BLACK FOREST GATEAU

These drawings are from a time in the design of the arcade when the final aesthetic had not been truly defined. The concept had materialised, the manner was formed, but the colour and the shape had not yet settled. With all of this weighing on my mind, I began to draw, creating little cupcakes of ideas - miniature versions of later decisions. The Arcade was too large a battle as yet, but if I formed a maquette - or a little sister, hopefully that would lead me somewhere along the way.

FINISHED GATEAU

This is as far as I got before feeling that I had to put these colours and shapes into a physical context. What I ended up with is the distilled representation of all the psychologies and sociologies I had been wrestling with - but without a place.

Looking at the finished gateau, I suppose it wants to be in a forest, approached by a winding path, along which there are clearings of various sizes. I could suggest that the Arcade is that forest, the platforms are those winding paths. Perhaps the gateau did in fact confirm to me what the Arcade wanted to be - I had already transformed it into a forest, at the foot of the mountain, with winding paths and small clearings - what it needed was a house at its core.

Though the final forms of the various houses inside the finished design may not share an exact aesthetic with the gateau, I do think there is still a family resemblance.

CUPCAKES

TESTING THE BASE

TESTING THE FILLING

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FOOTSTEPS UPWARD

About three years ago, half way through an undergraduate scheme, I found a post on BLDGBLOG that somewhat changed my point of view. Rather than change the design completely, I carried on along the path I had been taking, and produced a reasonable attempt at a prototype commital and memorial facility in a semi-urban environment, based on British cultural heritage.



Commital chapel by TD

  

Graveside by TD

In my mind the project was unfinished, as it hadn't fulfilled its original ambition of providing a fully urban solution. The problem was that potential for that solution was in a different direction and had been ably examined by Chanjoong Kim (System Lab), through development of the vertical collumbarium.

The Last House (South Korea Pavilion, Venice Biennale 2006) by System Lab

I feel that I still have something to add, so really, the reason I joined the Seoul Satellite Unit, was to follow System Lab and the others, to finish what I started three years ago - my footsteps upward.

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INTERNALS / number 1

Having made initial presentations about 6 FEET UP, and listened to the others of the Free Unit I wonder about the presentation that I didn't make. What did I leave out - what did I want to say? 

I am attempting to find an architecture for the bereaved. Support for the ending of other, not the end of self. Who are memorials really for any way? The inscriptions on a gravestone are not a means for the dead to cling to life, but for the living to connect to death. Here lies Alan, who died aged 45.  He is survived by Dorothy. I see this and think, ' I am 45, I have a wife, these are people connected to me, who thrive on my existance, and allow me to thrive. In considering how our lives combine, and intertwine, I begin to consider the mortality of the lives we cohabit.

Quality of death for the living - of comfort, support and security an end to architectural navel gazing - pushing the mindscape outwards!

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STEPPING OFF THE SOAPBOX

Yes, well... manifestos are all well and good - it gets my thoughts out I suppose - but there's always something left unsaid, whether through absent-mindedness or simply an inability to fashion a decent paragraph out of a somewhat blurry idea or five. I'll try and add to these as time goes on, and try not to edit them - so that over time, perhaps some trajectory towards clarity will form.

Its probably important to sometime soon, try and form an explanation of what my hopes for 6 FEET UP are, how I came to have those hopes, and in what way they have, might or maybe come to fruition. This will probably balance out the aforementioned trajectory towards clarity somewhat, but these things are always a work in progress.

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