NEW WAYS OF LOOKING

Research, Chelsea College of Art and Design 2018

As we live more openly through glass in contemporary culture and architecture the question arises to what extent this material is actually liberating us. Because glass is never transparent but reflective and mirroring, disturbing new ways of looking appear. Is glass liberating us or does it do the opposite? What does modern privacy look like? When looking at the modern information age we notice that the screen has become an important aspect of our lives. The architectural glass screen produces disturbing ways of looking and being looked at. Being used in different spatial situations it lends itself to surveillance, control and the possibilities of observing. In my research I focused on a site in the Barbican Estate, The Willoughby Highwalk, where one can experience a exceptional proximity of residential blocks to office buildings with enormous glass facades. This site survey focuses on the tensions between observer and the ones being observed. A tension due to modern materiality and the new ways of looking.