West Dean College Gardens Visitor’s Center: Hand-made tilework

1996

Work of Art for Project, Hand-made Tilework

Hand-made, painted and glazed tile of white porcelain with a flower design in green and yellow on reddish background, embedded in the entrance wall to the dining hall, over the archway.

Created by:

Christopher Alexander

Content of

Project

West Dean College Gardens Visitor's Center 1994 to 1996

Near Chichester, West Sussex, U.K.

Civic, Realized , Construction completed in Nov. 1995

Client:

Edward James Foundation

C.E.S. staff:

Christopher Alexander, John Hewitt, students from "The Prince of Wales's Institute of Architecture", students from Portsmouth University

Contractor:

Center for Environmetal Structure, as Management Contractor and General Contractor of record, with John Hewitt as Project Manager

Project stages:

Layout on the site by clients and C.E.S. Use of full scale mock-ups Design Development and Building Permit drawings done after layout Direct construction management and on-site design decisions Budget and subcontractors under C.E.S. control Innovativ

The West Dean Center is a simple one-story masonry building with a large red-tiled roof and intricate brickwork for its thick walls. The building is surrounded by gardens, and its south facing wall has large arched windows overlooking the garden ...

Contents

Models & Mock-ups

West Dean College Gardens Visitor's Center: Hand-made, painted and glazed tile 01/01/1996

Mock-up

Created by:

Christopher Alexander, Center for Environmental Structure, Berkeley, CA

Medium:

Array

Size:

11"x14", 11 3/4"x11 3/4", 9"x12"

Three handmade tile mockups of different materials and proportions, all testing the flower design of a single tile to be embedded in the entrance to the dining hall wall. The first mockup is made of a thick plastiline paste with ...

Drawings

Records

West Dean College Gardens Visitor's Center - Hand-made Tilework: Sketches & notes on tile glazes 05/07/1996

Design Matters, Notes & Sketches

Authors:

Christopher Alexander, Center for Environmental Structure, Berkeley, CA, U.S.A.

Four sketches with notes of the two tile patterns for which four versions of color combinations and distribution are proposed by the specified glaze codes.

Photographs

References

Scientific Research

Ornament and Function as Products of Unfolding

Areas of focus:

Design and Building Process

Guiding idea:

Structure Preserving Transformations

Ornament arises as part of the design process, when a person is making and seeks to embellish this "something" while making it. It arises as a result of the latent centers in the uncompleted thing requiring still more centers, requiring ...