Architectural Language

After exploring the work of post modernist play writer and poet, Samuel Beckett and comparing and contrasting them with the caretaker and John Hejduk, I have began to convert this language into architecture. Beckett's work is often minimalist, while being set in stark, bleak, barren and desolate locations. The caretaker is a similar character to those of Beckett's as they are represented in individual isolation even if they are surrounded by other characters. Beckett questions the meaning of life and displays the absurdity of the human existence. While his work is written in an abstract form it lacks any ornamentation. Hejduk and Beckett are both similar in the sense their work is both structured and organised. Hejduk's exploration of grids, frames and cubism is similar to Beckett's play, 'Act With no Words'. Both Beckett and Hejduk have similarly influenced my design exploration...

Design 4

This design is a response to the quiet, solemn and subdued nature of the caretaker. The house hovers above ground sitting on a podium. With everything being white like a morgue a feeling of emptiness as if no sign of life lives there is present. Like my first design solution this design resembles a journey with one end of the house hovering just above the land and the other end being the tower which is incorporated into the whole design to look unimposing. The 'wave' journey symbolises the continual rise and fall something.  To access another space one needs to climb up or down stairs which demonstrates a change in the journey. There are no windows in the house with the only natural light coming from the tower. This creates a dark and dull tone of space.

Design 3

This design is a creation, which responds to the caretakers occupation, maintaining gardens. While all of the other three designs sit uneasily with the land, this design crawls along the land like an alive plant. As the caretakers occupation means plants have become its friends, a dwelling which sits comfortably and neutrally with the land is necessary. The folding nature of the dwelling, with walls reaching from the ground turn unnoticeable into the ceiling, makes the connection between the natural and the man made more humble. Fenestration is merely a crack in wall letting in enough light for some growth however the windows are positioned high enough for complete privacy.