for Wednesday morning. I took a selection of what I felt are my better models done so far this year in to get some proper shots of them. Colin Jackson - our studio photographer - provided much needed lighting advice and technical expertise, as I have little experience with studio photography (as you’ll note from a previous entry).
I also asked his advice for setting up some lighting shots of myself, and he took amazing shots of me with the lighting in question. I’ll upload those at a later date.
Next time I have the photography studio booked, hopefully I won’t be so nervous, and actually be willing to play around with the equipment myself. I’m not sure whether the fact that all the equipment is so expensive that makes me so nervous, or the lack of experience. Maybe both.