As part of an exhibition of architectural student work, a drawing from my final Master's project (just before I returned to Edgley Design) is currently hanging in the auspicious surrounds of the European Commission in Westminster. The exhibition collects proposals which creatively embrace the challenges of an aging European population. The theme is loosely interpreted; some projects directly address social issues, while others take a more poetic approach, investigating aesthetic themes of decay and impermanence. There's some beautiful work on display - I hope foreign delegates have been suitably impressed.
My own project proposes an infrastructure for the world's largest feast in Istanbul. Expanding on the local traditions of Ramadan, the building tries to reestablish a link between decay and regeneration through the symbolism of the feast. The materials and construction methods play on the distinctions between permanent and impermanent, the hard and the soft, including balloon-formed concrete, glazed ceramics and earth-filled hessian sacking.
