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stephen marshall
Diploma 11

INSIDE – OUT: THE HACKNEY SCHOOL OF RECONSTRUCTION

The project questions the role of emptiness and excess in master planning strategies in Hackney, East London. The design and construction of public facilities in these strategies – ‘non-residential institutions’ - empty boxes that promise everything but offer little – are missed opportunities for the construction of the city. In the fragmented southeastern corner of hackney, its counterpoint - an empty ruin, becomes the framework for the construction and revaluation of the cities lost fragments. Aggregated around the empty volume, composed of connecting and interlocking programs and structures, an alternative spatial strategy for the construction of public facilities is proposed, offering varying time structures, moments of interaction and in turn forms a site of learning and participation in the construction of the city.

Rules, opinions and parameters that influence the construction, demolition, conservation and reconstruction of the city's construction.Details of masterplanning strategies in three corners of Hackney and the missed opportunity in the design of public facilities within these schemes. 'Non-residential institutions' - empty boxes that promise everything but offer precious little. A missed opportunity for the construction of the city. Typological, material and time structures of public institutions in Hackney. Precedents of material production go hand in hand with the building of libraries, theatres, hospitals and swimming pools. A school constructed and added to over seven years exposes adaptation and opportunistic building strategy.The redundant and abandoned Haggerston swimming pool - an object of speculation and projection in Hackney. A fragment of the city where ideas of conservation and preservation have a powerful force. The empty structure becomes a framework for various suggestive programs and facilities by the residents of Hackney.Institutional frameworks are reread and rearticulated. Structures combine programs, material and spatial configurations. Sequences of construction are exposed.Public Frameworks are recomposed in the collage city of Hackney. New connections, spatial and programmatic relationships are formed.The fragments and facets of Hackey are examined and notated.An empty corner and empty brewery building in southwest Hackney become the framework for the construction of lost pieces of Hackney. Sorting yards, workshops, a library and hall aggregate both in psychically and temporally to form a school of construction. Scheme drawings and material and construction details. Qualities and materials from the site - a material storage depot - in the form of railway ties and steel retention are used to construct fragments around the redundant building.The old brewery becomes a courtyard and key link in the site. In turn its internal walls become a facade for the schools various fragments. Spatial and material qualities are exposed.