Excavating
Utopia seeks to re-evaluate the general public's rejection of Brutalist
architecture in the UK.
Modernism’s
leading concept, tabula rasa (meaning a blank slate) is the concept which led
to the historical, social, ecological and economic context being disconnected
from a space and thus being free of all negativism and association of what came
before, a fresh start for humanity. It was revolutionary and changed the way we
designed, built and considered spaces through its rise and fall of Modernism in
the 20th century.
Despite the
initial enthusiasm for this vision, it later fell fowl of the UK public at
large. This could be seen through a combination of factors; physical, such as
raw unornamented materials that the tabula rasa concept enveloped; leading to a
disconnection of emotional attachment, and social, such as the subsurface fear
and disgust of the underclasses within UK culture. However, Modernism’s key
failing is convincing the public to accept tabula rasa on a large scale. The
resistance to this blank slate ideology lies in the incapability to reassess
the function of the capitalist construct of the city, where hierarchy and
inequality have always existed.
This
project introduces narrative in the form of spatial juxtapositions between
manmade surfaces and natural entropies, which seek to recapture the myth of
Brutalist architecture, its spirit, shape and forms that were experimented
with. A Map (Historical Cartography) was researched and created of the
Thames Valley 200BC (a period before large scale change took place in the
landscape by the hands of man) overlaid with a current street map of the same
area. These pre-existing environments were then juxtaposed with four Brutalist
buildings around the Thames Valley area.
This
process embodies the tabula rasa concept in a completely new way without its
architectural connotation by referring to pre-architectural
environments. This literal meaning to tabula rasa in the mapping and
models, we also allow a dialogue between our inherent archaic origins and that
of today. Natural environments exist as a direct opposite to architecture, but
this nature also provides our primary needs. Using the pre-architectural
environments within the juxtaposition it provides a grounding for how we began,
adding to the narrative. This engages the viewer in a cognitive dialogue, where
they can re-evaluate both society and space, raising the possibility both of
making them nostalgic for the modernity of Brutalism and transforming it into a
new future architecture.
Alexandra Estate x River Westbourne
London College of Communication x Southwark Marsh
National Theatre x River Thames
Trellick Tower x King's Holt
