The farm buildings I studied within the unit have been crucial to forming my thesis for a Library in Hackney. As it is the compelling structures of this type of building which embody a sense of place through their response to function, climate, typology, available materials and technologies, and history. By responding to these, the structural elements and material expressions speak for themselves, for what can be seen captures our attention and engages us with the experience of the space, constituting to the history of the place and to a continuity in an architectural language that is somewhat being lost from the convenience of consumerism. The disconnect between inside and outside has grown from the needs for comfort, resulting in the materiality, assembly and expression being fragmented. Our experience of space is defined by form and material which establishes meaning and purpose between the building and its user.
Reinstating purpose to the disused car park and transforming the structure into an artefact has sewn the seed for a design which is simultaneously rooted in its place, yet deeply responsive to the social and economic climate; using materials that resonate with the history of the area and affording the structure to be adaptable, weaving association and social patterns into its use. By encapsulating the concrete frame with standard steel elements and spatialising what is beneath, a sensible response to the social, economic and historical values has been realised, founding the grounds for the betterment of living and bringing a sense of place and organicism to the structure. The ethical considerations which have shaped the civic structure are deeply engaged with aesthetics; as metaphysical idea, and tectonic practice, the entirety developing from its situation in the De Beauvoir Town, stretching out to the wider fabric of London.
Hackney Library Project