As my brother Tom is currently studying Architecture at the Royal College of Art my family and I got to attend the preview of his first show, 'Work-in-Progress', last week. It was a big event for the Price family, even ex-architect and soon to be 90 year old granny came up for the big occasion!
The exhibition showcased the work of students from first and second year, alongside the first year interior designers.
Having heard Tom say how much work he has I now have a better understanding of just how time consuming it all must be. Here are a few models his group had made...
The piece below made me chuckle, 'Goldie Arcadia' is about the DIY spirit that created 'Peacehaven,' a town resurrected as an arcadia for Goldies - a new generation of active and demanding OAP's. Peacehaven's fine-grain grid and white cliffs create a new networked care settlement, replacing the tired archetypes of the care home and retirement flats giving the town a second 'golden age.'
The first year's main project had been to design a building on a plot of land near the Olympic Park. They were split into groups, given all the specifications and requirements of what the building must fulfil, and promised the winning design would be erected in 2013. They were however never told what it would be used for resulting in several very different structures...
Tom's group came up with 'The Barn,' a unique architectural form - simple, spacious, harmonious, its origins stretching back hundreds of years to pre-medieval Europe. Through the centuries it was used as a store house, meeting hall, place of worship and dwelling place. In the last 200 years Wembley has undergone a huge urban evolution, back in the 1800's the land was entirely agricultural with a single railway used to bring food into the city. Today its characterised by office blocks, houses and a divided community.
The Barn was conceived as a place to revive some of the old community spirit while providing a new spatial typology within the barn vernacular. Whilst the barn references the ancients its construction has modern aspects too. This can be seen through its suspended floor, transforming the traditional three aisled barn into a hall filled with aedicules and polycarbonate ends wrapped in roofing felt, mimicking the suburban language of flat roofs and conservatories.
So welcome the not too shabby second placed Barn, a space for everything from a jumble sale to a hoedown!
