Cross Kiln Penmon Beaumaris Gwynedd North Wales LL58 8RR UK Time is as slippery as it is malleable; however, it has unfortunately been abstractly distorted and bound to the fixed way of thinking engendered by the move from orality to literature. In this modern world, appreciation of time has become increasingly scarce, with hectic lifestyles, easily disposable consumerism and

constant media creating a @fast timeA. Here, history is over written in hypertext, recycling is a chore and materials have a dpi. Trying to step outside of this is the ultimate goal of the project. Architecture no-longer responds to the human concept of time, it is always above or below it. It exists as structures that will last for a thousand years or as temporary exhibition spaces, which are want to slide against actual time bases. This has as much to do with our lifestyle as it does with the malleability (and therefore rejection) of time. Nomadic structures exist in space, but space is fixed, What is needed is a nomadic structure in time, one that is constantly of it?s time, referring to a human way of being. This involvement of time can only come through a human-time based architecture with its own method of representation. Sound must become involved since this is the only fully time based method of representation, all parts are defined by their position in time : frequency,

rhythm and form. Since there is documented proof that perception of time can be affected (without relativity), the ability for architecture to affect our personal time is something that, I believe, should be explored. The structuralism of this rigid, narrative time served as an Achilles heel through which to begin creating ways of undoing its timeframe.

dress for a Nude This headdress is a cyborg part worn by the fragmented and blurred nude that descends the staircase in Marcel Duchamp?s Nude Descending a Staircase No.2 : (a

dancer called Miss M. Blaine). Time has slowed, but space is independent, thus the body?s senses are spread along its path. Because of this @smearingA, a new language of interaction must be developed in order to successfully navigate the world that is re-created by the slowing of time. In fact, because of the condensation that forms on the glasses of the headdress, it is impossible to see @normallyA and all accurate perceptions have to be made from the position of the body as it was a few centimetres ago. You see, since time has slowed, a body?s speed is not measured by the time it takes, but by the distance it travels :@Sure, come round for tea in half a kilometreA. The nude?s path down the stairs has been recorded by Duchamp, however this tangential recording cannot convey the true feeling of moving independently of time - that must be experienced through this device.

Prosthesis for a Dance Acknowledging that the experience of using the dress was an intangible thing that is ever changing and that it provided a pair of glasses rather than a discussion, I moved on to a second cyborg part, for the same : now older - nude. This Prosthesis for a Dance is a surrogate partner that uses constructivist associations of text to fold scale, and therefore relativistically, to slow down time. This compresses Marcia?s life and brings the time that she could dance (when she used the dress) into the present via the slowing of collective time. Marcia has retired to a small island in Nova Scotia with an interesting history and through this prosthesis she dances with the landscape on the island. To this end, she at first does what used to come so naturally to her : dancing : but time has made her stiffer and slower, so she moves in a more controlled fashion than in her youth. She has also developed a passion for minimalist music, a

slow music that : to her : evokes the landscapes in which she now spends most of her days. Thus she dances, arms free and the device strapped to her, acting as a surrogate partner : much like a child standing on her shoes to share a dance. The body of the device flexes and slides the 3 layers of McTaggart?s marked mirror relative to itself. In the mirror Marcia can see a merged mass of her body and the clouds above her, the markings giving a binding language which is commonly applied to both. Since the forms merge and the structuralism of language folds the space between them, Marcia is accelerated from the scale of her body to the scale of the sublime. Suddenly time slows and she passes into a mythology of past, present and future. Luckily the mechanism has a built in safety feature : Marcia sweats as she dances, which falls onto the mirrors below her and is vaporised by the short circuited pendulums. Thus she : to us : spends a short while dancing before the mirrors steam up and the

systems falls apart as she no longer sees her reflection. This process is all recorded by microphone, to provide a tangible record of an intangible, personal experience. An unrelated form that symbolises, and to a certain extent is, what it represents, much like the painting she was in. This gives a tangent, which - like a >literature? of orality - can be used to understand a version of truth. Thus the human becomes the prosthesis that re-reads the dance.

His young lover bathes The path in pines that barely breathe. Blue heat. Volcanic rock. Yes, every bit as sharp and soft, the boundary that lets you in, the flurry of white that closes. These are Time?s stomata. Beneath your body

is the needle, a pale hint under blue sometimes, the stitch between the waves that count and count and count and count before you come up. This time nearer than I thought you?d be and in a light that hurts.

- Ian McEwen

Polytime @The power of experience destroys the illusion of progress and gathers the past and present into the future.A - Theodor Adorno Dealing more with the nature of a performance : and backed up by my own recital of the poem used for this piece at a slam poetry event : this string game device

(for this example in the cat?s cradle mode, representing both the site used and alluding to the Oedipus Complex, though with connotations from Vonnegut) acts to amplify the sense of mythological time created by the oral performance based on Ong?s ideas of literary time and oral time. The prosthesis is put together by Miss Blaine in accordance with the Spair-Whorf hypothesis and ideas of the erotic build up each time she uses it. It is intrinsically linked to her by her hands, which articulate the storytelling element of the performance of the poem above. The sliding of the fibres of the string and the various hooked on fragments, produce a reaction relative to the surroundings. The fragmented body of candles and mirrors is articulated through space, managing to disrupt Marcia?s Ego?s (Freud) image of itself to negate the mirror stage (Lacan). Thus her constructivist time based Superego and her primitive ID are brought into direct conversation. This relative clashing of timeframes is recorded by candles and headphones to give a tangential

measurement of the entirely personal experience : much like a fox?s nose in the dark. However since our perception of time is so strong and the body we see is fragmented by our visual perception, the psychological effect can never fully take over, and it must always be used in conjunction with the poem.

Oobleck Chandelier The Oobleck Chandelier is a more complete, bodily @otherA, instead of a prosthesis requiring a human who could never entirely escape time. It holds the Polytime inside itself and the movement of this affects the movement of its skin. This - via a complex mechanism of rheostatic liquids, surgical supplies and bodily skins - performs a prediction of the future (in much the same way as Bleigiessen) by producing Rosetta stones. This solidification of the discussion of the poem held in the top pocket of the outer skin (the same one used for the Polytime) condenses

probable future language : thus moving it closer to an orality based notion of time. The production of the Rosetta stones relies on an affected combination of Plato?s flux, McTaggart?s sliding, void/solid and void/skin. The word form is thus an object @of its timeA, which is also an epistemological and self referential form, thus solidifying its infinite forms and associations and making the unreal visible : thanks must be given here to Don Quixote and Crawford Tillinghast. This effect decelerates the word form and accelerates the language by bringing the future to the present. Therefore the sparklers on its back are always alight, have not yet been lit. However as the Rosetta stones drop out of the aperture at the bottom of the bag, they dissolve into fractal swirls, and are lost : their presence having only been internal, and not experienced by anyone else.

Lighthouse, Interrupted Sat 17th Nov A system has been set up at the end of Penmon and I intend to demolish it to

illustrate the illusion of time as a on this small area of coast. The lighthouse off the shore rings its bell every 5 flashes of light and these are received and reflected by the white houses inland. The apparent, human-like, internalisation of this timing makes the houses glow, seemingly independently : since the lighthouse and the front of the houses cannot be seen at the same time. It is as if the lighthouse is not a warning but an invite to join its rhythm, and the houses are happy to obey in time and on time. However in the darkness a firework looks much like a flash and its sound mimics the clang of the bell. So, in order to confuse the houses, and maybe make them glow out of time I organised a performance piece (its self an aural time barrier) and set off a firework between the light and the house. In the end the lighthouse was the more confused and didn?t ring at all after the firework.

The island Along with the fact that time could apparently be distorted, this site was chosen because of several connotations in its surroundings : the Menai straight has one of the most interesting and rapidly changing tides around the British isles, with shifting sand banks and temporal differences along its length. Also working within the context of an old Kiln where the altering of the chemical properties of Limestone led to an analogy with the altering the properties of time bases. Finally the limestone kilned here was the same as that used to build the Menai Bridge

between Anglesey and the mainland, using the landscape :in several forms : to create a link between separate places. The Chandeliers now created a network of needles that felt together the land, sea and air. This provided a physically poetic reading of the surroundings which, by using a strain of bacillus pasteurii, started to produce an island in the shifting sandbanks, giving a reciprocal notion to the description of the site. This ontology of landscape had lost some of its experiential connections so I moved inland to create a more harmonious library.

The homonograph Forming an ontology of both man and machine in terms of their time based reading of a site, led me to think of these factors in relation to one another. Continuing with representation of time in an aural medium I studied harmonographs as a way of making a physical reading of these ratios. In this Homonograph, the woven machine is used to delineate the boundaries of a hollow around the tip of the harmonograph. These boundaries are determined by barometers, hygrometers and thermometers, which are hung from the cables within the kiln. Water, salt and slaked lime drip down these cables and collect in the volume formed between them : it having been waterproofed at the end of the last collection by candles hung from the top ratio of the harmonograph. These solidify around the swinging tip of the harmonograph, while the cables vibrate from the passage of air. Light and water determine the movement of these materials, while

earth and sound create the hollow formed by the tip of the harmonograph, and air and touch adjust the weave. Once the shell like mass has been formed, it is collected and, based on the sound it makes from inside, is placed relative to the other forms that make up the dry stone wall surrounding the head of the kiln. This wall affects the system, controlling the influx of wind, materials and light as it is build and crumbles. Thus the categorising of the man has an effect upon the mechanism?s reading.

Promenade This piece would go on to form the base structure for the differance engine. Having dealt considerably with the oral, mythological nature of time I wanted to bring this into conversation with the literary notion of time on the site. Having read The Garden of Forking Paths and parts of House of Leaves, I placed a series of avnues, looking out to the mainland, on the beach. These spread between the sea wall and a series of dolmen, that tilt over in time. The avenues are created by spreading a felt carpet from each dolmen and overlapping it with a carpet from the sea wall, these twist in the surf, and change in a cyclical manner. Running perpendicular to these carpets lies a segmented boardwalk with slats on each

carpet, so that the path changes, as the avenues themselves do. These movements have further effects into the seascape, creating new eddies and currents in the sea and hillocks and dips on the beach, that change the layering of sand and thus waves. Though the system is still connected back, and defends, the sea wall with it?s series of mythological mediators : crows, reeds and shallottes. Thus a discussion is built, with constant shifts of perspective and subplot, but with reference to it?s history.

Der Schwan Diese Mühsal, durch noch Ungetanes schwer und wie gebunden hinzugehen, gleicht dem ungeschaffnen Gang des Schwanes. Und das Sterben, dieses Nichtmehrfassen jenes Grunds, auf dem wir taglich stehen, seinem angstlichen Sich-Niederlassen;: in die Wasser, die ihn sanft empfangen und die sich, wie glücklich und vergangen, unter ihm zurückziehn, Flut um Flut; wahrend er unendlich still und sicher immer mündiger und koniglicher

und gelassener zu ziehn geruht. - Rainer Maria Rilke

The Swan This difficult living, heavy and as if all tied up, moving through that which has been left undone, is like the not-quite-finished walk of the swan. And dying, this slipping away from the ground upon which we stand every day, is his anxious letting himself fall;: into the waters, which receive him gladly and which, as if happily already gone by, draw back under him, wave after wave; while the swan, infinitely calm and self-assured, opener and more magnificent

and more serene, allows himself to be drawn on. - Rainer Maria Rilke

The Watchouse Examining this break down of solid meaning via Rilke?s The Swan, I wanted to compare the notion of Hejduk?s collapse of time, with my own reading of time. Landscape time is vertical in motion, and recorded by a clock face on plan, whereas human time is horizontal in motion and recorded by a clock face in elevation. The ambiguity of reading time in relation to both of these time bases resulted in a plastically read flip book, which is @readA in multiple ways and directions. The book itself documents the philosopher?s stone - named not because of what it is, but because of what it achieves - an event built up to by a number of prefaces. This is a material transmogrification from sand to a Rorschach pattern, which as the observer sees through it, creates a constantly decelerating object with an imbued meaning. The notion that this is obviously meaningless and yet, like clouds, appropriated, produces a multitude of readings in comparison to the watchhouse. Regressing, the watchhouse is an established reference point : a Claude glass like implement for regarding the chimeric alignment (by the flip book) of the glass, landscape and philosopher?s stone. Human time and space are both relative

and interconnected according to science, and it is landscape time that closes the gap.

Anazical Engine Having created a space concerned with its fixed place in the landscape; the

notion of Daesin and the closely linked concept of Blut und Boden provided a better philosophical viewpoint on the system. Here the landscape is given a reflexive meaning through the body, establishing its own concept of truth. In the original sense, used by the Third Reich, German soil was deemed to be for German people : providing an argument for the removal of other people from Germany : and reciprocally German people belonged on German soil : giving an argument for Lebensraum and annexation. This envisioned an established time base of the past - of established knowledge, of unequivocal meaning of words and of enforced boundaries which were established though an imbued meaning on the landscape. Here a locus is generated, from which more space is created by the flinging of watery blood. The engine itself is formed as a discursive machine based on Babbages un-built analytical engine, with both processor and memory bank. As in the machine, rotations are used to distil a constant from a form of symbolic logic. In this case

the claiming of the landscape is an offshoot of this spinning, blood having been distilled in the machine and then flung down to the water.

Differance Engine Directly relating to this appropriation of meaning to a landscape and discussing

it from a flexible viewpoint on time, W H Auden?s poem In Praise of Limestone illustrates a counterpoint to the personal imprinting on a landscape with the changeable nature of landscape. The allusion is particularly pertinent to the shifting menai straight and, of course, the limestone quarry. Thus I set up a discussion between the Anazical Engine and a new, Difference engine. This discussion, with apophasis on one side and claiming on the other produces axioms that, via Alain Badiou?s set theory, create a @third termA. This third term, from a combination of past time of the Anazical engine and the future time of the Differance engine is a new time base : a time of the event. In itself the difference engine is built upon the Promenade, contrasting the fixed past time of the Anazical engine with a shifting time base of the future. It creates a discussion of endless hookings and unhookings as the structure reacts to its own movement, amplified by pantographs, in relation to its slowly shifting base. This movement is oiled by the oobleck that trickles across the surface before

dripping down to other levels of ratchet arms. This latching and unlatching movement relates to its two namesakes, first the differance of Derrida, where - having been through the second world war and the upheaval that it entailed - a word can never fully symbolise something it is meant to mean - it is always missing something : and any meaning can only be stabilised dependent on hierarchies in relation to other meanings. Secondly it relates to Babbage?s first engine, the difference engine, which could never state the number that was wanted, but could provide a predictive table of differences.

Cross Kiln Combining the two engines into a system necessitated the use of landscape time to bring them into a Venn diagram overlap with a vertical crumple zone. This crossing of possibilities created a certain point that would become the point of truth,

based on Jean Nicod?s work on proving that propositional calculus (with an inherent truth value) could be derived from one axiom (the fall) and one rule : in this case either time base (one is predictive, one is prescriptive). This crosshair point, built from the axiom created between the past rule and the future rule, became an active, imperative verticality. This function is produced from the path of a diver between the two time bases, and the event of the impact creates the solution for the third time base (once integrated). The Anazical engine does its best to stabilise the diving platform as the diver walks to the edge of the plummet. Upon diving (in the straight position) the Differance engine predicts the movement of the body, based on very simple mechanics, and slightly adjusts itself to reflect light onto the diver every 0.1 second of their fall, creating a demarked graph of the drop. The Anazical engine meanwhile continues splattering blood as it corrects itself, which rains into the pool. The position of the semi stabilised planks of the path to the dive are

transposed by cables to form one chord in the water lift?s shaft. The second is produced by a measurement of the heights of the fragments in the difference engine that have tilted up to reflect the light. The harmonic produced alludes to the fact that the event can never be accurately pictured, but can be mediated into its final form. The harmonic produced by the chord colours the space acoustically as the lift rises while affecting the stochastic ratchets on the Dubplate.

Don?t try to build in the space you suppose Is future, Lydia, and don?t promise yourself Tomorrow. Quit hoping and be who you are Today. You alone are your life. Don?t plot your destiny, for you are not future. Between the cup you empty and the same cup

Refilled, who knows whether your fortune Won?t interpose the abyss? Ricardo Reis

What we see in things are things. Why would we see one thing if there were another? Why would seeing and hearing be fooling ourselves If to see and hear is to see and hear? The essential thing is to know how to see, To know how to see without thinking, To know how to see then one sees, And neither to think when one sees Nor see when one thinks. Alberto Caeiro

I always want to be the thing I feel kinship with. . . . To feel everything in every way, To hold all opinions, To be sincere contradicting oneself every minute . . .

Alvaro de Campos

Referring to Plato?s flux, the architecture becomes the adjusted part. This centres the notion of self, due to the flux about the body, creating the demarked spaces in the body rather than between the body and the building. The use of multiple soft and adjusting voids produces this unquantifiable space, a void-solid Russian doll. Thus : as with space time : the geometry and sound are variables, and the outcome to a person is constant. This adjustment of the architecture instead of the body, brought me back to the

prosthesis for a dance : but this time the mirrors would be replaced by valves and mouthpieces, the prevalence of vision replaced by sound. This sliding and segmented structure would provide the horizontal memory bank for Cross Kiln. Having read Badiou?s biography, I became interested in the poetry of Fernando Pessoa, and more specifically the poetry of his three major homonyms : Alberto Caeiro, Alvaro de Campos and Ricardo Reis. The outlook of each of these individual egos in relation to time is different to each other - Reis works from the stoic past, Caeiro ignores everything but the present and de Campos speaks on the vagaries of the future. These three characters fit within the framework of McTaggarts three notions of time as Campos? poetry embodies the A stream of past present and future, the only changing part. Caeiro?s deals with events and thus refers to the C series. Finally Reis? relates the past to the present, giving the relationship in the B series. These three characters slide against one another and weave, since all deal with

an event - the crossing of the hair. This torsion point of the event is phase shifted in each plane, creating the binding point for the more philosophical Anazical and Differance engines.

Autopsicografia O poeta e um fingidor. Finge tao completamente Que chega a fingir que e dor A dor que deveras sente. E os que leem o que escreve, Na dor lida sentem bem, Nao as duas que ele teve, Mas so que eles nao tem. E assim nas calhas de roda Gira, a entreter a razao

Esse comboio de corda Que se chama o coracao ;Fernando Pessoa

Autopsychography The poet is a fake. ;Keith Bosley So wholly through and through ;Roy Campbell That he even feigns that he is suffering ;Ernesto Guerra Da Cal The pain they suffer really. ;Jonathan Griffin Caeiro And he who reads what they've done ;Michael Hamburger Fully feel while reading ;Edwin Honig Not his two but only ;Marilyn Scarantino Jones but the one that they must feign. ;Jean R. Longland Campos And thus along the rails, ;George Monteiro (2nd) Huffing, fooling the head ;James Parr

That clockwork toy train ;F.E.G. Quintanilha That's known by the name of heart. ;Martin Seymour-Smith Reis

All three of these voices are found in the poem by Fernando Pessoa himself called Autopsicografia which appears to present both a psychological insight into his homonyms and their view on poetry. In addition it : in the same vein as Der Schwan : has been translated into English 15 times, creating the multiple possibilities for each of the 12 lines. The possible re-coding of what is already a double matrix of meaning and rhythm is also addressed by Mozart?s Dice Waltz where there are just 11 combinations for each of the 12 bars. Music is often referred to as a gesamtkunstwerk, and the memory bank is presented as such with it?s own 12 lines, or 3 stanzas. The fist is Reis? B stream for the

creation of the diver taking the past body and creating a new one for the event. The second is Caeiro?s C stream which re-transcribes the spaces based on the harmonic reading of the dive. The third stanza is Campos? A stream, where the future is turned into a memory which determines the boundaries of the reading head?s movement. The dubplate is the warped lead grid that the wheels of the hulls run on. These, ascribe to stochastic methods of control, with numerous ratchets along their length. The large number of ratchets that can be positioned on or off, creates an average distance that the wheels on the hull tools can move. This region of fluctuation becomes a non-deterministic glissando, freely playable up or down, but slowly sinking into a restricted movement. This creates one of the vertical grids that twist past the event into horizontals as shown in the charcoal drawing opposite. These three are the A stream of Sails and difference engine, the B stream of the

tools and lifts and the C stream of the dubplate, the peacock chimera and the crane This geometry supplies the memory, since as argued by both Badiou and McTaggart, time has no ontological value. Thus the sectionally shifting lines and the plan shifting dubplate become the input and output memory. This ascribes to the outlook purported by Michael Leyton, creating an architecture of asymmetry.

VIVA

This work began with a series of prosthesies, relating human perception to modes of interaction. My first piece : Dress for a nude - was linked to Duchamp?s work : Nude decending a staircase No. 2 : and tried to give the experience of the spread out body : a sure sign of the removal of time, since distance becomes the only variable. Moving on from this visual piece, which tangentially responded to perception, I looked into the structuralist associations of text. This led to my second piece : prosthesis for a dance : which, through McTaggart?s sliding and bending reflections, folds space and accelerates the user, thus slowing time as well. This records itself through a microphone, sound being a fully time based method of representation. The third cyborg part : polytime : expanded on Ong?s Orality and the nature of poetry. By fragmenting the body of the user, during a poetry recital, the Mirror stage is negated and the Id and Ego are brought into

conversation : thus giving a means of bringing the structuralism and humanity of time together. Using this final piece, but removing the body (since we ourselves are too tied to the structuralist aspects of time) produced a surrogate. The Bag, as has come to be known, is involved in the prediction of future poetry, thus compressing the future into it?s predictive apparatus of sliding rheostatic liquids. These prosthesies were then moved to a site laden with natural metaphors in North Wales. The menai straight has some of the most rapid and unpredictable tides in the UK, with shifting sandbanks sliding relative to land and water : much like the complex sliding of the bag?s rheostatic liquids and the prosthesis for a dance. The tide itself is phase shifted between one end and the other, relating to minimal music which I will mention later. Bridging this straight is the menai bridge, built from the landscape itself in order to connect two separate sides. It is built from limestone and mortar produced in Penmon, the site that I would choose, owing to

it?s dense history. The repositioning of this material creates a new vantage point, in order to bridge the structuralist and human notions of time. I worked on a number of smaller parts for this area, which are documented in the book and my portfolio, but I shall skip onto the latter stages of my project and the building that all of these pieces integrated into.

Still fascinated by the density and associations of poetry I began to look the relation of time in terms of an event, and the various positions of observers on this singular truth. The first stance became the Anazical engine. This posited the stable and documented past time of Daesin and Blut und Boden, giving defined areas of action, based on Babbage?s analytical engine. Opposing this grew the Differance engine of absences and slippage, imaging a future time through Derrida?s work and Babbage?s difference engine. These formed a discussion around the central axis of

the event, creating a venn like diagram when described in terms of Badiou?s work which creates a third term : the event : which has further applications when considering Nicod?s rule. Thus the two engines became the heart of the building now known as cross kiln. The event itself is a dive. The two engines react to this event : but are not transcriptions of it. The anazical engine steadies the diving platform as the diver moves across it, having initiated the system with blood, drawn using the grid. The difference engine concertinas itself to reflect the southern sun to points along the axis of the dive, predicting the diver?s path. The movement of the board is read by harmonographs and the difference engine is read by a chimera. These measurements are then harmonised in the writing waterlift. Here the movement of the board moves three copper panels, as does the movement of the difference engine. These two chords form a harmonic which acoustically colours the space as the waterlift rised. The vibrations of these panels are picked up by carbon microphones on the slats of the lift. The notes formed by this harmonic of

both future and past time are used to create an architecture of time. From my reading on Badiou, I picked up on Fernando Pessoa?s poetry. Pessoa has three homynyms, each relating to a position on time and an aspect of McTaggart. They control the stochastic ratchets beneath the hull tools. These averages of the harmonic themselves allow an average of movement along the rails. Thus the hull tools slide against the felt and mortar above, forming them into an ontological geometry.

SUMMARY Architecture is temporally onanistic. It doesn?t relate to the slipperiness of human time, and our hectic lives receive very little help from the self-absorbed structures we inhabit. Buildings must become nomadic in time : not temporary exhibition spaces and definitely not part of Speer?s vision : in order to centre the body. Luckily, since time is tied to the structuralism engendered by the move from orality to literature, poetry and

music can begin to unpick established rhythms and meanings. This project began by experimenting with the human perception of time using its Achilles heel of structuralism. These prosthesies were furthered by moving them to a site laden with natural metaphors in North Wales. Here the discussion resolved itself into a number of engines, and finally a building, embodying the previous work on the nature of time. Sited by a healing spring, and tacking using a strong South Westerly wind, the architecture is kilned from its place, with sheep?s wool, slaked lime and ships? hulls forming its grids. Centring on an event : the dive : these layers of rhythmic structure and poetic material can begin to exhibit their ability to slide against one another. The construction of the spa relating to this @crossA brings perpendicular elements together to form an architecture of it?s time : predictive, prescriptive and stochastic.

Appendix I : The Making of

Process

Through a number of built clay models I worked on the notion of layering in the structure and the relationship between the elements. By using different colours of clay I could then re-read the models once formed, by cutting them and splitting them

Site By regarding the site as a @natural metaphorA gives roots to the building and its name. As I mentioned previously the Menai straight has some of the most rapid tides in the British Isles. These are complex movements that shift sandbars around, which in turn affect the flow of water. The combination of fluids and their movement along this stretch draws a parallel to the Oobleck Chandelier, with its rheostatic fluids. This tide is also phase shifted, with obvious links to minimal music and rhythm, between each end, with one end rising as the other falls. Though this is a shift in

landscape time, and therefore vertical. This provided an interesting link with the work of Iannnis Xenakis and the stochastic ratchets. Bridging this straight is the Menai bridge, which parallels Cross Kiln in several ways. It is built from limestone and Lime mortar quarried and kilned in Penmon. It acts as a bridge between two states : the mainland and the island of Anglesey. Finally it is a bridge over the worst part of the Menai straight : the Swellies : where many ships have been lost. Respectively the materiality of the two structures is similar, and the idea of using a landscape to affect itself is exciting. It is the removal and re-positioning of the earth to create a totally new vantage point and ability to visualise movement. This movement between the two sides is analogous with the transfer I am looking for between time and architecture, and this in turn would help bridge the problems with our structuralist appreciation of time.

Please fold out the following pages for large scale representations of the site.

Appendix II : Environmental

Approaching the environmentally responsible aspect of Cross Kiln was begun at an early stage, with an appreciation for the materials and requirements of the site firmly in place after visiting the site. However the main issue in the building was achieving thermal comfort. Ultimately I wished to achieve a building that was

carbon neutral, but at the same time a delight to inhabit and address the theoretical argument I have posited. Thermal Based on an initial psychometric chart to establish occupant comfort zones, the building must be heated throughout the year to bring it up to a comfortable temperature, while a little ventilation is needed to stop the humidity from rising. To achieve this using as little energy as possible there must be a very high level of insulation to prevent heat loss through the fabric of the building. In addition there should be small surface areas on the North and West with large, exposed, matt

surfaces on the South to absorb solar radiation. There will need to be effective passive methods of heat gain in the building and efficient active methods spread to all the spaces. There will not be any need for passive ventilation outside of that required for air change rates. This can be achieved with a small amount of wind driven passive ventilation, buoyancy driven passive ventilation and trickle vents. Opening doors and windows should be on the warm south face. Light Looking at the sun path, the building should have a large South facade to take full advantage of heating by passive solar radiation. There must be large glazed

areas and sun spaces on this South façade to bring the heat inside. To take advantage of the low winter sun, little shading, light shelves and horizon facing windows should be used. Because there is little solar gain there should be as little glazing as possible on the North facade. Thus Spaces requiring heat must go on the South facade, those that do not require as much heat should be placed on the North façade. Checking Ecotect, there is a relatively low cloud cover : due to fronts developing over the mainland and Snowdonia making passive solar gain even more effective

View The view across to the mainland was one aspect of choosing this site therefore to ensure that parts of the building further North receive views and direct solar gain, the building should be stepped. As a rule of thumb the plan should be no more than 6m deep to allow for daylight penetration and natural ventilation, this will ensure that views are maintained. Skylight can be used to provide additional natural light, but not views. White limewash will ensure that there is a good daylight factor inside the rooms.

Wind Wind blows mostly from the SWW, but with cold NE winds occasionally, as shown by

the wind rose. There is also a sea breeze in the morning and a land breeze in the evening. Thus the building should have narrow South West and North East facades and cross ventilation from the South West can be used to passively ventilate the building. Any plant should be placed on the North East façade, to mitigate fumes, 30m open system earth warming tubes should be laid to the North West and openings should be on the South. Acoustics Since this is a relatively secluded site, there will be little, @un-naturalA noise. The largest factor to noise will be the wind and waves, but these do not have negative connotations. The double skin of the long lag zone will ensure that sound transmission between rooms is kept to a minimum. The use of robust details where possible and high specification glazing will help ameliorate both aspects. Plant will be acoustically insulated from the building using isolators or flexible couplings with lagging around pipes.

Topology Subsoil :strong Carboniferous (Pre-Cambrian) Limestone (4000kN/m3 bearing) Local wells : 3 (range 600m, elevation +25m). In addition, possible aquifers due to permeable and impermeable composition of the surrounding rock. Annual Mean Sea Surface Temperature : 15 oC Looking at geological data, the site is ideal for a spa due to the local availability of water from the 3 springheads located within 600m at +25m elevation, the possibility of aquifers in the surrounding limestone and the ready availability of rapidly moving sea water. This supply of fresh and pure water can be heated by passive methods to supply water for the spa. For example solar hot water pipes

Social Any building here will have a large impact on the local area, thus it is essential that it benefits the community by: Mitigating traffic by having off site accommodation and alternative transport links Mitigating Infrastructure stress by using water from local wells and micro generation Providing jobs of various skill levels and commitment levels, from construction to occupation Generating tourism Phased development Retaining local building stock Large glass facades are protected at night and difficult to reach Using Vals Therme as a business model Tunable environment

Occupancy Security Safety Materials Building materials are recycled or locally sourced where possible. For example on site sand and limestone can be used for a range of applications, and incur no transport costs. Lime mortar : acoustic insulant, breathable Hemp Lime insulating render : insulating, breathable Local beach sand - bedding, aggregates, drainage, hard landscaping Local limestone : loadbearing, heavyweight Local Ordovican gravel Reclaimed steel - to The Historic Sections Book tolerance

All glazing is low-e inert gas filled triple glazing Snowdonian timber Reclaimed ships hulls

Drainage Average annual rainfall : 1000-2000 mm Average wind driven rain (per shower) - 55-100 L/m2 Average days snow/sleet falls : under 10 As is to be expected there is a high rainfall and corresponding wind driven rainfall. However this is not an urban site and the water table is relatively low, therefore standing water will dissipate. However I will mitigate some of the effects of building on this site by including freely draining gravel beneath the long lag building and ensuring that there is plenty of guttering on roofs and

drainage on the sloping south walls. Typology The function of a @spa breakA nowadays is to get away from the hectic lifestyle and constant demands of everyday life. Thus the proposition that the building creates a new time is, in a sense, literal. In fact there is documented proof that people who relax and do nothing perceive time to go slowly, but when looking back perceive that time to have gone quickly. This relativity of experienced time is what the building is about, therefore it has naturally formed what both the typology and the environmental strategy are. However the notion of a spa has come to mean a hermeticised space, especially in terms of city based @wellness centresA and the like. Here the spa is brought back to its original nomenclature : rebirth and reinvigoration. The creation of a new person.

To provide guidance of the methods I have proposed I looked at a number of precedents Millennium House, Watford The solar space in this house illustrates the effect I wish to achieve in my short lag space : an insulating area for the rest of the building, which quickly heats up Eden project Chosen because of its greenhouse properties, this space heats quickly during the day, then retains a heat overnight, before re-heating the next day. The fact that this is a humid space as well has obvious parallels to my diving board. Vals therme My building?s typology draws an obvious parallel to this structure, which is in a much colder climate, yet still manages to retain heat because of effective insulation.

proposal

Using the three time bases of the project as three concepts in my environmental strategy meant that I could apply different approaches to the programme and conditions in each space. Thus the Difference engine would be a short thermal lag zone, the dive would be a balance point and the memory bank would be a long thermal lag space. These would each add specific requirements to the building?s overall strategies. In essence these zones are placed relative to the sun, with the short lag zone furthest south to benefit from quick warming in the day, and the long lag zone placed north to act as a flywheel during the night.

Short lag The endless pools within the difference engine are the short lag spaces. These are flushed with solar hot water only when a swimmer is about to use one. The space surrounding them is a slightly ameliorated environment that is still part of the outside - produced by the solar space that hangs above as part of the peacock chimera. Due to the infrequent use of the space, only by people performing vigorous exercise and only during the day, this space can be virtually un-insulated and unheated, in order to make the water feel, relatively, even warmer. This low mass space will be warmed quickly by reflections off the difference engine as a light shelf and the tracking chimeric solar space will provide passive solar gain, while blocking wind. Large scale solar hot water on the light shelf will provide the water required to fill the swimming lanes from time to time. These lanes are constructed from a flexible rubber membrane with a 2L2 insulation layer. Even skylight will be used through the blown glass, and there will be almost no

reverberation, though plenty of atmospheric noise.

Balance point The diving pool is a mediating point between short and long lag. It has a large thermal mass of water and structure, but this water is emptied reasonably regularly and the space must be ventilated to counter the humidity. Thus this zone will have elements to maintain its thermal mass where possible, but also allow for rapid change in temperature. This will be achieved by having a large area of south facing glass, with the chimeric solar space and the difference engine acting as a light shelf beyond that. Retaining heat at night will be tackled by adding sliding insulated membranes to the outside of these large panes of glass, which are drawn down in the evening. The glass itself will be low E argon filled double glazing, and another of the

insulating rolls will cover the water. Wind driven and buoyancy driven stack ventilation will efficiently ventilate the space, while providing built in redundancy in case there is no wind, or one breaks. This space is meant to be acoustically hard and echo. There will only be a few people in this room at any one time, preventing too much of a cacophony. Also due to the large mass and small openings between itself and the other spaces, the reverberation is prevented from spreading. Long Lag Here the building must be kept at the required temperatures and is intended as an analogous memory bank. It needs to retain heat during the day, and be well insulated during the night to retain heat for the next day. To achieve this, thick, double skin walls of local timber as load bearing portal frames with full fill (300mm-450mm) welsh sheep?s wool batts will be used to provide a very well insulated structure. A large amount (300mm) of lime render (0.08W/mK) insulation will be used on top of this volume as a secondary layer of insulation. GSHP under floor heating will be used to supplement solar gain, which will come from a large south facing glazed façades, with rolling glazed doors to admit as much direct sunlight as possible. Each room is a maximum of 6m from an opening, providing effective solar gain and passive ventilation throughout the

entire building. The individual rooms can easily be ventilated by opening windows, but the building will maintain its temperature, with trickle vents in doors, windows and rollocks providing a base level of ventilation. The double skin will also ensure little sound transmission between rooms, and views in one direction provide privacy. Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats The fact that there is so much glass in the couth facade of this building does mean that it is prone to overheating if there were not enough passive ventilation in place, or if this became damaged. However the fact that the ventilation in place is sufficient and is both wind and buoyancy driven builds in some redundancy in case there were unforeseen circumstances. The large solar gain also means that there will be a large amount of light in these spaces, which is not strictly necessary, but has no negative repercussions. Thermally weak points around doors and windows will be mitigated by placing them in shielded positions, using high specification glass and ensuring that the rest of the building is over specified to make up for inevitable losses at these points.

The unprotected Difference engine is prone to vandalism, but it does serve to protect the glass façade.

Appendix III : Structures

1:1 lime mortar joint construction 1. tension cable 2. brick 3. 10mm lime mortar

The construction of a building is obviously a very important part of the design process, so considerations about the structure of Cross Kiln were present from the beginning of the project. More specifically the materiality of the building ran parallel to the discussions, and made objects, that I was creating alongside the drawn aspects. The building is an extension of the discussion about time and architecture which has arched through the whole of this years work and my environmental strategy. Thus the intentions of the project are really to articulate this discussion and further it through the intricacies of construction. As I mentioned, the free transferral of objects between the real and the drawn provided a tangible and necessary level of detailing, and in turn an imbued reality. The construction makes use of these, and other, objects as a way of using a certain level of symbology, understanding that

what is drawn is not real, but what is made is. Thus the translation between the idea and the construction becomes a crucial blind switch. This section will primarily concentrate on a few parts of the building, while the 1:50 work I have produced gives a good understanding of the entire construction. Lime As touched upon in my discussion of the site, the building is constructed out of an

old lime kiln and is set within a limestone cliff. Thus both the practical and poetic sides of using this place based material are very important. Limestone is a reasonably strong sedimentary rock, with a load bearing capacity of 4000kN/m2

1:1 section through hull tool structure 1. Internal lapped and sealed weatherboarding 2. 50mm vertical posts at 600mm c/c 3. 50mm horizontal beams at 600mm c/c 4. 300mm full fill sheeps wool insulation

5. 50mm vertical posts at 600mm c/c 6. 50mm horizontal beams at 600mm c/c 7. External lapped and sealed weatherboarding 8. (Not shown) 6mm copper standing seam roofing, goosefat, thick felt bag containing 300mmm slaked lime

Sheeps wool Locally sourced sheep?s wool s used throughout the site. Thick batts of treated wool are used to provide insulation. This is ideal since the wool is also naturally

waterproof as well as insulating. In the felt bags on top of the hull tools the wool has been processed to give felt. This is a very simple process : as shown by the felt I have produced : and could be done locally to further reduce embodies energy. Its low embodied energy, from being sourced locally, and local source and processing also help to support the local economy.

Truss The design of the large cantilevering truss threw up some interesting points. To increase the efficiency of this design, by making sure that most of the concrete elements are in compression, I used a funicular form. A funicular form is produced by hanging a cable (representing the self weight of the trussed arch) from two points to produce a form entirely in tension : a catenary arch. By turning this upside down a form that is entirely in compression is generated. This is seen throughout the work of Heinz Isler, where very thin concrete membranes can cover very large areas, simply because the entire structure is using the maximum strength

of the concrete. For this reinforced concrete trussed arch the rule of thumb is span/rise = 8 (average) : 12 (max) span/section thickness = 30 (average) : 40 (max) Here my span is 8m Thus giving: 1m rise 266mm thickness section At the end of the arch is a cantilever over the beach. This will also be made from reinforced concrete, using the pioneering work of Sir Owen Williams as a precedent. Sir Owen Williams was one of the major proponents of reinforced concrete

in Britain, both pre- and post-war, and was involved in building the 1924 British Empire Exhibition and the M1. His bridge at Montrose is unusual since it uses reinforced concrete trusses to cantilever large decks : 150 feet long each end and 216 feet between : from two piers. This design in fact came in cheaper than a quote for purely structural steelwork, proving its efficiency, despite it?s unorthodox construction. In fact it was designed to take a live load of 10kN/m2, along with it?s considerable dead load. Thus by using the triangulation pattern, the sloping top member and the difference in thickness between the elements I brought the same structural logic of the bridge?s cantilever to my own work.

The large concrete truss needed careful consideration to make sure that it did not overload the limestone beneath. +0m GL Weight of crane (calculated as if made of solid concrete to overcompensate for any

extra mass) = 25.3 kN/m3 (assuming 5”steel) x 25m x 0.5m x 2.5m x 2 = 1265 kN Divided by 4 points of contact = 316kN on each steel section Each of these has a span of 2m 305 by 127 would achieve tolerance But due to torsional stress, I?ll use 300 by 300 welded steel plate to tie in neatly to the steel columns For the concrete beneath these I beams 316kN / 2m x 0.3m

= 189kN/m2 Thus easily within the 40,000 kN/m2 bearing strength of concrete For the Foamglas beneath the concrete (316kN + 0.5kN x 2m) / 1.2mx2m 226kN/m2 Easily within the 3000kN/m2 bearing pressure of Foamglas SL -5m GL Steel rule of thumb Typical length = 2-5 length/depth before buckling < 14 depth = 0.4m fulfills this But

weight of crane (if made of solid concrete to overcompensate for any extra mass) 25.3 kN/m3 (5”steel) X 25m x 0.4 x 2.5 x 2 = 1265 kN Welded plate column Steel strength = 400N/mm2 Area per column = 10 x 380 x 2 + 10 x 400 x 2 = 7600 + 8000 400 x 15600 = 6240kN Thus far in excess per column Therefore reduce to 0.3 by 0.3

Encased in 64mm concrete at base

Details