Tinsley Cooling Towers

“For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction”

(Amended Newton’s third law)

The Tinsley Cooling Towers are still standing but it would seem for not much longer, Eon are determined that they will not make it to see the summer of 2008.

E.ON UK Press Releases

01 February 2008 16:00
Preparations ongoing for demolition of the Tinsley cooling towers

Plans to bring down the Tinsley Towers are ongoing, with discussions continuing between E.ON UK, the Highways Agency, and other interested parties in preparation for an expected spring/summer demolition.Mark Maisey, E.ON UK Property Manager, said: “We’ve been working with a number of technical specialists on getting the final approvals finalised for demolition and now we’re looking to pin down a date that best suits everybody.

“It’s a big project and we want to ensure minimum disruption, which is why it’s taking some time but, naturally, we will share the demolition date with everyone as soon as we have it confirmed.”

one field many tents – fairground

Annoyingly I can’t find the full reference for the book, but I think the title was called Fairground Architecture and this was found on page 25.

What I like is the Liqurice Allsort appearance of the plan, and the way it also illustrates the paradigm “one field many tents”; albeit quite literally in this case.

Click on the picture to see it whole, plus the amazing legend that accompanies it.

circus imitating life imitating circus

A redrawn diagram from Richard Schechner’s book Performance Theory:

A version of this diagram also pops up in an article written in 1986 by no other than Sheffield’s own Peter Blundell Jones. The article is called ‘Beyond the Black Box’ in AR (July 1986)  and is worth a read. PBJ writes about the Half Moon Theatre in London designed by the Architecture Bureau (which included Florian Beigel, now of the London Met’s Architecture Research Unit)

It touches on the reciprocal relationship between theatre and life, and how theatre and pubic performance was once a means through which social relations and competing realities were negotiated. Although not necessarily directly written about circus, there are many overlapping fields of interest and relationships.

Provisional Mo[nu]ments

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.

“one field many tents”

Shelter

Jomon Pit-Dwelling, Prehsitoric Period

Japanese Architecture, Alex, W. (Studio Vista, London, 1968) p.49

Pantadome by Kawaguchi amd Arata Isozaki, Barcelona

Engineering a New Architecture, Robbin, T. (Yale University Press, London,1996) p.48

Separated by over 5000 years and located on opposite sides of the planet these two forms of shelter still have a lot in common. Both use a lowered ‘pit’ to increase internal height for less structure as well as helping thermal and acoustic properties. Both are constructed on the ground and then lifted into place, minimising error and reducing the amount of effort, energy and time involved in construction. And most importantly both forms of construction are reversible, i.e. they can be deconstructed by following the same procedure in reverse; allowing the components to be re-used or recycled.

Two forms of provisional construction seperated by 5 millennia.

Architects and their drawings

“Architectural drawings have a variety of uses: to instruct, inform, indulge, confuse, confirm, congratulate and console”

Cedric Price

(In ‘Envisioning Architecture – Drawings from the Museum of Modern Art’ (Museum of Modern Art, New York) p.145 ISBN: 0-807070-011-1)

Good old Mr Price seems to be back in vogue lately, but like Kevin Keegan he did manage to create some timeless quotes, although perhaps I can add some more uses of the architect’s drawing; some good, some bad and some down right ugly.

Architectural drawings have a variety of further uses: to imagine, dream, storytell, collaborate, play, perfect, intimidate, control and destroy

Learning from Circus

If we allign (albiet theoretically) the Circus Industry with the Construction Industry, some interesting questions arise.

Firstly, looking at individual roles one could question who is the ‘Ringleader’ in the construction industry nowadays? was it ever the architect? the builder? the project manager or even the client? And secondly who takes the greatest risk? the acrobatic construction worker running up and down the scaffolding? the plate spinning project manager? the juggling project architect or the lion tamer client? The reality is that risk has become much more than the risk associated with death defying stunts, it has infiltrated it self across disciplines and takes many forms.

Circus is well used to dealing with all types of risk. Although, unlike the construction industry, it manages to make do with the high levels of health and safety regulations and still create profound moments of culture. If only the construction industry could take some lead from where Circus dares to venture, the resultant built environment may then hold some of the magical qualities Circus delivers.

The increasing poor record of construction related injuries points to the need for change:

“There were 77 fatal injuries to workers in construction in 2006/07, a 28% increase on the previous year. Of these 77 fatalities, 50 were employees and 27 were self-employed, compared to 43 and 17 in 2005/06.

23 deaths (30%) were due to falls from a height and 16 (21%) were due to being hit by a moving or falling object.

In 2006/07, 32% of all worker deaths were in the construction industry. The rate of fatal injury to workers in construction rose to 3.7 per hundred thousand workers, from 3.0 per hundred thousand workers in 2005/06.”

http://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/industry/construction.htm

Make your own Cooling Towers

I met with Go! Sheffield just before Christmas to discuss ways of celebrating the Tinsley Cooling Towers and hopefully to create a means by which to remember them after they are gone. They have decided to put some effort into creating limited Cooling Tower memorabilia and selling it from a stall somewhere prominant in the city centre. One such product I am proposing is a ‘Make your own Cooling Towers’ paper lantern kit:

“With a little patience, you too can create your own cooling towers, to stand watch over you like the real ones have done over the last 70 years for Sheffield. Simply cut out the individual strips and attach to one another by placing a little glue on the tabs and overlaying to form the beautiful curved tower. You will require 32 strips (4 X A3 cut out sheets) to form one tower. Good luck”Tinsley Cooling Tower Cut Out Sheet

reciprocal theatre

Sketch ideas for further work with Trish O Shea and Simon Birch in Leeds on a reciprocal theatre production, inspired by their short film Residue. The work will deal with questioning the body in space, and the existing interaction between the performer and audience.Work in progress