This Is Engand is a design & research unit within the graduate diploma school of the Canterbury School of Architecture Studio Georgia Chatzimichali, Adam Freestone, Adam Hiles, Simon Jones, Matthew Parnham, Pedro Santos, Chris Simmons, Dimitros Sinos, James Williams, Ottili Yip
Matt, I appreciate that you have done this in a short space of time and that it is a completely different scheme from the one you showed on Tuesday.
ReplyDeleteHowever, a few comments.
Your character is both highly specific and incredibly vague! Why is she middle aged? Or single? What is important about these biographical details? They seem personal but somewhat irrelevant in terms of the project. I.e. what do they have to do with England/France UK/Europe?
What kind of artist is she? Why does she want to live in this particular place and how does her work relate to it? I feel that this has to come down to something more than view. The relationship of artists to views here is too easy.
Similarly, the house is very specific in one sense but also difficult to get to grips with as a concept. Why does it sit on the site as it does? What is behind the angular forms which seem to have a geometry all of their own, unrelated to the site? I appreciate that there are big cubic volumes with views, one of which cantilivers over the cliff edge, but am still not sure what governs the rest of the spaces, especially the subsidiary ones like wc's etc. And, to be boring for a moment, a more regular shaped house with windows on all sides would have very similar views so what is it about your house that does something different?
What about the architectural language? The eles are quite diagrammatic but suggest a contemporary kind of modernism but how does this relate to the site or the character?
If it is predicated on views perhaps there are too many? Maybe one would be more powerful and the rest of the house could be inward looking as a counterpoint?