6/21/09 - 6/28/09

‘The Tlonian Island;

An architectural interpretation in relation to the art of memory’

Katrina Varian

Inspired by the Borgesian parallel world of Tlon whereabouts our everyday assumptions of time, space and the individual are challenged. An island exists where anything imagined can take physical form, simultaneous sliding doors type situations, where time, the self and the double, imagination, memory and dream are sliding around in an infinite pool of possibilities. The architectures are located in symbolic moments of memories, dreams and realities of the inhabitant of the Island and assemble to tell the narrative of a journey through the magical landscape of his mind.


Rules on the Borgesian Island:

TIME: does not exist – only as the indefinite present, the present hope and the present memory. MULTIPLE REALITY: all realities that could occur, do occur, simultaneously. These are infinite. It is just chance that we happen to be in this reality. MEMORY: objects become effaced and lose their details when forgotten, duplication of lost objects is not infrequent. IMAGINATION: objects educed by hope (in the future) can and do exist. They can be convoked and dissolved in a moment, according to poetic needs. DREAM: while we are asleep here, we are awake elsewhere and that in this way, everyman is two men. A dreamt or imagined being can exist and is a phantom.


Katrina Varian Y5 U23 katvarian@yahoo.co.uk 07976879018

Posted on

June 26, 2009

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‘Chthonian Ecology: Physiology of a Mechanic Phylum
James Barrington


The Chthonian Ecologies are of a mechanic phylum, delineated in a biological manner, warping the boundaries between the made and the born. The physiology of the species that make up the ecology are the abstract manifestations of the pivotal markers laid out in the chronicle of their birth.


James Barrington Y5 U23 barringtonjames@hotmail.com 07899878804

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‘Prototype for Adaptive Bloom’

Justin Goodyer





The project deals with the development of a computer controlled mechanical screen through a series of laser sintered prototypes. The screen consists of an array of blooming mechanical flowers coloured black on the outside and white on the inside in order to create a course pixel grid. The thesis discussed the deployment of the screen as an interactive stage set for a William Forsythe ballet drawing on the tradition of the choreographic poem using the song "Busby Berkeley Dreams" as a starting point.

Justin Goodyer Y5 U23 justin_goodyer@hotmail.com 07786991028

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‘Hear, Here’

An acoustic theatre modified by inhabitation.


The building is the final movement in the score of this experiential journey concerning itself with sound and the body.By giving concepts physical form, the experience can be explored. Most of the building has been digitally manufactured in- house with the Bartlett CNC machinery. It is a tour-able, demountable structure. By exploring concepts of resonance, reflection, absorption, forced and natural, the work creates a ‘sonic geography’ framed within a physical construct that invites you to explore, listen, improvise and experience.




The project concerns itself with sound and the body. Sound is an integral part of the way we understand the space surrounding us. Size, quality, timbre, texture and the atmosphere of a space can all be inferred by the way in which we experience sound. Based on ideas from the Suffolk island of Orford Ness the project developed a pre-occupation with the acoustic qualities of circular spaces and with ambient sonic landscapes.

The aim is to generate a physical construct that, whilst taking into account physics, music and architecture, sets out to explore how space can be understood through sound. If architecture is the manipulation of space, then the built form is a way of capturing the ambient.. At the core of this question is the way space is experienced as a function of the sounds found both within and around the space, and the sounds that result from occupancy of the space.

The interaction of the body within the materialistic world together with the phenomenological experience of a space is examined. The notion of silence’s relationship with the ambient - a strong theme in John Cage’s repertoire - is prevalent throughout the work as the building acts as a focus and filter of the ‘outer world of chaos’. By exploring concepts of resonance, reflection, absorption, forced and natural, the work will create a ‘sonic geography’ framed within a physical construct.
By using the concept of a transmitting space and one that receives, the latest form to be built developed into a metallic conoid space being suspended within an opposite conoid space built from wood. The project has an analogy to the human ear and uses similar terminology to describe the spaces. There is an outer listening space that uses reflections and the absorbent nature of wood to create a certain timbre of sound. The user is guided to walk and interact through the outer ring and into the central inner drum. This metallic inner drum, focuses the ambient sounds from the site towards the user.
The building is the final movement in the score of this experiential journey and by giving concepts physical form, the experience can be explored. Most of the building has been digitally manufactured in house with the Bartlett CNC machinery. It is a tour-able, demountable structure, designed to be erected by a maximum of 4 people. Explore, listen, improvise and experience.

For more information, visit www.riclipson.com

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Reclaim the City:
Tactics of spatial redefinition for an empowered population

Subverting the LiDAR Landscape

Matthew Shaw

This project explores the effects of new technologies of urban sight and urban occupation on the social and political structure of a city.

Proposed are a series of strategic physical interventions which subvert the urban landscape through its digital counterparts.

The design and character of these interventions has been developed through commandeering these new technologies as part of a making lead design process.

Google Earth, Virtual London, and their soon to be released 3D counterparts are peoples preferred method of urban spatial research and are taken as virtual fact by a global internet population. These facts are collected through landscape scale 3D scanning, LiDAR. We are interested in subverting these facts at their point of collection; this is our tool for spatial redefinition and our medium for publishing truths/mistruths/facts and fictions. These subversions do not exist in a purely virtual world, although this is where they are most effectual. Instead the tools of subversion are often physical objects/additions/alterations to the urban fabric. These interfere with the collection of virtual data but also act as facts on the ground and as waypoints linking a physical and virtual world.

The technique of physical and virtual alignment (and more importantly misalignment) is used throughout the making process. I have developed my own 3d scanner which has allowed intuitive, made sketches into the digital realm where they receive a layer of digital editing to provide fixing points, jigs, and machined and 3d printed details, extractions and grafts. This process focuses on the accurate side of 3D scanning. A material and formal language of stealth and confusion is simultaneously developed through scanning to achieve invisibility, inaccuracy and abstraction. Through this process we design with an emphasis on the architectural flash, on stealth mechanics and on making the unscanable.


Matthew Shaw Yr 5 U23 matthew.shaw@ucl.ac.uk 07979958851


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