Pixelate & Cut-up

A 1 hour divergent façade study to clad a proposal for a mixed use community building in Frome, Somerset. Jess Cooke the designer explains how the buildings form was dictated firstly by the diversity of people within Frome and the need to bring them together in one place. This was achieved here by creating horizontal and vertical adjacencies between each space resulting in a stacked and overhanging programme. Structurally the form uses lattice trusses to span in both directions on the upper floors allowing the bigger spaces to be cantilevered out into the landscape. The current issue is understanding how to clad the building in an appropriate way so that it fits into the landscape of Frome and continues to express the function of the programme.
Developing on the divergent deck this saw the tester draw two cards and then interpret elements from both.

Take a snapshot and pixelate it

Print, cut into strips and randomly rearrange

The study started by finding an initial image to pixelate. In this case an image of allotments within Frome was selected for its dynamic colour palate and the wide range of people who like to garden. This image was then pixelated by dropping the dots per inch from 72 dpi to 5 dpi. The resulting image became a mosaic of green and blue tiles. This was then printed at A3 and cut into thin strips.

The principle elevation of the community centre was then printed as a double A3 spread. This was then traced over to show the overall form and also the potential inhabitation by a diverse range of users. The strips from the pixelated allotment image were then overlaid across the upper lattice floor.
The resulting collage creates a new elevation treatment that suggests a series of fins which offer glimpses of the diverse activity behind whilst appearing to soften and blend the building into the existing natural landscape. This needs to be further explored and refined to understand both the users needs in terms of spatial function and also the environmental conditions of each space.