Cornish Engine Houses

More beam engines were installed in Cornwall and West Devon than any other mining region of the world: a total of around 3,000 engine houses were built to house them.

A major aspect of the an engine house was that it was not simply a structure, but it was in fact the frame of the engine. If one were to remove the structure the engine would collapse. The structure was also designed to help with the engine construction. The strength built into the engine house is a factor in its inherently long life.

Tin, copper and china clay mining was a major part of the Cornish economy, which dates back as far as the middle ages; hence why mining culture is synonymous with Cornwall’s heritage. Even the Cornish flag of Saint Piran with its white cross against a black background is said to represent molten tin spilling out from the black ore in Saint Piran’s fire. Mines covered many areas of the Cornish landscape, figure below shows a map of Devon and Cornwall’s mining districts that make up Cornwall’s World Heritage site: 

The importance of the beam engine to the mining industry is witnessed today by the ruins of the buildings that once housed them; the Cornish Engine House, please see figure below for an example:

The far reaching and prosperous mining industry has ensured that engine houses are strewn across the Cornish landscape, with more beam engines built in Cornwall than any other mining region of the world. An important aspect of engine houses was that they weren’t simply a structure, but were in fact the frame of the engine. If one were to remove the structure, the engine would collapse. The structure was also designed to help with the engine’s construction. The strength built into the engine house is a factor in its inherently long life. These structures represent an important record both of past mining activities and of the engines they once housed. Many of these buildings are now ruinous; this history is now in danger of being lost.

Until a few years ago, mine buildings were regularly destroyed for their building materials such as stone. In 2006 selected mining landscapes across Cornwall and west Devon were inscribed as a World Heritage Site, which identifies it as an area of outstanding natural beauty, which means that they are of exceptional cultural significance and must be protected and conserved for present and future generations. For this project I have chosen two locations for my hypothetical developments, one of which I believe to be more realistic location for an actual development of an engine house, although the engine houses are regarded as part of a World Heritage Site and many of the engine houses are deemed as monuments and listed buildings, this is not to say it cannot be argued that this type of development with help preserve the buildings against further decay. Wheal Kitty deemed to be a Grade II listed building is an example of an engine house that has been successfully redeveloped into offices, please see photographs below:

LOCATION: St Agnes is an attractive village on the north coast of Cornwall, approximately 8 miles north of Truro. The village is an extremely popular place to live and the village centre offers a wide range of facilities including a modern junior/primary school, convenience store, chemist, hairdressers, estate agent and a good selection of local shops. The village is very popular as a holiday resort and the surrounding beaches attract large visitor numbers during the summer.

SITUATION: The subject property lies within the Wheal Kitty Workshops, a short distance from the village centre and the popular Trevaunance Cove beach. Nearby occupiers include Atlantic FM, Finisterre and Surfers Against Sewage.

DESCRIPTION: The ground and first floor offices are situated within the shared accommodation of Wheal Kitty Studios, owned by TEE Ltd. The building has benefited from a total refurbishment to provide quality office premises. The ground floor offices benefit from being self contained and are able to be interlinked if required. The accommodation has a mix of painted rendered walls and exposed stonework, the character of which is enhanced by excellent natural lighting. The premises are DDA compliant, with a lift providing access to the first floor offices and kitchenette. Male, female and disabled toilet facilities are situated on the ground floor. Security systems for the interior and exterior of the building, including CCTV, exist. Parking is available.

ACCOMMODATION: (All dimensions and areas are approximate and measured in accordance with the 
RICS code of measuring practice)

Ground Floor
Self Contained Office 1 - 25.58m² (275 ft²)
Self Contained Office 2 - 23.83m² (256 ft²)
Male, female and disabled toilet facilities

First Floor 
Office 24.00m² (258 ft²)
Kitchenette

SERVICES:
The property is connected to mains electricity, water and drainage. The offices have separate electricity meters, which are invoiced on a monthly basis."

Quoted from Charterwood Website 

Useful forum discussing grants available for restoration of Cornish Engine Houses

The International Style

The International Style

"International Style is a term often used to describe Bauhaus architecture in the United States. The name came from the book The International Style by historian and critic Henry-Russell Hitchcock and architect Philip Johnson. The book was published in 1932 in conjunction with an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The term is again used in a later book, International Architecture, by Walter Gropius.

While German Bauhaus architecture had been concerned with the social aspects of design, America's International Style became a symbolism of Capitalism: The International Style is the favored architecture for office buildings, and is also found in upscale homes built for the rich. 

By the mid-twentieth century, many variations of the International Style had evolved. In southern California and the American Southwest, architects adapted the International Style to the warm climate and arid terrain, creating an elegant yet informal style known asDesert Modernism.

One of the most famous examples of the International Style is the United Nations Secretariat building, designed by Le Corbusier. The smooth glass-sided slab dominates New York's skyline along the East River. The United Nations Secretariat building was completed in 1952." http://architecture.about.com/od/20thcenturytrends/ig/Modern-Architecture/International-Style.htm

Bauhaus

Bauhaus

"Bauhaus is a German expression meaning house for building. In 1919, the economy in Germany was collapsing after a crushing war. Architect Walter Gropius was appointed to head a new institution that would help rebuild the country and form a new social order. Called the Bauhaus, the Institution called for a new "rational" social housing for the workers. Bauhaus architects rejected "bourgeois" details such as cornices, eaves, and decorative details. They wanted to use principles of Classical architecture in their most pure form: without ornamentation of any kind.

Bauhaus buildings have flat roofs, smooth facades, and cubic shapes. Colors are white, gray, beige, or black. Floor plans are open and furniture is functional.

The Bauhaus school disbanded when the Nazis rose to power. Walter Gropius, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and other Bauhaus leaders migrated to the United States. The termInternational Style was applied to the American form of Bauhaus architecture." http://architecture.about.com/od/20thcenturytrends/ig/Modern-Architecture/Bauhaus.htm

• Architects Inspired by the Bauhaus Movement
• Walter Gropius
• Le Corbusier
• Richard Neutra
• Philip Johnson
• Mies van der Rohe
• Marcel Breuer

The Bauhaus was very unusual among 20th Century art schools, because it tried to give a complete grounding in the visual arts and the visual and the visual crafts.  What it tried to do was to say making was the basis of everything, not theory.  To start everything off with the direct imprint of the hand, on receptive material on whatever that might be; old materials like stone and wood and ceramic, new materials like plastic.


Mies Van De Rohe governed the Bauhaus for three years, during that time and after, The Bauhaus had enormous impact, upon the way that people thought about design and made everything car radiators to tea pots.


Many of the best design ideas of 20th centruy were produced by the Bauhaus, and they have yet to be superseded.   

Structuralism

Structuralism
Structuralism is based on the idea that all things are built from a system of signs and these signs are made up of opposites: male/female, hot/cold, old/young, etc. For Structuralists, design is a process of searching for the relationship between elements. Structuralists are also interested in the social structures and mental processes that contributed to the design.

"The archetypical behaviour of man as the origin of architecture (cf. Anthropology, Claude Lévi-Strauss). Different Rationalist architects had contacts with groups of the Russian Avant-Garde after World War I. They believed in the idea that man and society could be manipulated."  http://www.essential-architecture.com/STYLE/STY-068.htm 

Structuralist architecture will have a great deal of complexity within a highly structured framework. For example, a Structuralist design may consist of cell-like honeycomb shapes, intersecting planes, cubed grids, or densely clustered spaces with connecting courtyards.

Architect Peter Eisenman often brings a Structuralist approach to his works.

Modernism

What is Modernism in Architecture?

"Modernist architecture emphasizes function. It attempts to provide for specific needs rather than imitate nature. The roots of Modernism may be found in the work of Berthold Luberkin (1901-1990), a Russian architect who settled in London and founded a group called Tecton. The Tecton architects believed in applying scientific, analytical methods to design. Their stark buildings ran counter to expectations and often seemed to defy gravity."

Villa Savoy - Le Corbusier 

Marina City (left) and IBM Plaza (right) in Chicago

Modernist architecture can express a number of stylistic ideas, including:

• Structuralism 
• Formalism 
• Bauhaus 
• The International Style 
• Desert Modernism 
• Mid-Century, or Mid-Twentieth Century 
• Modernism 
• Brutalism 
• Minimalism

Modernist architecture has these features:

• Little or no ornamentation
• Factory-made parts
• Man-made materials such as metal and concrete
• Emphasis on function and Rebellion against traditional styles.

For examples of Modernism in architecture, see works by:

• Rem Koolhaas 
• I.M. Pei 
• Le Corbusier 
• Philip Johnson 
• Mies van der Rohe 

In the later decades of the twentieth century, designers rebelled against the rational Modernism and a variety of post modern styles evolved. Examples of post modern architecture include:

• Postmodernism 
• High Tech 
• Organic 
• Deconstructivism

Billy Baldwin - Decorates

The Sterility of perfection

“Nothing is interesting unless it’s personal.” BILLY BALDWIN, Decorates (1972) Secaucus NJ, pp. 24

“Everyone has his own needs, his own preferences, his own ways of using space.  When a decorator disregards these needs or tries to superimpose an alien personality, he cannot bring off that wonderful warm atmosphere of private personal space.” BILLY BALDWIN, Decorates (1972) Secaucus NJ, pp. 24

“I, for one cannot imagine a fireplace without a fire burning whenever there is the slightest excuse for it.  I cannot conceive of a house in the country without dogs, or a house without books – the greatest decoration of all.  These give a room heart…” BILLY BALDWIN, Decorates (1972) Secaucus NJ, pp. 24

“the first rule of decoration is that you can break almost all the other rules.  A roomed decorated absolutely according to the book, with little I’s dotted and t’s crossed is all very well in its impersonal way.  But the rooms that are really successful declare the owners independence, carry the owners signature, his very private scrawl. BILLY BALDWIN, Decorates (1972) Secaucus NJ, pp. 25

Pecket Well Mill

Gerona University Remodelling - Josep Fuses and Joan Mario Viader

The university was once at the heart of the city of Gerona, but with time the city became industrialised.  The university buildings were abandoned and left to fall to ruin.  Josep Fusues and Joan Mario Viader weere commissioned to provide accommodation for an admin and information area and a library.

"The L-shaped university building was carefully restored and the administration area placed within it as a sensitive series of new elements, juxtaposed against the rustic fabric of the original building.  The new two storey rectangular library wing completes the courtyard and has a sense of continuity with its context.  But it is the conversion of the chapel that is most relevant.  The remodelling takes the form of an insertion that appears to be floating up from inside the chapel; it is very effective because the original building and the new element display their own character and still develop an intense relationship.  The insertion is completely dependant upon the original building for its scale, mass, size and position and yet the style and materials are obviously 20th century.  Ass in all good insertions, the tension between the two heightens both."  GRAEME BROOKER and SALLY STONE (2004) Rereadings, Interior Architecture and the design principals of remodelling existing buildings. pp. 121.

The roof of the chapel appears to soar from the building from the top of the building, allowing light to penetrate to ground level.  

The new insertion clearly takes its cues from the existing building.GRAEME BROOKER and SALLY STONE (2004) Rereadings, Interior Architecture and the design principals of remodelling existing buildings. pp. 121.

Re-Readings - Quotes

Clarification of the different methods of building conservation

"Preservation maintains the building in the found state, whether ruinous or not.  The building is made safe and any further decay prevented; the ruined condition is important to the historical understanding of the place.

Restoration is the process of returning the condition of the building to its original state and this often involves using materials and techniques of the original period to ensure that the building appears as though it has just been constructed

Renovation is the process of renewing and updating the building; a palace or large mansion might be adapted for 21st century living but not substantially changed. 

Remodelling is the process of wholeheartedly altering a building.  The function is the obvious change, but other alterations may be made to the building itself such as the circulation route, the orientation, the relationships between spaces; additions may be built and other areas may be demolished.  This process is sometimes referred to as adaptive reuse, especially in the USA, or as reworking, adaptation, interior architecture or even interior design.

Sometimes two of the methods may be employed in unison; for example, when designing the Sackler Galleries at the Royal Academy of London, Foster Associates ensured that the façades of the original buildings were completely restored before embarking on the remodelling of the space."  

GRAEME BROOKER and SALLY STONE (2004) Rereadings, Interior Architecture and the design principals of remodelling an existing building pp. 11

"The visible presence of the past is a valuable tool in the transformation of a building and rather then acting as a constraining  factor, it can be an instrument of liberation."  GRAEME BROOKER and SALLY STONE (2004) Rereadings, Interior Architecture and the design principals of remodelling an existing building pp. 39

 History of Remodelling

"Building outlast civilisations, they evolve and they are changed, but their use emphasises continuity.  A building can retain remembrance of a former function and value; it has a memory of its previous previous purpose engrained within its very structure.  GRAEME BROOKER and SALLY STONE (2004) Rereadings pp. 9.

"...modern architecture is characterised essentially by the image of the crisp white villa situated in the landscape unfettered by its surroundings. GRAEME BROOKER and SALLY STONE (2004) Rereadings pp. 9.

"I believe a lot in the revelatory capacity of reading.....if one is able to interpret the meaning of what has remained engraved not only does one come to understand when this mark was made and what the motivation behind it was, but one also becomes concious of how the various events that have left their mark have become layered, how they relate to one another and how, through time, they have set off other events and have woven together our history."  Benedict Zucchi, GIANCARLO DE CARLO (interview) pp. 167. 

Analysis - Context and environment

"You can't reuse an existing space except by re-designing it and that means going through an operation which 'de-structures' it from its previous context and 're-structures' it in the new one." Interview with Pierluigi Nicolin, Lotus 1978, pp. 10. Cited in Zucchi, Giancarlo De Carlo pp. 47.

Tactics 

"Light can control a space and form it, it can direct, movement can be suggested, objects and places can be illuminated and accentuated and it can be used to change the perception of things.  Whether natural light or artificial, light is an essential element and the skilful articulation of it can influence the experience of a building." GRAEME BROOKER and SALLY STONE (2004) Rereadings, Interior Architecture and the design principals of remodelling an existing building pp. 147 

"Light is probably the most important element necessary for the understanding of space and form.  For for fear of stating the obvious, without light, space cannot be visualised.  Whether natural or artificial, light can indicated space and define form.  Light can influence the attitude towards a place.  Low subtle lighting can, in the right circumstances make a room appear inviting or in the wrong, very threatening.  A bright sunny room can induce feelings of happiness while a dull one can be dispiriting.  GRAEME BROOKER and SALLY STONE (2004) Rereadings, Interior Architecture and the design principals of remodelling an existing building pp. 184

"Surface is the tactile element that established a direct relationship between human contact and the building.  The surface of any element, that is, the specific materials that it is made from, not only provides for environmental and ergonomic control but also renders the very character of the building."  

"Openings are crucial punctuation points in the building.  They have obvious uses such as facilitating movement and admitting light, but they also have a less obvious function of creating views, providing orientation and direction and most importantly, they establish relationships between places." 

"Movement through or around a building is generally either vertical or horizontal, by means of stairs or a lift, or a path or corridor.  Movement through a building not only provides access to different areas but also serves to bind together separate or desperate spaces.  Staircases in particular, but also bridges and balconies, can prove to be more than purely functional, forming sculptural elements and focal points." GRAEME BROOKER and SALLY STONE (2004) Rereadings, Interior Architecture and the design principals of remodelling an existing building pp. 147 

SUB ZERO - Andrew Corpe

Bonnieux ruin

"This beautiful ruin had been left untouched for decades due to planning laws that did not allow renovation due to it's lack of a roof. However recent changes in legislation allowing buildings of this nature to be restored if they have architectural and historical interest enabled my clients to realise a lifetime's dream. Simplicity, transparency and light were the key objectives for this unique project."http://www.andrewcorpe.com/project.php?id=6&cat_id=1

Hans Dollgast - Kuppersmuhle museum

Hans Dollgast's sensitive interpretation and reconstruction of the of the bombed Altes Pinakothek museum in Munich after the second world war was led by an appreciation of the a rhythm created by repeated elements that form a building.  The architects reconstruction was based on a contemporary interpretation of the classical façade, by respecting its rhythm and proportions, but changing the material used the scarring of the bomb damage is clearly apparent.

Rodolfo Machado - Old buildings as palimpsest

"Remodelling is a process of providing a balance between the past and the future. In the process of remodelling the past takes on a greater significance because it, itself, is the material to be altered and reshaped. The past provides the already written, the marked ‘canvas’ on which each successive remodelling will find its own place. Thus the past becomes a ‘package of sense’ of built up meaning to be accepted (maintained), transformed or suppressed (refused)."  (Machado, 1976, p. 27).

"When the alterations in the building’s content are of such a type that the buildings original or latest function is changed; then the building is refunctionalized, a different story is born, a new plot is composed out of the old words, a new interpretation has taken place" (Machado, 1976, p. 27).

Converted Barn - Oxfordshire

Great Pallet of materials

Tutorial Notes (Andrew)

Cornish Engine houses:

Identify a strong rationale for the location of the building, or are they a chain of locations?  Look at user group.

• Historical
• Brief (people)
• Practical (space)
• Context (social)

Guinness Housing Trust - Social Mobility Support

• Is it a catalyst to encourage change in the community (young creative)?
• What are the parameters of the modularity?
• Do you link existing features to the function of the building (thick wall = thermal mass / shelter / acoustics)
• Walter Seagal - Housing system
• Volumes and model negative space
• Horden, Cherry, Lee  - Craned in pods
• Future Systems - Mirco Architecture book
• Visit Mines and Engines Camborne
•  Carlo Scarpa and Castle Vechio - Old meets new