thesis pt. 1

well here it is, the final project of this four year journey at university. who knew this day would finally come huh? I’ve been thinking for a while about what I might want to pursue for this personal project and I have come to the conclusion that I want to follow on from the research I collated for my dissertation. It’s a topic that I’m clearly interested in and I already have a pretty extensive base of research to get me started. This research on the problems of the current workplace typology and what the future of the workplace could look like informed my response to this research, will be an observational documentation of how the students and staff of djcad work in their creative subjects, in studios and workshops to create a series of interventions that respond to the fact that a desk is not always an optimal place to get work done. i’m not sure what these interventions will end up being but i’m excited play about with this idea! only problem is all this research into how bad the desk is for your posture and productivity is making me not want to be sitting in the studio... hoping to use this to my advantage somehow and create myself an alternative...anyway here’s some of the work i’ve done so far.

finish the tower

New project alert! For the second project of final year, we were tasked with finishing the incomplete tower of Logie and St John’s Cross Parish Church in the west end of Dundee. Beginning with a site visit, I took some photos of the current interior of the church to get a feel for the atmosphere of the existing space and what I wanted to continue into the tower. The main thing I noticed within the space was the light that spilled from the outside in. One thing about churches across the world is this aspect of light, dappling their floors with a kaleidoscope of colours through the stained glass windows.

so my final concept ended up being heavily influenced by this idea of light. titled ‘the candle’, the project is aimed to be a refuge from every day life.

“All too often we dedicate all of our time to the stresses of everyday life, sacrificing self care and taking the time out to refresh our  minds. The flame is  a contemplative space for the congregation of Logie and St Johns Parish Church to do just that, a beacon of light within the chaos of the city. Inspired by the dappled light that filters in through the windows of the existing church building, it is a space in which everyone has the opportunity to really focus on accepting and nuturing their inner light. The journey of the self is often one that can feel dark and daunting when standing at the threshold of accepting the light we already have inside of ourselves, and the space is one aimed at making taking those first few steps out of the darkness a little less blinding. As the individual ascends through the space, more and more natural light will filter through the windows onto the spiralling path of self discovery. These perforations in the building’s structures are places to stop and rest, points to reconnect with the city beyond on the journey upwards through the space. Upon reaching the top of the tower, visitors will discover the viewing platform, with views over the entire city. This is a place to stop a while, to remind yourself of your significance in the world and to contemplate your thoughts on the world around you. From here the building melts away, merely becoming a facilitator of your faith. In this vein, a hanging gold light installation descends through the centre of the space, melting into the stairwell and leading the eye upwards on the journey up to the viewing platform. At night, these elements come together to truly become a beacon of light in the darkness, a glowing candle in the night sky. “

in:stall

kicking off fourth year with a focus to the end result, our first project was focussed on producing a design for our end of year degree show. this would encapsulate the way our work would be displayed, how visitors would interact with our projects and what they might be able to take away from the event. in groups we had to come up with a concept, then come together as a class to decide which elements from which group we wanted to take forward to come up with a final design. my group focussed on the transparency of the work, how to make sure visitors understood what our projects were and how to move through the space to view them all. our design was one that slotted together and needed minimal construction or parts. it featured a cinema booth for people to stop and relax while viewing our concept videos, which the class decided to take forwards into the final design.

once we decided on a final design, we set out on the task of sourcing the materials we would need to construct it at 1:1 for the degree show. this meant spending a day in the metal workshop in the university experimenting with the best way to construct the legs of the design, and also finding someone to outsource the cutting of the birch ply we had decided the table tops would be made out of. with much generosity, Dovetail in Dundee agreed to do this for us and invited us up to the workshop to see our designs begin to come to life. see below photos of this exciting trip!