Elly Ward

0:21Hi so first slide and so I wanted to talk to you tonight about a few ideas and themes that drive my practice ordinary architecture and the first of which perhaps most obviously is ordinariness and not much modern architecture by architects is generally referred to as ordinary in a complementary way although it has occasionally been used to describe a set of values such as Alison and Peter Smith sins sa ordinariness and delight on the design of robin hood gardens and Venturi's got brand series of the ugly and ordinary but we find ordinary are an architecture created by those outside of high cultural institutions can be rich with meaning and qualities that resist architectures tendency towards abstract value and it's also often full of extraordinary delights so we love ordinary ordinary things things aren't always considered architecture with a capital A or of high aesthetic merit a blinking neon seafront sign or a particularly convivial traditional pub extraordinary architecture can be found in some very ordinary places here is to some images of some of our favorite sites near our office in bethnal green that we took when we were invited to take over the architects Journal Instagram account recently an account is kind of typically filled with images of pristine white models and sleek modern architecture and we messed up their feed with such delight as an East End cafe two front doors and a pie and mash shop so when we were invited by the RI be a journal to write a monthly column and we took it as an opportunity to explore and enjoy some of these ordinary architectural typology 'he's a bit more so for example the greengrocers the objects on sale here formed the structure the architecture and the ornamentation bunches of bananas grapes and pineapples become living in seeing capitals the caravan a modest attempt at escapism and a desire to bring as much of your home with you on holiday as possible yet also indisputably ingenious pieces of design that if it weren't for their association with suburban bad taste would actually press most architects buttons the pleasure pier they lead us literally nowhere.

2:49But the journey is full of flashing lights and music and the promise of illicit thrills the British seaside is actually a really good place to look for very underrated architecture buildings freed from a conservative fear of the new or simply too much insufferable good taste and lastly the minicab office lurking above cafes and shops tucked behind train stations and underneath railway arches this example is almost like some kind of minimalist art installation a glass window inserted into a wall back bit signs flickering across the dirty brickwork so our obsession with ordinariness extends to an interest in folk art and architecture in user adaptation.

3:28And in the undesigned which brings us to the question constantly how can we as architects positively approach the idea of ordinary architecture currently much of this thinking exists in our research and teaching so this year I'm running an undergraduate studio at Westminster University called the village model that is exploring the anatomy and physiology of the quintessential English village as a viable archetype for contemporary urban development is it possible to learn from the everyday qualities of architecture to create extraordinary spaces and places this is perhaps the main question that drives our current practice now for a quick glimpse of a recent project that explores another of our interests radical decoration as we call it and which has been described as a fantastic example of extraordinary architecture so it's the house for Essex a sparkling jewel situated in the Hangul working landscape of the Essex countryside this house is a result of a design collaboration with the disgraceful Perry and our former practice fat which we were no voted a complete as ordinary on-site last year.

4:45So we see it as an antidote to minimalism which to quote Rosen Perry has become so Kitsch these days sorry to the first speaker and another project we were shortlisted to I've completely forgot to whiz through the through the images sorry and so the roof sculptures the glazed ceramic tiles and the extravagantly detailed interiors are abundant with decorative motifs ornamentation and lush materiality another project we were recently shortlisted to design was the new members room for the VNA which gave us an opportunity to explore a bit more of our ideas around the idea of radical decoration.

5:32So we got to mine the VA's collection of decorative and applied art objects and we became obsessed with all these beautiful examples of marquetry and we developed an idea around a palette of contemporary pop graphics realized using traditional marquetry techniques unfortunately we came second losing to a much more sensible and tasteful design by Carmody gorg but we haven't lost hope that this scheme may still be realized in and other guys one day and perhaps with the VNA here we who were continuing to work with and right it's a shame I couldn't bring any images but right.

6:07Now we're but we're designing their exhibition for their new pavilion at the bit of the Venice Biennale this year it's too early to kind of show any images but it's all super exciting and coming soon so watch this space and then finally I wanted to show you a project that captures another interest of hours which is storytelling and a narrative which we used both as a tool and as inspiration in much of our design work.

6:35So this is a project called down me sorry this is the project called fallen icon which was a public art installation that took part took place in the city of Los Angeles and it was one of a series of outdoor event staged by a local design collective called on the road this was the final event and it took place in what was probably the most dramatic location the Mount Li trail leading up to the Hollywood sign as so the sign itself has a really fascinating story.

7:06And it was originally erected in the 1920s as an advertisement for a real estate housing development called Hollywood land it was made of really cheap materials and wasn't built to last so it the sign fell into disrepair over the years until in the 1970s when Hugh Hefner saved the day raising the quarter million dollars needed to rebuild it and and its heritage status has been fiercely guarded ever since by the very famous local residence and it's been ionized in film in in advertising and and even by some local authorities who perhaps seeking to inject just a little bit of glamour into their local community the site is very close to home for me as well as I'm really fond of that it's also a side of inspiration for artists ed shows back of the Hollywood sign shown here as well as being a backdrop for pop music videos and album covers and it's maintained its iconic status in the holiday snaps of selfies taken by the hundreds of tourists that hike the trail every day today.

8:17So I wanted to try and capture this rich history and also its contemporary condition in our installation when I first when I visited the site at first I experienced that the kind of fragility of the landscape is crumbling hillside and falling rocks and then after this long grueling Trek when you reach the top you realize it you can't actually get you can't actually get close to the sign at all you end up behind it you can't touch it you can't kind of get close to it you can't have your photo taken with it.

8:50So it felt really important to make the sign accessible to the people who go to visit it.

8:55So we we decided to recreate the letters on a on a more human scale and and scatter them up the trail the public trail with a series of viewfinders that told this story of how the letters might have tumbled down the hill we made the viewfinders from really simple materials bought at the local Home Depot store and we constructed the giant letters by hand from foam board and a hot glue gun that's me making a why then we packed them into the backs of trucks and we took them up the hill and there's no vehicles allowed after certain points so they had to be physically carried up for the last part which would actually.

9:44Actually result in some of the most like epic images from from the day and from the installation nothing quite like the sight of giant el being carried off this incredible landscape with this amazing kind of city backdrop so the idea was that passes by would come across a giant letter in in their pathway accompanied by viewfinder and they would first stop and approach the letter hug it hold it climb into it have their photo taken with it and and they did really successfully so exactly the kind of result that was intended happen we got some great photos from the day instagrammed and facebooked throughout the day and then they would approach the viewfinder which showed an image of the the genuine view looking out towards the sign at that point and then each one was was photoshopped to remove the letters from the sign one by one so it first is an H missing a couple of oohs missing a few more a few more till is just a y at the top and then there's no letters at all so after the event the letters were carried back down the hill one by one and temporally temporarily reappropriation a seating for the after party and then eventually the phone board became formwork for a concrete pour that transferred transformed this temporary installation into a permanent piece of public art kind of like a petrified ruin of its former self that's now used to seating in a parking lot near the bottom of the hill and went you know we love this we loved at the second light second life has become like a wonderful part of the the total narrative one that was unplanned and undesigned but it's all the more beautiful for it and that is where I will end tonight you