Archive 2020
In times of war, the island of Sheppey has always been pivotal has proved pivotal as a strategic location for the protection of London, and Chatham Docks. Sheerness docks have provided warship building capacity, as well as a fortified barrier, resistant to invasion. The islands history is formed through its approach to warfare. This project is the latest element in this narrative of attack and defence, and the reuse of the church provides the location for the latest invader in this story; the Sheppey war museum.
The existing building has been treated as though permeated by a new invasive force. A cor-ten steel wrapped building has unceremoniously occupied the ruined church, inviting visitors inside in order to explore Sheppeys story throughout times of war. The language of bastion and fortification has shaped the invaders form. Visitors enter the building through a long inclined corridor, sliding out between the buildings portico. Once inside the museum unfolds in a journey from the basement to the tower, where fortifications, models, maps and imagery show sheppey’s war stories since the 15th century. At the top of the experience, the invader offers views across to the sea and focusses the view on a series of concrete bastions, remaining monuments to the last great war and the structures of resistance that have inspired this project.
The museum is designed to monumentalise the islands position as an obstinate yet enduring symbol of the communities resilience to attack and their defence. Its inhabitation of the exiting building is designed to reflect the fact that this narrative is not always a comfortable or straight forward story.
Keywords: Keywords: war museum, reuse, invader, fortification, sheerness dockyard
Mediums: models, photograph(rendering), orthogonal drawing, sketch
Download:
REUSE_LU_KEXIAN_PDF.pdf
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