Joshua Parker

A series of four discrete, yet, entirely cognate explorations of composition, view-type and observation that speculate an archipelago of architectural suggestions for the rural village of Glenuig.

School/Level

• University of Edinburgh
• Part 1 (Architecture)

Category

• Community and Culture
• Speculative/Futures

Year

• 2020

Autonomous in their spatial and formal production, a pre-conditioned gridded system for each building offers rationality as contrast to the erraticism of the landscape - a distinction between cultural production and natural formation emerges to ascertain the appreciation of both nature and culture as discrete things. An observational focus inherent to Glenuig is appropriated to each building. The tower, the hide, the pontoon and the observatory observe the clouds, the birds, the sea and the stars respectively- the architecture becomes a vessel for observing place. In doing so, a certain symbiosis prevails, between nature and culture, observation and architecture. And so, although formally, the architectural suggestions contrast the landscape, they simultaneously pivot upon the natural sentiment of place through their programme. Distinct structural systems are appropriated to each building as a result of the ground they are placed, and this place, or habitat, is determined by the most suitable area to observe their particular focus. As such, the tower clings to a cliff, the hide is semi-submerged on the shore of a loch, the pontoon floats in the sea, and the observatory rests upon a hill. Each of the buildings are accessible and connected by loosely marked footpaths and when the appropriate lines are traced, the collection of suggestions becomes something akin to a constellation within the landscape.

Collaborators: Jamie Begg, Cameron Young, Rose Miller, Cameron Angus