Antonia Myleus
Master's Level (Year 1)
Master's Level (Year 1)
The wagon workshop is situated in-between the nature reserve and the city centre. One of the main problems of the area today is that it’s closed off by fences, it’s disorientating reaching the building and large parts are closed to the public due to its derelict use. With this in mind, I want to open up the whole building, extending the public space, restoring large parts of the façade to what it looked like before. Creating a new diagonal axis through the building from the main path on site to the allotments in the east, along with the existing paths inside the building will allow for public and experiential routes through the building, linking the wagon workshop back to the city centre whilst being connected to nature.
Due to the scale of the wagon workshop, I have chosen to work with various different themes within art but also the production of art and its materials, rather than to fill it up with a single use.
I have chosen to look at the building in a city-like scale, working with paths and modular buildings which can grow naturally through time when needed and according to its functions, but can also be taken down and transformed or moved when no longer needed. I want the wagon workshop to diffuse the threshold between the public and private, shifting from large scale closed-off industries for trains, to an open art and re-use factory which is largely self-sustained built by people for people and artists, focusing on the human-scale through arts and craft, creating new materials and the re-use of them.
I want to challenge this thinking by creating a public space that is indoors, where people are free to roam, create, interact with artists through the whole life-cycle of creating the artwork as well as being able to pass through the space. The path can be seen as a shortcut through the building, but it also follows the whole process of reusing building materials to the finished artwork.
The transformation process of the building starts with re-using the existing walls inside the wagon workshop to create the first building, or generator building where material can be stored, treated or transformed in order to build new workshops and residence for artists. ‘Node buildings’ with features such as pottery making, sculpting, metal workshops, wood workshops etc are built in accordance to need. Material for new buildings are treated in the workshops, where the scrap material can be used for the production of paintbrushes, canvas frames, sculpting tools etc in the smaller individual residential workshops, thusly supplying not only the people working in the building, but the local artists and schools in the area with material as well. From the workshops, walls, working spaces or showcasing spaces will grow in accordance to need and working activity, thusly the ground floor will be a self-generated space which changes over time. By taking care of the materiality of the surrounding buildings that are planned to be taken down, the material is treated in the generator building and can then continue to build more workshops or residential units.
The building is divided into a 6x12m grid, where the building concept is based on modules which can be transformed or expanded through time. For the three weeks that the building will be used for Open Art, I have chosen to work with smaller ‘pods’ which fit into the grid, which makes it easy for future expansion or removal.
The main purpose for these building is to create public and private working spaces as well as private living spaces, and creating equality for spaces, both in terms of privacy, openness, social interaction, rest, passing through. The whole ground floor is open, but through level changes and elongating the entrance into the public space, suggestive private working areas are created without having a formal door. Placing the buildings one ‘step’ away from the façade creates private working spaces in close relation to the façade with good light, and the possibility to bring the artwork outside and work on them there.
