The Institute of Film in BristolCarolina SaludesIndividual Process Document

Introduction

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The Basil Spence project has been a steep learn-ing experience, both personally and as a group. The targets we had as a team were to design a scheme we all liked and were proud of and try to achieve as much as possible an integration between architecture, environmental design and structure.

In the very beginning we had talks about group dynamics and organising who would do what. Rich, our engineer, participated from day one on the development of the concept and con-tributed as much as any of us archtiects.

This personal process document aims at representing all the work we developed during the 8 weeks of Basil Spence and to reflect upon our attitudes, both good and bad, that ultimately made us grow as people.

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Contents

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Introduction 4- 5

The Site 12- 19

Plato: The Starting Point 20- 27

The Concept 28- 35

The Programme 36- 41

2 Buildings 1 Threshold 42- 51

Interim Crit: Light 52- 57

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The Building58- 79

The Structural Strategy80- 89

The Environmental Strategy90- 97

Landscape defined98- 117

Detail + Possibilities118- 129

Conclusion129- 130

The Site

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Our two site visits, on our own and then with our engineer Rich, bonding and getting to know the site and the area around it. We aimed at see-ing the place during the day and during the night.

The industrial heritage of Bristol is very visible on site.Also, the character of Spike Island as a threshold be-tween the sea and Bristol was very important to us.Spike island has developed a new attitude as a centre for artists, a young community and cultureWater was an extremely relevant element to the scheme. The wealth, independence and free-dom of the city come from the water itself.

The MShed being renovated and converted into a cultural landmark for Bristol

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First impressions of the site

View of Bristol in the background, some 15 mintes away from Spike I.

The shed next to the site, which we had the option to knock down. We prefered to keep it.

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View of the site from the New Harbour

New Wapping Wharf development reflects the new trend in the islandwith and ideal of culture and independence. The preservation of the industrial heritage of the Is-land, including the MShed, is key to understand it.

Very rough section though the site.We tried to get to grips from the beginning with the massing of the Wapping Wharf development and the character of the site.

One side is layered with history and flavour.

Old

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Early site analysis

Artist’s view of the future Wapping Wharf development

The site is divided into two very clear areas: new and old. Both are equally important but tell a differ-ent story and should be treated differently.

We wanted to mimic the function of Spike Is-land as a threshold by making our building also a separation between these two sides.

The other is new and still to develop.

New

The Building

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First impressions of where we wanted the site to be

Of all the site available we chose to design our scheme in a small plot, knocking down just half of the proposed Wapping Wharf buildings.

This allows us to limit the design options, to keep true to the new development and to force our-selves to create a scheme with a smaller footprint, which would be more environmentally friendly.

This decision also allowed us to create a natural axis between the building and the sea, which is an extremely important part of our design.

The Building is tucked away, protected

The site location, very rich and complex

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Basic sunpath diagram that influenced heavily our decision making of spatial arrangement.

Initial diagram for the development of the landscape. As described before there are two clear areas that divide the site.

North facade

Urban side

Residential side

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Choosing the Site

Analysis of our site once we decided upon itbasic analysis of sun path, height of build-ings around it, activities in the area, etc.

The clear difference between the two areas be-comes even more obvious after the initial analy-sis, making it clear that one part would be out-doors and the other would be for the building.

Big discussions on the movement of people across the site, making it a major theme of the project.

The main views around the site.

Main movement of people

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The Allegory of the Cave in the chapter VII of Plato’s book ‘The Republic’ seemed to be at the very core of cinema experience, making it a quintessential piece of literature that could be very helpful to us.

We liked the piece so much that we decided to make it the conceptual basis for our whole project. We knew we wanted to be able to come back to a very solid and essential ‘story’ that would guide us throughout the project. The allegory of the cave, our analysis of it and the short conceptual essay developed from it were key tools to knowing what the main con-ceptual elements of our building would be and what our main aims for the project would be.

The spine of the scheme comes from this story.The journey is absolutely primordial to the de-sign and to the growth of the project. It has been a journey both for the scheme and for the team.

Plato: The Starting Point

The beginning of the project and the journey. Everyone chained in ignorance.

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The Allegory of the cave

The two world and the threshold between them. That thresh-lld we knew was our building.

Emission and abosrption: coming in and out of the darkness. We would base our environmental strategy on this principle.

Light and darkness was the very first approach to the design, coming from the idea of the man getting out of the cave. The dialogue that happens between Socrates and Glaucon, between the man and the master, be-tween the inside and the outside and the interdepend-ence on each other was a principle kept throughout. The contrast of opponents would be the very driving force for the design and what would ultimately make it what it was.

18The building, the artefact, during the day, absorving and reflecting what is around it.

The building is not dark or light or either of the oppo-nents, but rather the threshold between them.

This tied in with the idea of Spike Island being a threshold in itself and the site being a border be-tween old and new, cosmopolitan and residential.The building is a transmitter of energy, people, light, etc.

v. Because the natural cycles of a film institute define distinct activities during the day and dur-ing the night, we soon realised that the process of absorving and releasing happened one dur-ing the day and one during the night. We ex-plored this idea in the programme of our building.

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The Allegory of the Cave

The machine at night, giving back all that it has collected during the day.

Ancient puppet show in Greece

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We investigated the nature and manifesta-tion of the pilgrimage or journey within Plato.Using Freytag’s ‘triangle’ that reduces any story to four stages: exposition; action that leads to climax; this followed by action and then denouement or ending.

We therefore knew that the building would have to guide the visitor through those 4 steps in order for them to experience the same as the man in the Allegory of the cave. 4 Stages: approaching the building, go-ing through it to the film, the climax of the ex-perience; then the journey back out, and the subsequent rediscovery of the city of Bristol.

This pilgrimage would anchor the building firmly within its context. Also, by following this principle, we knew we would always have the visitor in mind, mak-ing it an engaging and meaningful building.

The visitor is a vessel arriving to the shores of this island that the building is.

Introduction- Approach

Action- e

xperience le

ading to clim

ax

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The Allegory of the cave

The marvel, the illumination that comes from the experi-ence of watching films.

The changed person comes out from this mystical experi-ence on to a new world around them. Nothing will be

the same again.Action- experience following climax Dénouement- Return to Bristol

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The Concept

The concept was developed from the analysis of the Allegory of the Cave.We set out a series of principles within the concept development text that we want-ed to keep throughout the project and that would always guide us in the right direction.

Similarly, we used the analogy of the lighthouse as the first building type we could relate to and from which we could take information for our own building.We found the same strong relationship with the sea, the threshold nature of its location and func-tion and the duality of its programme: vantage point during the day, guide during the night.

Also, the idea of the illuminating fire, although not literal, was very inspiring, and helped us de-termine the metaphorical depth of the concept.

Section through the top part of a lighthouse, showing the outside path and the inner fire.

The duality of the functions of the lighthouse, very similar to our own building, receiving and emitting.

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‘The region revealed to us by sight is the prison dwelling, and the light of the fire inside the dwelling is the power of the sun’

The core is defined as the real absorber, protected by a skin or veil

Chapter VII, ‘The Republic’, Plato. V c. B.C.

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The Lighthouse and the Tower

The core would shine through its protecting veil at night to release all that it absorbed beforehand.

26Metamorphosis of the man

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Metamorphosis

The effect of the pilgrimage on the visitor is that of transformation, or metamorphosis.The beauty of this transformation is that it doesn’t in itself come from the building.

The climax of the experience of the Film Institute comes from the films themselves, and the building acts as a support, a protector and an enhancer of the experience.We found multiple analogies, such as the metamorpho-sis of a butterfly or the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice.

The feeling of illumination, ascendence, beau-ty and happiness is the essence of the ex-perience of the Film Institute, and the princi-ple that made this project so special to us.

In assigning such a role for our building, we knew that we had infused it with a spiritual depth that would help us in find the architectural expression of the ideas.

From egg, to larva, to cocoon, to butterfly... it is the same animal but it is transformed, improved

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Early sketch by Martin depicting the idea of the Tower within its context

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Light + Darkness

The combination of the idea of the lighthouse and the experience of ascent led us, with the help of our tutors, to the initial idea of a tower.Although we abandoned the physical manifesta-tion of the Tower, this building type, like the light-house, was extremely inspiring to us, and helped us develop our building up until the very end.

Working with a tower in mind made it very easy for us to determine a hierarchy of spac-es from very early on, keeping us on the right track of what was important to our building.

Day as mundane and public. Night as magic and trascendent

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The Programme

Elevating Film over public spaces, separating cinemas from the more mundane experience of the outside,Putting together film production and education, Making the exhibition spaces part of the cinema experience, The connection between public and cinema experi-ence. Following the idea of the horizontal and vertical axis, which also tied in with our initial site analysis. This axis would be developed on elevation but also on plan.

Concept diagram of Film being above ground and the spcae under-neath being for the public.

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Film vs. Public

Development of the access to the core, essential in the experience of the core itself

Developing the core and how it breaks down inside

32 Early group sketch of the allocation of spaces to the different thresholds accoring to their importance and function.

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The daily activities of the Film Institute hapen around the core, where the cinemas are. There were still discussions as to wether the exhibi-tion space should be inside the core or not.

Gradually we realised that the middle ‘layer’ covered the functions of moving in between the core and the outside. This resonated yet again the skin charac-ter of our building and the idea of thresholds.Viewing, moving and being was somehow use-ful when doing the precedent and typology studies, as we could easily identify which build-ings worked with a similar programme to ours.

Hierarchy of spaces

Being

Moving

Viewing

34The Finland Pavilion at the Seville Expo, by Matti Sanaksenaho

Hard, cold, technological,orthogonal

Soft, organic, tactile, vernacular and traditional

The fact that the bridge is made out of steel did not convince us much for our building

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Very soon, when we encountered the problem of how to connect the layers between each other, we realised how important it was to create a tension between them, that would intensify the experience of each of them.

We were specially attracted to bridg-es connecting opposites, li.e. old and new, rough and smooth, transparent and opaque.The idea of the elevated bridge came very early on as the architectural tool we needed to de-velop the four stages of the ‘story’ experience.

The idea of the bridges sprung the challenge of defining how the layers were physically, lead-ing us to study materials, shapes, and the building within the context of the landscape.

The connecting bridges

Project in Marseille with the same idea of old and new connected by a bridge

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2 Buildings 1 Threshold

We experimented with the thresholds and how they manifested themselves in the building. The initial ap-proach of having a semitransparent membrane pro-tecting the central core prove to be too literal and sim-plistic. Instead, through the idea of the bridges, we turned the building inside out like a negative picture.

This resulted in a strong, inhabited external skin made out of brick that would protect the core from all sides and allow the activities to surround it. The core became a lightweight steel structure depend-ant on the strength of the brick building around it.

This seemed to tie in very well with the idea of dialogue, the play with light and the approach to the buildingThe building is defined as a building within a build-ing, a principle kept until the very end of the project.

Building as the heart of the building, the core

Threshold as middle layer

Turning the building inside out like a negative picture

The building within the building with and idea of floors and their heights and the possible platform to the core.

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From concept to reality

Our initial architectural approach

The veil-like carcasse put it closely in contact with the landscape

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The North Facade and the possible performance space that could be flooded like the old docks in the Island.

The platform to the core, a sort of ascent to darkness

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Two Buildings 1 Threshold

The Building defined as a building within another.

the box becomes an imposing element int he landscape

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The transition from the cinemas to the outside was crucial to the design

Bristol in the background

The performance space here, next to the MShed

The main entrance to the Building

Although the cinemas are protected by the institute, you can see them from the outside, like a symbol

The THRESHOLD, shooting lght down to the atrium.

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Two Buildings 1 Threshold

We started defining the massing of the institute according to the surroiunding buildingsThe cinemas stacked to reduce the volume of

the core.

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Unbuilt Louis Kahn project of a temple

The axis is kept pure while the accesses are on the corners

We found it very difficult to develop at the same time the qualities of the spaces and a clear circulation strategy that would work for both day and night, Institute and core.

The problem was always aggravated by the fact that we had to consider fire regulations in the circulation of the building. The shape of the institute was very restrict-ing and it was a rea challenge to try to marry beautiful, intimate spaces with clear and fast means of escape.

We looked at various precedents to get to grips with the building form we had developed.Some of the buildings we looked at were the Mosque of Agia Sophia in Istanbul, an unfinished temple project by Louis Kahn or the Exeter Li-brary by Louis Kahn, all of which approached the movement of people in buildings within buildings.

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Typology Study

Lifts and stairs in the upper corners, with the cetral open space and thecirculation around it.

The Exeter University Library, by Louis Kahn. Again the accesses between floors are in the corners, leaving the central space free.

Although these precedents provided us with useful solutions, none of them seemed to suit our building perfectly. We had to bare in mind the movement of people on site, the means of escape, the bridges connecting cinemas and Institute and the increasing structural problem the elevated core imposed on us.

Not only did we want to solve the problem of cir-culation, but we also aimed to provide a magi-cal journey for those going through it. This made us investigate the possibility of windows look-ing out, windows looking in, or just roof lights that shot light in, like in the Exeter Library.

It became time to make decisions so we de-cided to look at all the precedents and pick from them the elements that would allow us to tell the story in the minimum of moves possible.

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The Temple of Aegina, Greece.

Onthe sides the circulation is vertical and in the centre the circulation is horizontal, within the same floor.

The strategy we went for was somehow similar to the tem-ple of Aegina in Greece in which transition between spac-es was mainly circular around the core and linear within it. The simplicity with which this was achieved was also in-spirational, as it made the design clearer and stronger.

It is important to note as well that by choosing to have people moving on the sides of the building we freed out the North and South facades, which could then be occupied by the activity spaces, such as the education spaces, the restaurant and the offices.

The stairs would constitute in themselves a struc-tural element that would help the brick building cope with it own weight, while at the same time allow-ing the other spaces to be free of load-bearing walls.

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The movement of the people was very marked out, and determined by the day and night activities.

During the day, when the institute was open, the movement would be free and mainly circular around it.During the night however, when big crouds of people would have to be moved through the spaces, the movement would be more restrict-ed, and concentrated in the experience of the visitor coming out of the cinema an into Bristol.

Althgouh we knew the design would evolve heavily after the crit, we were happy to de-velop this scheme, and progress with the spa-tial and conceptual depth of the building.

Circulation

Circulation inside the building during the Night becomes more restricted, with visitors having to enter the core from the foyer space and leave it at the front.

Circulation quite free during the Day

Entrance to the cinemas

Exit towards BRISTOL. End of the journey

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Interim Crit: LightThe interim crit offered us as a group and the project a very good chance to test and evaluate the scheme as it was then.

We put all our effort in creating a series of im-ages that reflected where we wanted to get at, more than necessarily were we were at the time.The crit itself was extremely helpful, as it reas-sured us in the conceptual principles we had based our project on, and highlighted the points that were unclear or that simply didn’t work.

The images, although successful, lacked re-ality ,and depth, and concern was raised on the level of development of the landscape.

The brooding object int he Industrial landscape.

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Interim Crit

The visitor coming out of the film into Bristol.

Image of the Institue on the gound floor with the elevated core at the back.

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The section shows the intention of distributing spaces and the play of light we wanted to achieve.

First Floor Plan Second Floor Plan Third Floor Plan

Opening up the binner brick facade to create a light and spatial play between the buildings.

49Ground Floor Plan in context with the square at the back

and the public space in front.

Interim Crit

The drawings, although naive and incomplete, did show the intentions of the building and somehow the character of the spaces within.

The critiques pointed out the uniform-ity of the open spaces in the institute and the lack of information on the cores.

Furthermore, the drawings failed to convey the dia-logue of the brick facade with the outside and the playfulness of the inner brick facade with the steel.

The performance space was still completely undesigned

The main entrance, an imposing element.

This part is bigger to acknowledge the bigger flow of people

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Problem 3: The institute was very awkward on site, not allowing the buildings in the Wapping Wharf development to breathe and interact with it.

Problem 1: Structurally, the steel elevated core was not making the most out of either the material or the space it occupied. The ‘exhibition space’ underneath the core was asphixiating and grim, and our hope that there would be enough light coming from the sides towards the inside of the building was unrealistic

Problem 2: The spaces inside institute were too undefined and restricted, all of them ending up looking like long corridors between stairs. The film-making facilities were completely strangled and the spaces on the ground floor inadequate.

Conceptual image showing a short section of the building

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Post Crit analysis

Overall, the direction we had taken was the correct, but the implementation of it wasn’t quite right yet.

We learned a lot from the interim crit. We knew the development of the building was not over at all. It was very exciting to get posi-tive comments and constructive criticism

Conceptual image showing a short section of the building

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The Building

After the Interim crit it was important to solve the problems arisen and to start finalising parts of the building, like the final location and the material palette.

The main problem that we had to tackle was the shape of the institute, which limited us both in terms o f the experience of film, the cir-culation and the quality of the spaces within.

The principles behind it were right, but it needed to interact with the land-scape around it rather than fight against it. Breaking the Institute. Help from the tutors was crucial

when doing this as it seemed topervert the ourity of thein-stitute and the core.

Martin helped us clarify the development of the diagram and take it a step further, essentially freeing from it.

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Breaking the box

Stage 1 of development.

Stage 2 of development.

Stage 3 of development.

The two pure boxes. This option, although very pure and attractive (and very similar to the Finnish Pavilion in Seville) left the threshold exposed to the city, making it too much of a different space for us. Also, this shape clashed with the programme of the Institute, disconnecting it too much from the cinemas.

The L shape, a clear hierarchy of spaces. This option was very strong programmatically but created too many problems on site, and lost the axis with the front facade.

The U, the Institute hugging the building. Although this op-tion presented challenges in the landscape, it did protect the concrete building, defining the North and South Piazzas and creating a very strong link between the two buildings.

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We made the programme clearer as the institute grew smaller, which vmade the proportions of the spaces more adequate and the hyerarchy more clear

Floor 2

The Mediathèque and the educational spaces that can also be used as workshops. There are reading spaces and technology at one’s reach.

Floor 0

The Café, the Reception and the Shop welcome the visitor and situate them within the context of the building and the programme.

The institute in its final form, protecting the cinema building and merging into the landscape.

Making the Institute smaller allowed us to take out the excess spaces and to clarify the programme of the building

The facade became extremely important to the design, as we will see later.

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Floors 1 + 3

These two floors are quite similar, the first housing a bar and the third a restaurant with areas to relax and lounge before

and after viewings. These spaces can also be used for conferences and business meetings.

Floor 4The top floor houses the administration and film-making fa-cilities. This allows for ease of control and offer a very good

environment for work.

Final Programme

It wasn’t an easy process, as we experi-mented with the different shapes over and over until we were happy with the ‘u’ shape.

The side s are angled slightly to react to the site and to create more comfortable spaces

inside

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Museum of Modern Art, Vienna, by Ortner und Ortner.

The Cinemas, from Studio Loop at the bottom to big Cinema at the top.

The core, from being a delicate steel frame, be-came a monolithic mark in the landscape, more to do with Stonehenge than with a protected jewel.

This proved to be a very good solu-tion structurally and environmentally.

We considered both the options of form concrete and concrete panels, both architecturally and structurally.

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Timber + Concrete

Environmental decision: timber for the Institute

Image of a fabric, which we used as inspiration for the timber building

The Institute, served and service spaces

The institute became a delicate veil, a sort of fe-male body around the womb of the cinema building.

The reason for using timber had a lot to do with the environmental strategy. Again this proved to be a very prudent decision.

Larch was the timber chosen for the Institute, largely for structural reasons

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Middle Eastern vernacular architecture

Developing the Institute to morph into the Landscape, while the concrete building remains pure

The Doge Palace, Venice, inspiration for the timber facade

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Crypts have the same feeling of wonder and mystery as the concrete blg.

Institute + Cinemas

The Haaj in Mecca, a constant inspiration.

The facade ended up angling slightly to accommodate itself within the buildings around it. We eventually decided upon a particular facade, as explained

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Leopold Museum, Vienna, by Ortner und Ortner

Atrium connecting the big staircase with the cinemas

Again, there was much discussion as to where the service spaces should go, and whether they should be separated from the served areas.

The importance of the North facade meant we wanted to keep it as free as possible, so we pushed the ac-cesses and the services closer to the cinema building.This had a double advantage: on one hand we could develop a unique fire strategy for both build-ings instead of having separate ones; also, ar-chitecturally, the service space reinforced the idea of the core being protected by a veil that be-comes more and more dense as t gets close to it.

A grand staircase in the main spine of the building makes communication between floors easier and at the same time enhances the journey towards the cinemas.

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Circulation + Fire strategy

In the North facade, the spaces are clear for activities.

The escape stairs are fully integrated within the design.

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Week 5The projection rooms are part of the cinemas, housing the CHP plant and the individual projec-tion rooms. It was unreasonably big and was making our cinemas very awkward and small.

Week 6After dismissing the idea of the CHP plant, the projection rooms became smaller in size, and we realised this was the jewel inside the jewel box. We considered different options of material and form.

Week 8We defined the projection rooms as an altar, much like the baptistery in Florence, with the projection rooms growing inwards. Showing the cross outside would have been misleading.

Baptistery of the cathedral in Florence

The baptistery with the altar seen from above.

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The Facades

Week 5In the first stages, we only knew we wanted a very open ground floor and a structural system of portals for the Institute. We didn’t know what type of cladding we would use or whether we would have exposed bracing.

Week 6We tried various different options, including irregular patterns and different options for the ground floor openings. The roof had not been developed yet although we new that the atrium would be glazed.

Week 8With Martin’s help the facade was defined as a petticoat, completely open on the ground floor and fixed above. This allowed for a beautiful yet clear facade that adjusted to all the needs within the building.

Image of our model showing the impres-sion of the petticoat facade from the

Ground Floor

Office at the Wylly Theatre in Dallas, TX, by REX and OMA.

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The Facades

The final result of the facade of the building. There is a successful contrast between the two materials used and the structural approach for each of them.We were still considering different options for the Projection Rooms, amongst oth-ers flyash concrete, stacked glass and Litra-con©, a mixture of concrete and fibre optics.

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We got inspiration from differents centres of belief, including Ronchamp by Le Corbusier. The entrance to each projection room from the cinemas be-comes an altar, a stage from which the projectionist performs his magic. The star shape is highly charged with symbolism.

One of our main sources of inspira-tion was the mimbars one can find in mosques. Normally made out of timber, they praise the importance of the imam as the speaker of the word of Allah. The opening for the camera is te opening from which this ‘speech’ is delivered.

We chose Litracon© as the material for the South facade, keeping the inside as solid flyash concrete. The projection rooms acquire the importance they de-serve as the producers of the magic, making the projectionist the man inside the machine.

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Day

During the day, the projection rooms appear as a dark presence within the South facade. The cinemas are not at work, so the whole mass remains a mysterious dark protru-sion. On the inside of the building vision is possible without artificial l ights thanks to the Litracon© facade allowing natural l ight inside.

Night

During the night the whole projection room lights up, emitting energy and art to its sur-roundings. Being above the moat of water, the light coming from the inside of the pro-jection rooms through the Litracon© facade is reflected in the water creating a beautiful play of light. In a way, films are projected out on both sides, not just to the cinemas.

The Projection Rooms

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The short section is very useful in showing the side streets of the building, the timber building enveloping the concrete building and the sacred character of the projection rooms.

This part between the sides of the institute and the cinemas could have been further

developed

The fire stairs were actually one more element of the design, giving a very good view of the back courtyard

The exhibition around the studio loop was never represented to its full potential, something regretable as we had done a lot of research on it

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These visuals show the final appear-ance of the projection rooms, both in-side the cinemas and on the South Facade

It is very significant that the ‘altar’ of the building is surrounded by the commu-nity, protected by the buildings around it.

The Projection Rooms

This South Facade view shows a section through Gaol Bridge St and through Ropewalk, which puts the concrete building within its residential context. It is useful to see how the trees contribute to the protection of the ‘box’.

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Week 6: Development of the section

The projection rooms still in very early stages of design

Options for lighting the stairs

The character of the facade still wasn’t very clear

The main staircase wide ans generous as a practical means of ciculation and smbol of the journey upwards

We still didn’t know how to make the concrete building meet the ground

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Development of the Section

Week 7: Refinement of the sectionWe hadn’t developed yet how the timber met the ground

The roof was not designed until we had a more clear idea of what its environmental purpose would be

We didn’t really know what to do with the underside of the seating area, and we didn’t want to just waste material

We knew that we wanted a shadow gap, but were not sure that that was enough

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The final section of the building, which shows the procession from the outside land-scape to the very core of the projection rooms.

In retrospect, it is easy to see how we played with the same conceptual ideas we had had from the beginning, and modified the architectural el-ements until we got a balanced deign that re-sponded to all the necessities of the project. Like with the exhibition space the public per-

formance stage was never fully resolved

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Final Section

Although we did design the roof it was never represented fully

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A Structural Strategy

We worked very closely with our engineer, who was im-plicated from day one in the development of the concept.

One of the first options we looked at was to have the core being a solid mass that would hold the lightweight veil around it. Funnily enough we came back to this later on. This was within the context of a tower though, which had very different implications for Rich, our engineer.When the idea of the building within a building came about, we worked hard to integrate our ar-chitectural aspirations with structural soundness.

However, having the core elevated over the ground, with the big spans and loads, proved to be a decision almost impossible to marry with a sensible structural strategy. We had to make some compromises and work together to make the architecture coincide with the structural requirements of the cinemas. The first sketches suggested a lightweight steel structure and some sort

of LED fabric facade using bracing as the main structural system.

Some sort of bracing holding the membrane up

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Structural Strategy Priciples

Week 5: Interim crit level. The cinema core, made out of steel, is self-supportive but braced to the institute. There are too many inconsistencies in the design.

The steel elements are expressed on the outside as both a structural and an arhcitectural statement

The double layer of masonry made it more stable

Because of the soil conditions we decided from early on to use groups of piles

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Week 6While working on the programme and the spatial arrange-ments, the structure of the institute also changed consider-ably. Instead of the masonry structure we had before, we started working on a light gluelam timber system with a module that would provide stability at all points and give us freedom to mould the spaces

Week 7 The core with the cinemas developed from being a lightweight ‘floating’ steel structure with huge spans and problems with the foundations to a much more sensible post and beam concrete structure that made the most of the material’s capacities: thermal mass, accoustic insula-tion, and very high compressive performance.

The concrete structure for the Cinemas

The timber structure for the Institute

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Structure Development

We developed a system of boxes within boxes for the cinema structure

For architectural and structural reasons, we chose to put the exhibition space and the studio loop on the Ground floor of the concrete box. On top would go the two small cinemas, providing support for the big 28 metre-spanning cinema on the third floor. This meant we could save a lot of material and at the same time create a very sensible structure, something necessary considering the bad quality of the soil on site.

However, we immediately came across a problem with the cinemas. Because the two small cinemas were next of each other and the big one on top of the two, we ran the risk of sound travelling from one to the other.

We therefore had to devise a ‘floating box’ sys-tem that meant each space was completely separated from the other. Not only that, but this gave us the space we needed to run all the ven-tilation pipes and cables from the projection rooms and from the ground source heat pumps.

Cinema 1 made out of concrete and the inner ‘box’ to insulate it

Cinemaas 2+ 3

Exhibition Space

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Final Crit week 9

The roof structure was stil a steel truss

We lightened this up to get the feeling of openness

The structure of the roof changed slightly

The detail of the timber flooring was still not fully detailed as it hadn’t been resolved

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The Structural Section

Refinement after crit

As is normal some corners remained relatively unresolved

As is explained later the bridges were never fully resolved

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Our engineer described the construction process of the concrete building. The timber building would be taken into site in gluelam portals.

From the very beginning, we knew that a successful project should have a well thought-of construction sequence.

The site being in front of the New Harbour, we could count on a wide range of materials with a very small environmental impact. Brick was very convenient, be-ing a local material. It was however very heavy, difficult and slow to build. Steel also had problems attached to it, it being a very heavy material that would have to be taken in, and handled within a very tight site.

When we swopped to timber and concrete we worked to make the design as light as possible, making the most of each member to achieve the maximum result with the minimum material.

The foundations were an important part of the design process, as it marked how we would have to have modular systems in both build-ings to work with the pile foundation system.

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The Construction Process

The result was a mostly prefabricated build-ing that could be dropped on site quickly and effectively. Because most of the tim-ber members are made in factory, there would be no problems on site handling moist and rain on site for more than two days.

Once the main structural members are in, it be-comes really easy to work on the inside elements. Working from the main structure to the cladding decorations was specially useful for the institute, as it helped us develop the details of the facade.

Exploded isometric of the Cinemas

Exploded isometric of the Institute

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Construction Detail 1 Construction Detail 2 Construction Detail 3

Our engineer Rich showed a real enthusiasm for all the architectural aspects of the project, and when it came to producing the engineering work, he did a fantastic job, giving us plenty of information on construction details, sections, material informa-tion and even precedents when we needed them.

If there is something regretful about the Bas-il Spence project is the fact that we did not represent appropriately in the brochure

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The Construction Details

Construction Detail 6Construction Detail 5Construction Detail 4

the amount of information that we developed along-side our engineer. We worked together very well and developed a project we were all very proud of. We didn’t, however, manage our time properly to allow for all of the information from Rich to go into the brochure.

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An Environmental Strategy

To keep true to our principles of the core absorb-ing the energy and then releasing it to the institute. Using the properties of each of the materials to their full extent to keep or generate the most en-ergy possible, and to make the environmental strategy part of the architecture of the building (i.e. the modules for the pv panels matching the con-crete panels or the moat divided in two to provide humidification or cooling for the different areas).

At interim crit level we had esteblished the main prin-ciples for the environmental strategy that we kept throughout. There would be separate winter and summer strategies using the ground source heat pumps as part of them. Also, the outer skin of the building would be filled with insulation making it an impermeable skin apart from controlled openings.

The building taking in everything useful.

Absorption and emission of energy

Rain water

Heat

Cool air/ water

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Emission + Absorption

The ventilation system at interim crit level.

The highly insulated box with controlled openings

Highly insulated box with controlled openings

Using the pressure of the air to run the ventilation system so that minimum energy is used.

Using the heat from the core to either heat up the institute or get cool air thanks to stack ventilation.

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The Projection Rooms transmit heat to the rest of the building.

Sketch of the ventilation pipe strategy, connecting to the institute through the timber bridges.

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From Cinemas to Institute

The Institute receives energy and vents it out through the facade and the roof

The core of the cinemas, the projection rooms, give heat and energy to the rest of the building, tying in very well with the architecture of the

building.

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Development of the detail of the strat-egies throughout the weeks.There was much discussion about the amount of detail to which we needed to get.Sometimes the engineering requirements seemed to strangle the architectural aspects of the scheme, which caused much tension and distress within the group.

We did however learn a lot from this, knowing towards the end how much of the tutors’ advice to follow, and being able to identify when the engineers were being unreasonable to the interest of their field of expertise.

The atrium acquired a crucial role in keep-ing the institute at a constant temperature, and to keep the service spaces well ventilated. We chose to use a thermal labyrinth under-neath the building for the summer, which dou-bled up as a very good way to save ma-terial underneath the concrete building.

Summer

Winter

Week 6

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Add TextStrategy Development

Summer

Winter

Summer

Winter

Week 7 Week 9

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Final Summer Envronmental Section

The crosslam wall was made thicker to accommodate the pipes coming from the cinema Thick insulation

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The Environmental Section

Final Winter Environmental Section

Thick insulationPV panels installed on the roof with the same module as the concrete panels

Little material used and space used for piping

Rain water collector

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The Landscape defined

The development of the landscape was a very arduous but enjoyable experience.We had some problems with the site such as the slight slope going from North to South, the re-stricting size we had imposed upon ourselves or the train tracks running in the middle of it.

We solved them along with the develop-ment of the building, which was not at all and easy task for us as a group. Our site aws rich but complex, confusing us sometimes.

The landscape was finally defined by the premise urban + suburban. The South part, the courtyard, private, lei-surely, comfortable, small and pretty; the North open, aspirational, cultural and big.

The two distinct parts of the site, one at the North and one at the South.

There was always an idea of a point and a counterpoint, which transpired in the treatment of the landscape.

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First Thoughts

Interim Crit analysis of the site. Although there was a clear relationship with the urban landscape on the North facade, there is absolutely no regard for the South facade more than the West street being bigger than the East one.

URBAN

SUBURBAN

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Week 5: Interim Crit North facade visual. The essence of this visual was kept throguht the project.

ENtrance or facade openenings not designed yet

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Interim Crit Level

South Facade visual from Gaol Bridge Street. The surroundings looked glooming and unengaging due to the lack of representation and under-

standing of the area.

The Wapping wharf develop-ment is under represented

96A crucial tutorial with Suzi made us realize what the landscape was struggling to be: urban and excit-ing on the North, pleasant and relaxing on the South.

The vegetation around the con-crte building completes on plan the broken box that was there before.

We chose not to use the idea of turning the concrete building

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This tutorial sprung the creating of the moat around the building and the position of vegetation at the back, something we had strugged with for weeks. Stage 1.

Urban vs.

Suburban

Vegetation surroiunds the concrete building and the moat

We chose not to use the idea of turning the concrete building

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Week 6: North facade

The landscape in front of the institute is open and with natural steps but still very undefined and raw. The main elements are there but very crude and underdeveloped. We agonised over small problems that did not matter that much and so ran out of time to work properly on this elevation.

Week 6: South facade from Gaol Bridge St.

There still was no regard for the suburban feel of the place. The Projection Rooms liven up the concrete facades, but it is still quite raw too. The trees are not there yet.

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The Facades and the Landscape

Week 6: South facade with the courtyard

The timber building is not yet developed, the moat is awkward and the street lamps haven’t been designed to suit the site. We saw here that although on plan thebuilding was working, there was a lot more to it than just that.

Week 6: South facade from East Side St.

The massing of the concrete building is adequate but it still doesn’t relate properly to what is around it, like the first floor park in the building next to it. The moat is relentlessly agonised over as an ele-ment that should relate to the buildings not the concrete building. We saw later that that would be missing the point of it.

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The final result. The approach to the site was defined within the design of the fa-cade and the initial position of urban furniture. The MShed and the Institute talk to and about each other, creat-ing an indredibly lively and engaging riverside, that would complement that of the other side,

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Week 8: the building in context

Urban vs.

Suburban

102 The South Facade from Gaol Bridge Street, lively and sociable

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Urban vs.

Suburban

The Litracon facade fully developed, with a moat adequate in form and size underneath it. Both play in a beautiful way with the smooth concrete surface of the cinema building. The mass is softened but not deprived of its meaning

The vegetation designed to be slender trees that would create a natural barrier (like the columns in the Aegina Temple) between the shops and the flow of people and the benches and water, making it a more calm place. We drew huge inspiration from Muslim courtyards in Persia and Spain.

When the courtyard was properly represented, with the shops and the building frontages we realised about the massive differ-ence in character of the space and how right Suzie had been in recommending a suburban landscape for this area.

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Persian Iwan, with the fountain in the centre

Concrete church in Spain with pool of water.

Two separate moats: one for inside and one for the outside of the building.

The landscape with the Concrete building in it. Stage 2

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Landscape Elements

The side streets both guide people around the building as they channel them into the building

Approaching the cathe-dral in Florence through

the narrow streets.

Making the most of the moat. We used water as a way to make the concrete building ‘float’ over the ground. It was very important to us how to make the cinema building touch the ground, as it run the risk to be too brutal and crude.

The water was a great way of adding a play of light to the concrete surface whilst preserving the sacred-ness of the mass. Also it was really important to use the fact that noone would be able to touch the con-crete surface until they got to the entrance to the cin-emas inthe atrium. It adds another layer of tension and release that we used throughout the project.

The side streets were designed as yet another ele-ment of tension and release, creating relatively narrow streets between the south and the North facades. This is similar to the alleys around European churches such a Notr-Dame in Paris or the Cathedral in Florence.

106The full landscape with all the elements. Stage 3.

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Landscape furniture

Grant Architects’ streetlamps in Manchet-ser and Suzie’s sketch.

Concept image for the landscape

Looking for the prefect elements for the ur-ban furniture. The street lamps by Grant archi-tects, recommended to us by Suzie, were per-fect, as they symbolized the first architectural move on the site before the light timber clad-ding facade that then develops into a full build-ing. It strengthens the idea of procession and journey while creating a beautiful landscape.

Working with the steps and slight changes of level to create visual tricks that would make the building look bigger, and to support the idea of upward procession towards the cinemas. The axis between the sea and the building is kept and reinforced, and althought there is always room for development, we get to our stage were we are quite happy with how it looks and feels.

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Week 2: The axis

Week 4: Building and performance space

Week 8: The final landscape

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The Axis

Entering the exhibition space with the film screen adn the projection rooms at the back. This becomes the first point of con-tact with the concrete surface of the cin-ema building. The action builds up to-wards the climax of the film experience

The atrium as a continuation of the land-scape outside. Although the build-ing is very defined, the experience of the procession is unstopped all along

Coming out of the cinemas the city reveals itself through the veil of the institute, bright, beautiful and somehow new. The visitor is older, wiser, more knowledgeable. This is not just applicable to the visitor but also to the group. We have grown just like the building did.

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This space deserved to be further represented and designed

The Side stairs were again under represented and the cladding would probably have not been there ifwe had ahd the time to design it

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Final External Views

Sadly we never did anything with the stage, remaining in a conceptual level

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Detail + Possibilities

How we worked on the details, in particular the ones most important to the story, like the bridges, the con-crete meeting the ground and the timber facade. It was dfficult to always keep an eye on the principles behind the development of the details as it woud have been very easy to follow an engineer or uninformed advice. Also, the possibilities would have been huge if we had had the time, as we would have been able to show the building properly and refine it.

Too much worry for small meaningless problems ended up affecting some parts of the design that had original been very beautiful and delicate ideas. Ego had a lot to do with the failure of some of the ideas developed, and generally with the perfor-mance of the team towards the end of the project.

The bridges in the atrium were never shown fully developed

Structure not drawn

The detail of the balustrade is not represented

The openings here are not shown

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The Bridges

The detail of the bridge developed further but never shown on the brochure.

Very simple and lighweight pane of glass, creating the feeling that it isn’t really there

Steel support for the glass

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Wyly Theatre meeting room.

The facade as a lightweight veil

Concrete Facade on an Egyptian house

Institute du Monde Arab, Paris

We sought inspiration for the facade in Mediter-ranean and Middle Eastern permeable facades, although adapted to the English climate. Above all we wanted to get the feeling of delicate veil that would contrast with the concrete building.

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Model Picture of the North facade

The Timber Facade

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Week 6: still underdeveloped

Week 7: making more sense but still not there

Week 8: close to being finalised

Week 8: section through part of the facade

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The Timber Facade

Week 9: Full Development of the timber facade

With Tim we developed the principle of building the facade for the main structural elements to the clad-ding: from the inside to the outside.

Cassettes with the window frames

Gluelam beam not exposed to avoid quick degradation

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The Litracon reflecting on the water at day and at night.

The Litracon reflecting on the water at day and at night.

Martin’s sketch suggesting how we could make the most of the pool of water, inte-grating the architecture and the environmental aspects.

Shadows gap as entrance of air for the laby-rinth. The air is naturally cooled by the water

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The Cinema Facade

The final Litracon facade fully detailed.

Concrete becomes a bench

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The ground floor of the Institute with the open café and the public square.

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The Possibilities

Openings on a concrete facade

Kolumba Museum, Peter Zumthor

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The centre of the cross in the projection rooms had huge pontential as an archittural centre of belief, the very core of the Institute, a place of reference

A spirirtual place, belonging to the artist

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The Possibilities

The project still wasn’t finished when we froze the design, as is natural. In retrospect it is easy to see that the weakness of it was being too restricted and structured. We would have had the chance to allow the building to breathe and develop if there was time. The development of the details would have been extremely useful to give it the depth it deserves, specially with the spaces inside.We were critisized for having too structured and limiting a plan, which was true. We allowed the project to be led by engineers at points, allowing them to make decisions for us. We however learned from the experience and I personally now feel ready to tackle the challenges of the second semester project.

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Conclusion

Looking back, I can definitely say that I have devel-oped as an architect and a team mate because of this project. The problems with the group, that show problems of ego and control, where in great extent a mirror of my own flaws. However, all of the mem-bers’ attitudes at points, due to the tension and the tiredness, was extreme. It is however important to note that we kept together throughout the design process and have come to the point where all of the members can feel the project is theirs in a way.It has been a good experience, but also a deeply traumatising one. Many lessons have been learned and it is good to go now into an individual project.

I know our scheme could have been much better. Do-ing this individual process document has been a way to come to terms with that and be able to explain the de-cision process behind a lot of the architectural moves.

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Retrospective