Overview
Bringing the calm, clean Staines atmosphere to the Euston Road in London: building a threshold with the aggressive city environment. Hidden garden inviting to experience the different nature.
Program
As this space is supposed to gather people together to have lunch and chat with their colleagues and friends, it has a seating area within the garden partially sheltered from the rain. Also, there is another quiet part of the garden, which is for contemplation and capturing the scenery of the garden or just to quietly read a book.
Entrance
In order to enhance visitors' sensations inside the garden, the entrance space is dark with moderate sound insulation from the street to create environmental disruption and attract attention.
Invitation/Threshold
In order to protect such vulnerable space from aggressive noise and dirty air, it needs a boundary or threshold with the street. The wall is built by adopting the simple principle of the timber frame for quick and easy assemble, as well as reusing this temporary structure.
Invitation
The wall is not consistent: it has thin glass windows to let the light from the garden to penetrate the street by creating strips of light on the pavement and pulling potential visitors attention to what's happening inside. This kind of split of the wall lets each element has its own height and create a dynamic composition visually similar to the sound diagram with its peaks.
Inspiration
The research staring point is London past captured by artists and photographers. During the process I discovered 3 fascinating masterpieces: 'Pandemonium' by John Martin, 1825; 'A Monster Soup' or 'Thames Water' by William Heath, 1828; and John Snow's map 'On the Mode of Communication of Cholera', 1855. All the pieces are linked with the utterly dirty state of Thames water followed by the cholera outbreak in 1855.
The research staring point is London past captured by artists and photographers. During the process I discovered 3 fascinating masterpieces: 'Pandemonium' by John Martin, 1825; 'A Monster Soup' or 'Thames Water' by William Heath, 1828; and John Snow's map 'On the Mode of Communication of Cholera', 1855. All the pieces are linked with the utterly dirty state of Thames water followed by the cholera outbreak in 1855.
Staines
The main characteristics of this place are: clean air and relatively low noise levels. Also, there are not many people in the streets, which allows more freedom for movement without obstacles. Recalling the brief, I transferred gathered information about Staines into the diagram and map, using the techniques of 'London Past' collection.
Euston
The site is located in London in Euston Road, next to the St Pancras Parish Church. It appears to be an antipode for Staines: contaminated air, extremely high levels of noise pollution, caused by intensive traffic.
Following the brief, I brought Staines to the Euston site by juxtaposing these two places.
Sound Absorption
There are sets of sound absorbing panels on the facade to minimise the sound resonance in the street. Some of the panels located in the seating area outside the garden have a 3d pattern on their surface. The shape is inspired by honeycombs built by bees. This shape is a perfect sound absorber. So by applying these patterns the visitors get the direct theme and function representation.
Thanks for watching!
