Memory

Patina

Wall - Staunton Street, Hong Kong

Research

My research centres on contrasts and contradictions in architecture. Having two opposing ‘forces’ working together in a space. Creating a domestic space that is successful despite, or perhaps because of, the complexity that this situation creates. I am primarily focussed on residential space. Ideas of what makes a space into a place, a home. How to create a comfortable and liveable space that is positively affected by uncontrollable limitations.

I will investigate the idea of a ‘spatial oxymoron’. I intend to prove that contradictory elements in a space can work together to create a unique and comfortable home. I will show that restrictions can be used as an advantage in residential spatial design. I am interested in the potentiality of a space.

Outcome

New home - Westminster/extended neighbourhood

Experiment

Brick wall made from cork pieces

An experiment in materiality

Reference

Project 1 -



Film

Roman Signer, Heufieber, 2006



Space

Sherlock Holmes Museum, 239 Baker Street, London




Installation

John Ward Knox, Untitled, 2009



Painting

Jeena Shin, Artspace Stairwell Project, 2009-2011

221b Baker Street

via google maps

'home'

home/hōm/

Adverb:	To the place where one lives: "what time did he get home last night?".
Noun:	The place where one lives permanently, esp. as a member of a family or household.
Adjective:	Of or relating to the place where one lives: "your home address".
Verb:	(of an animal) Return by instinct to its territory after leaving it: "geese homing to their summer nesting grounds".
Synonyms:	adverb. indoors noun. house - residence - dwelling - abode - habitation adjective. domestic - native

Site

Manchester Square Fire Station, 1 Chiltern Street


via google maps

Experiment

Reference

“The doctrine “less is more” bemoans complexity and justifies exclusion for expressive purposes. It does, indeed, permit the architect to be “highly selective in determining which problems [he wants] to solve.” But if the architect must be “committed to his particular way of seeing the universe,” such a commitment surely means that the architect determines how problems should be solved, not that he can determine which of the problems he will solve. He can exclude important considerations only at the risk of separating architecture from the experience of life and the needs of society. If some problems prove insoluble, he can express this: in an inclusive rather than an exclusive kind of architecture there is room for the fragment, for contradiction, for improvisation, and for the tensions these produce. Mies’ exquisite pavilions have had valuable implications for architecture, but their selectiveness of content and language is their limitation as well as their strength…Where simplification cannot work, simpleness results. Blatant simplification means bland architecture. Less is a bore.”

-Robert Venturi, 'Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture', p. 24-25

Experiment

Site

Memory

Balcony, Hong Kong

Notes

Postmodernism at the V&A


Alessandro Mendini
"Destruction of the Monumentino de Casa Chair"
"Redesign of Michelangelo's Madonna and Child tondo"

Robert Venturi
"Model of Vanna Venturi House, Philadelphia"

Postmodern architecture - plurality of competing styles/ideas

Neue Staatsgalerie, Sttutgart

Brodsky, Utkin
Columbariums

Pieter de Bruyn
Chantilly Chest

1980 Venice Architecture Biennale - Habermas critical of 'new historicism'

Heinz Landes
"Solid chair"

Blade Runner
Godfrey Reggio - "Koyaanisqatsi"

Vivienne Westwood - beauty in the random and unfinished

Contrast

Old/New
Traditional/Modern
History/Future
Function/Aesthetics
Comfort/Efficiency
Asia/Europe
City/Sanctuary
Public/Private

Truth/Fiction

Site

via Strange Maps

Notes

The overarching theme of my research and studio practice is that of contrasts in architecture and interior design. My interests lie in exploring the tension between a number of contrasting and seemingly conflicting ideas.
In particular I intend to deal with such 'oppositions' as traditional/modern, public/private, function/aesthetics.

I am interested in utilizing such opposing ideas within a singular space. I am drawn to the idea of a sort of 'spatial oxymoron'.

Experiment

Experiment

Inspiration

River Side House, Horinouchi by Mizuishi Architect Atelier

Memory

Sheung Wan, Hong Kong