Mediating the Tensions in a Divided Tunstall

Cosmic Chirpac, Diploma, The Cass School of Architecture, 2019

Tutors: Takero Shimazaki and Summer Islam

Student’s Project Description (extract)

To understand the issues that Tunstall is facing today it is valuable to point out the contrasting description of past and present which occurs very often throughout research of the place. If the past is defined by positive growth and opportunity, the present is mainly an unfortunate outcome…

However, most public buildings have no functional use today. Rossi writes: ’Sometimes these artefacts persist virtually unchanged, endowed with a continuous vitality; other times they exhaust themselves, and then only the permanence of their form, their physical sign, their locus remains.’

The decline of the town is vividly apparent through the current refurbishment plans of the former Town Hall. Since the library was unfortunate enough to find itself on the wrong side of town, the council therefore believes it should be relocated 100m across the A road. There is a mounting pressure of reoccupying the town hall, as it has been built by public subscription the town demands it has a public function…