| Christopher D. Gray |  |
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landscape architecture urban design |
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Diploma in Architecture portfolio togail těr  » October 2005 - July 2006 raising land; depicting land; uplifted by land a residential study centre for artists, writers and creatives to work in the remote landscape of Skye The field centre offers the opportunity for groups and individuals to attend residential short and long courses in subjects relating to gaelic art, culture and heritage. Up to 80 people can be accommodated at the centre with a support staff of around 8 (including office, catering and management). Associated with the field centre are individual retreats that are located around the penisula at Boreraig. These self-contained units offer living studio spaces for artists, writers and other creatives who are free to pursue their own work whilst also providing teaching and support to the field centre. Studios, workshops and meeting rooms are provided at the field centre along with dining facilities and a common room for social interaction. Click here for the full project text. » Tutors: Faozi Ujam, Malcolm Jones Dissertation  » October 2005 - March 2006 “Measure: phenomenological & ontological readings” A Dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Diploma in Architecture by Christopher D. Gray "Man’s measure is not a quantity that can be measured. Only man’s being itself can tell what its measure is, by the fiery test of the living encounter of the human self with reality...Human measure is to be sought in the quantity of our belonging – in the magnitude, direction and degree of our being with the other as with our own" Albert Hofstadter, Agony and Epitaph: Man, His Art, and His Poetry (New York: George Braziller, 1970), p2. The aim of this dissertation is to introduce and explore the term measure as it relates to human interaction and understanding of the natural environment. Measure is most usually understood as the units as well as the mathematical or cosmological structure with which one may understand a certain reality; measure is also the particular technological instrument that shapes, or makes manifest such units and the ethical gauge against which the actions and cultural products of these instruments can be assessed. Taking a key text on measure by James Corner and Alex Maclean entitled Taking Measures Across the American Landscape as a starting point, the dissertation aims to explore the phenomenological aspects of the term suggested in the text, and furthermore demonstrate that measure can be read from an ontological viewpoint. This ontological viewpoint takes the philosophy of locus architecture as a starting point in order to show how by a structuralist approach, such a reading of measure can be understood to reveal the deep structure of a place. Simply put, locus architecture is the practising of a careful architecture with authentic design drawn from the deep cultural study of a specific place. At its core is a concern for the powerful essences of pure being that exist in a place, abstract essences that have been described as ontological forces2. Whilst locus architecture is the philosophical background to the dissertation and the author’s own diploma design work, the Scottish Highlands is the geographical background. The dissertation is illustrated throughout by the author’s exploration of changes in measure in the Scottish Highlands. These informal diagrams and maps are an extension of the text and suggest further avenues for study as described in the final chapter. Click here for the bibliography. Please contact me if you wish to read the full text. » Supervisor: Faozi Ujam |
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