part 1: 2016 / 17

BSc ArchitectureArchitecture and Design - An Introduction to Site

Caversham Lock & Weir, 2016 © OF-L

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Reading 1800

Reading 1793, Joseph Farington

summary

module code: AA1 DS2level: 4credits: 40module convener: oliver froome-lewis

studio groups:1: lorraine farrelly, zoe berman, piers taylor + izabela wieczorek (frm 02/02) 2: daniela perrotti, sophie morley, tim o’callaghan + carolina vasilikou (frm 16/01)

3: oliver froome-lewis, alexander graef, penelope plaza + vasilena vassilev

Micro > Macro

Our spring and summer project moves from the various micro-town issues, that you addressed with corrugated fibreboard installations over the autumn, to a macro-topographic issue that you will address through the combination of strategic landscape proposals, schematic public space design and the design of your first small building which will include detailed consideration of materiality, internal spaces, their processes and devices.

O ROVING Muse! recall that wondrous yearWhen winter reigned in bleak Britannia’s air;When hoary Thames, with frosted osiers crowned,Was three long moons in icy fetters bound.The waterman, forlorn, along the shore,Pensive reclines upon his useless oar:See harnessed steeds desert the stony town,And wander roads unstable not their own;Wheels o’er the hardened water smoothly glide,And raze with whitened tracks the slippery tide;Here the fat cook piles high the blazing fire,And scarce the spit can turn the steer entire;

Booths sudden hide the Thames, long streets appear,And numerous games proclaim the crowded fair.So, when the general bids the martial trainSpread their encampment o’er the spacious plain,Thick-rising tents a canvas city build,And the loud dice resound through all the field.

The Frozen RiverJohn Gay (1685–1732)

timetable

week 01 09-Jan

week 02 16-Jan

week 03 23-Jan

week 04 30-Jan

week 05 06-Feb

week 06 13-Feb

week 07 20-Feb

week 08 27-Feb

week 09 06-Mar

week 10 13-Mar

week 11 20-Mar

EASTER

week 01 17-Apr

week 02 24-Apr

week 03 01-May

week 04 08-May

week 05 08-May

action 1 >topographyaimslandformisland

action 2 >manifestokey spacesdevices

action 3 >narrativelandformislandenvelopekey spacesdevices

action 4 >development

action 5 >refinecommunicate

thurs: tutorials thurs: tutorials thurs: review

thurs: tutorials

thurs: tutorials thurs: review

thurs: tutorials

thurs: tutorials

thurs: tutorials

thurs: review

thurs: tutorials

thurs: review

thurs: tutorials

thurs: tutorials

thurs: review

mon: submission

design studio

All design studio timetabled events take place in the design studio or PC lab or they are on ‘site’.Design Studio sessions on Mondays start at 10.00am. Visualisation + Communication sessions on Mondays start at 10.30am.All day tutorial sessions on Thursdays start at 10.30am.Please bring project progress, sketching materials + note taking materials to all sessions.Please remember to bring a camera to all making and on site activities and record your progress.

You can neither lie to a neighbourhood park, nor reason with it.The Death and Life of Great American Cities - Jane Jacobs

brief

Your project is divided into a series of actions and reviews:

action 1 > aims, topography, landform, island what you are setting out to achieve, and how topographical changes might support this action 2 > manifesto, key spaces, devices, materiality how the content of your project will support your aimsaction 3 > narrative, landform, island, envelope, key spaces, devices the inhabitation of your project in words, containment and developmentaction 4 > development iterations, decisions, search for the best means of communicationaction 5 > refine, communicate balance, perfect, fine tune, deliver

Map of Redding, John Speed, 1611

key stages

context

The project centres around water control and flooding. Flooding can be seen both as a phenomenon of nature and as a consequence of national and local water control strategies. But even ‘natural’ flooding falls under the shadow of global warming (real? fictional?) and national and local water control strategies are affected by land values, land ownership, budgetary restraints, historically wise and unwise, successful and unsuccessful policies and on more and less current, imaginative and up-to-date thinking on water control tactics. Then there are questions of who and what will be affected by floods, of lower (more affordable) house prices in low lying (read risky) areas, of river views and of flooding risks to infrastructures such as road, rail and power supplies and to public health. So, there are intriguing political and social dimensions to flooding to be understood and taken into consideration.

flood - experiences + issues

I left the house with my grandson at around 12pm, and all I could see was water pouring over the neighbours fence which is more then 6ft high. It looked like a waterfall. I rushed into the house to call my husband. When I returned to the back door where the water was heading towards, my neighbour shouted for me to move my car, as the brick work which was holding up our fence was about to collapse on top of it. I waded through the water with my grandson and moved the car. Within a matter of seconds our neighbour’s summer house crashed through the side of our garage. The entire fencing and brick work collapsed, also in seconds.

I tried to get to the back door, but the current and the 3ft depth of the water refrained me from doing this. I could only access the front of our house, and by then the ground floor of our house was filled with around 2 to 3ft of water. My son’s car which was parked on the right side side of the double garage was now on the left. Our utility room attached to our garage was completely ripped out, and our garage roof has completely bowed.

The ground floor of our house has the silt and residue left behind from the flood. It has ruined our property.

The force and mass of water was so rapid, I was unable to salvage any of our property on the ground floor.It was absolutely terrifying, I’ve never seen anything like it.

Ann Withers 2007, Woolhampton

I looked out of the window on arriving to see the carpark to the school and leisure centre flooded and the drain bubbling water out but this didn’t scare me as the car park often floods. I decided to go and help in the library. I saw people looking out of the window and coming away looking very grim and white. I started to worry. Once the crowd had cleared slightly I went to one of the windows and looked out in horror, for I saw, gushing down the road that runs outside the school (Stoney Lane off Station Road) was about a foot of brown, muddy water.

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing and I could actually feel my face go prickly was the blood drained from it. ‘It couldn’t be happening, it was bad, I have to get hold of mum’ was all I could think about as I told the librarian.She also came away from the window looking pale. I had forgotten my phone and frantically tried to phone my mum on a friend’s mobile. The only problem was, no one could get a signal and even the school phones didn’t work.Lots of people were hysterical and trying to contact parents whilst we watched some cars swept away by the current.

The floodwater rose to knee height then, finally, the rain stopped, but still the river flowed down the road. It was about 1.30pm. We were finally allowed to leave at 2.30pm but only if parents came. At about 3pm my friend’s parents came and offered to take me, and in her 4x4 we left.

Driving through water an inch or so below knee height through scenes of despair. Fortunately the flood waters did not reach our house, the rain had stopped in time for us, but not for others.

Faye Fleetwood 2007, Kennet School

context

The historic town of Reading lay on the river Kennet near its junction with the river Thames, but it was not until the 20th century that the town proper extended as far as the Thames. The reason for this is entirely a question of land drainage, for the belt of gravel that invited early settlement extends east and west from the Kennet, and is separated from the Thames by an area, formerly swampy in parts and very liable to flooding. This gravel ridge on which original Reading stood rises some thirty feet above the Thames and is divided into two by the Kennet, the eastern part of the ridge being some two miles long and half a mile wide, the western the same length but only half the width. The gravel itself is over twelve feet thick and rests on chalk, and historic Reading occupied the central part of the ridge, straddling the Kennet where the gap in the gravel is at its narrowest. But although Reading was a town of the Kennet rather than of the Thames, it was the Thames that provided communication by water towards the centre of the kingdom in the direction of Wallingford and Oxford and outward, downstream, to London. The Kennet, however, drew on a rich agricultural and area extending west towards Newbury and the Downs, and Reading, astride its lowest reaches, was in a markedly favourable position for this local trade. C F Slade

flooding + geology

context

You can see from the environment agency maps available online: http://maps.environment-agency.gov.uk/ areas that are at risk of flooding and their levels of alert. Reading has a large area at risk, and our location for the project is at the epicentre of this risk.

The tidal flow of the Thames is controlled at Richmond in West London, and then at a sequence of 45 lock and weir combinations along the river. In all the navigable part of the river falls 71 metres. The locks and weirs make the river navigable and allow water levels to be adjusted and therefore give some control over water and flood risk distribution along the river. However, if limits that can be controlled in this way are exceeded flooding becomes inevitable. The damage, risk and inconvenience that is caused by the flooding is then dependent on local topography including whether there are sacrificial areas set aside to flood with little damage or whether there are low lying areas of housing.

Caversham lock and weir are just east of Reading Bridge. Between the lock and the weir there is an artificial island which is the location for this project. The environment agency map indicates this area as being potentially surrounded by flood water. Downstream there are substantial areas of land which could flood temporarily with relatively little damage whilst to the north south and east there are areas of housing and infrastructure. The island offers scope for a project that addresses flooding in some way.

the thames + caversham lock

Environment Agency Maps

Caversham Lock & Weir

content

submission requirements:

A 200 word position statement.1:1000 strategic area plan.1:500 island plan, sections and elevations.An island view in context.1:200 plans, sections and elevations of your proposal including adjoining public spaces.An external view looking towards your project.1:50 section of your project.An internal view looking out of your project.1:10 detailed section indicating materiality.A 1:500 strategic model and a 1:50 part model of key spaces.A project diary / blog with at least one entry for every day of the project.

design

You will need to take a position, for example:

flood as spectacleLet nature, man-made or otherwise, take its course and exploit or demonstrate what this course might be. Celebrate the wonder or horror of the flood or both?

monitoring and learning from waterDemonstrate or monitor the logic of flooding, find ways of measuring or revealing or exploiting the characteristics of changing aquatic behaviours increasing knowledge, respect and ownership?

bad water = bad politicsProtest about flooding, provide a rallying point, a protest base, highlight concerns. Bad water as a signifier of political failure, the need for change?

water as waterWater as a tactile medium that flows, bubbles, changes colour, supports different flora and fauna, freezes, roars, glides, reflects, silts and converts to a glossy sludge?

Depending on the position that you take the precise functional content of your project may vary, however, as a guide:

You will develop a strategic approach to an area of approximately 500m NSE&W of the island.You will develop a schematic public space design for the island.You will develop a new building which will vary in content subject to your position but which will include: an external semi-public space, an adjoining shared community / debate / exhibition space of about 80m2, other related / supporting spaces of not more than 60m2 in total, a View Keepers lodge, for occasional stays, of about 75 m2.Include a protected mooring for a Zodiac work-boat ‘525’.

Your project may also be responsive to seasonal changes in local conditions – What kinds of solutions could be sufficiently robust or adaptable to be variously beneficial at different times of year?

Data Extracted from Module Descriptor

Summary module descriptionThis is the second in a series of related design modules. It provides an introduction to architecture and the idea of the site and placing architecture in context. It provides opportunities for the creative application of skills and knowledge gained across the undergraduate curriculum to simple design projects. Students will further develop skills including sketching, freehand drawing, technical drawing and model-making to explore and develop their design capabilities.

AimsThe module aims to develop students’ design skills and creativity and to provide opportunities to apply knowledge and skills developed from teaching and learning activities within other first year modules.

Intended learning outcomesAssessable outcomesAt the end of this module, students will be able to:

1. Prepare and present building design projects of diverse scale, complexity, and type in a variety of contexts, using a range of media, and in response to a brief; GC 1.1

2. Describe through drawing and models the way in which buildings fit into their local context. GC 5.3

3. Demonstrate an understanding of the physical properties and characteristics of building materials, components and systems and the environmental impact of specification choices. GC 8.3

4. Communicate effectively by means of visual representations, and in oral and written communication, well-considered and imaginative design proposals for design projects at a range of scales such as artefacts, rooms/spaces and simple buildings;

5. Demonstrate capability in the effective application of traditional graphic and model-making techniques;

6. Demonstrate ability to apply a range of communication methods and media to design proposals clearly and effectively; GA 1.2

Additional outcomes1. Students will also gain an awareness of the value of visualisation to support design development, evaluation and decision making, and an appreciation of the value of design studio in relation to teaching and learning activities.

Outline contentStudents will undertake the design of small scale building design projects, related to a range of scales and complexity.

In addition there will be an emphasis on understanding user needs: anthropometrics, comfort, access and scale.