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Squeeze Box, Ludgate Hill, Birmingham

Part 1 Project 2003
Melanie Williams
Christopher Ansell
University of Nottingham | UK
'Valves in the accordion like the canal's locks, release pressure, increase intensity, control movement and cause tension and friction at their boundaries.'

Driven by these analogies and following analysis of the site and surroundings using music and rhythm, new geometries were established across the site.

The overlaps of these geometries create areas of higher intensity, mirroring the site's emphatically changing charactersitics and reflecting the changes in intensity of air movement in the production of sound in the accordion.

They begin to generate the buildings forms which seek to echo the site's temporimentality and the kinetic movement of the bellows, to create varying intensities of feelings when moving between opposing spaces, presenting tensions or a sense of release at boundaries between light and dark, enclosed or exposed....

Melanie Williams
Christopher Ansell


Mel William’s project shows a controlled vibrancy in its response to both brief and site. The programme required a building that demonstrated the making and playing of the Harmonium.
Embracing the powerful contrasts of the site and with a meticulous understanding of the making and workings of the ‘Squeeze Box’, Mel was able to translate these concerns into the design of the project. Working through a process of sketches and physical models the scheme was finished off by a virtuoso presentation of 2 D. hand drawings, computer images and physical models.

Tutor(s)

2003
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