Date: 17 June 09
Author: Caroline Ednie, Web Editor
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As part of its annual Degree Show – a showcase of work by over 400 graduating students – Edinburgh College of Art wil be presenting new work by undergraduate and postgraduate students from the School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture. In an exclusive preview, prior to this Saturday's (20th June) official launch, www.scottisharchitecture.com is delighted to present below a selection of featured projects at this year's ECA Degree Show by Architecture and Landscape Architecture students. Full details of the Degree Show also follows.
(Click on images to enlarge)
Undergraduate School of Architecture
Iain Tinsdale 'Mind Lab'
"Our culture has come to value both education and the educated. The Mind Lab provides the facilities to develop and reinvigorate teachers and their teaching
As you pass through the entrance you appreciate the transition into a different world. The formidable facade, initial structure and density of the plan give way to a wonderful open space. People are visible working talking and socialising across three levels as the ceiling rises up to the first floor and the ground drops away to the garden.
The garden is now the focus of the building, the main space and all of the teaching areas are oriented towards it. The facade along the lower ground floor has the ability to be completely opened up bringing the teaching spaces directly into nature. The idea comes from the question. Would you prefer to sit in a room with a view or sit in the view itself?"
Contact: iaintinsdale@hotmail.com
Lucy Runciman 'breathing space - life long learning centre'
"Breathing Space is a centre for the treatment of depression and stress, a place where sufferers can escape their everyday lives, relax, reflect and eventually recover.
Three 'worlds' are created within the building to help visitors rediscover their inner balance, and also help them reconnect with nature, their bodies and their minds. Physical and sensory therapies are dug into the slope where visitors can retreat and feel earthed and stable. Public areas are centred around the cafe and playspace which relate to the forest and reach out over the river. Here visitors can experience the theraputic properties of play and social interaction. Contemplative spaces and counselling areas float above the trees and are focussed towards the sky, allowing visitors to gain a new perspective and reflect on their lives."
Contact: lucyrunciman@yahoo.co.uk
David Sonka 'The Social Mixer'
"Edinburgh’s Fountainbridge is an area which is undergoing significant change. Fountainbridge and its surrounding communities were up until recently industrial quarters and home to skilled labourers and areas close-by contain other dominant groups such as students, single parents, high income families, ethnic minorities and elderly residents. The expansion of the Business District in the West End is introducing new groups of people into an already diverse area.
The Social Mixer will provide for all the social needs for the community and will act as hub for all extra-curricular and social activities. The centre focuses on four areas of social interaction, Fun & Entertainment, Learning & Growing, The Community and Games & Sports, a fifth area will provide accommodation for visitors. The Social Mixer is intended to bring the community together, regardless of age, social status or ethnic background. It will give people the opportunity to meet other members of their community whom they would otherwise have no interaction with."
Contact: go2dave37@hotmail.com
Lucie Vejmelkova 'The Centre For Life'
"A centre that becomes a community hub, one where you come to relax, to socialise, exercise, be entertained and educated as well as to speak to your doctor or nurse, be examined, treated, or to have a child. A building for everyone, not just the sick, where wellness of being and quality of life are at the heart of all endeavours. Through a holistic view of medicine both traditional and alternative therapies are combined with community support, wellness and fitness facilities. Relationships with nature, landscape and the importance of family are reinforced and the individual is reconnected with themselves, the community and the lifecycle. An architecture of mingling between nature, staff, nature, patients, nature, the community and nature."
Contact: forlucie@hotmail.com
Gavin Roberston 'Dignity'
“One day I picked up seven pounds of clay that was lying around and I did a sculpted portrait… it was the first real positive thing I’d done in my life and it was like a creative damn bursting inside me”
Jimmy Boyle
An art refuge for young adults from a deprived community. The project aims to give direction to the lives of those who might otherwise turn to drug abuse and crime.
Inspired by the life of Jimmy Boyle the attendees are shown dignity by being treated as human beings and given the freedom to create. With this freedom of expression comes a graffiti ethic that encourages the idea that everybody can and should express themselves through art when and where they want.
The project essentially aims to provide an extension to the community where anyone can come and take their anger or frustration out on a block of granite rather than society.
Contact: gavincrobinson@aol.com
Postgraduate School of Architecture
William Guthrie 'Slateford Apiary / The Arterial Garden'
"Responding to the problem of global bee depopulation, the Slateford Apiary and Research Unit is a vessel for the containment of facilities aimed at the promotion of learning and discovery in the field of Apicultural science. Situated between the Slateford Aqueduct and rail viaduct, the building spans a gorge over the Water of Leith as a bridge-like structure, supporting facilities for research, manufacture and education.
Embroiled innately within the building concept is the idea of the Arterial Garden – the conversion of latent brownfield land (situated between and beside railway and canal infrastructures) into a network of garden-corridors, linking urban and rural environments directly. Fertile corridors of vegetation extend from deep within the city centre, forming beguiling passageways into the countryside."
Contact: willguthrie86@hotmail.com
Colin Davidson 'The Leith Mile'
"Leith has always maintained a strong sense of identity within the context of the city. This scheme reinforces the link between the city and Leith by continuing the strength of the existing connection of Leith Walk through to the heart of the new water front development. The master plan becomes the end of the new ‘Leith Mile’ that stretches from the end of the New Town to the waterfront.
This is done by the careful insertion of key public spaces that provide a clear route into the heart of the development. Vistas from the new public spaces towards landmarks on the Fife coastline provide a strong connection with the water and give the scheme an important permeability that allows for easy navigation and sense of place. This allows the central part of the master plan to becomes higher density and mixed use while the areas around the edge are more focused on lower density family housing and live/work units."
Contact: raith_rovers_fan@yahoo.co.uk
James Carver
"My project explored Koolhaas’ idea of the archipelago city of single uses, his theory of big and his argument of fuck context.
A framework and subsequently a masterplan were created for Port Dundas, an industrial area in the North of Glasgow. Port Dundas had always been a place of production, thus a conceptual framework was created to update the area for what Castells calls the new informational-capitalist mode of production. This meant following a framework for development that I did not agree with in order to test out both the theories and my position alongside them. This allowed working with the literature of not only Koolhaas but Soja, Sieverts and Augé."
Contact: James.Carver@eca.ac.uk
Laura Ferguson 'Site Map'
"Overall view of Memory Box site a building that deals with death and the remembrance of loved ones. A place where memories are triggered, stored and recollected."
Contact: lausie8484@hotmail.com
Carol Hayes 'A new life on the water, Albert Dock, Leith'
The concept strategy for Leith Docks acknowledges the water’s role as a catalyst for dockland redevelopment, maximising potential interaction with new development through a number of water based environments. The masterplan focuses on a high density development waterfront edge along a canalised Water of Leith. The remaining docks become tidal; nature breaks down the man made to create open space amenity unique to Edinburgh. The Albert Dock lies within this masterplan, highlighting alternative living on the water through canalised water networks and finger blocks extensions to the water. Each resident has their own floating private open space, free to use as they please. The built form steps up and around the water to allow inhabitants with small craft to travel through the area. A mix of tenure, ground floor live/work units and high integration with the centre of Leith ensures that the area is active and vibrant throughout the day.
Contact: Carol.hayes1@gmail.com
Edinburgh College of Art Architecture & Landscape Architecture Show
20 June – 2 July, Mon – Thurs 10am to 8pm Fri – Sun 10am – 5pm
Edinburgh College of Art, Lauriston Place, Edinburgh EH3 9DF
Admission Free
Full info on the website: www.eca.ac.uk/degreeshow
