St John's College, Cambridge

Exactly one month after I started here, at Dundee University, my twin sister, Louise, began her 4 years at St John’s College, Cambridge.  Before her acceptance into the College, I accompanied her on her visit for the open day in March.

I don’t know what I was expecting when I visited St John’s, as I had never been to Cambridge before, but when I arrived the sheer amount of notable architecture was extraordinary.  As I walked through the main gate of the College, I was taken aback at how grand the whole place was, and the range in different styles of architecture, and materials used throughout the College. The downside of studying in a place like Cambridge is that there are so many rules I am not used to: I was told off for walking across the grass, but I imagine the aesthetics of the college are one of the main attractions for applicants.

The columns and stairways are all different, and ancient, with the main building of St John’s, the Main Gate, being built in 1516. The total presentation of St John’s College is immaculate with every blade of grass neatly trimmed, every flower alive and upright, and every tree weirdly symmetrical.

With a Michelin starred chef at Louise’s beck and call, she is bound to be shocked by a typical student life when she comes to visit me, surviving on pasta, beans and toast and take-away pizza. Her accommodation is similar to Dundee’s, situated at the far end of the College, about half a miles walk from the main entrance gate in the centre of Cambridge. The Cripps Building was built in 1966, and is considered an exemplar of late 20th-century architectural style. Although I think it is perhaps the least beautiful of all the St John’s buildings, I understand why it was believed to be a successful design. There is a definite 1960s theme to the building with its  large rectangular windows over looking the courtyard and river, its paneled wooden walls and its concrete cantilevered stairs.

The Bridge of Sighs, a bridge allowing crossing over the Cam River, is a key feature in the make-up of St John’s College, as it allows direct crossing from one building, the Third Court building, to another, the New Court building.  A past time of the ‘Johnians’ (I still can’t believe there is an actual name for someone that goes here…) is to go punting along the Cam, and from what I hear it is a lot more difficult than it looks, and Louise gained a few more bruises than before she left the safety of dry land.

Although Cambridge, and the College itself, are beautiful places, I do feel that you would be somewhat looked down upon by fellow students as many of them have come from Eton and the likes, and I wouldn’t enjoy that. What I enjoy about Dundee is that everyone is treated the same by both staff and students, and there is no demand to be someone you are not.  I have also been hearing that it’s been raining a lot more in Cambridge than Dundee, there’s a change!!

'Let's hear it for New York...'

With the ridiculous hour I had to get up at in order to get to the airport in time for my flight, I was 100% sure my sleep deprivation would be worth it. Even as a seasoned traveller, I was impatient on the seven hour flight to New York. The excitement of visiting a place for the first time was upon me and I was desperate to get off the plane and explore. Seven hours later I arrived in New York City with my family, and to the winter snow. 

Coming from Scotland, I was used to the cold temperatures and had come prepared with my hat, scarf and gloves; the snow made my experience of New York so much more exciting.

Driving down Park Avenue, peering out of the stereotypical yellow taxi, I was able to see a number of famous places I have only ever seen in films and photographs, as well as seeing the iconic places seen on postcards and on posters.

Grand Central Station

The MET 

Seeing New York at night was incredible. It was amazing to witness the change in the buildings, as well as the change in the people. With the buildings disappearing in the dark, lights would illuminate all the details of the buildings that are often hidden in the light. When seeing the details the illumination of the buildings showed, I was able to see the change in the city from the daytime to the nighttime with the most noticeable difference being in the Empire State Building and its patriotic red, white and blue lights. 

New York lit up, Chrysler Building

Visiting architectural monuments such as Frank Lloyd Wright’s Guggenheim Museum, and William Van Alen’s Chrysler Building, I was able to see the important part New York City plays in the development of the modern world.

Overall, my visit to New York was a very exciting one, the “lights inspired me” and I am looking forward to visiting again to explore further and see the numerous things i was unable to get to on my first visit! 

The V&A Exhibition

With a supposed lull in work, I decided it was time to take a break from Dundee University’s campus and take a visit to Abertay University Library.  There I was able to see the V&A exhibition of the six shortlisted designs to be situated on the River Tay, and to be completed by 2014.  The exhibition showed me the standard of professional architects’ work and the standards that will be one day be expected of me.  Although this was rather daunting, it has motivated me even further to do my best work while here at Dundee.  As the V&A is to be used as a centre of design, it truly is only appropriate that the building to house the designs is exceptional in its design also.

Even though all of the designs show great architectural skill and effort, some designs, I find, are more successful than others. 

I found that the Steven Holl design was overly modern for the area and it also somewhat seemed to obstruct the views that would be able to be seen when looking from Dundee, onto the River Tay.  Steven Holl’s design would dominate the skyline and would not always be a view that everyone would want to see when looking towards the Tay from both Marketgait and Nehtergate, and would also be the most prominent feature from the top of the Law. The Steven Holl designs seems altogether out of place and perhaps would be suitable in a more urban environment.  Putting the negative factors aside, the design presents many renewable energy techniques which would feature in the choosing of the final architect to design the exhibition space.

 

Steven Holl entry for V&A at Dundee, taken from http://vandaatdundee.com/your-future/shortlist/steven-holl/

The Delugan Meissl design also struck me as somewhat overly futuristic for the setting: the vast structure appears to take over the water front and also obstructs the view from both the town and the Law.  Although this design is inspiring and obviously very well designed, I still feel that the people of Dundee will not appreciate such a modern building, similar to depictions of a space ship!  I do however find this design successful, if only it was to be situated somewhere else, again in a city filled with more modern buildings and more accepting of new design.

Delugan Meissl entry for V&A at Dundee, taken from http://vandaatdundee.com/your-future/shortlist/delugan-meissl/

Kengo Kuma has created a building which I feel has very successfully integrated the physical factors into the surrounding environment.  With this combination of nature and structure, the interior plant areas, and relation between the deck promenade and the building, the building does not look overly out of place.  This integration avoids the perception of the museum being a singularly standing structure that is built out onto the river.  It appears to a lot more ‘one with nature’ than the other designs and I think that this is a very intriguing design and would be highly beneficial to Dundee if it was built.

Kengo Kuma entry for V&A at Dundee, taken from http://vandaatdundee.com/your-future/shortlist/kengo-kuma/

Sutherland Hussey Architects, the only Scottish based architecture firm to be shortlisted, created a design which I find both successful and unsuccessful.  The box like shape is a lot less integrated into nature than some of the other designs.  However, the large box that makes up the upper portion of the building, made from sections of frosted glass, would allow large quantities of glass into the building, and in Dundee the sunlight must be exploited to the greatest extent.  The exhibition showed that the design has been split into different areas which I find a good idea; the ‘sky’ is the upper level, relating to the sky above and the area that would receive the most light; the ‘landscape’, the middle levels, would provide views out onto the horizon and back towards the city; and the ‘water’ is the lower level, which would be around the areas of the supporting structural columns.  With the buildings large form, it appears that the building almost grows out of the water and the large amount of light emitted from the glass body lights up the area and reflects. I think this is one of my favourite designs as the columns supporting the building create a look that makes it seem as if there is a pier out onto the water, and I think this would be an attractive feature to the people of Dundee.

Sutherland Hussey Architect's entry for the V&A at Dundee, taken from http://vandaatdundee.com/your-future/shortlist/sutherland-hussey/

Snøhetta, a Swedish firm, have designed quite a simple design compared to other designs.  With a larger design, but the design only being one storey, this does not impede any views that would be received from any other area in Dundee.  Their design appears to not have that great an impact on the surrounding area, which I think is important in a design that will be so prominent.  The design is very simple, yet is sophisticated in its materials and exterior and interior shapes.  The small panels of glass that are proposed to cover the entire exterior would reflect light and would create varying reflections on the water and on the area around the building depending on the way the sunlight hits these panels.  Snøhetta said in their presentation that they aimed to “once again reconnect the city of Dundee with the River Tay” and I think with this design they will: the intriguing design will encourage people to go and visit the V&A Dundee and become involved with the building.

Snøhetta's design for the V&A at Dundee, taken from http://vandaatdundee.com/your-future/shortlist/snohetta/

The design put forward by design firm REX is possibly my favourite design out of the shortlisted.  REX’s innovative justification of their design really stood out for me and really explained their design fully to me, which some of the other architect’s work, I feel, lacked.  They used a numbered list to justify why they had designed the building in the way they had.  They “created a layer cake” which acts as the four main levels of the building, the exhibition space, the creative space, the civic space and the marshalling space, with each layer increasing in size as moving up the building.  They propose a design in which they “stretch the top” to allow the exhibition space to be the largest and to let in the most light, and “contract the base” in order to create the smallest building ‘footprint’ that they can in order to use the smallest amount of land that they can.  A key factor in the V&A Dundee’s design is to “maximise sustainability” and REX’s design will have rainwater and daylight collection on the roof of the building and the V-shape allows the building to have a self-shading shape.  Another design justification that REX had was to “evoke a bluebell” which creates an unexpected and iconographic shape. The firm feels that the shape would ‘embody high performance’ and would create something organic and minimal and not appear as something which is too excessive.

REX's design for the V&A  Dundee, taken from  http://vandaatdundee.com/your-future/shortlist/rex/

Blue bell sketch taken from my sketchbook, done after being inspired by this design

The trip to the Abertay University Library was a trip worth having and I would definitely recommend it to other people, not just architecture students.  I am excited to see which of the six designs will appear on the Dundee river front, yet I am dubious that it will be completed for 2014…