Harmony House
Final Major Project | Third Year
The brief was to provide a facility of living, which encapsulates the values of music. Providing opportunities to not only aid lucidity and memory in those with Alzheimer’s, but also to enrich the lives of all through exuberant spaces.
This was orchestrated through the creation of an integrated care home; offering seniors an opportunity to co-live with students, thereby aiding each other. The project encourages integration and diversity, providing a scheme which allows students to live with members of the elderly in order to act as their carer. This also allows financial stablity due to rent free living for the students.
The themes of ‘Lost in Space’ are implemented throughout the Harmony House project through the use of the three key terms: echo, trace and tone. This then allows the ethereal characteristics of music to come through in an architectural setting.
The very first sanatorium built in the UK was situated in the Bournemouth lower gardens adjacent to the site. The site history created a strong relationship between the site, health and sanatoriums. So it was decided to create a sense of trace through the fragmentation of the existing plans. These fragments were produced through the use of scanning and screen printing. Thereby creating an architectural language of Alzheimer’s. This was inspired by Beatriz Colomina’s concept of x-ray architecture.
This 1:200 model below reflects the concepts of the building, the x-ray architecture, illness as a metaphor, and the three key themes running through the project: echo, trace and tone. It was made using wood, plaster and acrylic.
Different parts of the model act to illustrate these elements. For example:
• The louvres echo the connection to music that the overall building has with memory.
• The shapes of the building and courtyard elements depict the trace from the sanatorium.
• The materials and tones have been reflected by the tones of the gardens; warm and earthy. While, simultaneously bringing rise to the presence of the X-ray through the use of glass and white plaster.
Below are the final sections created for Harmony House. They illustrate the variation of levels as well as the wonderland courtyard. These images were created through the use of AutoCAD, Illustrator and Photoshop. The graphic representation throughout the project was inspired by the ongoing narrative of illness as a metaphor and x-ray architecture.
The plans were made to fit precisely onto the site as the site lines were used as cut lines when over-layering the screen printed plan fragments. This was to give the impression that the building itself has Alzheimer’s, the walls affected from the cuts of the site have partly given the buildings their footprints. The affected walls are glazed facades, coinciding with the concept of X-Ray architecture. Thereby carrying on the architectural language of Alzheimer’s, using illness as a metaphor.
The arrangement of the buildings created a version of a wonderland for both sufferers and students to enjoy, explore and create safely. It is a safe place to get lost. The rest of the pavilions and landscaping illustrate the building slowly being lost and fragmented.
The plans were made to fit precisely onto the site as the site lines were used as cut lines when over-layering the screen printed plan fragments. This was to give the impression that the building itself has Alzheimer’s, the walls affected from the cuts of the site have partly given the buildings their footprints. The affected walls are glazed facades, coinciding with the concept of X-Ray architecture. Thereby carrying on the architectural language of Alzheimer’s, using illness as a metaphor. The arrangement of the buildings created a version of a wonderland for both sufferers and students to enjoy, explore and create safely. It is a safe place to get lost. The rest of the pavilions and landscaping illustrate the building slowly being lost and fragmented.
The technical strategy is a steel frame construction with stone cladding. The technical details and perspective sections below were made using Rhino 5, AutoCAD, and Photoshop.
