[G]host[el]
This project explores the mythical wetland that falls to the north of the royal mile. Investigating edges and boundaries, both physical and metaphorical. This bridge proposal is situated between Canongate Kirk and the Old Royal High School. Both these architectures are haunted by ghosts, ghouls and specters. Often invisible entities, their presence can be unveiled if the correct conditions are presented. Ghosts are visitors, guests, things that come and go. Similarly, the wetland, is constantly evolving. Water runs down streams, ground is eroded and plants grow and die. This shifting of time producing past, present and future versions of every space. Kirk, School or Wetland. An accumulation of layers, or a collage. This portfolio explores the meshing of these places through their edges, often using collages as a method of ghostly investigation.
The bridge itself, a structure with no beginning or end, emulates the passage of time. Taking ghosts from the High School, my proposal relocates these sections to the wetland, retaining their original shape, size and orientation. The internal void of the schools debating chamber, for example, becomes the ghostly hotel. This bridge program came about from the etymological similarities between ghost and guest. As a result becoming a guest-house or a hotel. The name is a combination of ghost and hotel or hostel which also brings the idea of the host alongside the guest. Also, how the bridge architecture is hosted, tectonically, by the edges of the landscape around it. The bridge takes you on an observational journey, keeping a sense of removal from, wetland, Kirkyard and school by showing these places but not touching them.
Structurally, the ghost - hotel - bridge has a stone base, to emulate the rock of Calton hill and Salisbury Craigs as well as the stone of Kirkyard architecture, like mausoleums and gravestones, and the stone of the high school. The hotel building itself is comprised of a polycarbonate shell which is supported by a timber structure. This ‘ghost’ appears to float above the stone base due to offset I-beams with backlighting to create a ghostly appearance in the middle of the wetland. From the roof, a lead ‘cloak’ drapes itself down the edge of the polycarbonate walls, creating privacy for the bedrooms on the first floor. The internal bedroom walls made of marble, to emulate white sheets on washing line or a person dressing up as a ghost.
