Output details

Constructed Landform - the dialectic, Callison ZincHouse.

Constructed building in Monikie, Angus, Scotland.

Questions

How to develop a new and appropriate serial language for domestic buildings in an agricultural context?

How to utilise serial design principles, notably the dialectic, as conceptual and critical tools in the production of a recognisable collective body of work and which, as individual pieces, address unique physical, economic and socio-cultural contexts?

How to extend local rural building traditions and techniques to make a new and appropriate architecture acknowledging of heritage in the widest sense?

Methods

Since completing the Drummond House in 2009 (REF 1) it and further commissions have further determined and refined a reflexive design methodology which is more rigorously hierarchical in approach to the application of the sub-themes; Dialectic, Landform, Erosion and Material Association. In addition, invitations to reflect, by lecture and written critique have been productive in advancing thought and revealing ‘Dialectics’ as a primary heuristic device in developing the spatial, formal and material vocabulary of a new rural architecture.

The research methodology constitutes a form of ‘model practice’. Within the ‘Place, Programme & Presence’ conceptual framework projects are developed in a serial manner. The author resists the ubiquitous 'conceptual sketch ' during the initial stage of the design process as it tends toward promoting organisation and function as the defining conceptual narrative. Projects are intensively 'thought through' using a critical approach to place and programme. The aim is to consider the building in all its dimensions simultaneously, and loosely determine its spatial characteristics, it's formal and material expression, and, importantly, its 'presence' as a container for the buildings programme. Not only is this a methodology for progressing Individual designs, but also as a method for corroborating and reconciling the range of issues addressed when designing numerous and varied serial projects in parallel.

Dissemination

Invited Speaker

• Royal Geographic Society

• RIAS