Architectural Mirage What? Why? How?

WHAT

This project talks about the possibility of capturing the idea of equivocalnessî in landscapes and spaces that can be seen as ambiguous; and about the process by which we can achieve this state. Equivocalness and ambiguity are synonymous ideas. In this project the concept of ambiguity is expressed through a physical phenomena known as the mirage, which we will discuss in later sections, by which we can perceive some space or landscape that we hold to be real but in reality isn't. It is ambiguous because we can perceive it as space but we also understand that it is not real.

It is hard to define equivocal spaces and landscapes. This project is not an attempt to design a new building. The real aim is to attempt to suggest equivocalness as a bridge between the actual and virtual space.

There are many phenomena around us that involve spatial ambiguity, for example the phenomenon known as 'mirage'. According to [source] mirage is [definition here]. Therefore we can see that mirage is a way to exhibit or express equivocalness, and we can use the metaphor of mirage as the fundamental idea and media to illustrate and communicate the equivocal space that exists between virtual and actual spaces.

WHY

In modern time, there are lots spaces and architectural styles of different scale and form. Since the BAUHAUS recent architectural tendencies have had several things in common either in terms of aesthetics or in the ideology and methodology. It seems that the ideas behind BAUHAUS have been a major influence in architectural minds and this is clearly seen across the twentieth century. The phenomenon of skyscrapers was booming at that same period of time in the US. The development of such buildings was almost like a manifesto saying that the technology of architecture had progressed and in that progress the use of materials had also evolved, giving the use of transparency an iconic status that allowed that architecture exhibit a quality of cleanness and purity. It was an announcement of the new architecture in the twentieth century.

HOW

We will explore the equivocal dimensions through 3D modelling, natural light manipulation (e.g.: mirrors and translucent materials), artificial light projection, conventional modelling and drawing. Each of these will help illustrate the different aspects of equivocalness and will come together to form a complete perspective and vision.

Mirage at John Soane's Museum

MIRAGE

http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=2075866515108988509

MIRAGE

Client: Vellinge Municipality
Object: dancehall
Size: 1200 sqrm
Stage: detail design
Team: Joakim Kaminsky, Fredrik Kjellgren with Taito Lampinen, Oscar Arnklitt, Jonas Tjäder
Photo: Kalle Sanner
Awards: Winner of Skånes arkitekturpris, nominated for Swedish debute prize and the great indoor awards.

Slideshow

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MIRAGE
IN 2006 FREDRIK KJELLGREN AND JOAKIM KAMINSKY WON THE INTERNATIONAL ARCHITECTURE COMPETITION FOR A NEW DANCEHALL IN FALSTERBO, SWEDEN, AND STARTED THEIR STUDIO; KJELLGREN KAMINSKY ARCHITECTURE.

WHEN DESIGNING WE ALWAYS WORK WITH OUR MANIFESTO WHICH PUTS FOCUS ON PEOPLE, NEEDS AND CONTEXT. IN SPECIAL PROJECTS WE WRITE SEVERAL SHORT STORIES DESCRIBING WHAT COULD TAKE PLACE IN THE BUILDING. IN THE MIRAGE PROJECT IT WAS IMPORTANT TO CONNECT THE CONSERVATIVE AND HISTORICAL MINDSET OF THE COMMUNITY OF FALSTERBO WITH THE NEW IDEAS AND VISIONS THAT ATTRACTS YOUNG PEOPLE FROM ALL OVER EUROPE TO VISIT THE AREA DURING THE SUMMER MONTHS.

THE FIRE
The 30th of May 2006 the old dance hall in Falsterbo, Sweden, was destroyed by fire. The dance hall was situated 200 meters from the beach in a small pine wood grove on the southernmost tip of Sweden. Having been a famous meeting place for both locals and tourists since the 1930's the dance hall was much mourned and it was soon decided that the house should be rebuilt. The municipality launched an international architecture competition that draw a record breaking interest from both media and architects. After careful consideration the jury decided upon Kjellgren Kaminsky's proposal "Mirage".

ESTABLISH A DIALOGUE
The Mirage dance hall establishes a dialogue with the site, its history and future. Like a diffuse recollection it reflects the position and facades of the old dance hall while simultaneously reflecting its surroundings in every moment; the changing seasons, the light and the people passing by.

INTERIOR
Much emphasis was put on designing spaces with extraordinary acoustic qualities. A custom made damping wall was designed in collaboration with an acoustic expert. The wall consists of a black acoustic felt covered by white wooden boards of various dimensions which creates strong graphical elements in the whole building. The wall has proven no more expensive than standard solutions.

The old dance hall solely consisted of a dance floor and a bar, but for the new building the program was extended to also include two restaurants for 250 people, a kitchen, a room with a stage and a second floor with a roof terrace, adding up to a total of 1600 sqrm to host 1500 people.

The plan of the new building has the same footprint as its predecessor. It is cut diagonally by a two story high entrance room which connects all the public areas in the building. The building is divided so that the serving spaces are placed along the eastern facade and the served public spaces are located on the west side. The rooms towards the southern facade opens up to terraces.

NEXT TO NATURE
The building is situated in a nature reserve. The pine tree grove surrounding the building is kept unaffected. The terraces and paths connected to the building are made out of wooden boards taking there inspiration from the jetty's on the nearby beach. A small gravel road for deliveries is lade out on the east side of the site.

FACADES
The Facades of the building are clad in boards of graphite gray fibercement and mirror glass. The mirrors are placed in a pattern inspired by the wooden facade and windows of the old dance hall.

CONSTRUCTION
The building is constructed with prefabricated concrete elements. This has not only proven an economically feasible solution, the heavy construction also helps keeping the noise inside, to the joy of worried neighbors living nearby.

FOUR STORIES:

The wedding
A party celebrating a wedding walks stiffly up the stairs to the upper floor restaurant. At the end of the stairs they are met by a framed view of the sea and the horizon. To the right welcoming drinks are being served in the bar. When turning one see big windows facing south, outside pine treetops point towards the sea. Between the horizon and the restaurant there is a generous terrace where the drinks are enjoyed. Later on the party will walk down to the first floor where a dinner will be served in the larger restaurant.

Specular Sea floating deck
After a great day on the beach we can walk up under the pines on the wooden jetties to the restaurant's terrace. While leaving the sea we are meet by the horizon and heaven in the reflecting mirrors. White parasol's and furniture reminiscent of the happy 20's, now that we can sink into the comfortable chairs and have a break to think about getting another ocean dip, or eat a delicious lunch and then cooling off with a cocktail in the bar.

Dance Night
Several hundreds of people have gathered to enjoy an evening with the heavy tunes from the local brass band. From the stage music flows into the room. The dancing couples slowly begins to move in from the restaurant where they have enjoyed food and the last glare from the sun. People also moves directly from the entrance where they already have had a glimpse of the dancing people. This will be an intense evening.

Disco
A long queue winds itself along the wooden deck into the entrance. The spirit among the young excited people is great, tonight is the summer closure and there will be a lot of people here. Three different dance floors with music mixed by DJ's from Sweden, London and Barcelona. Inside the entrance room people stands, sit and mingle. The restaurant is filled with dressed up youngsters enjoying summer vacation and short drinks. At the long bar it is served summer drinks and a DJ turn her vintage vinyl records. At some tables, it has already become crowded and laughing friends tells stories of this summer's escapades. Inside the dance room several hundred people move in ecstasy because of the escalation of the beats and the light show that flashes out across the large wooden floor. Up the stairs the atmosphere calms down and people sit at small tables, sips on their drinks in the bar or hang out in the VIP area behind the elevator. Smokers take a torch on the veranda outside.

Refraction

Refraction is the change in direction of a wave due to a change in its speed. This is most commonly observed when a wave passes from one medium to another at an angle. Refraction of light is the most commonly observed phenomenon, but any type of wave can refract when it interacts with a medium, for example when sound waves pass from one medium into another or when water waves move into water of a different depth. Refraction is described by Snell's law, which states that the angle of incidenceθ₁ is related to the angle of refraction θ₂ by

where v₁ and v₂ are the wave velocities in the respective media, and n₁ and n₂ the refractive indices. In general, the incident wave is partially refracted and partially reflected; the details of this behavior are described by the Fresnel equations.

Haunting the Artist's House

Haunting the Artist's House: Sir John Soane's Museum and Isaac Julien's Vagabondia
		Author: Bridget Elliott and Jennifer Kennedy Published: February 2006 Abstract (E): Isaac Julien's Vagabondia continues his post-colonial exploration of the museum as a politically contested site by providing a hauntingly beautiful image of Sir John Soane's Museum and its 'ghostly' inhabitants. With its eclectic collections and eccentric design, Soane's house resists unequivocal interpretations. This essay considers how the architect's house museum complicates the viewer's experience of this film by exploring the ambiguous relationship between material and filmic time and space. keywords: Isaac Julien, Vagabondia , Sir John Soane's Museum, heterotopia, collecting, artist's house, house museum What exactly were you expected to see (or indeed to have become) in the bizarre labyrinth of a place known as Sir John Soane's Museum, a place that seems to bespeak a horror vacui of monumental and encyclopedic proportions and seems obsessed with death and commemoration: a haunted house, teeming with ghosts? - Donald Preziosi, "Seeing Soane Seeing You" (212) A metaphor that runs throughout much of your work is that of a 'haunting', eliciting a preoccupation with questions of history, memory, the phantasmatic and the cinematic ... - Aine O'Brien in conversation with Isaac Julien (49)

Salar de Uyuni,Bolivia

The largest salar (salt flat) in the world, Salar de Uyuni, is located within the Altiplano of Bolivia in South America. The Altiplano is a high plateau formed during uplift of the Andes Mountains. The plateau harbors fresh and saltwater lakes, together with salars, that are surrounded by mountains with no drainage outlets—all at elevations greater than 3,659 meters (12,000 feet) above mean sea level. The Salar de Uyuni covers approximately 8,000 square kilometers (3,100 square miles), and it is a major transport route across the Bolivian Altiplano due to its flatness.

This astronaut photograph features the northern end of the salar and the dormant volcano Mount Tunupa (image center). This mountain is high enough to support a summit glacier, and enough rain falls on the windward slopes to provide water for small communities along the base. The dark volcanic rocks comprising Mt. Tunupa are in sharp contrast with the white, mineral-crusted surface of the salar. The major minerals are halite—common table salt—and gypsum—a common component of drywall.

Relict shorelines visible in the surface salt deposits (lower right of the image) attest to the occasional presence of small amounts of water in the salar. Sediments in the salar basin record fluctuations in water levels that occurred as the lake that once occupied the salar evaporated. These sediments provide a valuable paleoclimate record for the region. The dynamic geological history of the Altiplano is recorded in isolated “islands” within the salt flat (image left); these islands are typically built from fossil coral reefs covered by Andean volcanic rocks. [1]

In a final room was a light installation of a vertical row of neon lights on each opposing wall, one red, one green, and between a heavily fogged space. Entering induced coughing and the assurance of gallery personnel that it wasn’t toxic. From either end of the room, the far wall faded into a haze of light, which when approached cleared and revealed the stripes of neon lights. In the center both ends showed their lighting, and a mixture occurred (vaguely visible) but of little consequence. The ceiling tiling was visible, and an “exit” sign was readable at one end through the haze.

Dichotomy

An example of a dichotomy is the partition of a scene into figure and ground - the letters are foreground or figure; the rest is the background.

Look up dichotomy inWiktionary, the free dictionary.

A dichotomy is any splitting of a whole into exactly two non-overlapping parts. Meaning it is the procedure in which you divide a whole into two parts, or in half. It is a partition of a whole (or a set) into two parts (subsets) that are:

• mutually exclusive: nothing can belong simultaneously to both parts, and
• jointly exhaustive: everything must belong to one part or the other.

The two parts thus formed are complements. In logic, the partitions are opposites if there exists a proposition such that it holds over one and not the othe

reference

Over the past few decades architecture as an idea and practice has increasingly limited its definition of itself. […] the reality is that architectural styles and forms are often the seductive packaging and repackaging of the same proven, marketable concepts […] beneath the cloak of radicalism the conventions of existing building typologies and programs, with all their comforting familiarity, still rule – and sell. What is needed desperately today are approaches to architecture that can free its potential to transform our ways of thinking, and acting.

The text above comes from the foreword that Lebbeus Woods wrote for the 29th issue of pamphlet architecture, that this time hosts Naja & deOstos. Unfortunately, it seems that we are actually in need to be reminded that the role of architecture is, as has always been, to transform our way of thinking and acting. Luckily this small volume does provoke our preconceptions of what architecture is, or should be – as most of the latest pamphlet issues were doing.

Naja & deOstos’ approach to architecture is a ‘literary’ one. Having as references Franz Kafka and Gabriel Garcia Marques, the architecture of the two projects presented here is clearly understood, as Brett Steele writes in the ‘second’ foreword of the book, as a form of language. The architects, using consciously their language, are offering two stories, two architectural narratives. The first story/project (Nuclear Breeding) explores the history and current condition of Oxford Ness, the site where the first British atomic bomb was initially tested. Investigating the way that craters are created as a result of nuclear explosions the project is a landscaping exercise (do we need again somebody to remind us that landscape cannot be just about planting trees?). The second story/project (The Pregnant Island) is exploring dams; the way that they affect nature, landscape and populations. Using a great amount of statistic data as input, another landscape project is generated that echoes the dramatic changes that dams impose on the landscape, and consists of a kinetic, artificial island.

Language of course is never neutral. And Naja & deOstos are using architectural language here as the vehicle for social and political criticism that generates an ‘investigative’ architecture that has as its starting point programmatic and infrastructural qualities. At the same time literature becomes the primary reference of architecture and is opposed as such to nature.

One could argue that some aspects of the projects remain in the written text while they fail to appear in the drawn one; or that there might be a lack of detail in the drawings that would help in the creation of that ‘magical realism’ effect that the architects are after. But in general the two projects are more than successful in offering a new way to think about architecture and landscape, about what they could be and how they can become bearers of critical ideas and meanings, which renders them really valuable in the contexts of the current situation of architecture that Lebbeus Woods is describing in the foreword.

Issue of Architectural Mirage

Issue

This project deals with the possibility of capturing the idea of “ the Equivocal” as an ambiguous spaces / Landscape, and the process of doing so. Broadly speaking the “Equivocal” is considered twilling. The space could be somewhere, whenever, whatever, wherever. In our dairy lives maybe we perceive some space or landscape that to be real , but may not exist, However, it is hardly to describe and illustrate it is existence spaces or landscape.

Yet, there are no definition about ”Equivocal” in the spaces and landscapes. In this project is not attempting to design an architecture or landscape within concept of Equivocal, The real aim is to suggest the equivocal as a bridge between two existing landscapes.

There are many phenomenon around our spatial issue, For example “ Mirage” according to definition from wekipedia “mirage is a naturally occurring optical phenomenon in which light rays are bent to produce a displaced image of distant objects or the sky. The word comes to English via the French mirage, from the Latin mirare, meaning "to look at, to wonder at". This is the same root as for "mirror" and "to admire". Therefore inspire by this phenomenon, relative to the concept with Equivocal it can be use a media to illustrate and be a fundamental idea to communicate the Ambiguous Space from virtual to actual.

This project aims to explore this dimension within the idea of the Equivocal, where the project is developed is not necessarily defined it can be anywhere ot any time and any moment. Using the mirage as a research and representation tool, both through drawing and physical models.

The reason use “Mirage” as a tool to bridge this project is there are much globally aspect behind the Mirage that is the climate change, such as Global Warming, Nevertheless the main idea about this project is not going to communicate this big issue, is not going to outline or design a green agenda, the main goal is revoke us we have to find a new way to habitat ,due to the impact of the environment in the earth, it is suggest new possibility in Landscape and urbanism in the coming years. In this project is not going to find a result within Green Agenda is aim to be part of this agenda.

water flux

http://www.new-territories.com/toxics%20gardenlopud.htm

Water Flux

屴ol鋝e, Suisse (Scrambled Flat 2.0)

Architect: R&Sie(n)� Paris

Creative team: Fran蔞is Roche, St廧hanie Lavaux, Jean Navarro

Engineer: Guscetti & Tournier, Geneva

Interior Design ; R&Sie(n)

Museum apparatus ; Gorka Arrizabalaga

Key dimensions: 1,000 m2

Client: Maison des Alpes, Public Foundation

Cost: 10 million FS

Design of a building for an art museum/alpine ice research station

Scenario:
1) Digitization of the envelope of a traditional habitat.

2) Scooping out hollows within this volume as if it were an ice cavity, but in full wood by a 5 axes drill machine.

3) Water states and flows vary according to the seasons: The ice flows and freezes; the ice fa蓷des freeze and melt, forming a pond in front of the building.

4) Exacerbation of the winter climate by artificial snow (500 m3)

5) Construction by CNC machine processing, 5 axes, in full wood (2000m3-2000 trees, extracted on two years from the maintenance of the forest) and reassembling the manufactured 180 pieces on site.

6) Re-activation of local economy (50% of the annual wood production of the territory of Evol鋝e village on two years)

Desert de Retz

The désert de Retz is an Anglo-Chinois or French landscape garden - created on the edge of the forêt de Marly in the commune of Chambourcy. It was built at the end of the 18th century by the aristocrat François Racine de Monville on his 40-hectare (99-acre) estate. It is notable for the construction of 17 (or 20) buildings, of which only 10 still survive, referring to classical antiquity or in an exotic style, including a summer house (the "colonne brisée", or ruined column), in the form of the base of a shattered column from an imaginary gigantic temple, an ice house in the form of an Egyptian pyramid, an obelisk, a temple dedicated to Pan, and a (now-lost) Chinese pavilion.

Heat Island

Urban Heat Island Effect, Urban Morphology and Building Energy

The goal of the present research is to study and investigate the impact of urban climate and urban design for predicting building energy. The aim is to provide a tool to architects/ urban designers to evaluate the impact of the external conditions upon their design and appraise the influence of their design on external conditions by referring to existing urban microclimate studies. The building energy investigation is correlated with the role of microclimatic changes and the organization of buildings in a climate responsive way to minimize consumption. An attempt has been made to enhance the architect's role towards building design with more informed choices at an urban micro scale.

The urban-rural and intra-urban microclimatic variation was investigated based on measured weather data for Chicago in the year 2004.The sensitivity analysis of a street geometry was performed to investigate the consequences on annual building energy consumption during summer and winter months. The street geometry dealt with the street aspect ratio and street orientation. The building energy was predicted for three microclimates in Chicago area using three representative weather stations. The role of street geometry on building energy conservation and the climatically appropriate built-up area density was investigated on the basis of its shading potential.

The strategy for climate responsive urban block development using the street geometry is suggested for enhancing the energy saving strategies at building scale, which further applies to the meso-scale.

Gordon Chueng

Gordon Cheung’s paintings capture the hallucinations between the virtual and actual realities of a globalised world oscillating between Utopia and Dystopia. Spray paint, oil, acrylic, pastels, Financial Times stock listings and ink collide in his works to form epic techno-sublime vistas. The painting’s fragmentary multi-layered nature seeks to provide deconstructive networks to reveal fractures in the hallucinatory surfaces of modern life so that we might slip beyond to the emergent patterns and underbelly of what shapes our world. The paintings reflect the techno-sublime where information overwhelms the individual causing a flickering perception of realities blurring between the virtual and actual to encourage a questioning of habitual perception

"Think Matrix – the entire world as a computer construct – crossed with David Lynch’s surreal, dream spaces and the multiple realities in the novels of Philp K. Dick or J.G. Ballard, and you have the cultural background to ‘Machine Dreams’, where a monstrous blackened tree grows out of dead ground before a collapsing housing block, or ‘Mycloptic Shift’, a parodic reconfiguration of the romantic sublime: it has a sunset, rainbow, a share price mountain and tumbling cascades – where not nature but technology overwhelms us. His energetic, witty work is a classic product of an urban 1970s and 1980s childhood, caught between the fast street-cred and blaze of cheap materialism outside and the inner world of computer games in which his generation was the first to grow up."
‘Market Gains’, Jackie Wullschlager, Financial Times magazine, Oct 16 2004

http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.re-title.com/public/artists/633/1/Gordon-Cheung-1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.re-title.com/artists/Gordon-Cheung.asp&usg=__pkzezNJTH2orG_iYUVPjY5hR580=&h=270&w=375&sz=34&hl=en&start=6&sig2=YzfPDvzc9H7_ISHSKh92KQ&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=GGHcXgIOj4FIsM:&tbnh=88&tbnw=122&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dgordon%2Bcheung%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dsafari%26sa%3DN%26rls%3Den%26tbs%3Disch:1&ei=GmbpS6zZC42K_AaCu-3iCg

The M-House

Daniel Arsham The M-House got lost found itself floating on the sea, affecting salination levels in the North Atlantic, 2004

Daniel Arsham's The M-House got lost found itself floating on the sea, affecting salination levels in the North Atlantic depicts an architecturally daring building in uncertain circumstances. It's not clear whether this dwelling perched atop an iceberg has just broken away from a larger land mass and is floating into the darkness, or wheter the iceberg has perhaps been colonized by resourceful(abd architecturally astute) inhabitants. Either way, nature threatens to over-take the colony,perhaps an outcome of our own careleness-think global warming.

Eskimos Home

The Eskimos have two different types of homes. One was the igloo. The igloo is made by cutting snow into blocks. Then they stack the blocks to make a dome.They lived in this house when ever there is snow.The second house is the tipi. This is the house they lived in when it was spring and summer. It is made by bending and putting long poles together. Then cover it with caribou and seal skins.There is a hole in the top for smoke from fires to escape.

The dimensions of the houses were both the same. The igloo is a dome shape. The tipi is also a dome, but covered in skins. The igloo ranges from quite small ( one to two people) to quite big (two to three families.) Sometimes there is a fishing hole in igloos. The igloo has two to five rooms. The tipi however, has one room and a fire pit.

The villages differ in ways. The Eskimos sometimes set their houses up along rivers.Sometimes the houses were put in a circle.The tipi could be taken down and transported by dogsled. The paintings worshipped elders and animals. Igloos were not always the same size. There were sometimes a huge tipi or igloo for dancing, celebration and sporting events.

Reconstructing and Mirage of Picturesque Landscape

Key Words:

Unseen to Seen, Picturesque Landscape, transparency, Laying, Clear to Blur, illusions, paradoxically, virtual mobility , the frame/the screen/ the skin

Central Point

The project is about approaching design in architecture through visible and invisible experiential spaces. How it composed two kind of landscape, which have own different identity, to deconstruct them and create to the new spatial landscape du to the key point, which I define. Transparency is used as a tool to bridge between virtual and actual experiences in order to draw the imagination from physical object in space to higher levels of spatial consciousness.

Key Phase

The project’s ideology of how It illustrate from unseen to seen inspire “Temple Island ” which relative this project why It draw and what It mention about Stowe Landscape Garden.

The drawing method inspire by “Julian Mehretu “because she create a substructure for her painting by covering her first layer of gesso with wireframe architectural drawing, overlapping shapes of flat color, or cluds of pigment that will guide the narrative unfolding in the layers that will follow.

The ambition of this project in the end of this master program, aim to represent that idea in the reality space, inspire the Sarah Sez’s model-making methodology is both practical and structural. How she use the physical object model compose the drawing apply into the reality space.

The strategy of this project inspire by the” Virtual Window Interactive” the way it construct the project ans relative the context of the ideology and methodology, there are many idea similar.

Summery this project, it is dealing with the space which exist between unseen to seen, Transparency is a media to communicate the idea about invisible to visible, due to inspired the ‘Temple Island” it set up two object actual and virtual as a metaphor apply into Canary Wharf as a Virtual, the other site Stowe Landscape Garden as a Actual, the aim to composed these two kind of Landscape, Artificial Landscape and Nature Landscape two constructed by the idea in the picturesque.

Dry Ice

Solid Carbon Dioxide - CO2, is used in a number of different applications. It can be used in laboratories for mechanical cooling and is commonly used to preserve and transport food. Dry ice is sometimes used to make ice cream and even removing warts. Plumbers use dry ice to freeze pipes and in the theatrical world it is used for smoke effects with a fog machine. It can be used to kill underground rodents and insects by freezing and starving animals or insects of oxygen. Mosguitoes are attracted to the carbon dioxide that humans breath out so in some hot countries people holding Bar-B-Q's often place an amount of dry ice away from their party area to lead mosquitoes away from their guests. Dry ice has been use to alter cloud precipitation and is used in industrial cleaning dry blasting. It can also help car repair firms iron out dents in cars.

Temple Island

Temple Island is an island in the River Thames in England just north of Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire. The island is on the reach above Hambleden Lock between the Buckinghamshire and Berkshire banks, and is part of Remenham in Berkshire. The main significance of the island is that it lies at the start of the course for Henley Royal Regatta.

The island includes an elegant ornamental temple (a folly) designed by the 18th century English architect James Wyatt and constructed in 1771. It was designed as a fishing lodge for Fawley Court, a nearby historic house that Wyatt also remodelled in the 1770s on the commission of its owner, Sambrooke Freeman. Wyatt designed both the structure of the building and its interior decoration; it is likely that he also provided designs for the original furniture. The wall paintings in the principal room are thought to be the earliest surviving example of the Etruscan style in Great Britain, predating more famous examples such as the Etruscan Dressing Room at Osterley Parkby Robert Adam.

In the 19th century, the island's ownership passed, with Fawley Court, from the Freeman family to the Mackenzie family. In 1952, upon the death of Roderick Mackenzie, Henley Royal Regatta asked his daughter Margaret for 'first refusal' should she ever decide to sell the island. It is not clear whether an understanding was reached. By the early 1980s, the advent of corporate entertaining greatly increased the potential value of the island. In 1983 the Stewards of the Regatta again began making overtures to Margaret Mackenzie but in 1986 the island was placed on the open market.

Supported by a gift of £515,000 from Alan Burrough (a Steward of the Regatta) and his wife Rosie, in December 1987 the Regatta was able to purchase a 999 year lease of the island and the temple. Following the purchase, the Stewards of the Regatta undertook restoration works to the island and the temple:

The downstream portion of the island was retained as a nature reserve and was extensively replanted with trees.

The Victorian balcony which had decayed was replaced. The wall paintings, which had deteriorated and had been badly over-painted, were repaired and brought back to the colours originally intended by Wyatt. A statue of a nymph, in keeping with the style and age of the Temple, was placed under the cupola.