Design4D Blog

Nik Hilton  //  www.design4d.co.uk
Young Architect of the Year Nominee 2009, 2010, 2011
Finalist in the British Homes Awards 2009
Finalist in the Design awards 2009

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Fourth Dimension

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Nov 24 / 9:19pm

A Healthy Future

At Design4D we've been researching how health centres could play a larger role in the Big Society. Traditionally these are places where ill people come to get advice and medicine. Even some of the new expensive centres are mono-functional and completely introverted offering little back to the public realm.

Our research led us to discover a pioneering scheme called the Peckham Experiment in South East London. Established back in 1935 this experiment looked to provide health, leisure, education and family support in a community run scheme. There was even a farm nearby where organic food was grown to be sold in the centre. The focus was on achieving more than just a disease-free community but a healthy community. The architecture was an important part of this process and was specifically designed to express and accommodate the flexible needs of the project. This was more than just a place to get medicine this was a focus for community involvement and support.

We are slowing moving out of a recession caused by the invisible hand of greed but are about to enter an exciting new era. Architects and top developers have realised that to create sustainable communities you need to consider both the green agenda and the Fourth Dimension in architecture. We look forward to a healthy future.

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The Peckham Experiment 1935

Filed under  //  Big Society   Fourth Dimension   Peckham Experiment   health  
 
Apr 2 / 2:24pm

The Fourth Dimension

At Design4D we design with consideration of the fourth dimension. Why? and what does this mean?

Three dimensions describes an object by its x, y and z co-ordinates. In physics the fourth dimension combines three dimensions with a dimension of time to create spacetime. This concept of spacetime was important in the realisation of Einstein's special theory of relativity. Shifts in scientific thinking have always affected art as artists look to explore new ideas. Some of these explorations depict visual representations of the fourth dimension such as the tesseract or the mobius strip which in turn architect's have realised into literal built form.

As a student I was less interested in the physical articulation of spacetime but more in the potential of this fourth dimension of time within the design process. I began to explore time based media such as kinetic artwork and film. I found film captured movement of light, human narratives and spatial experiences better than the frozen two dimensional image or the rotated three dimensional sculpture. The concept of human narrative began to play a stronger role in my work as I looked to explore intangible time based ideas about creativity, community, sense of place and memory. These are ideas critical to a stable and harmonious civilisation the more our population expands and lives in closer proximity. There are no fixed rules as to how you explore and guarantee these important aspects of architecture are fulfilled but at Design4D we have formulated a framework called the Chronetik process. This process enables us to test how our schemes have considered more than just the social, environmental and economic aspects that the triple bottom line of business dictates.

Big Society, community, civilisation, call it what you will, but we believe that as our population expands the role of the architect will be key in achieving these social goals through consideration of the fourth dimension in architecture.

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Visual representation of the fourth dimension

Filed under  //  Architecture   Big Society   Design4D   Fourth Dimension   Sustainability   chronetik process   community