Final Major Project - Week

For my first week I wanted to focus on researching, I looked in to what other countries where doing underground I came to understand that many other countries are much further ahead of London when I comes to using there underground space for more that just travelling. Many countries such a the USA, Canada and China, these countries use there underground space for socialising, living and even some have university campus.

I then went on to look at the unused underground space in London, this lead me to discover that there are 43 unused tube stops as well as various different tunnels and tracks again underground not being used. There for I decide I wanted to transform one of these space in to some from of living or socialising space.

Final this week I also went to the Sensing spaces exhibition at the Royal Academy. This exhibition blew me away; the RA asked seven different architecture from six countries to approach architecture in a new way and to create insulation pieces to…

I love the variation of the pieces of work, after listening to the different architects talk about their work I really understood how from the same brief these different architectures approached it from very different angels. I think my favourite insulation was the piece by Li Xiaodong. This was an intricate maze finally leading to a courtyard. Li Xiaodong wanted to create a walk in the forest on a snowy night, this was clearly reflected through the walls being filled with wooden twigs, the floor being light with white LED lights as well as being a maze you are lead to feel lost as well as guided. Light and texture where used extremely effectively in this piece. The white light floor and the light in the extreme space coming through the twig create interesting shadows, I felt like this gave a warms to the lost feeling I felt. When you finally get to the courtyard, this space is completely different to the rest of the maze. Due to the gravel floor and mirrored walls this spaces feelings a lot colder and fresh than the rest of the space. What I liked most about this piece of architecture was how Li Xiaodong engaged so many different senses so that views felt completely absorbed in the space.






I also began to research what other counties were doing with their underground space I discovered that many couturiers are much further along than England in creating living and social spaces underground, for example Canada, Japan and the USA all have university bases underground this lecture room and social spaces. The nether lands and Singapore all have underground spaces with retail space, restaurants and cinemas etc. This all suggest to me that England, London in particular should use the underground space for more than just transport links. 
This lead me to look at what disused space is available under London already, I discovered that there is 43 is used tube stations as well as many old tunnels, as well as lots of bunkers. I started to draw various different tube station so that I could start getting a feel for the space I could be using.