Construction Innovation

West Dean College Gardens Visitor’s Center: Coffered ceiling

1995

Work of Art for Project, Coffered Ceiling

Dining room coffered ceiling with ornamentral features.

Created by:

Christopher Alexander, John Hewitt

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

Drawings

West Dean College Gardens Visitor's Center - Ceiling Plasterwork: Sketches 01/01/1996

Sketches, Plan, Axonometric

Designers:

Christopher Alexander, Derek Boner, Berkeley, CA, U.S.A.

Medium:

Original on Paper

Size:

8 1/2"x11", 23 3/8"x30"

Two pages depicting initial sketches suggesting a ceiling design for the plaster patterns with an axonometric view and a hard line drawing of a reflected ceiling plan.

Photographs

SEE ALL 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 ...