Abigail Whitelow

Digital Portfolio

Volumetric Tessellation: Fine Art Studios

Place du Tertre in Montmartre once filled with inspirational artists creating new art movements, new ideas and new views of the world with a different social attitude. This space has now been invaded with tourists and kitsch artists mimicking the past, but only fragments of that past now remain. Through recreating the fragments I have inserted a fine art studio into the site, to reinvigorate the area allowing new artists to progress, rather than being overshadowed by the former art, which has become stagnant in Montmartre.

Inspired by cubism and ideas of invasion, I used many different methods to experiment with form and space. Sketching, physical modelling, digital modelling and researching are all very important parts of my work process, they all help me to visulize and understand the design and the spaces I want to create.

Algae Bridge: Stratification of Light

This was a very digitally experimental project, where many different digital softwares were used to reach a final design.
The design was inspired by algae and ideas of invasion. With all the research that is now being done on algae, and the ideas of how algae could be incorporated into architecture, I wanted to create a space where people could see algae processes (such as converting it into hydrogen) but also interact with the algae and go beyhond its usually negative view.

Manipulation of the Landscape: Celebration of Urban Agriculture

Situated in a void between the London 2012 Olympic park and the urban topography, I wanted to create a space which blurred the boundary between these two spaces. With the lack of nature and issues with community I also thought it was important that these were brought together in this design. The design attempts to blur the boundary between architecture and nature, where nature becomes architecture and architecture becomes nature.

Acceleration of Decay: Creating History

Inspired by artists such as Gordon Matta Clark, I was interested in bringing a new light to a decaying building in Stratford, London. I created a public space from an existing building by accelerating the decaying process of the building and from reusing materials I created a new circulation around the space. The idea of the design was to help the new and existing communities of the now changing Stratford (for the 2012 Olympics) to remember the past accomplishments of the area and highlight that wherever there is new there is also old, and it should also be appreciated.