Are circuses a provisional monument to cities on the move (i.e. changing cities) and if so, how do their provisional moments affect the urban environment?
Therefore, are the Tinsley Cooling Towers a provisional monument and/or moment for Sheffield?
Provisional components:
The Graffitied Iron Bridge -
Salavaged from the closed Brightside train station, less than half a mile down the tracks from the site, the iron bridge connects the Circus School with the Cooling Tower whilst reconnecting the public with its hidden and ‘out of bounds’ surroundings. The bridge also offers a readable sign from passing trams and trains, as well as marking the gateway to the urban parkland beyond.
The Wrapped Steel Pylon -
An existing redundant pylon found on site is retained and wrapped in the remnants of used circus tent fabric, providing a circus teaching space for aerial gymnastics, at the same time, replicating the performance heights achievable inside the cooling tower. The pylon also punctuates the low lying circus roof; enabling a high rigging point for external performances in the summer months.
The Repaired Concrete Cooling Tower -
Housed within cooling tower 6 (the one with diamond vents at the top, as opposed to chequered rectangles) the circus will appropriate this space as a performance venue for the Arts.
The Floating Timber Roof -
A reciprocal frame roof structure made out of reclaimed railway sleepers and telegraph poles spans 35 metres and provides a flexible circus training hall. The Circus school’s roof structure, which forms the main building component, is to reflect the many threads, facets and smaller elements that make up the complex web of Interdependence. The proposed structure, likened to an indeterminate timber cloud, is to hover above the circus performers, connecting and uniting all the spaces, functions and everyday moments under one provisional roof.
Since the beginning of this project, one quote from an interview I conducted with a circus school director about circus schools, stood firm in my memory when he described their role as “one field, many tents”. The wider project together with the designed circus school building, inside and out, attempts to hold on to this simple paradigm.
