DeFinite vs InFinite
Charlie Sutherland studied Architecture at the Mackintosh School in Glasgow. In 1997 He established Sutherland Hussey Architects with his long term colleague, Charlie Hussey. For fourteen years he has been teaching final year students where the transition from academia to practice is at its most prescient and a direct and urgent relationship between practice and architectural teaching is played out through the Architectural Thesis, helping to define the architectural ambitions of the final year studio and set an agenda and intellectual framework for the final design thesis. He emphasizes the ideas of contextualism and critical regionalism (key themes of the work of SHA).
During the talk, Charlie had stated out a list of his successful projects, in which An Turas is the one I like the most, following by The Loveshack and Chengdu Museum.
AN TURAS@TIREE
An Turas is in, and of, the landscape and the place... it is that which gives it its meaning. It is both a building and an art work, a landmark and a symbol. The building is located near to the pier, this structure is designed as a 'shelter' for those intending to board the island ferry. Conceived in three parts it is hoped the structure will reflect some of the qualities of the island, distilled as a line in the landscape; the white walls, the bridge, the glass box. Once described by one islander as 'two walls and a telephone box with no phone'.
The building is experienced as a 3-part spatial sequence:
- The White Walls; open to the sky but sheltered from the wind.
- The Bridge; protected from the weather, closed to the sky and the horizon but open to the rock and sand of the beach below.
- The Glass Box; a complete panorama, looking out along Gott Bay and beyond.
“It is intended that the materials used will reflect (though not directly imitate) the vernacular architecture of the island. The whitewash walls, the relationship of wall to groundscape, the black-felt roof of the bridge, all allude to qualities particular to the island.”
Charlie Sutherland
I really love the project in which it is a work that would be totally unified (physically and conceptually) in respect of its art and architecture content; a work related to and sympathetic to the site, topography and elements of Tiree; a work of individuality, epic in scale, aesthetically beautiful and of contemporary and Scottish cultural significance. An Turas sets up contrasts and strong moods. This project is a sensory tunnel, a route through various emotions. The term ‘Turas’ means ‘Journey’, and yes of course it worth it, and not just aboard the ferry.
‘It creates pictures, it frames pictures, it takes art and makes it public property, more important than celebrity art, which stands for nothing that is very deep-rooted. Art has a dynamic…it is not peripheral…you participate in it, you come into it’.
Professor Andy MacMillan
MacMillan finished by saying the shelter was a working symbol of the community, a lighthouse.
THE LOVESHACK@CUMBRIA
The site for this modest little cottage is located on the shore of Lake Windermere on a steeply sloping wooded copse by the edge of Cunsey village.
The proposal is a replacement for the existing dwelling on the site which is of modest scale and accommodation, providing a compact retreat for two people. The Shack, as a sustainable holiday location, offers direct rail connections to the Scotland -London main line. This means the journey for many will involve disembarking from Windermere station, a lazy ferry across the lake to Cunsey, from which it is a short walk to the entrance gatehouse of the shack. A walkway traverses the site to the front door from which you ascend to the living space to discover a view of the secluded and sheltered plateau within the site and from there up to the bedroom culminating in views back out over the lake and the distant views of Blackwell.
For me, this is indeed a highly skilled architectural piece that is also a demonstration of how a small domestic residence might touch the earth lightly: both literally as it floats on piles and practically as it is clad in timber boards from the hillside wood in which it is carefully placed between mature trees. This building works with its locale by preserving what is there, and exploiting for pleasure the local resource of timber, topography and views.
CHENGDU MUSEUM@SICHUAN
The New Chengdu Museum sits on the West side of the square and maximizes its profile to present a facade of commensurate scale and proportion to embrace and address the huge scale of this new square and establishes a strong formal relationship to it by forming a simple enclosing rectilinear profile. The building further enjoys and celebrates this relationship to this monumental public space by extending an internal promenade of public foyers and circulation behind the entirety of the veiled facade addressing Tian-Fu Square. The form envelopes a new undercover outdoor public space - a monumental gateway through the building, offering a large outdoor public space where people can gather, cultural events can take place, even the local street market extends through to the square. In addition to this the city's subway network runs under the Northern half of the building, resulting in the above ground section of the building cantilevering over the tunnels.
I like the way of how the gateway link the Tianfu Square with the Huang Cheng Mosque, one of Southwest China’s largest Muslim places of worship. It is actually related back to the surrounding site context and make them as a whole. It emphasizes the importance of architectural design on how to retain authorship, quality and integrity of design despite the challenges of distance, language and culture and the external expression of a museum - how to embrace and reflect contemporary and historic cultural values and ideas.
In conclusion, I realize on how Charlie defines the concepts of Definite and Infinite in his design. DEFINITE in architecture is not the standard of the designing, it’s about the way we design it. From Charlie, analysing the site context and blend the building with it is a Definite, it’s a must, to make them as a whole, in a minimalist way. I love his way on achieving INFINITE from seeing so many fabulous architectural spaces that extended into the landscape – whether it be natural or man-made. It didn’t have to be large but the feeling of the space had to give the impression of an environment that goes on for infinity.
"Architecture is limitless, we cannot set up a target or limit for architects to design the building."
Charlie Sutherland
