Interior Design School of Design
Olya Serdyukova
Throughout my years in GSA I learned how to create in many ways, constantly testing different formats and playing with diverse concepts. This led me to grow an appreciation for creating in response to what already exists. I have taken this philosophy to my final year project, proposing a design that focuses on repair and preservation of a dying building called the Lion Chambers. As a further reinforcement of the principle, the space in itself promotes and offers repair and alteration services for objects, more specifically, for furniture.
Concept
The Furniture Design and Repair Center is a mixed-use, community-based creative hub, where reuse, craftsmanship and innovation are celebrated. The Center focuses on utilizing damaged, unwanted and salvaged furniture as a material, moulding it according to the needs and desires of the users. The space is amply multifunctional. It welcomes furniture makers, providing them with the space to create while also allowing them to sell their pieces. It supports marginalised young people (referred to as young makers)through hands-on training in furniture reuse and repair. At the same time, it engages with the wider public (referred to as the visitors), offering various furniture modifying services alongside playful and experiential retail.
Relevance of proposal
Our homes, our offices, the spaces we visit on the daily basis – all have furniture. Some pieces, dearly beloved, are treasured across generations; others, quickly tossed away at a sign of damage. Furniture shapes our spaces and yet, on the whole, we do not know what to do with it, how to fix it when it gets damaged, how to alter it based on our preferences. It becomes this static thing that defines us and our spaces, a thing that is easier to discard adding to the ever growing issue of pollution. As such, the Center offers an alternative, a means to change our perception on the every day objects surrounding us and ultimately on the spaces those objects occupy, spaces that can become more flexible shaped by their inhabitants.
Learning how to look after our things and our spaces can become one of the factors that ensures a more sustainable and secure future. This idea is further manifested through the making academy for young makers. Research shows that one in four children/young individuals in Scotland is living in poverty, often facing limited access to education, unstable house environment and other factors, all of which establishes the feeling of uncertainty for the future. The Center aims to diminish that feeling, providing the young people (ages 16-25) with hands-on skills and knowledge as well as the practical application of those. It offers on-site accommodation to foster living-learning environment while also having a number of opportunities of on-site work to aid in economic independence. The support comes from the furniture makers who share their knowledge and experience and the visitors that contribute to feeling of community.
All parts of the Center – the workshops, the training facilities, the retail spaces, even the users – influence one another. The result is a dynamic space, a merge of education. entertainment and community.
Site
The construction of The Lion Chamber began in 1904 and the building was completed in 1907 by the architects Salmon Son and Gillespie. Even during its construction, it became popular as the second in Glasgow reinforced concrete building that utilized the, coming to a great popularity, Hennebique system. The system was a method of strengthening concrete through reinforced steel bars.
The building slowly rose floor by floor attracting passers by, who saw this massive concrete construction grow before their eyes. What is more
interesting is that due to the lack of working space on site, the workers were unable to use any power plant. So each and every bucket of concrete was mixed, hoisted and placed by hand.
Despite its glory at the start of the 20th century, The Lion Chambers did not stand the test of time showing early signs of deterioration in 1991 and
dwindling more rapidly from then on. Weathering of materials and thin load bearing walls had their toll, resulting in a dying construction.
The state of the building becomes a metaphor for the goals proposed by the Center – to repair the damaged, amongst which is the building itself. Besides repairing, the project aims to preserve and expose the existing elements of the construction, to highlight that even an initially failed system can spark new
ideas and prompt the creation of new meaningful spaces. The Furniture Design and Repair Center takes further inspiration from the building in its hands-on approach to making, echoing the method by which the structure was built – reinforcing the idea that craftsmanship is a powerful and effective mode of making.
