Monthly Archives: February 2009

New Suburban Civic: Richard Cottrell

Posted on February 20, 2009 by | Leave a comment

TUESDAY 24TH FEBRUARY 2009 at London Metropolitan University
1-2pm, The Forum, Spring House
Richard Cottrell of Cottrell & Vermeulen Architecture
presents
The National Day Nurseries Association Centre, Hounslow, London

The NDNA building was conceived of as a large translucent rainscreen ‘tent’ protecting lightweight children’s buildings. The form is a mix between traditional suburban housing and out of town retail sheds.

The building is part of an ongoing exploration by Cottrell & Vermeulen to provide an affordable, child friendly architecture. Children occupy spaces differently to adults; children require outdoor spaces, will escape through unlocked windows, become restless indoors on rainy days, lie on their backs and look at the ceiling, hide under furniture etc. The oversized roof provides external ‘room’ decks that open up onto the interior spaces, effectively doubling the accommodation on rainy days. The landscape is also conceived of as safe rooms that provide varying activity areas. By creating a large safe children’s territory, the centre is easier to manage and more fun to be in.

 

Playing in sheds

Playing in sheds

Hosted by LMU Department of Architecture and Spatial Design
Spring House, 40-44 Holloway Road, London N7 8JL

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New Suburban Civic lunchtime talks begin: Sam Jacob

Posted on February 19, 2009 by | Leave a comment
TUESDAY 10th FEBRUARY 2009 at London Metropolitan University
1-2pm, Cinema, Spring House
Sam Jacob of Fat
presents
The Villa, Heerlijkheid Hoogvliet, Rotterdam 
‘not Arcadia, but an imaginary Arcadia’

The Villa is a community building which sits at the heart of the Heerlijkheid park designed by Fat.  The design is intended to create a 21st century civic architecture for a suburban new town. It is a decorated shed, using timber rain screen cladding to create an architecture of communication which evokes Hoogvliet’s industrial past.  The references to elements of nature in the entrance and in some of the “cut-out” features of the façade, recall the bucolic ideas on which the design of the New Town was originally based.  
‘We wanted to manufacture a sense of place. Our approach is like Critical Regionalism from the opposite point of view. It is about abstraction and stylisation, but an abstraction that’s not heading towards meaninglessness, but trying to find a meaning. We want to articulate the complexity of the story, not reduce it.”    

The Villa, "a 21st century civic architecture"

The Villa, "a 21st century civic architecture"

 

 

Following Sam’s presentation of the scheme the discussion explored a number of ideas, including:

Park is the new Piazza. Is ‘the park’ a more appropriate civic space for the 21st century suburbia than previous, more traditionally urban models?

Slow urbanism.  Heerlijkheid Hoogvliet was developed over an eight year period - is a meaningful, participative architecture only possible through extended brief development?

Accommodating diverse publics.  The park includes a number of smaller buildings for specific interest groups e.g. model boat builders.  Is this an appropriate form for accommodating the different, and often conflicting, demands of a diverse public?

Adaptive architecture.  How can a social condenser best accommodate a diverse range of activities?  The Villa provides a single main room, distinct in character and yet robust enough to take any amount of event specific decoration.

Hosted by LMU Department of Architecture and Spatial Design
Spring House, 40-44 Holloway Road, London N7 8JL

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