top of page

BETWEEN DEFINITE AND INFINITE

PAM PUBLIC LECTURE 2

Charlie Sutherland, the speaker for the PAM lecture talk which I attended yesterday was greatly inspire me with the theme definite and infinite : the way of architect living style in between of reality and imaginary. From the words he stated during the talk, Mr. Charlie mentioned that every design or project has to going through the process of imagining before interpret them into reality.
Throughout the years, he has been work as a research active contributor and lecturer at the Mackintosh School of Architecture which serve as practical ; 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 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. 
During the talk, Mr. Charlie showed us many of his projects and told us how he adapted his projects with the consideration of both definite and infinite. He had also mentioned the different between art architecture and science architecture.

-          studied Architecture at the Mackintosh School in Glasgow

-          established Sutherland Hussey Architects (1997) with his long term colleague, Charlie                        Hussey, and completed a number of award winning small scale projects all over the UK

-          developed in collaboration many projects overseas on a larger scale

-          one of five International participants in ‘Achiprix’ an international student Workshop

-          elected as a fellow to the Royal Scottish Academy for Art and Architecture in 2011

-          awarded an Honorary professorship at Glasgow University in 2013.

AN TURAS
The Chengdu Museum sits on the West side of the square and maximizes its profile to present a facade 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 new building further enjoys and celebrates this relationship to this monumental public space by extending an internal promenade of public foyers and circulation behind the entirety of the veiled facade addressing Tian-Fu Square.
     Aside from the east face, the 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 steel lattice forms the structural shell enclosing the enormous interior volumes of large climatically controlled halls, The building further extends 24 meter 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. 
CHENGDU CITY MUSEUM
An Turas is the result of a collaboration between two of Scotland's most innovatived young architects and a group of artists in making a structure for the island of Tiree. It was 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.
An Turas is made from three distinct sequential parts :

- 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 White Walls, open to the sky but sheltered from the wind.


- The Glass Box, a complete panorama, looking out along Gott Bay and beyond.

    The visual richness and flatness of the landscape, enormity of the sky, and sound, touch and smell of the elements, and the composition of the surfaces below our feet were particularly noticeable. Thus, the building is built following the contour, showing the ability of him in communicating with landscape , and preserving the precious material on site. The building won the prestigious “Scottish Building of the Year” award in 2003.
EDGE HILL
BEIJING, CHINA
UK
With a rectilinear concrete base, a timber slatted screen wraps around as a lid, unifying the form as a single volume. This creates the most uplifting triple height space below along the entire length of the house, which is brought to life with light, shadows and beautiful materials. One of the special stuff is the animated backdrop of rooms when looking into the void. On the ground floor the entrance lobby first leads to a snug ; on moving through the generous hallway the space opens out to breath taking views of the garden and beyond, framed by large expanses of glazing.
    The upper levels of the building was a combination of a complex series of bedrooms, bathrooms, terraces and an office. The spaces are carefully located in order to allow the volume of the external skin to be legible. This is a daring design for the area where the land is managed and protected by the Darras Hall Committee. The architect has managed to combine the ambitions of the client with the strict objectives of the committee as well as the local planning authority. This building won the RIBA North East Building Of The Year 2016.
     For conclusion, I agreed with the contents told by Mr. Charlie as well as his projects (his work emphasize well in both definite and infinite). There is always difference from reality and imaginary world, hence we need to research well before going to work with the design in order to reach a equilibrium between both, and this can be seen through Charlie Sutherland’s working style (every time before he started to work with his idea, he will do research).
     As an architect, it is important for us to get known well about the researched site as this effort can lead us to a better result in designing a building ; by getting know the site we can also build a communication between people and building (using of natural contour to create a space that can connect people to people or people to building more closer).
bottom of page