Form and landscape : generating architectural form in Cullinan

Abstract

The landscape, industrial machine and human endeavour needs to be reconciled in Cullinan. The newly proposed group framework aims to do this by focussing on four nodes along a circular route which follows the circumference of the scar in the landscape. It is suggested that the once the mine (currently the only livelihood of the town) closes that a multi scalar network of craft industries, educational facilities, tourist attractions and agriculture would continue to support the town. This network doesn’t just rely on one method on one scale, as the mine did, ensuring a more resilient support system Ernstson, van der Leeuw, Redman, Meffert, Davis, Alfsen & Elmqvist 2010). In this scheme, located at the soon to be closed No.1 shaft and headgear, it is proposed that if a resilient connection between town, users and landscape needs to be established by diversity of program, it might be necessary to also investigate a diverse generation of building form which reinforces this idea. Gelernter (1995) identified five core theories on the generation of form. It is argued that the influences on form within these theories are either generated by the object (nature) or the subject (the mind). The generators of form found within the extant fabric of the study area was found to be mainly generated by influences from the physical world, thus if a diversity of form generation needs to be established, a form that was generated by intuition and links the emotions and mind of the user needs to be investigated within the design. Following this, Romantic theories relating to the backlash to pure rationality is tapped into together with an understanding of the influence of the sublime on the mind of the user, and the emotional link it creates between the subject and object is used in the design and process. These theories have influence on the creation of spaces, form, and the relation to extant fabric in the new building. The concept uses and adapts sublime elements in the landscape and in the industrial machine to establish this emotional link. Although program is not the main design generator of this project, it cannot be ignored and a bakery and baking school, and mill is proposed, as presents us with aspects that can be tapped into to enhance the experience of spaces as well as linking into all of the proposed networks of resilience as mentioned before. The concept is drawn through into the technical exploration of the building, where the form is seen as a threshold between rationality and the sublime. Rational construction is decayed from the extant fabric into the landscape where natural materials are used more in the construction, and the structure is not as evident as before. This enhances the existing sublime elements of the site and strengthens the above mentioned emotional link between man and nature.