Serjeant Award for Excellence in Drawing
The thesis focuses on the details, artefacts and collections and their relationship to members of The Restored Commonwealth Club. A key interest is how the architectural details can orchestrate discussions, reinforce the ideology and ensure the existence of the club.
‘Today, our details tend to exist solely for the service of the whole structure, and become inherent particles of the whole structure ... So much so that the details often fuse completely with the greater architectural form to point where it’s difficult to separate them.’ This proposes the question, does the architectural detail enforce the aspirations of the polemical stance of the specific site, client, brief and the case of this thesis the aspirations of the club?
In the case of this thesis the mnemonic detail refers to artefacts that have been collected and the architectural detail that has been commissioned to both the external and internal areas of the club house which have a transcendental tie to the formation, affiliation and aspiration of the selected club.
The study of The Restored Commonwealth Club is formed of the Entrance and Library, focusing on a number of mnemonic details.
Members enter the club and undergo a number of rituals to depart their original realm and enter the realm of the club, the cloakroom is the main point of transition, disrobing and reassembling.
The club has gone through a number of transitions in line with the state of the empire and the development of the Commonwealth, the ideological charge is released through the club’s details.
The realm of the Restored Commonwealth is manipulated by the movement of the Empire Clock.
The hands do not just indicate the time (past / present / future) they also dictate the spaces that occupy the realm at that given moment.
This results in a realm that is in a constant state of flux, jumping time, space and gravity.
The mnemonic details of The Restored Commonwealth Club considers the design of human / non-human interfaces fusing the role of the member and the detail, resulting in the interwoven fabric of the gentlemen’s/non-anthropocentric club.
Adam Bell
Tutor(s)