Glasgow Mackintosh School of Architecture MSA Stage 4

Sissy O’Neill

Contact
sissyoneill@googlemail.com
S.Oneill1@student.gsa.ac.uk
/sissy-o-b45a1aa6/
sissyoneillaa57.myportfolio.com
/allstargirl19/
Collections
Introduction to Year
P4 Social/ Cultural Context
P4 Thesis
P4 Experimental Modelling
P4 Internal Layout
P4 Plaster Spatial Models
P4 Sketching Passage
P4 Technical Section + Forming spatial rhythm
Space from Structure
P3 Urban Housing with a sustainable cycle
P3 Site Contents
Dissertation Work- Experimenting with Wabi

Introduction to Year

In this year of turn wall, we at stage 4 of the architecture department at GSA were tasked with challenging existing issues around domesticity and labour within civic space. These generalised but complex concepts took the form of three core projects. Firstly to consider the concept of cellular living and how this could present itself within our modern societal needs. Secondly to consider this cell within a specific urban context of the Barras Market in Calton Glasgow, I focused on creating the civic roles of this wider community through social and commercial exchange. Finally a project to consider a civic cultural centre parallel to this urban cell housing was considered. In this final project my thesis focused on social inclusion though the liberation of performance and movement.

A year of limited computer access along with workshop facilities has forced me to re-evaluate my working methods. I used my skills in draftsmanship and art to convey concepts by hand before converting these notions into architectural form using hand modelling skills such as soldering metal sheets and plaster casting.

Long term I hope to create an architectural language that combines the environmental bio design with heritage values alongside my theories of movement and metaphysics within contemporary architectural design.

Street Elevations of Urban housing and Performance Venue in the Barras, Glasgow

Barra Axonometric from Gallowgate

P4 Social/ Cultural Context

Architecture of Preformance

A visual experiment observing rhythm of movement and its abstraction in architectural screens of space

The Barras Kilt

Social inclusion via performance- within the context of the market

P4 Thesis

 

In this final project The Barralands Kilt borrows from and embeds Scottish culture and traditions to create a building where movement is both part of the form and purpose. The redesign uses the principles of movement to create an architectonic form, where the public are encouraged to reassess their relationship with their social identity through the medium of performance.
The Barras Market signifies people, movement and performance. This new civic realm had to incorporate those elements. Inclusivity is the guiding principle of the modern Scottish meritocracy. The Barralands Kilt delivers cultural diversity through an alchemy of spaces and social inclusion via performance. This building epitomises cultivation of artistic expression and experience. By entering this space patrons are categorised through their activities and all movement can become a socially inclusive performance. The creation of form then reflects an architectural performance. This visual experiment of performance displays that minimum and maximum movements are visible in the spent space of a performer, while their horizontal and vertical absent space draws the viewer into the action. Materials such as glass or perforated metal panels help exaggerate the fundamental rhythm of movement occurring within these visual structures and alter how performance is perceived: is ballet elegant or furious; is boxing weighted or delicate?

Under the roof kilt, our inclusive contemporary cultural Scottish expression expands and shifts. This civic cultural centre releases performance from the restrictions of social exclusivity. The fundamental rhythms of movement intrinsically fabricate a building central to an expression of modern Calton, while retaining the elemental performance space of The Barras Market.

P4 Experimental Modelling

understanding envelope

exploring weight, transparency and passage

a roof of movement covering internal green space and gallerys

transitioning into the internal public realm

independent forms met by roof

Paper experiments with roof folds insipred by the pleats of the Scottish kilt

Initiating internal passage

Transparency on approach

P4 Internal Layout

P4 Plaster Spatial Models

P4 Sketching Passage

P4 Technical Section + Forming spatial rhythm

Space from Structure

In order to create a atrium space to act as a covered public realm that hooded the exiting masonry structures on site, the kilt roof was model first in balsa wood to understand its fundamental shape. A traditional round theatre sits along side this with a raised gallery connecting the two.

P3 Urban Housing with a sustainable cycle

P3 Site Contents

Dissertation Work- Experimenting with Wabi

The aim of my dissertation (Materialising Wabi-Sabi: Physical realisation of the essence and values of Wabi in the contemporary design process) was to examine the interface between the philosophical and theoretical concepts of Wabi-Sabi and the practical application of the principles of Wabi design in order to re-engage the designer’s understanding of the user’s connection to a space. Through physical experimentation, I developed a method with which architects could measure the interface of materials and how they might be purposed to deliver a space that has greater metaphysical significance to the user.