Public Lecture 02
BETWEEN Definite & Infinite
by CHARLIE SUTHERLAND
CHARLIE SUTHERLAND
-studied Architecture at the Mackintosh School in Glasgow.
-In 1997 He 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;
-one of five International participants in ‘Achiprix’ an international student Workshop
-He is currently external examiner at Greenwich and Newcastle Universities
-He was elected as a fellow to the Royal Scottish Academy for Art and Architecture in 2011
-Famous with small scaled building and also large scaled building.
The public lecture today is mostly about the introductions of the speaker's successful projects and how he defines the DEFINITE & INFINITE in architecture life . Despite the balance between these two terms , he found out every design there must be a reason in , whether stick to the site context or human behavior.
"There is no such the most correct way or the only appropriate way in architecture ,we just need to set up our limits , not only seeing the world which normal people will sees... "
Charlie stated out that DEFINITE in architecture is not the standard of the designing , its about the way we design it . To his mind, analysis the site and merging it together with the building is the DEFINITE ,while he said architecture is limitless , we cannot set up a target or limit for architects to design the building .
Throughout his career and being an lecturer in university,he has used to be in transiting from academia to practice is at its most prescient and a direct and urgent relationship between practice and architectural teaching is played out through the Architectural Thesis.This relationship between teaching and practice has been both continuous and evolving 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.
Mr Charlie showed up many of his projects and presented us how he comes up with the idea and the approach towards the definite & infinite considerations . I will filter up his presentations and list up few which are suitable and interesting.
AN TURAS
UK
Try to make a structure for the island of Tiree after the weather consideration of the site . Located near to the pier(receiving breeze and natural sunlight) , the structure is intended to act as a ‘shelter’ whilst waiting for the ferry.
"A shelter is a nice naming for my building , either it shaded from sunlight, or it is exposed to the sun."
he tried to 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.Thus, the building is built following the contour , showing the ability of him in communicating with landscape , and preserving the precious material on site ( stone wall is constructed).
Feeling created : Balance , Peace , he wants user to have no distance with the sky ( nature )
The building is experienced as a 3-part spatial sequence:
- The Glass Box ; a complete panorama, looking out along Gott Bay and beyond ( there is no limit in connecting the user to the surrounding.)
- The White Walls; open to the sky but sheltered from the wind. ( Yes he was requested to design a safe shelter, but why not receiving sun as the sun is pleasant at the site ? )
- The Bridge; protected from the weather, closed to the sky and the horizon but open to the rock and sand of the beach below. ( attaching these three parts , the building is complete , standing its condition between the definite and infinite )
The pathway which reflect the condition of the sky , you are aligned with the site . It seems to be like the walkway is infinity extend , at the end its still the nature ( site ) . This is the final approach by Mr Charlie , as he mentioned Analyse Site Context and apply it .
Lawson Park
After adaptive reuse an historic Cumbrian hill farm, located in John Ruskin’s home lands at Brantwood, Lawson Park , served as a holiday home and a hostel for Liverpool University provide residential accommodation and research facilities for artists, curators and Grizedale guests
The biggest contrast of the building is the interior and the exterior . Mr Charlie tends to keep the outlook feeling of the old hill farm , so he used the raw material which is stone as the external wall material while interior is contemporary design which he wanted to raised the space quality of the interior.
Design approach of this building is to create a interaction between the spaces , thus a fun colour tone is created as the site is full of green ( nature ) , the buidling exterior is dull colour ( grey and brick ) but interior is timber and plaster finishes colour .The feeling tends to flow from interior to outside ,creating a link,invisible link.
Venice Beach
Located by the sea front in the narrow lanes of Venice Beach,the house is organised around a full height courtyard void over a pool, allowing light to penetrate into the deep plan. Above this, the open plan living spaces are once again organised around the courtyard with a central staircase leading up to the roof terrace.
"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."
Mr Charlie once again emphasis the intersection between user and site.
Throughout the building analysis , he divide building into many segments , those part which he think is over mass ( due to material use or site context), he made some carved out design and replace it with open area or glass.
"I made the spaces in different level , since they have different qualities."
He have the same opinion with Andrea Palladio who thinks that spaces do has their status in architecture ,Living room or main spaces should be higher comparing with the loggias , entrances. Hence , opening is large towards the entrance .
Chengdu Musceum
China
The site of the Museum sits along the full extent of the west edge of Tian Fu Square to form one complete edge of the most important public space in the City.The gridline is formed according to the site context , forming the direction of the entrance. The singular facade helps to create a cohesive edge to an otherwise disjointed square.
It is located at the center of the city, beside preserving the historical elements , it do has the strong datum in design .
Mr Charlie tends to create a hierarchy along the area, the form of the building is metaphor a wrapped paper , following the site grid line , and create the infinite feeling when you stands under the facade of the building ,like standing underneath the mountain.
"Building like human body,The envelope is like human skin , its not totally solid, it has small hole within each elements, which allows lights to transfer“
through the wall materials ,having the visual contact with user at exterior.Gold colour is used ,because it is the best way to represent the wealthy of china imperial dynasty.
As the picture above shown, the building orientation is fixed inside a perfect gridline ,controlling the balance between site and building.The Access and transportation is under well consideration too.Hence,Mr Charlie is well to be called " the master of site planning and the leader in site analysis."
On the other hand , the interior ( exposed construction material) gives a peaceful environment feeling as the steel structure reflect the light inside the museum ,enhancing the light quality and create a lower temperature ( since metal is a good conductor , it release heat in a faster way).
Q & A
During the Q&A session,he was questioned by one audience that he is a narrative to the every single building life span , he created all the soul and background for the particular building, but what is the way he used to practise in daily life ?
''Well, i give a soul to the building , but the soul is depending on the background of it (site) which was not created by me , i just can transfer from abstract form ( story) to reality (building). I used to learn from the others, studies how the local people walk,how they talk , before design a building .I treat the site as a size of paper, the building is what i going to write on it .''
Second audience asked about the challenges that he faced , he replied that the biggest one is cross cultural issue,but there are 5 main points to overcome : 1.Site context 2.Plan a visit to the site 3.Communicate 4.Apply architecture principle 5.leave a big Impression of your design on site
In a nutshell , i think that his projects reflect an ethos of diversity rather than specialisation and having the approach to all projects is to start from first principles ,addressing each design problem objectively.it is believed that through omission of preconceived ideas the process will always throw new light on the creative potential of the programme and site.Furthermore, the more you care about the site , the more you will gain in the result .Everyone urges to receive something , no matter its good or bad ,at least you concern about it ,you study about it , you apply about it.
I also learnt that giving out the informal and open atmosphere which enables extensive input from all team members , consultants and clients is a good way to kick start a projects which you are not familiar with , in cultural way or nature condition .