The Bartlett
Summer Show 2023
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Are You Bewildered Yet?

Project details

Student Eoin Shaw
Programme
Unit UG6
Year 3
Award
  • Donaldson Medal
  • First Class Honours

Today, to be bewildered might be taken as a synonym for confusion and implies that something wasn't understood. However, before order and reason gained the value they have today, bewilderment meant something more wonderful, like one was lost in the woods and in awe of not knowing where they were.

In architecture, a discipline obsessed with the aesthetics of certainty, and logic, to be lost and bewildered is not something normally aspired to or valued. But in an age of uncertainty, why should architecture remain so set, certain, and sensible? Is there a way for architecture to break away from expectations of reason and logic, to instead embrace its frequent absurdity? Can architecture work for the function of bewildering? And can this process and result create an intellectual adventure towards unknowing?

To aim for this unknowing, this project has created a methodology which in the process of the design, the architecture, and its representation keeps us all without answers. The project invites a process of joyful and intentional irrationality, opposed to the general architecture of reason. In doing so, an architecture is created that holds genuine wonder, even to its architects.

The Bewildered View

Bewilderment was first explored through image. Using CNC-cut acrylic lenses, designed iteratively with renders, edges were blurred in an attempt at unbuilding our understanding of landscapes like Rainham Marshes.

Constellation of Stones

From moments of order and disorder, the plan reveals the spectrum of spaces from slithers to spreads, from continuous enclosures to fragmented forests of rocks. In this plan, over 200 individual stones are labelled with a number and material code.

Stories from the Rocks

Stories from the Rocks

This series of renders flicks through the variety of spaces in the rocks, shown at different times of day and year. Annotations reveal the stories of how the rocks have been used.

The Other Side

The rocks sit on a carbon fibre bubble, as can be seen in the embroidered section. These bubbles then exist as ghostly imprints on a double-sided CNC acrylic tabletop, like an X-ray through this mini landscape.

Rocks on Top

Atop the acrylic table, all the 200 unique rocks are 3D printed before being slotted into the table. The roofs then drop in on top. This precise digital fabrication provides a strange contrast with the kitschy aesthetics of the embroidered section.

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The Bartlett
Summer Show 2023
23 June – 8 July 2023
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