Author: Simon

Post-Travel Thoughts

While the eight days spent in London passed by very quickly, I feel as if I was able to capture an understanding of the city and its people. The fast-walking, snappy-dressing population was hidden in many spots behind the (other) masses of tourists and visitors, but the quieter areas and the transportation services allowed them to be seen. The city was like some sort of textile with both new fibers and ancient threads – a roman street runs between two motorways, new office buildings flank a church several hundred years old… The heterogeneous nature was not jarring, however, as most of the new construction seemed to pay homage to its ancestors in character or form.

Of the older sites that were visited, Salisbury Cathedral was the highlight for me. Its solidarity within the medieval setting and its relatively modest interior treatment allowed it to stand tall and silent, welcoming visitors for reflection. In terms of newer works, the observation platform of the Shard and the skyscraper walk – including the Leadenhall building, 30 St Mary Axe, and the Lloyd’s building – were exciting to me as one with an interest in structure and high-rise design. The systematic clarity and tubular motif of Rogers’ design is beginning to inform the work I am currently doing in the studio, and the detail sketches I produced helped me to understand some connections between the old and the new.

The type of work in which I became most engrossed during the trip falls into the brutalist style, of which England and especially London hold many excellent examples. Visits to the Barbican Center, the UCL Institute of Education, and certainly the St Giles Hotel inspired me to visit the major brutalist sites in the area. Some were reached in the evenings after the daily tour was complete, and my free Saturday was devoted to a jam-packed (or “chockablock” as I heard many times during my stay) route covering many brutalist buildings. I was lucky to be able to see the infamous Robin Hood Gardens housing project, which was more than halfway through demolition, and my visit to the Alexandra Road estate in the snowy weather remains one of the most memorable moments of the trip. I documented each site with several photographs of scenes or details that I found to be fitting, and I hope to compile these into a book to represent the building style and preserve the memory of those sites that may be gone very soon. I am very lucky to have seen these types of projects, and I am very lucky to have been able to participate in the travel program.

On Transport

Far from simply a shuttle utility, the variety of transportation types utilized throughout the trip have allowed me to experience many aspects of the city in unique ways. The most immediate advantage is a greater understanding of navigation in the city and surrounding areas. Not only did the Underground allow me to quickly move around the area and build a detailed map in my mind, it allowed me to witness the population of London up close in terms of dress, manner, and speed. The boat travel gave an unparalleled experience of the buildings lining the Thames, which could not have been filled into my mental map with the Underground alone. While the double-deck bus was a bit of a novelty for me, overland travel and foot transport provided the micro-scale of city exploration. Similarly, taking the DLR over the Tube lets the rider see the path of travel and all that is along that path.

A trip highlight for me was the bus loop to Stonehenge, Stourhead, and Salisbury. As most of our time was spent in the urban zoneduring the week, the bus let me see the nature of the highways, the countryside, and many small towns in passing. I spotted many models of cars that the United States does not receive and several supercars on the route. Leaving and exiting the city, I enjoyed spotting the buildings on the route that were too far for me to travel to during the trip, including on of Goldfinger’s brutalist towers. The ride back at night was especially enjoyable, as I listened to some of my favorite music from the UK that I felt would pair well with the night bus – and it did not disappoint. Listening to one album in particular was absolutely perfect with the atmosphere of the location, and this will be something I definitely won’t forget.

Lo-Fi: Apparition of Trellick Tower with Partial Relection Self-Portrait

UK Album Selection

Details, Pt. 2

Sketching a variety of sites and scenes throughout the entirety of the trip has helped me to become a better judge of the amount of detail for which a sketch calls. In my experience, drawings are easily ruined by too much detail, as a high degree of accuracy is typically needed for meticulous sketching. On the flip side, too little detail will render the scene unrecognizable, and therefore being present in the location will have amounted to very little in the drawing process. Perhaps the most important lesson I drew from the experience is greater insight into the necessary amount of detail required for the effect the scene is having on me at the time of drawing.

The aquatic center is such a simple and radical form that only four bold lines were needed to record the dynamic shape in the scene. Minimal detail was then added for context and very slight articulation, but the object-quality and organic shape remain the focus (hopefully, at least). A similar tactic was used for the Superflex turbine hall installation, highlighting the idea of the design while using the minimum detail for context. A sketch in contrast to these two is the outside of Westminster Abbey, a building unremarkable in form. A level of detail was required to register the building.

The detail in the Westminster sketch also allowed me to learn more about the exterior. Proportion, articulation, and rhythm become clear through the sketching process. Although done quickly and imperfectly, my understanding of the building grew. A similar experience happened with a return to the Leadenhall skyscraper, as the different sized plates and bolts in the base connection reveal the forces acting in the system.

Aquatic Center – Minimal Detail

Superflex At Tate – Minimal Detail

Westminster Abbey – Learning Through Detail

Leadenhall – Learning Through Detail

God in the Details

Salisbury Cathedral was overwhelming, but in an unexpected sense. Where lots of churches (including other Gothic designs) make a statement through complication, excess, meticulous detail, and even opulence, Salisbury’s roar is quiet. It stands tall, but dresses simply. The exterior treatment holds a fair amount of detail and craftsman finesse, but the interior is restrained. The effect is immediately noticeable and powerful. With clean lines and surfaces, the height of the nave is able to soar uninterrupted. The church becomes about the light and space that is present, and there is little distraction from these ideas. The material qualities are also pulled forward, reinforcing the understanding that this is a built space for worship, a meeting place of the divine and the corporeal.

With the simplicity as a prevailing theme, there might be worry that the typical areas of extreme detail are relegated to uninspired utility, but that is not the case. Perhaps the best example is the collection of window patterns used in the Cathedral. They are regular and clean yet contain a richness of geometric legibility, as different shapes emerge from the tiling.

The sketches below highlight two of the fenestration patterns used in Salisbury Cathedral and are rendered orthographically to show the emergent shapes and tiling capabilities. By comparison, the window treatment of the altar glazing of St. Martin’s in the Fields utilizes a standard field condition with the introduction of variation to create a cruciform impression.

Salisbury Detail I

Salisbury Detail II

St. Martin’s Detail

Brut Force

Controversial yet powerful, sometimes a success yet often a failure, brutalism is a style of design that commands attention. Although related to the work of Le Corbusier in his housing projects or in a work like La Tourette, the style’s name was brought to critical attention by Banham in his discussion of the work of the Smithsons; therefore I consider the style to be distinctly English in origin. The style may not have the prominence it once had in new design, yet it brings attention to contemporary questions about monumentality, shadow, and urban housing. I hope to visit major sites of brutalist architecture around the London area to see what can be drawn from both loved and hated projects.

Lunchtime, Barbican, 3/10

Lunchtime, National Theater, 3/11

Londoners

Much like New York or Chicago, visiting the major sites in the city on the first day felt a bit strange as an American. I was different from the majority of the people with whom I congregated, yet I did not feel like an American among Londoners. Although London’s population is significantly diverse, I could understand that the people around me were visitors as well, speaking different languages and enjoying the tourist activities. Every so often someone whom I could guess to be a London resident would walk by me, speaking in an accent, and the employees on location were clearly residents, yet they were outnumbered. I figured that there would be a good number of Londoners in the Barbican complex, yet the grounds were relatively deserted (which was strangely nice in its own right for photographs and a sketch). At One New Change, it was difficult to tell who was a resident.

The architecture we saw was excellent, yet the daytime activities led me to the Soho area in the evening in an effort to see some more typical London activity. I visited a handful of record stores and saw many Londoners in the walks among them, yelling funny phrases to each other and having a good time on the weekend. I got to hear some great breakbeat and garage music in the shops, and I got to see some records I have never found before in the States with the help of the people in the stores. I also saw some supercars in the area like a Lamborghini, Mclaren and GTR. I got to see some student activity and hear some music at the SOAS University of London and ended at Rogers’ Central St. Giles, which had amazing noise attenuation in its courtyard, muffling the loud exhaust notes that Londoners seem to love. I now have a much better understanding of the population as well as a greater appreciation for some major architectural works.

Simon’s Pre-Departure Statement

After spending the previous (3-day) weekend in Chicago on Bouwman-Zago studio business, this trip will be an excellent way to compare the city of London with a high-density American city. The cold, windy, yet sunny weather allowed for some great street photography, and the acoustic studies in which my group participated allowed us to take some breaks from the wind and greatly enhance our performative design. London looks like it is trading Chicago’s cold wind for some chilly rain, but nothing too drastic. Chicago was home to the envelope-pushing skyscraper around 1970 and London is a current hub for high-rise innovation in recent years, so the comparison should be engaging for me. I had the chance to visit three parks last weekend, so the famous London parks will be a great follow-up. I hope to notice and capture any differences in the behavior of the London public as well.

Of course, the workload never ceases; in addition to the living essentials, my bags contain the work that I need to be considering over the next week. Along with required reading in the evenings, I hope that the change in location might assist in the progress of my design project. The absence of the digital and more robust physical model-making tools will bring me back to sketching as a means of design exploration, which could very well shed new light on my project. There are also some works in Tate Modern that I (hopefully) will be able to study for my seminar research, and the sketching we will be doing may come into play.

Finally, I need to speak with Professor Graf before departing about the secret London sites to visit in consideration of the personal day.

Simon’s Bio

My name is Simon.

I am a second-year graduate student in the Master of Architecture program and work as a graduate assistant involved with Knowlton’s building structure courses. I earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Akron in 2016 and completed EI certification in my time between graduating and beginning my studies at Ohio State. I have worked in the field of structural engineering while an undergraduate student, performing design and drafting work in the telecommunications sector. My work primarily involved designing and producing construction drawings for cell tower modifications and reinforcements in steel, and I also helped to design concrete foundations, site plans, antenna connections and reinforcements for failing buildings.

I enjoy learning about contemporary art and the progression of art history from modern art to that of today. I am an avid consumer of music, and the musicians’ work I have liked most recently includes that from: Converge, Bjork, Say Anything, Charli XCX, Chopin, Mogwai, Autechre, Radiohead and Elliott Smith among many others. I also enjoy driving cars, fishing, building models and woodworking.

As I am interested in the confluence of architecture and engineering, I am looking forward to seeing various works by designers of the high-tech architecture movement, such as Foster and Rogers. Denton Corker Marshall’s field of columns and canopy for the Stonehenge visitor center should be interesting to investigate. The Tate Modern is one of the best opportunities around the world to view major works by contemporary artists, and the turbine hall along with H&deM’s new addition will be exciting architectural experiences. The opportunity to visit an architecture firm’s office will certainly be valuable as well. The city itself will likely be a fitting place to view street art and practice street photography.

Me.