About Me
- Simon Drayson
- Southsea, Hampshire, United Kingdom
- I grew up in a semi-detached 1930s house in Croydon with my policeman father, nurse mother and younger brother. Ever since my childhood I wanted a career, which like my parents' was people-centric whilst not suppressing my creativity; architecture seemed to offer the perfect balance, and so I relocated to Portsmouth in 2005 to study for my degree at the university there. After graduating in 2008, I moved back home for my year out at Bell Associates Architects and Designers. I returned to Portsmouth in 2009 to study for my diploma. For my thesis foundation I designed a Community Hospice on the site of the Hilsea Lido; affirming my interest in existential architecture. Around this time, I wrote my manifesto Out of the Ordinary, which called for architects to create an everyday architecture of simplicity and honesty; based not on quasi tradition or nostalgia, but rather a hidden reality that ought to be revealed.
Thursday, 9 December 2010
Domestic Transgressions | New Havant Linear Marketcross (with Paul Cashin)
Predicated upon a apocalyptic scenario in which Christianity has imploded and sea levels have risen by ten metres; a levee has been erected through the centre of Havant - and the extant St. Faith’s church - dividing land and sea dwellers.
I worked with Paul Cashin to design a place for these two distinct civilizations to dwell and trade in the post-apocalyptic era, which surmounts the levee and is accessed through the bell tower.
The hearth is used as an anchoring device, both for individual families and the new commune as a whole.
Follow Paul's blog at emergentstudiopcc.blogspot.com
Wednesday, 24 November 2010
Publications | Coming Soon
Tectonic Transgressions
A photobook recording the unique qualities of light found whilst on study trips to Finland, Denmark and Estonia (the North) and Morocco (the South).
INDIA Summer 2010 (with Vinesh Pomal)
A photobook recording our travels from inception (Vinesh being awarded the RIBA Barrington Smith Travel Award 2010) to reflection (Vinesh and I giving a lecture at the Portsmouth School of Architecture).
Monday, 1 November 2010
Thursday, 28 October 2010
Nordic Transgressions | Orestad Church Competition (with Paul Cashin)
I worked with Paul Cashin to design a non-denominational church for a new community in a Copenhagen suburb. The congregation would first find a site in the scrubland outside the town, then build a fire which they would use to fire bricks made from clay on the site, which would then be used to build the church.
The central hearth is accessed from a tunnel starting beneath the bell tower in the town square, from which horizon and sky chapels radiate.
I also designed a clay votive candle to light an otherwise dark world.
Follow Paul's blog at emergentstudiopcc.blogspot.com
Wednesday, 20 October 2010
Indian Transgressions | Lecture
Vinesh Pomal and I gave a lecture on our travels to India at the Portsmouth School of Architecture in aid of the Hope Foundation School in Bhuj where Vinesh and I ran an architectural workshop with the pupils.
Thursday, 14 October 2010
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)