FRAGMENTS OF THE DOMESTIC: THE DISAPPEARANCE OF ROBIN HOOD GARDENS & THRESHOLDS OF PERFORMANCE: PETROL STATION THEATRE

by Maisie Spencer

A Pleasure Garden which takes the place of a community centre, evolving through time depending on the needs of the people who use it. It caters to the most vulnerable in our society: the children and the elderly. Eventually it descends into ruin, permanently nestled into the site. In the pleasure garden, fragmented elements of Robin Hood Gardens become the material for a new type of spatial construct. Wedged amongst existing warehouses which are left behind in the uneven development of the city, is a community youth theatre. Inspired by Whitechapel’s permeable grain defined by alley ways, It becomes an extension of the street, and pushes the boundaries of what can and should be considered a performance - a market stall, the beacon of the petrol station canopy. A microcosm of the city.