Temporary vs Permanence

Another area of interest when looking at how squatters inhabit spaces is the amalgamation of temporary and permanent architecture. Many have temporary structures which can be taken down and moved quickly if they had to vacate the premisses.

Heres an example I found of a car park top cafe called 'Franks Cafe' which was erected in London by two ex cambridge architecture students.

http://www.davidcarrsmith.co.uk/_D-WW_TMP-ARC_CAF1.htm

This project uses simple construction methods and materials to transform an unused space and can be easily disassembled for transportation and storage; it could even then be re-erected elsewhere.

I hope to utilise the roof space of the mill in a similar way using the chimney and the windows of the top floor as anchor points.

Sketch Models for Squatters

Having completed the conceptual side of my project it is time to focus on the 'real' architecture. After thinking about the mill building and its current state I started to think what it is/could be used for...the answer at the moment is that it is home to squatters.

Many people view squatters negatively however they often bring use to unused buildings, are self sufficient and en-capture a sense of community urban planners could only dream off. For my first series of Sketch models I focused on temporary changes that could be made internally with minimal change to the exterior to transform the space into a livable area.

The structure of the existing mill interior is divided in the middle by a series of parallel columns. This model begins to look at how to temporarily divide the large floor plates of the mills by attaching instillations to existing structure.