1. The brief for this project was to design a building to sit within the Roswell Pits site, that could help benefit the local community and physically blend in with the site. I knew of the changing demographic in the town, from a primarily church focussed community to one of varied communities, but the local music group was still focussed around the Church. Whilst this was fine, I wanted to introduce a neutral non-religious/ ethnic specific music centre that could benefit from inspiration from the landscape which could become a beacon of creativity to produce music like that of Ralph Vaughan William's 'Lark Ascending'. I also wanted the structure itself to be as sensitive as my birdwatching shelter design.
2. Being a musician myself, I began focussing the design strategy around that of the musician. This centre should be a site where the musician could practice in peace, and perform in a venue that inspired them to do better. For this, I chose the part of the site which was the highest, where students could benefit from the best perspective. Walking around this site, I wanted to give the students the best perspective possible - views from above the sycamore trees - with the birds. This became a fundamental ambition behind the project, and part of the challenge to resolve this ambition structurally.
3. The site itself was highly populated by trees - all sycamore trees - those which shed their leaves in the winter, but are rich in leaves throughout the other seasons. The site was also adjacent to one of the pits, with a downward gradient towards it. Investigations included mapping the trees, the path of the sunlight, available views to the pit, places of shadow/ permanent shadow, and the topography.
4. An ambition was to use as much natural shading as possible, and to maximise the use of diffuse light. For rehearsal, diffuse light is far more valuable than direct light, and the design aimed to maximise this potential. Investigations mapped reflected light from the lake, spots of permanent diffuse light in between the trees - all bringing together a strong understanding of the site and how it could, with it's existing nature, facilitate the learning and performance of music.
5. Experiments were made to see how the reflected light could potentially be used, with other investigations into textures could be explored within the building to bring as much of the outside into the building's experience.
6. The developed design brought together accommodation for students, practice rooms, a public gallery, music theatre, and office space for the permanent music professionals on site. This created a monumental structure, which was based around clear visibility throughout the entire building, a clear vertical hierarchy where practice rooms were above the trees, student accommodation was nestled within the tree canopy, the gallery and offices were below the tree canopy, and theatre was underground.
7. The design involved the removal of several trees to fit the student accommodation block - the columns for the new structure would be positioned where the trees had been removed to make the most of the hole excavated and for the columns to be a living memory of where these trees had once stood.
8. The construction method relied on concrete piles propping up pre-fab blocks (each residential unit), where the construction was a combination of concrete for structure and timber for interior cladding. The timber was chosen to mimic the soft and warm texture and feel of string instruments - for which the music school specialised, and to provide the closest relationship with the tree neighbours outside. The horizontally orientated panels were chosen to bring diffuse light from outside, with several additional horizontally penetrative motifs being used to catch light, similar to Le Corbusier's La Tourette.
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