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Boulevards of Suburbia

This photographic essay documents my first exploration of the territory along the train line between Newcastle and Morpeth.

Moving through the periphery of the city revealed a common theme of the natural landscape gradually approaching and eventually engulfing the suburban residences which dominate the territory, creating picturesque moments of reveal for both nature and suburbia.

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Robert Smithson’s ‘Monuments of Passaic’ Photographic Essay

Exploring his childhood homeland, Smithson saw these scenes from his native hinterland as a different world, every bit as fascinating and deserving of attention as the New York art world to which he belonged during his career.

He photographed various industrial relics he found in the region and re-imagined them as ‘monuments’ from a different time, musing on their artistic significance.

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Contextual Development of the SAFFAhaus

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Des Drei Leben des SAFFA-Hauses

Analysis of the life cycle of the SAFFAhaus and the changing context in which it inhabits.

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Comparing thought maps between my own initial concept and research into the SAFFAhaus.

Before commencing research into the landhaus precedent, I first considered the themes and focal points which I would personally like to drive my concept for this project based on the original brief and my own interests, and recorded these ideas as a thought map.

Following my research into the SAFFAhaus, I compiled a similar map of the key words which I extracted from that research, without consulting the initial concept map.

Comparing the two maps reveals key words which appear in both maps (highlighted in red). These words will form the base for developing my concept moving forward.

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The SAFFAhaus was first exhibited in Bern 1928 at the first exhibition of the Swiss women, SAFFA. Lux Guyer was responsible for the overall architectural concept of the exhibition. She arranged the exhibition city as a strictly axially structured composition of hall buildings, which responded to the landscape and provided for landscaped gardens.

Following the SAFFA, the Aarau merchant Fritz Kunath acquired the exhibition SAFFAhaus and reconstructed it in the same year using the same reconstruction plan, section and façades, with the necessary technical installations (heating, plumbing) added. The house was laid in the still largely undeveloped flat area of the trapezoidal building plot. The garden design was initially similar to that which Lux Guyer had proposed for SAFFA, fragmented and divided into various areas.

A planning application for an extension of the SAFFAhaus was submitted on 3 March 1937, containing seven rooms, utility rooms and cellars. The task was to rebuild the rational and affordable house into a villa with twelve rooms. The formal Saffa construction and design elements of Lux Guyer were referred to and interpreted quite freely.

In 2003 the SAFFAhaus was deconstructed and ultimately moved to Stäfa after falling into disrepair. There was a requirement to use the Saffa house as a public attraction and for an educational purpose. It eventually became a parent-child centre which plays an important role in promoting and supporting families in their everyday education.

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Lux Guyer designed the SAFFAhaus using a new prefabricated construction system, Holzbausystemtechnik. The so-called "patent walls" were storey-high solid wall panels, consisting of an inner pack of standing timber, covered on either side by rebated pushed-lying boards, and finished with exterior cladding shingles made of wood or asbestos cement and wood paneling or plasterboard on the interior. The timber system provided freedom to design flexible and open interior spaces and the development of a living idea, which was born from the pre-modern reform movements at the start of the 20th century. 

The rational, prefabricated nature of the buildings construction provided and opportunity to disassemble the building in Aarau and reconstruct it in a new location after the original building suffered dilapidation. The SAFFAhaus had to be dismantled and stored until the end of 2003, until it was moved to a new location for reconstruction. The aim was to create the closest possible factory implementation of the original house, therefore using as many original components as possible. 

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The SAFFAhaus was designed by Lux Guyer for the first SAFFA exhibition in Bern 1938 as an inexpensive house for the mid section of the population. It was innovative multi-functional and flexible space which catered for suit modern family lifestyle of the era.

The SAFFAhaus was designed as apartments of 1-4 rooms, targeted at the demand among the middle class, as well as the large number of unmarried but economically independent women.

"The simple practicality that we want to put in place is a bloodless romance, has its own blissful beauty, is unresponsive for no one, and somehow participates in the healthy and creative instincts of the zeitgeist."

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My provocation at the start of this project was the theme of the Landaus, and seeking new ways to describe and design buildings in landscape. 

“Here, building and land enter into a ceaseless and reciprocally conditional dialogue with one another.” - Shaun Young, Tutor