Great to see the work developing so well at the crit. Everyone I saw seemed to have a potentially very interesting project. There were however some things I thought I should flag up at this very important stage in the work.

TIMING!!!
Basically, you’re now half way through the year — the next term shoots by, with a semester break in the middle and then you are into bank holidays and easter, with hand in immediately afterwards.

You wont believe how quickly this goes.

You need to change gear NOW and start working on the big, ambitious bits of the scheme, at much bigger scale, and with the final drawings and models you’ll be working on for the whole of the rest of the year.

SITE
where are your site photos? your drawings you did on site? Most people didnt include any site informaion of any kind.  This is an extraordinary site, and your audience needto see it — and so do you!

Start showing the project IN CONTEXT, as this immediately make you think of and show the project as a ’real’ proposal.

I also heard almost nothing about how you were planning to use the existing buildings.

You have a site and a programme, get on with it!

PRESENTATION/AMBITION/SCALE
I saw no really ambitious drawings/ models, though lots of things that could become that if worked up.

You will need to start working on your ‘killer’ drawings NOW as they take months to do.

Look at the Ledoux drawings or other really ambitious world view drawings (try the book Exit Utopia for ideas) and shamelessly steal those techniques to show BOTH your monument AND your masterplan. You will keep working on these drawings through the rest of the (all too short) remaining time.

CONTENT
I couldnt have told from anything I saw what your Utopias were — or what your monuments were monuments to, or for.  Or what they were made of, how big they were, where they were.  Use your drawings (see above) to explore these questions.

You need to CHANGE GEAR now! Up the production, quality, ambition and decisionmaking

Looking forward to seeing it

Kester

The next part of the project is to develop a masterplan for your Utopian community using the land adjacent to the Saline Royale as your site.

The site has been selected because of its Utopian credentials and its powerful geometrical properties. We want you to respond to these conditions, armed with the approaches to geometric composition and utopian ideas that you have developed thus far.

This means using the compositional techniques from earlier exercises to relate to the site and to integrate and further develop your schedule of accommodation as part of the masterplanning process.

You need to work simultaneously on practical and conceptual issues. Practical issues you will need to consider include:

• Arrangement of the schedule of accommodation on site.

• Dealing with pedestrian and vehicular routes inc any parking

• Building massing/layouts/heights

• Energy supply

• Land use – housing, agriculture, commercial, industrial, leisure, administrative, ceremonial/religious , cultural, education etc. Conceptual issues will include:

• Expression of hierarchies (or non-hierarchies).

• Relationship between uses (between living and working for example)

• Relationship to the Saline and response to its use and geometry.

• Development of formal and symbolic languages.

• Evolution of your utopian programme through design.

We imagine your project will be adjacent to the Saline, but that does not preclude intervening into it, annexing it into your utopia, or changing its use. You might also decide to leave it as it is and retain its present day use as a heritage monument with museum and accommodation etc.

This part of the project will commence with a group workshop starting at 10.00 am on Monday 21st November. This will be in the morning. In the afternoon we will review monuments.

There is a crit scheduled for Monday 28th November. For this you should have a completed monument, a schedule of accommodation and your first masterplan studies which show its concept and practical layout in drawings and models.

Please note, this is NOT your final masterplan proposal, but your first attempt at it.

Sean Griffiths Camilla Wilkinson.

Whilst at the Saline and Besancon, we would like you to understand and explore Ledoux’s use of geometry in the masterplan and buildings, through drawing. Using different types of drawing – plans, sections, elevations, also perspectives – it will be helpful to look at the geometry from the abstract through to the pragmatic.

How does it work?

What does it do?

What relation of scale of architecture to people?

The studies we are asking you to make will help you develop the use of geometry in your building proposals.  Are the geometries highly planned and controlled?  Is it symbolic or ornamental?  Is the architecture all that it seems or are distortions through geometry used?  Is there a powerful phenomenological sensation?  You may like to take plans of the building with you.

Part 1 – Utopia

You all need to think a little more about your Utopia. At base, a Utopia aims to make life better by addressing present day problems. What is the problem you are addressing? How does your Utopia attempt to address it?

How is your Utopia organized?
How does it operate economically?
What are its key ideologies?
What are its power structures?

As a result of thinking about these things, we want you to develop an outline programme for your
Utopia (imagine it is for 200-500 people)

What do people do there?
Where and how do they live?
Where and how do they work?
What do they do for leisure?
How are children brought up and educated?
What cultural activities happen?
What institutional facilities are required?
What types of buildings and spaces will be needed?
How big will they need to be?

These are the issues the diagrams you have been asked to do need to address as straight forwardly as possible.  The diagrams should also be accompanied by a detailed schedule of accommodation.

Part 2 – Monumental Object

You have been making two types of geometrical studies; one looking at the generation of complexity through the manipulation of various types of symmetry, and one through the study of relationships between simpler geometrical shapes.

Using the techniques so far developed (including, if appropriate, work you have already done) you are to design a monumental architectural object representing your Utopia.  This might take the form of a monument, a gateway or a pavilion.

The object is to be developed in 2 and 3 dimensions and should be presented with beautifully drawn plans, sections, elevations and axonometric.  You are also required to make a model.

As always attention is to be paid to issues of scale, size of drawing in relation to paper, size and shape of paper, line weight and so on.

It will help to look at some architectural drawings (Ledoux’s own drawings for instance).

Project to complete Thursday 10th November 2011.

Sean Griffiths

Camilla Wilkinson.

1. Make a series of studies of combinations of these shapes exploring intersections, adjacencies, superimpositions and juxtapositions in 2 dimensions.  Please note, rather than patterns, we are looking for objects and constellations which exhibit conditions of stasis, dynamism, tension, compression, comfort, dislocation and disturbance. We are looking for these to be considered and controlled (no parametric extravaganzas please).

2. When you have a series of studies with which you are satisfied, develop the best of them through drawings into three dimensional elements which you will make models of.
Final studies should be beautifully drawn and made with consideration given to scale, paper size, shape and position.

References:
Architecture and Geometry in the Age of the Baroque – George Hersey.
(in particular chapters 4, 5, 7 &
The Projective Cast, Architecture and its Three Geometries – Robin Evans.

Sean Griffiths
Camilla Wilkinson

Take a recognisable image/s or object/s subject it/them to all of these types of symmetry in order to generate patterns. Work first by applying each kind of symmetry to your object; then gradually experiment to combine the various tactics to build up a range of several different types of patterns.  These patterns and these tactics will be used throughout the rest of the project to generate and analyse all parts of your projects, so you should take care to make beautiful and interesting patterns or a wide range of types, scales, colours, levels of details and complexity, formal variations.  Be bold and experimental.
In the recent past we found that objects with a strong and recognizable outline/profile but with a degree of detail and delicacy worked far the best for this. You can find many examples on the openstudiowestminster DS15 homepage under ‘patterns’.

Make a series of studies of combinations of these shapes exploring intersections, adjacencies, superimpositions and juxtapositions in 2 dimensions. You might also looked at different types of symmetry such as:
Reflective, Translatory, Glide, Wallpaper, Spiral and Fractal.
Please note, rather than just patterns, we are looking for complex objects and constellations which exhibit conditions of stasis, dynamism, tension, compression, comfort, dislocation and disturbance. We are looking for these to be considered and controlled (no parametric extravaganzas please).

For Thursday afternoon of the 29th of September, in your groups, we would like you to invent and present 100 ideas for Utopias.  These should be quick sketch annotated diagrams.  These are one idea drawings.  We suggest you take a format such as a postcard and work in your groups to develop your ideas.  As individuals, pick your 3 favourite Utopias and work them up into more developed diagrams. 

We will review the developed diagrams on Monday the 3rd of October.

Using the studio space to work in groups proves to be most successful.

The Faber Book of Utopia’s – John Carey

Militant Modernism – Owen Hatherley

Claude-Nicolas Ledoux – Anthony Vidler

Exit Utopia – Martin Van Schaick, Otta Kar Macel

Situationist City – Simon Saddler

Arcadia for All – Dennis Hardy, Colin Ward

News from Nowhere – William Morris