Lateralisms 2

Some snaps of the student work of unit 5 at the Nottingham end of year show here.

If you are interested in what the above has to do with the practice of architecture, link to our new Lateralisms site here where you can download PDF copies of both year books showing the work of the students and tutors.

Iteration

When developing a design, ideas are set up and then tested through drawing and modelling. In this instance, a new shopfront for an existing club, the constraints are the existing structure, existing entrance doors and immediate context. The design goes through a series of iterations, developing combinations of the simple design elements of articulated panels, trabeated form, club identity, hardwearing reflective surfaces and threshold, before arriving at the preferred proposal:

Which is then tested in context:

Next stop testing against planning law and budget.

Workplace design, our office refurbishment of TBG in May issue of On Office

We got "pretty seriously involved with laminated plywood" at our refurbishment of Kentish Town offices of TBG according to Elizabeth Chopin, editor of monthly workplace design magazine On Office.

The project's major achievement not only lies in stretching a tight budget, but also keeping our client, TBG London trading throughout the construction phases.

Good design with lots of money and time is easy, take away those factors and it gets more tricky.

Sketches from Bali

We're developing a project for a small new urban building in Sanur in Bali. It will create a new frontage to a busy mixed use street and a small public space in the form of an open courtyard around a large mature tree. It will house a mix of retail/office, bar/restaurant, gym and housing. The sketches are from a recent train journey where I was attempting to consolidate a number of the design intentions through quick vignettes of key moments in the building.

We're currently working up models and scale drawings.

Collaboration

We're always interested in the work of others and look for ways that we can incorporate their excellent ideas into our designs. In this instance, we met Trent at Blue Marmalade at 100% Design and were intrigued by the way they had put together a range of furniture and objects made totally from recycled plastic which packs flat to minimise packaging and you assemble yourself to minimise production energy requirements. We were taken by this approach and liked the simple origami designs so we bought a Stealth Light.

We were working with colour change LEDs at the time and decided to experiment with the light to see if we could incorporate a more dynamic element to add to the compact fluorescent lamp of the standard design. The chip in the tip can be programmed to any colour and as fully dimmable.

This got us thinking about broader applications and in a particular project, we had a requirement for several large light fittings to hang in a tall space, so we started to investigate combinations of the Stealth Light as a possible cost effective and interesting solution. We worked up some sketches on the computer and contacted Blue Marmalade:

They were interested and reworked our crude sketch model using the correct geometry and produced this more accurate and sophisticated image which we where able to show our client:

There was an element of R&D which was undertaken regarding fixings and suspension, orders were placed and then it was a simple matter of getting a load of fittings to site and assembling them:

During the day, simple white geometric forms; at night the installation comes to life with the tips changing colour to preset programmes. They could easily be upgraded to a music to light installation - an interesting alternative to the ubiquitous crystal chandelier.

Restaurant and Bar Awards - Chinawhite

We've entered a couple of our projects into the Restaurant and Bar Awards, Chinawhite and Boujis.

Into Lighting have also submitted Chinawhite for the lighting scheme. Most projects are collaborative, we worked with Darren Orrow and Anthony Stead at Into to develop our initial lighting ideas into a working proposition.  Their expertise assisted in the rapid resolution of lighting details to get the effects we were after. We worked with them on Boujis as well - Their photos really emphasise the lighting which is a key part of any club venue. Our initial 3d model image for comparison below.

A lot of the entries rely heavily on products and furniture to create the character of the space, we approach our interiors very differently. Whilst we recognise the importance of chairs, tables etc. we also try to develop the more architectural elements (where we can) based on ideas which explore selected thematics for the space. The ceiling to the restaurant at Chinawhite (top pic) was conceived initially as rain clouds.

This was part of a more general watery thematic (there's a lot of water in Tropical Asia) which ran down the stairs, via the loos to the bar, where the ceiling was initially conceived as an inverted representation of the Vietnamese Hoa Dang festival.

The staircase water feature got the chop, as did the reflective glass ceiling over the top of the bar (cost and time implications).

We also worked with Chinese artist Nigel Szeto, using his paintings to make large format prints to the restaurant walls, main space banquettes and also the main space back drop.

We commissioned a Hong Kong caligrapher to transcribe a traditional chinese drinking poem which we then projected onto the bar surface from within. The image of the bar was inspired by a scene from Peter Greenaway's The Pillow Book where writing is projected onto architectural surfaces. It was also linked to the watery ideas mentioned above, water becomes reflective glass, liquid becomes solid geometric form and light. Good place for drink.

General sketches of the main space seating

We like to think of our club projects as great pop songs. They are not conceived as high art but are carefully crafted in their conception, composition and content - intentionally accessible and importantly fun.

Winners will be announced in June.

Lateralisms - Extracts from Unit 5 book 2008-09

This is my short contribution to the unit book produced by the students of 08/09 with Darren Deane, Tim Offer, Andy Humphries and Gordon Sung. I'll post some more extracts showing the student work soon.