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Strathclyde student's trailer pavilion completes nationwide tour

April 22 2016

Strathclyde student's trailer pavilion completes nationwide tour
A custom-built mobile pavilion conceived and created by Strathclyde University Architectural Master’s student Paul Pointon on behalf of the Glasgow Institute of Architects has completed a tour of Scotland with in an effort to facilitate community consultation through organised events and a wider promotion of architecture.

In a statement the university said: “The public visiting the pavilion collaborated in an architectural dialogue, using interactive workshops to give their opinion on what would make their community better.

“Once on site the pavilion acts as a large scale public intervention housing a public fueled art piece which takes the shape of a data map. This is generated by asking curious residents a simple architectural question and results in a colourful three dimensional lattice work which represents the specific community's answers.”

Clad in vertical timber battens the live-build pavilion includes removable pieces of bespoke furniture that can be attached to the exterior and was constructed with assistance from MAKlab, Woolgar Hunter and fellow architecture students.

The pavilion will be featured, for the duration of the Festival of Architecture, led by the RIAS, at the Glasgow Collective.
 The Eolas Pavilion is a wheeled 3m long trailer which was sent as far afield as the Inner Hebrides, visiting communities such as Isle of Coll, Kilcreggan and Dumfries along the way
The Eolas Pavilion is a wheeled 3m long trailer which was sent as far afield as the Inner Hebrides, visiting communities such as Isle of Coll, Kilcreggan and Dumfries along the way
Colourful three dimensional latticeworks were built to represent community views
Colourful three dimensional latticeworks were built to represent community views

21 Comments

Cadmonkey
#1 Posted by Cadmonkey on 22 Apr 2016 at 21:52 PM
I'm almost lost for words.
Would his Masters year not have been better spent learning to design buildings?
Did Strathclyde Uni really sanction this jolly road trip to create a "public fueled work of art"?
Architecture schools really need to get more relevant with their direction to students.
V.I. Lenin
#2 Posted by V.I. Lenin on 23 Apr 2016 at 08:22 AM
Looks like a good, solid work of agit-prop to me. Good on you, Paul.

God forbid, an 'architect' engaging with the world? Whateffer next? Talking to non--architect people?

Dear Cadmonkey, just like the rest of us, I would have thought he would have the rest of his working life to learn to design buildings.

And in any case, its streets ahead of a parklet, any day of the week.
clive
#3 Posted by clive on 24 Apr 2016 at 08:52 AM
3m wheeled trailer = large scale public intervention.

does not compute.
Revitmonkey
#4 Posted by Revitmonkey on 24 Apr 2016 at 21:27 PM
#2
Don't you mean agri-prop?

Looks like a horse box with....er.....well no horse.
RJB
#5 Posted by RJB on 24 Apr 2016 at 22:55 PM
Looks pretty slick, though it's a shame that there isn't something to cover the wheels
CADMonkey
#6 Posted by CADMonkey on 24 Apr 2016 at 23:00 PM
#2
My point is that he is still a "non-architect" person at present as he is still studying.
He has all his working life to talk to "non-architect people" once he is qualified.
To me this looks like wasting valuable architectural education time.
V.I. Lenin
#7 Posted by V.I. Lenin on 25 Apr 2016 at 08:35 AM
Ah, but then again, it all depends on what you would think 'education' is then, don't it?

By the way, my experience is that the business of architecture (working for the yankee dollah) in the main tends not to involve the inclusion of 'non-architects'. And please don't mention the C-word. Consultation.

You have a nice day now, y'hear?

:-)


qmd
#8 Posted by qmd on 25 Apr 2016 at 08:40 AM
If this is a small part of his thesis project / testing ground for a larger intention, then I think it is fine.
Similar to the mirror box project built few years ago, if that's the final product of the thesis project the university probably need to push the students harder.
Kyle Waters
#9 Posted by Kyle Waters on 25 Apr 2016 at 11:32 AM
most likely it is not 'governments money', probably paid for out of his own pocket - it costs for an architectural thesis.
Cadmonkey
#10 Posted by Cadmonkey on 25 Apr 2016 at 11:35 AM
Why would a client or architect want to "consult" when it is not a legal requirement?
99 times out of 100 it generates problems for the project and I am yet to see a project become more lucrative as a result of consultation.
I have attended several "consultation" events and am yet to see the process have any influence at all on the application the client wants and ends up submitting.
It is simply silly box ticking.
If you don't need to do it, why do it?
Kyle Waters
#11 Posted by Kyle Waters on 25 Apr 2016 at 12:41 PM
- a folio piece?
- something unique?
- box ticking would be the opposite?
Clive
#12 Posted by Clive on 26 Apr 2016 at 10:56 AM
i wonder if this is just a 'cool shed' built on a trailer base, or if any effort was taken regarding its design as a road going vehicle.
In short - how well does it fair on a speed bump?
Stephen
#13 Posted by Stephen on 26 Apr 2016 at 12:54 PM
I was a strong supporter (and purveyor) of this kind of project as a student but the deeper I get into practice the more I think it's a waste of limited time. It certainly has some value but the lack of ability of graduates (and far too many architects) to design an actual, appropriate building makes me begin to wonder whether this is a misplaced priority. Certainly at thesis level.
Questioning everything is absolutely essential, but so too is actually designing a building appropriately, in accordance with boring things like the requirements of regulations and client brief. There's so much that needs to be taught about these things, which will be 99% of any practicing architect's job, but not very much time devoted to it. I'd support the ETH system; go mad in first and second year, and get real for the rest.
Kyle Waters
#14 Posted by Kyle Waters on 26 Apr 2016 at 17:30 PM
All an architecture student actually needs as education is a knowledge of detailing. Everything else is synthetic trash.
Kyle Waters
#15 Posted by Kyle Waters on 26 Apr 2016 at 17:36 PM
He ought not to get a high grade, he is merely replicating the kind of experience that we get on the internet.
Parklet hunter
#16 Posted by Parklet hunter on 27 Apr 2016 at 20:38 PM
It's nothing on a good parklet.
fq 112
#17 Posted by fq 112 on 28 Apr 2016 at 23:34 PM
"design an actual, appropriate building"
" learning to design buildings"

What a strange world you live in? Must be odd working in a world where you can chuck out identical, measurable, repetitive things that you can confidently define as "actual buildings"...and then teach young'uns this prescribed theoretical "method" that they can apply once graduated.

I suspect what the article's project has likely taught Mr Pointon is; to think of a concept, to propose a design solution to carry the concept, to develop it to detail, to overcome the regulatory and budgetary hurdles and to deliver a real, physical end product under your own supervision and within your own capabilities of scale and complexity that fulfils the brief set and satisfies the original concept and thinking....the preceding description also happens to sound exactly like what he should be learning to become a decent architect and at a scale of complexity that gives him the chance of producing something great.

But maybe you'd all have him CAD up a retail shed while quoting verbatim the Building Regs.

Kyle Waters
#18 Posted by Kyle Waters on 30 Apr 2016 at 11:53 AM
"But maybe you'd all have him CAD up a retail shed while quoting verbatim the Building Regs." - Yes, that would be realistic.

My point still stands, he has failed at the very first hurdle of design. If he had thought the actual problem out fully then he would end up at web design. Websites deliver information in the most effective and efficient way - he wouldn't even need to be there in person to deliver the information.

It maybe that he is attempting to address the critical question of what is the boundary between vehicle and building - in this case there are much more refined ways of thinking about that critique.
Nairns Bairn
#19 Posted by Nairns Bairn on 2 May 2016 at 14:00 PM
You're missing the point - this wasn't necessarily a learning experience or about 'bringing architecture to the people' (lol) but an enjoyable thing to do that would look good on a CV, be a talking point and get him noticed and hopefully a job.

Ill-conceived as a vehicle/building amalgam - yes; poorly detailed - yes; wanky - most certainly but a waste of time? Probably not if it helps him get a job. And he'll have plenty of time working out enclosing rectangles for retail shed openings then.
Stephen
#20 Posted by Stephen on 3 May 2016 at 12:39 PM
@ fq112
I didn't suggest that the alternative to this kind of project is to churn out a retail shed in accordance with building regulations, only that having worked in practice for a number of years I’ve come to understand that buildings are a lot more complicated to design than I learnt at University (when I enjoyed doing this kind of project). I suspect that the Märklis, Zumthors, Frettons, Carusos, Chipperfields and 6as of this world aren’t really that drawn to people who’ve spent the final year of their studies doing caravan consultations and side-stepping the complex issues of building design. If you think that amounts to sheds, rectangles and regs, then perhaps you didn’t learn much either. What about an exploration of plan-making and section, what about articulation of facade, what about historical precedent, appropriate scale, typology, urbanism, tectonics, proportional systems, materials etc ad infinitum?

@ nairns bairn
We don’t invest in education as a society (much at all as it happens - but that’s a different story) so that students get something that looks good on their CV. We need architects to be able to design us a decent built environment.

This project is great and has no doubt raised confidence and done all the successful things mention in fq112’s point 17 above. I just think it isn’t final year material.
Nairn's Bairn
#21 Posted by Nairn's Bairn on 5 May 2016 at 21:07 PM
@Stephen "We don’t invest in education as a society .. so that students get something that looks good on their CV. We need architects to be able to design us a decent built environment."

Indeed we don't, and yes we do. Agreed.
(Looks at shed on wheels again). I'm not sure if the wonderful world of architecture is going to live up to this chappie's expectations though.

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