Matt King
Traces of Rhythm
The rumbling of a kick drum, muffled and distorted by dense layers of timber, can be heard faintly from within the woodland.
Once the centre of British rave, the closure of The Sanctuary in 2004 lost Milton Keynes its place as a culturally bold city, a playground for counterculture. The city needs a new avant-garde dance venue to fill the cultural void.
The Traces of Rhythm scheme nestles where techno, neolithic tradition and woodland management converge. By exploring these themes through the notation of cyclical processes, the scheme looks to uncover natural rhythms that bind us to the landscape.
Elfield Nature Park, Milton Keynes, is located within the city’s urban fabric. Through the regeneration of a neighbouring brownfield site, the project shall provide a sustainable source of hardwood timber for the city’s future needs whilst nurturing its ecology. Coppicing, an ancient woodland management strategy, is a means through which the landscape is cared for and managed. At the centre of the site, a timber yard cross-programmed with a rave venue becomes an expression of the rhythms of the woodland
