the lost garden

the lost gardenarchitectural design|tectonics|arch10003

unit 4| a beacon in the darkolle blomquist| s0954531

esala may 2013

monday 14 january 2013 at 10.22 pm. somewhere on blackfriars street, edinburgh.

- spare some change please.- …- this is a danish coin!?- …

monday 14 january 2013 at 10.29 pm. holyrood road, edinburgh.

- what’s your name?- kim.

kim is the child of a scottish father and a dan-ish mother. mother left for unclear reasons when kim was five years old and has not been heard of since. kim has a twin sister and the strict father took the twins to scotland to find a job.

- where have you been?- everywhere.

the family never settled but moved from place to place. from an early age the father put a lot of pressure on the talented child and in the late teens kim could not take it anymore, left the fa-ther and started using drugs.

- how old are you?- 23.

kim has managed to keep good jobs and do well, but regularly falls back into heavy drug abuse which led to a bad breakup with the twin sister who is now estranged and missed. Kim is now all alone.

- here is your key. room nr 7.

site p.4

development p.16

room p.22

foyer p.26

part p.34

the lost garden p.40

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site / development / room / foyer / part / the lost gardencorridor plan 1:2500the site is located on the east side of the corridor where the cowgate turns into holyrood road. protected by a wall facing the street it is almost not noticable. homlessness has traditionally and to this day been a problem in the core of edinburgh’s old town where the grassmarket and the cowgate are located. the site was chosen for its proximity to this ‘problem zone’, while at the same time keeping some distance from the busy bar district on the cowgate.

The site sits very close to the busy road but is deep and as one progresses the outer activity is muted. the surrounding buildings are on the north and west side primarliy residential and on the east side owned by the university and used for storage and waste handling. the site has through the analysis been understood as a series of outdoor rooms creating a void. the ground is slightly sloping downwards into the site as the boundaries of the void become more present, the area gets smaller and the raw but beautiful materiaity of the sourounding buidlings and old strcutures is noticed. two large tress clad in ivy stands out particularly in the void as well as the industrial character of the building forms around it. colour, found objects, and the bird’s tweets form the nearby garden adds another layer of intense detail and prescence to this place.

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esala year 4 / semester 2 / 2013.05.02 / module code arch10003 / architectural design / tectonics / s0954531 / olle blomquist

unit 4 / a beacon in the dark / chris lowry and clare slifer

george iv bridge

cowgate

holydood road

grassmarket

the pleasance

st. mary’s st.

south bridge

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site / development / room / foyer / part / the lost gardensite detail photographs

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site / development / room / foyer / part / the lost garden

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site survey - plan and sections 1:500

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section a-a section b-b

section c-c

section e-e

section d-d

section f-f

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site / development / room / foyer / part / the lost gardenthree rooms

expressive sketches explored the volumes of the void and the three rooms, emphasising the heightened intensity of the urban fabric of the the deeper parts of the site. this informed the tectonic site model. the model raised the problem of getting light into all parts of the site.

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this elongated hand drawing explored the boundaries of the site, walking in to the last room and then back again on the opposit side. it emphasises the fluidity of the site and explores the difference in intensity. a digital replica was later created from exact site surveys.

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site / development / room / foyer / part / the lost gardenthe elevation hand drawing was manipulated to recreate the boundaries of the site from another perspective. the project has aspired to continuosly shift between digital and manual media to create an atmospheric and expressive style that goes with the project’s ethos.

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further explorative drawings mapping different tectonic characteristics in order to start formulating a strategy for distributing the programme.

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site / development / room / foyer / part / the lost gardendiagrams - decision making and program distribution

1b. found site tectonics - walls, corners, trees, boundaries.

2a. direction of movement and location of gardens.

2b. from street, to public, to semi-public, to private.distribution of program according to these three distinct rooms and their corresponding gardens.

3. immediate context. what is creating the void? height, enclosure, geometry, neighbours, views, sun light.

1a. arrived at site.

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4a. design problem 1: light-tectonic solution - rising platform.

4b. concrete platform.

5. glazed elements creates mixture of dark/private and light/public spaces.

6a. design problem 2: distribtuion of program, heavy cellurlar private spaces on top of light open semi-public spaces. tectonic solution - concrete ‘table’.

6b. walls carrying concrete slab transferring load to foundations.

7. form of building identifying room. the geometry is more expressive further into the site. informed by the gemotry of the surrounding buildings. the curve also accomodates the three, creating a nice juxtaposition of found and made tectonics.

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development models.spatial (left)ramp (middle)roof (left)structural (opposit)

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site / development / room / foyer / part / the lost gardenprecedent - brick house - caruso st. john plan (nts) and photos

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the brick house in london by caruso st. john acted as a precedent, primarily because of the similar tight site condition where the new architecture has very few elevations. the foyer proposal similarily take advantage of courtyards within the site. this contemporary project, as well as sigurd lewerentz’ church, st. mark’s at klippan in southern sweden informed the materiality. v

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room number 7 is a single room with shared wc. and toi-let on the same floor, and kitchen and living area in-cluding a private garden on the ground floor. the foyer offer two kinds of rooms that can be modified to suit the tenant’s personality. they are located in pairs, or ‘twins’, partly inspired by kim’s estranged twin sis-ter, this creates a ‘buddy system’ making sure everyone is looked after. half of the rooms are rectangular and less expressive and the other takes on a curved shape with an inhabited wall which holds several functions that can be concealed with the sliding screen mechanism. kim used to work in the business district on the other side of the ‘corridor’ and has a habit of taking good care of his clothes and appearance.

“he was dressed rather better than most tramps, in a tweed shooting jacket and a pair of very old evening trouseres with the braid still on them. evidently the braid figured in his mind as a lingering scrap of re-spectability and he took care to sew it on again when it came loose. he wavs careful of his appearance altogeher and carried a razor and boothbrush that he would not sell...”

-paddy, down and out in london and paris, george orwell

photo of model displaying room and plan 1:20

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the teak panel blocks out light when needed but can be hidden behind walls or cover other functions. when not blocking the window the large window offers views towards the craggs. the smaller window give a rather passive light. from it one can see the street and gets very close to the tree. the flexibility of the sliding screen has been further developed and is employed throughout the whole foyer.

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all twin rooms have a communal space just outside where residents can meet and spend some time together. the large windows offers views out towards the front of the building and to the back through the elevator window.

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site / development / room / foyer / part / the lost gardenground floor plan

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1. entrance a. main b. deilvery c. reception d. cafe e. warden’s apt.2. garden a. public b. semi-public c. private d. private3. warden’s apt.4. wc./shower5. entrance6. reception7. administration8. storage9,10,11. wc.12. cafe a. public b. private13. kitchen a. delivery b. preparation c. service14. living space15,16. wc.17. life skills suit a.semi-public b.private18. shared kitchen19. material storage20. creche21,22. wc.

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1. single room2. single mother room3. private garden4. therapy suit5,6. wc7. wc./shower8. wc.9. office10. privtae single room

third floor

second floor

first floor

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site / development / room / foyer / part / the lost gardenphoto of final model showing roof and section a-a 1:200

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site / development / room / foyer / part / the lost gardensection b-b with elevation

worm’s-eye view from stairs leading up from the semi plublic garden.a set of floor to ceiling glazed panels are set close to the existing wall offering views, light and air circulation. roof is supported in steel columns.

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site / development / room / foyer / part / the lost gardensection c-c and d-d 1:200

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the dominating material of the site is masonry, and especially brick of different kind, quality, texture and colour. brick is also the main mate-rial employed for the foyer and very dominating from the exterior. the heavy structure is used to create a sense of safety and the thickness of the walls offers opportunity to be inhabited. the project’s ambition has been from an early stage to experiment with the possibilities of this mod-ular material and be expressive in its form, es-pecially as you move further into the void.

as you enter the foyer you step on a slab of con-crete that rises as one passes through the build-ing to raise the space in order to gain light. large glazed sliding doors also contributes to this aspect and offers important relationships between the interior spaces and exterior gardens.

the private part of the building has been placed on top a concrete ‘table’, held up by chunky concrete walls clad in brick. by employing this structural system the form of the rooms could be more expressive on top of the concrete structure and it can sustain the weight of the thick walls only penetrated by small windows to allow suffi-cient and atmospheric light into the rooms, while also offer maximum privacy. dark teak wood com-pletes the material palette and has been used for details throughout the project to offer a warm feeling next to the concrete and brick. to em-phasise the private nature of the rooms the floor finish changes from concrete to brick as you step into the rooms.

tectonic statement and exploded axonometric (nts)

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key1. reinforced concrete2. wall construction: 102.5 mm facing brick 10 mm off-white flush mortar joints 175mm cavity vapour barrier 100 mm thermal insulation 100 mm reinforced concrete 102.5 mm brick

3. 185 x 330 x 10 mm insulated steel lintel4. stainless steel wall tie with insulation clip and drip disc5. window construction: 50 x 30 x 5 mm aluminium window frame with double glazing 900 x 30 x 5 mm steel channel for sliding window 150 x 110 mm steel angle, 20 mm teak sliding panel 20 mm x 20 mm steel channel 30 x 10 mm steel rail with fastener 65 mm teak table top6. floor construction: 20/40 mm brick 20 mm mortar bed 10 mm sound insulation 150 mm reinforced concrete7. roof construction: 65 mm brick 20 mm gravel vapour barrier 100 mm thermal insulation light-weight concrete for slopes 150 mm reinforced concrete8. 5 mm galvanised steel gutter9. 5 mm galvanised steel drip

detail section and part of interior and exterior elevation 1:50

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site / development / room / foyer / part / the lost gardensectional tectonic model

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visualisation showing the lost garden from the apartment block behind. the form and placement of the building offers neighbours to see beyond the massive brick structure.

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the lost garden

Documents

lost gardensite

room nr

lost gardencorridor

busy road

years old

old strcutures

holyrood road

dark chris lowry