Cherry (Yangzi) Guo
Located on the seafront of Pegwell Bay, Thanet, the project proposes an ‘inland pier’ with a school celebrating the craft of stone masonry, whilst speculating on the possibilities of stereotomic assemblage, manifested through an interplay of permanent and temporary materials.
Serving as a mediator between the land and the sea, the scheme intends to create a continuous geology with a series of interconnected chalk passageways and projective spaces, allowing visitors to experience snippets of the surrounding context without feeling detached from the landscape.
As part of my initial exploration of Thanet, camera was used as a tool to capture my shifting perceptions and wandering at the site of a 7th century church ruins by the coast. Fragments of panoramas were recorded with a vigorous, precise method across multiple view points both internally and externally. This resulted in a pair of photographic surveys stitched together from images of various scales and levels of detail, embodying elements of both distance and time duration.
Experiential drawings which attempt to convey the continuous flow of materiality through passageways from the chalk cliff to the sea, as well as encounters with tectonic elements from a series of vaulted spaces.
A similar panoramic approach developed from the initial investigation of the church ruins is adapted into the design process. As visitors wander around the pier, exploring the intimate pockets of spaces from the interior and exterior, they would be able to experience momentary snapshots of the surrounding landscape at the same time.
Paper model showing view from the street level entrance which looks out onto the pleated, undulating roofscape below, with each component arranged strategically within the distinct landscape boundary to maximise framing of the cliff and the sea.