Education
Royal College of Art - MA Interior Design
Hebei University (The HBU-UCLan School of Media) - Interior Design
Yexiu Hu
Inspired by the fun palace by Cedric Price, my project “Beyond the framework” intends to explore the idea that a building is a skeletal framework designed to accommodate the urban life.
The chosen site is East Point Pavilion in Lowestoft. It is an abandoned glass house style 90s building in the waterfront of Lowestoft. Its exposed urban location asks more than what is offering. I developed a design which is focused on bringing back the vibrant urban life if could be offering by stripping away the decorative façade of the existing building, grow the existing frame into a new super structure, and allowing it to accommodation ever changing urban events e.g. food festival and music festival.
Site –
The site named the East Point Pavilion, situated on the seafront in Lowestoft, which is completely exposed to its surrounding public landscape, with convenient transportation, and such long horizontal walkways, it dominates such an important location, you won’t miss it from either direction of the seafront. This led me to think how its future can reshape the use of Lowestoft’s seafront and encourage social gatherings, and also plan it to be an iconic local building.
Site material & function –
It has been used as a Tourist Information Center as well as housing restaurants and children's soft play. For now, its starting up a scheme to be regenerated into a public food hall hosting pop up store.
Existing frames –
So, this is the language that remains from the façade.
Existing frames - Small scale model –
I have restored the overall inside framework, including the colors, the layout. it shows Contemporary quality, it interests me to design it as a thing.
Reference - Fun palace –
Before that, the inspiration for this project was the 1960s Fun palace, an avant-garde idea came from Joan Littlwood and Cedric Price. The key point of this building is to be dynamic and ever changing. A basic shell to provide a scaffold within which rooms and spaces could be created and destroyed as needed. It shows me the potential of the interaction between framework and people that how to remotivate the urban vitality of this town.
Pre-testing –
In the initial intervention, I tried to play with the structural frame, made an urban trampoline to stimulate urban potential.
Which shows the characteristics so flat, and the type of existing frame offers so limited. I raised the height of the frame in order to raise people's sight-lines, and extracted this language from the existing frame.
Why red –
Architects regularly use it as a tool to tell a story or evoke a specific reaction.
There may not be an architect more synonymous with red than Bernard Tschumi. Consistently using red at the core of his work, Tschumi believes that ‘red is not a color,’ but instead an idea. In the case of Parc de la Villette. Red draws visitors towards the spaces where Tschumi hopes to initiate interaction - similar to how flowers use their color to encourage pollination.
Master plan –
This new master plan, foreshadowing the infinite extension of this framework into the urban environment, No restrictions on the order or direction of access.
New framework
Abstraction
Accessories –
Except the Main framework, how these accessories can be used with different scenes, the function of the crane is that it can be raised (lift heavy objects), extended (to install) and rotated, collaborate with the frame.
Crane
Accessaries –
It is a prefabricated accessory that is indispensable to the site. We will work with a company that specialises in customisable Portaloo series, including the design, transportation, assembly and recycling processes, forming a complete service system.
Changeable activities
Food festival
Holding pop-up shop –
Taking one for example, the shop is a collapsible prefabricated unit, which is assembled in the factory as a semi-finished product or assembled directly (transport permitting) and delivered to the site. One or two workers can work with the crane to insert the shop into the frame and it is ready to open.
Holding pop-up shop –
After a few weeks of festivities, the shop can be temporarily closed for the next day's transport. The closure does not block the very circulating character of the frames, but rather creates a streets cape, and can finally be evacuated from the site. And the materials can be recycled or reused by the local fish market.
Food festival –
Preparing to start...
Food festival
Weekday fish market –
The shop's demount-able design is used to meet the different needs of the stallholders, whether it is the choice of a seating area or a worktop, which can be easily converted.
Weekday fish market
Medium:
image
Music festival –
In middle of the summer! Come along and check out the most popular seaside music festivals.
Master plan –
See the whole arrangement of facilities for the event in the master plan, adding toilet facilities as needed. The stage design of the festival has full use of the grow-able frame, taking advantage of the site to really involve the audience in the whole atmosphere.
Stage
Movable stage in the middle –
Two small mobile stages have been added to the Center of the stage, for musical instruments or for DJ, made of a red transparent poly-carbonate material, using the structure to support the mobile function of the stage.
Movable stage
Music festival – as the sun is going down and everything is ready to happen, with sight of the DJ are warming up.
Music festival –
Tonight, absolutely can be night of the revelry!
Sea view restaurant –
When the weather cools down in the autumn, you can also come to Lowestoft and experience the sea view restaurant.
Master plan –
The master plan has been rearranged, leaving part of the stage floor, taking part of the toilets away and moving them to the royal garden, underneath are two sets of kitchen facilities, also converted from the previous pop-up shops, in the middle is a movable restaurant design and the last one is a separate lift arrangement for the waiters to deliver the food.
Layout –
The whole circulation also has the advantage to be able to access in any direction, guests can enter the dining space and sit and wait for food. Once guests have been served, the whole restaurant will run up and down every 15 minutes, just waiting for the guests to finish their meal and end the whole running experience. So, the whole core design is to maximize the advantage of the height of the frame that offering different views.
Kitchen area & dining room
We return to the frame itself and look forward to the next event for a different experience in Lowestoft!