Charles Barclay
Thursday 2 April 2009, 6:30pm
Charles Barclay will be presenting his Kielder Observatory project in Northumberland, won in open competition in November 2005 and completed in May 2008. The project is the latest in a series of interesting small-scale architectural works and artistic interventions at Kielder Water and Forest Park commissioned by the Kielder Partnership. The observatory is sited on top of Black Fell in an area with the lowest levels of light pollution in England, making it an excellent place to observe stars.
The building is a low-cost, self-powered, lightweight timber structure in the form of a land-pier, jutting out from the hillside in an area of cleared forest. Designed specifically for education, amateur and outreach work, the building explores an entirely new form for the observatory archetype, both accessible and evocative. Barclay’s sources of inspiration include the traditional seaside pier, the robust industrial timber structures that once dotted the Pennines and a fascination with self-transforming architecture. Is it architecture, machine or a huge piece of furniture?
Charles Barclay was a day-release student at North London Polytechnic from 1984-1988, when his tutors included John Adams and Florian Beigel, and completed his diploma at North London University (now Metropolitan) in Adam Caruso and Peter St John’s unit 2002-3. He set up his practice in 1996 after working for John Winter, Mark Guard and Rick Mather. The practice is seven strong and works out of a converted theatre workshop in Brixton.
