SITE SURVEY-LANCE

I want to get inside this building, maybe not literally, but I want to get beneath its surface to unearth its hidden cycles, to read it in as many ways as possible.

On saturday morning I went to do the first of possibly many site surveys. This incorporated general photograhic documentation of the overall building and a second more structured set of photographs recording the ground floor elevation at eye level (two sides of what I will term the square 'block', as against the 'tower').

I suppose this will give me a better understanding not only of construction but also of the materials used and their general state. These have been pieced together to form the first 'strip' of information.

Secondly it has given me a firmer idea of the buildings beat or rhythm. This was reinforced by filming the same stretch at walking pace at eye level again. Not only in its elevational 'frequency' but also in how the structural elements protrude away or towards the facade, its 'amplitude'.

This information will be read in the way that I have discussed the visualisation of sound in earlier blogs. There has to be a way to read the buildings structure and translate to audio, a link that makes sense and 'becomes the buildings voice'.

I AM NOT ALONE / CONSPIRACY THEORIES

When I got home that night I was after some information.....

Not knowing the name of the building at this point I searched on the net for 'ugly building south lambeth rd', this is where the project started to get interesting for me.

It seems I am not the only one with a strange fascination for Keybridge House. I found forums where fans discuss, articles of hatred from journalists, petitions to sign from local residents and wonderfully, theories of conspiracy surrounding its real purpose.

Keybridge House is owned by BT and is down as one of its phone exchanges, or at least was until recently, it is not exactly sure how in use it is at the moment. I read that no one is really seen entering or emerging except for the odd black car driving from the car park underneath the tower. Visitors report tight security and concealed corridors!

With the M16 building just down the road some believe this to be the real centre of surveillance. It is believed that tunnels may lead from underground to other parts and that the building is as deep as it is tall!

Photographs:
http://flickr.com/photos/27568422@N00/sets/72157604082190139/show/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/benpatio/125636392/
WikiMap:
http://wikimapia.org/5841339/Keybridge_House
Forums:
http://www.archiseek.com/content/showthread.php?t=2353&goto=nextoldest
http://tradescant.blogspot.com/2008/01/is-this-ugliest-office-in-britain.html
Articles:
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2233130,00.html

KEYBRIDGE HOUSE

"Keybridge house is a piece of faceless brutalist architecture situated on South Lambeth Rd just west of Vauxhall. Walking past it last week on thursday I saw it and said that it was either the ugliest building in london or the most beautiful?

Not beauty in the correct sense of the term, but a building of interest and emotion non the less. I immediately had a desire to discover it, to document it and fundamentally to animate it!

It had a immense, monstrous approach to the world without a care for its position on the street.

Looking at it further the reasons for this became clearer, there were no signs of any life inside the building, no human in sight either in the grounds, at the reception or either at any of the monotonously filthy windows. In fact you could hardly see into any of the windows in any case as they all are covered by dirty, broken old blinds. The concrete slabs between floors stained and the vertical metal cladding running all the way up the building severe and oversized.

My next observation was that unlike most buildings the facade of this building does not change from pavement to sky, the ground floor has no extra architectural consideration at all. It is like it has simply emerged from underground or been dumped from above.

It is repetitive to the extreme, as you walk round it is as if the building is turning away from you, keeping a secret hidden?"