BETWEEN DEFINITE AND INFINITE
CHARLIE SUTHERLAND
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studied Architecture at the Mackintosh School in Glasgow
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established Sutherland Hussey Architects with his long term colleague, Charlie Hussey, and completed a number of award winning small scale projects all over the UK in 1997
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developed in collaboration many projects overseas on a larger scale
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one of five International participants in ‘Achiprix’ an international student Workshop
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one of the representatives of seven practices invited on a British Council Trade Mission and International Workshop in Riga
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currently external examiner at Greenwich and Newcastle University
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elected as a fellow to the Royal Scottish Academy for Art and Architecture in 2011
In today Public lecture talk is given by Charlie Sutherland with the theme: definite and infinite which is about the way of architect living in a world between the real and imagine. Undeniable that every project must been imagining before they become real and we are living under this kind of tangible and intangible world.
For the last Fifteen years, in tandem with running a practice, he has been a research active contributor and Lecturer at the Mackintosh School of Architecture. For fourteen years he has been teaching where the transition from academia to practice is at its most prescient and a direct and urgent relationship between practice and architectural teaching.
This relationship between teaching and practice has been both continuous and evolving over the past 14 years and he has been instrumental in the exploration and development of new and innovative methods of teaching practice framed and informed by an increasingly internationally applied professional practice.
In this talk, Mr. Charles showed what is the art architecture and science architecture and how he stretched it into his last 25 projects.
PROJECTS
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AN TURAS
A Scottish Arts Council funded project for Architect, Artist and Engineer to collaborate in making a structure for the island of Tiree. Located near to the pier, the structure is intended to act as a ‘shelter’ whilst waiting for the ferry. It is hoped that it will reflect some of the qualities of the island, the big sky and horizon, the white beaches, the monochromatic black houses dotted over the land -all distilled as a line in the landscape.
The building is experienced as a 3-part spatial sequence:
- The White Walls; open to the sky but sheltered from the wind.
- The Bridge; protected from the weather, closed to the sky and the horizon but open to the rock and sand of the beach below.
- The Glass Box ; a complete panorama, looking out along Gott Bay and beyond.
It is intended that the materials used will reflect (though not directly imitate) the vernacular architecture of the island.
The whitewash walls, the relationship of wall to groundscape, the black-felt roof of the bridge, all allude to qualities particular to the island.
An Turas affects the senses and play with rhytmn on materials. This project is a sensory tunnel, a route through various emotions. An Turas of course means journey, and not just aboard the ferry.
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the loveshack
The site for this modest little cottage is located on the shore of Lake Windermere on a steeply sloping wooded copse by the edge of Cunsey village.
The proposal is a replacement for the existing dwelling on the site which is of modest scale and accommodation, providing a compact retreat for two people.
This intriguingly named rural retreat is a delightful essay in doing much with very little. The two rooms are anchored around a deck that is reached via stepped ramp and which defines a courtyard and Lakeland and other views.
This is a highly skilled architectural piece that is also a demonstration of how a small domestic residence might touch the earth lightly: both literally as it floats on piles and practically as it is clad in timber boards from the hillside wood in which it is carefully placed between mature trees. This building works with its locale by preserving what is there, and exploiting for pleasure the local resource of timber, topography and views.
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venice beach
Located by the sea front in the narrow lanes of Venice Beach, this proposal comprises of a three bedroom house with an autonomous studio apartment, each accessed separately by independent external terraces and amenity spaces.
The house is organised around a full height courtyard void over a pool, allowing light to penetrate into the deep plan. On the lower floor the bedrooms all have an aspect inwardly over the pool whilst the street facing elements deal with parking and separate studio apartment access. Above this, the open plan living spaces are once again organised around the courtyard with a central staircase leading up to the roof terrace, containing a fire pit and terrace kitchen. Here, the surrounding timber screen can be opened up to enjoy the views out to the beach, or closed down to shelter from the prevailing wind.
The studio apartment is perched on the upper floor and can be opened up to be used as further accommodation for the main house or closed off to remain private.
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CHENGDU MUSEUM
The New Chengdu Museum sits on the West side of the square and maximises its profile to present a façade of commensurate scale and proportion to embrace and address the huge scale of this new square and establishes a strong formal relationship to it by forming a simple enclosing rectilinear profile.
The long narrow site is exploited using all the public areas to maximise a dramatic relationship with the new square, the remaining façades consequently enclose the largely hermetic exhibition halls, these are represented as a giant crafted artefact in the city cloaked in a precious skin of copper alloy rigorously profiled to play with light, shade and texture whilst accommodating all the technical requirements for ventilation grilles. Aside from the east face this skin is 'lifted' to reveal glazing at street level, allowing a more human scaled intimacy and a relationship to the interior.The form envelopes a new undercover outdoor public space - a monumental gateway through the building, offering a large outdoor public space where people can gather, cultural events can take place, even the local street market extends through to the square. A rigid diagrid steel lattice forms the structural shell enclosing the enormous interior volumes of large climatically controlled halls, The building further extends 24m into the ground to accommodate the conservation stores, theatre and plant rooms and is structurally isolated from the effects of any earthquake via a protective box structure into which the whole construction sits.
CONCLUSION
To sum up, there is always difference from reality and imaginary world. There is always a lot of challenges and we should work hard to take step and make it tangible. But as an architect, they play a role to being passionate and being sincere and being heart fullness and release it to every project to make it valuable.