Other Stories: Alternative Perspectives on Design

1/3A digitally distorted model of the Albert Memorial designed to reveal the brick vaulted foundations beneath the structure, exposing their potential as a new cultural space
1/5A digitally distorted model of the Albert Memorial designed to reveal the brick vaulted foundations beneath the structure
1/2Exhibition catalogue
1/2Exhibition drawings
1/4Photographic survey of the brick vaulted foundations of the Albert Memorial by DSDHA
1/1The making of the model
1/4Digitally distorting the Albert Memorial to reveal the hidden structure below
Image Overview

For the London Design Festival 2017 DSDHA presented a model of the iconic Albert Memorial as part of the Brompton Design District’s multidisciplinary show, Other Stories: Alternative Perspectives on Design.

Through the use of digital modelling and fabrication techniques, DSDHA’s has has manipulated the model of the Memorial to reveal the hidden complex of brick vaults and arches that have dutifully supported the golden statue of Prince Albert since it was ceremonially seated in 1875. By allowing multiple viewpoints to converge, this distortion to the Memorial’s form hints at the ability of digital technologies to enhance our experience of the city, allowing access (either physical, virtual or both) to forgotten, inaccessible and underused spaces, which could be adapted to accommodate cultural uses, including much needed rehearsal space and artists’ studios in the city.

This is the ambition at the heart of DSDHA’s proposals for the public realm surrounding the Royal Albert Hall and Albert Memorial; a project undertaken as part of a Built Environment Research Fellowship, awarded to DSDHA by the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851.

Our scheme reimagines Albertopolis as a ‘cultural landscape’, as opposed to a mere assemblage of world-class institutions. Within this new setting, all the venues, the parks and – just as importantly – their interstitial spaces both above and below the surface, will make historic narratives and contemporary programmes visible and accessible to the diverse audiences drawn to the site.

Type
Arts & Culture
Field
Research
Theme
Contemporary CraftCultural Infrastructure
Client
Brompton Design District
Completion
2017
Services
ResearchModel Making
People
Tom GreenallMichael O’Hanlon
Team
Curator: Jane Withers
Photography
Amandine Alessandra