Animal Columns
2020
2020
At the entrance to Great Gatehouse of Hampton Court Palace in Surrey, England, are ten stone carvings of heraldic animals sitting atop hexagonal posts. These were created during the reign of King Henry VIII, with each animal representing the ancestral families of himself and Jane Seymour, his third wife.
Opposite, are a polychromatic, 21st Century reimagining of these animal posts. The animals have been chosen for their percieved subjective characteristics, as opposed to any historical or ancestral significance.
The design of these posts also explore the potential of how a 21st Century Gothic Revival might look, initially through the design of small architectural fragments.
Opposite, are a polychromatic, 21st Century reimagining of these animal posts. The animals have been chosen for their percieved subjective characteristics, as opposed to any historical or ancestral significance.
The design of these posts also explore the potential of how a 21st Century Gothic Revival might look, initially through the design of small architectural fragments.
Animal Posts - The Full Menagerie
Animal Post No. 1 - The Cat
Animal Post No. 2 - The Owl
Animal Post No. 3 - The Meerkat
Animal Post No. 4 - The Second Cat
Animal Post No. 5 - The Rabbit
Animal Post No. 6 - The Stag
The City of London Guild of Polychromy
(2014-15)The project proposes a re-engagement with craft and colour through the introduction of a 21st century Gothic revival.
A.W.N Pugin and Ruskin notably revived the Gothic during the 19th century, arguing that a better society could be forged around the romantic ideals of medieval architecture and the labour of the craftsman. Gothic Revivalism was used as a form of attack against the perceived threat of industrial mechanisation, as well as a distaste for the secular ‘blandness’ of Neoclassicism.
This project proposes an architectural language for a new 21st century Gothic, rooted in the current digital revolution. A proposed Craft Guild in the heart of the City of London, acts as a built provocation to the present British government and their apathy towards the arts and more specifically, craft education; a sector who has seen university courses and applicants decline dramatically.
In the Gothic sentiment of constructing a building over many generations, individual components of the building are assembled piece by piece through a collaborative process, thereby embodying the spirit of Pugin’s attempt to create a better society through collective anonymous craft and manual labour, as opposed to the Classical tradition of singular authorship.
One of the primary distinctions between Neoclassicism and the Victorian Gothic Revival was the use of polychromy. Neoclassicism (based on the misconception that the architecture of Greek antiquity was white) was counteracted with an intense and vibrant use of built colour. In the same vein, the new Gothic revival uses a heightened polychromy to counteract the new 21st century blandness- that of the steel and glass which characterises the City of London. Apprentices aged 18 and above are taught both digital and analogue techniques of architectural colour production in the guild building, in order to facilitate the spread of the New Gothic throughout the Square Mile and beyond.
Glass Houses for the Testing of Colour in Natural Light
Guild Corridor - Underside of Vaulting
A Series of Windows
The City of London Guild of Polychromy - External Aerial Axonometric
The City of London Guild of Polychromy - External Aerial Plan
The City of London Guild of Polychromy - Long Elevation
The City of London Guild of Polychromy - A Traceried Tower
Floating Gothic Pavilion
A Series of Gothic Cathedral Bosses
A Series of Columns
21st Century Gothic Finials
2014 - 2015The exercise celebrates the decision-making processes that have an effect on the physical manifestation of a translation.
Despite originating from the same digital model, each of the ornaments opposite differ wildly from each other. These differences are a celebration of the complexities of the digital and analogue methods of craft that can each be used in order to physically realise a digital notation.
The exercise is an attempt to inhabit the world of the project, and to experience the learning process and activities of the inhabitants of the building. Prior to this exercise, I had no experience in casting, CNC milling or 3D printing, so the project was undertaken to highlight the process of teaching and learning from a zero knowledge starting point. No craft is undertaken in isolation and each activity is the result of collaboration and the passing of knowledge from one person to another.
The finials are each produced using a combination of digital and analogue techniques. Decisions are made at the interface of the material, or in some cases (such as CNC milling), using foresight. Most importantly, each of the production methods have differing attitudes towards the production of form (whether subtractive, depositional or hybrid). They also each exhibit a different attitude towards the application of colour, if they are conducive to being polychromatic at all.
Anodised aluminium finial produced by a mixture of 3 and 4-axis CNC milling
ABS finial produced by depositional extrusion of filament onto a heated bed
Nylon finial produced by selective laser sintering
Tudor Spandrel Design
2016-17Design for a tudor spandrel panel for the interactive ‘Lost Palace’ experience at the Palace of Whitehall, by artist Matthew Rosier.
‘ The Lost Palace was an interactive exploration of the spaces and stories of the Palace of Whitehall, 300 years after it was lost to fire. The experience overlaid the lost Palace of Whitehall onto the modern day streets of central London via interactive soundscapes encompassing past sounds and forgotten conversations, accessed through a handheld wooden device and scorched-timber recreations of the Gothic architecture, mounted where they once stood. The Lost Palace was commissioned by Historic Royal Palaces, and ran over the summers of 2016 and 17.‘
https://www.matthewrosier.uk/The-Lost-Palace-1
Chair O Plane
2020
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2020
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