PAM PUBLIC LECTURE
BY CHARLIE SUTHERLAND
DEFINITE & INFINITE. The talk is introduced by Sutherland Hussey Architects firm founder Charlie Sutherland, who had received number of award winning small scale projects all over the UK.
INTRODUCTION
Charlie Sutherland was graduated from Mackintosh Schoolin Glasgow. After his graduation, he joined the office of Sir James Stirling and worked on number of international commissions and competitions. The project he participated includes The Paris Library, Tokyo Forum and Temasek Polytechnic in Singapore. After the untimely death of Stirling, Sutherland were than invited to join Renzo Piano’s office in Italy to work on the competition for a new performing Arts Centre in Rome.
According to him, design should not be limited by DEFINITE in architecture, there is no fixed standard or formula in design. Every individuals should define their own design by relating the building and the site context. Besides, he stated that architecture is boundaryless, there is no limitation in design, we should not set up target or limit for architect to design.
DEFINITE & INFINITE
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After the introduction, the talk started with introducing some of his successful project and how he apply DEFINITE & INFINITE in his architecture career. Despite the balance between these two terms , Sutherland realized that every design must have a reason or consideration behind, whether stick to site context or human behavior.
AN TURAS
In spite of winning the competition Sutherland decided to return to the United Kingdom. In 1997, Sutherland and his long term colleague, Charlie Hussey established Sutherland Hussey Architects. He was elected as a fellow to the Royal Scottish Academy for Art and Architecture in 2011 and was awarded an honorary professorship at Glasgow University in 2013 by promoting the links between education and the Academy
As visitors enter it, the howling wind is stilled and conversation is again fully audible. The overall design give visitors sense of close to nature, clean and simple yet meaningful. The building contain few different spatial qualities, every part has its own philosophies and senses.
Lawson Park, another masterpiece of his, located in Cumbria, west side of Grizedale Forest, United Kingdom. It overlooks Coniston Water and across the lake to Coniston village, framed by a backdrop of craggy mountain peaks.
He have taken the ‘just a shelter’ concept, whilst waiting for the ferry. The result is a pure combination of walls, bridge and box that is so simple it delights. Stone were used to construct to create a sense of relationship between landscape and the building. 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 then speaks about designing cities from the ground up, the transition between academia to practice, as well as whether teaching programmes are keeping up with professional practice. He then continued the presentation with some of his project to explains how he applied definite and infinite into his idea of design.
An Turas, a Ferry Shelter for Tiree Arts, Scotland. The site is located near to a ferry dock, Charlie intend to design a building which reflect the site qualities which is big sky and horizon, the white beaches, the monochromatic black houses dotted over the land all distilled as a line in the landscape.
LAWSON PARK
The long narrow site is exploited using all the public areas to maximise a dramatic relationship with the new square, the remaining façades consequently enclose the largely hermetic exhibition halls, these are represented as a giant crafted artefact in the city cloaked in a precious skin of copper alloy rigorously profiled to play with light, shade and texture whilst accommodating all the technical requirements for ventilation grilles. Aside from the east face this skin is 'lifted' to reveal glazing at street level, allowing a more human scaled intimacy and a relationship to the interior.
It is an historic Cumbrian hill farm which then converted into a holiday home and hostel for Liverpool University. The first time you go through the building what hits you immediately is the contrast between interior and exterior. Charlie tried to preserve the feeling given by the original old hill farm exterior envelope with only using raw stone as exterior wall. While interior is contemporary design which he wanted to raised the space quality of the interior.
To make the building stand out from the environment, Charlie decided to use grey and brick color as exterior while timber and plaster were used to renovate interior space. It give a sense of invisible linkage between inside and outside of the building.
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: The complete panorama, looking out along Gott bay and beyond.
THE LOVE SHACK
The architect was intends to unfolding the site, with proposal of replacement for the existing dwelling on the site which is of modest scale and accommodation, providing a compact retreat for two people. Access is by steps leading up the house via a covered timber porch. From the hallway a small flight of stairs leads into the open plan living space with oak floors and south facing picture windows. The materials selected for the building are similar to surrounding which is timber.
The Love Shack, the house was designed for owners an artist and firm-maker. The building is built on a steep slope on a foundation of mini piles. To deal with this issue, accommodation is split over two levels.
It sits on the West side of the square and maximises its profile to present a façade 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 façade addressing Tian-Fu Square.
Chengdu Museum, it won first prize in the international competition for the design of the new City Museum.
CHENGDU MUSEUM
The talk ends with Q & A session. In a nutshell, the project done by Charlie were impressive and unique, which most of it project were tied to the initial design concept. The final outcome were iconic, recognizable and identifiable, coherent buildings with a simple integrity.
CONCLUSION