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.
Categories: Architecture · Circus · Drawing
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.
Categories: Architecture · Circus · Film
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.
Categories: Architecture · Circus · Drawing · Sheffield
Briton Philip Astley (Modern Circus’s Godfather) in 1782 was banned by the French authorities in Paris from producing any act not performed on horse back.
Categories: 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
Categories: Architecture · Circus
Two stills from Fellini’s cinematic masterpiece : La Strada (1954) [Literal translation from Italian - The Street / Road]
