London Deviations

Abstract

The graduation project ‘London Deviations’ aims to understand the ever-changing historic city with its multiple identities and experiences offered. With this it tries to find a way how one can design an idiosyncratic architecture that still fits in appropriately in the complexity of the contemporary metropolis. The city that was the case for this study is London. In its historical parts two identities and experiences were discovered: the 'obvious image' of the city, called the front (hotspots, main streets, etc.) and the backsides (alleys, backstreets, mews, hidden courts, etc.), the latter deviating from the former. These deviations were researched on their own and in relation to their fronts. This was done by studying their history, materiality (where noted if they are recurring or deviating), morphology, how they are experienced by moving through them, by their ‘rhythm’, and through sections. Underlying Themes as continuation, scale, sequence, stimulation, use of greenery, surprise effect and hidden in plain sight were discovered and recognized as ‘typically London’. They were then integrated in the architectural project. Not just by translating the urban research into the design of the building itself, but also by incorporating the surroundings into the project, in particular by creating a new deviation.