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The New Sailing Centre

Part 1 Project 1999
Scott Grady
University of Plymouth | UK
Each design is characterised by a clear and deliberate formal organisation, and an interest in the details or parts which create the architecture.
The School of Architecture, for example, is organised around two intersecting grids which relate to the built form of the University and surrounding site, enabling the creation of an interesting series of spaces and volumes, and helping to achieve a clear composition. The relationship of the interior with the exterior was particularly important, as shown by the extension of the entrance space into the plaza. This space is intended to generate a new vitality within a disfunctional area.
Similarly, the New Sailing Centre is designed as a clear and dynamic form with a separation of parts. Again, this design makes use of individual planes to open up, enclose or express a space and its function. The workshop and changing facilities are used to enclose, and directly facilitate, the Boat Yard. At roof level, the entrance space dominates, thus indicating its importance.
My architectural intentions are, perhaps, most prevalent in the design of the timber table. A fascination with the surface condition, articulation of each joint and structural expression created an exciting but sophisticated composition.

Scott Grady


Scott Grady's work is characterised by its calm control, and Scott himself is a man of few words. His work has developed strongly during his third year; it demonstrates his concern for the precise use of materials and an architecture carefully composed as a series of well defined planes. Influenced in his second year by the work of Renzo Piano, his third year work has sought solutions which are both pragmatically resolved and spatially evocative. His design for a School of Architecture is both coolly understated and cleverly contrived. The two internal atria express the dynamic social and academic orientations of the school, while the formal posture of the building on its complex campus site indicates its civic role.

The Plymouth School's concern for clear representation is found in his crisply executed models and elegantly delineated drawings. The careful observation of his buildings is translated through well crafted images, to create a convincing evocation of his buildings. His interests in the reality of architecture are best observed in his design for a table, executed full size. Its articulation of the joint and the expression of the surface qualities of its timbers demonstrate his focus. It is controlled, but remains sensuous.

1999
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