The Design (I)

Thorn Form Copysketch for Bothan Shuibhne, AF, 2013
/
/
the thorn //memory of Suibhne’s spear
and the harsh brang of battle
is the riddle for our design// to resolve
circle poem, thoughts are thornscircle poem, Alec Finlay, 2005
/
/
how shall we bring//the thorn
///into translation
/
how shall the sharpness//& aggression
of the thorn thicket//come
into a settled configuration
that will flower//as dwelling
/
/
///WARD & WELCOME
/
/////////blackthorn
/
/
Thorns Cropsketch for Bothan Shuibhne, AF, 2013
/
/
sketch a spicule//its sharpness
will give severe offense
to health & safety regulations
/
the thorn marks//Suibhne’s aloneness
which inspires us
///////////////////////& challenges us
/
/
sharing the bothy//creatively
heals this sense//of isolation
/
/
despite what thorns represent
it was never our intention
to make a hedgehog hut
a form of schiltron
/
/
hawthorn & blackthorn/
/
///HAWTHORN
/
//////schiltron
/
/
the feisty folk of the thistle
borrowed from nature
/
the schiltron//which the Scots armies
were famed for//stretching back to the Picts
/
a compact bristling mass of spears
and sharpened stakes//schiltrons
epitomize the grim resilience
of folk who had less//heavy horse
knights//the tanks of their day
////////////than their foes
/
/
an eye-witness at Bannockburn
describes a rectangular schiltron
armed with pikes & axes
advancing
/////////////like a thick-set hedge
/
/
such a hostile prickily bothy
wasn’t our aspiration//nevertheless military
themes endure//in contemporary survivalism
outcasts of the cabin
/
////(a theme discussed by the American poet Susan Tichy
////in her post on the mountain huts of Colorado)
/
/
Blackthorn Crop/
/
the thorn trees morphology
is torn with intensity
/
a form of wildness//characterized
by a seemingly chaotic//dense
////patterned structure
//////an arrow shower
//////a needled bower
/
/
the thorn
has it’s reason
/
it grows
through a series
of internalized//rejections
/
/
//////////the thorn proceeds
//////////by throwing itself
//////////out of symmetry
/
 /the thorn growspoem-label, Alec Finlay, 2013
/
/
we began our design
looking at the thorn
considering the trees form
getting lost
in the thicket
/
/
///////T
/////H//H
////O////O
///R//////R
//N////////N
/
/
an early sketch shows
thorns as arches
like crossed spears
or a pair of whale tusks
/
a cruciform to cradle
the shelter capsule
/
suspended above the ground
the floating hut would
recall Suibhne’s levitation
at the battle of Magh Rath
/
/
//when the giddiness
//came over Shuibhne
//intoxicated with horror,
//panic, dismay, fear,
//flightiness, giddiness, & terror
//his joints a shaking mass
//& he rose into the air
/
/
////R
///O/O
//N///N
//A///A
//N///N
/
/
Suibhne’s thorn-filled glen
recalls the scene of battle
so the suspended hut
could also echo//Ronan’s bell
/
/
Thorn Pilotis Sketch Copysketch of thorn-pilotis for Bothan Shuibhne, AF
/
/
drawing the thorn
over and over again
the blackthorn’s profusion
reduced to a single articulation
/a figure
/
/a thorn motif
that Iain could translate
into architecture
/
/
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////T//////T
/////////////////////////////////////////////T/////H//H
////////////////////////////////////////////////H//O
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////R
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////N
/
/
/
the working design
raised the simplified thorn
turning its points skywards
away from delicate flesh
/
/
the thorn column//embedded in
the slope of the roof
/
in some sketches//thorns stuck
through the building’s fabric
/
/
thorn pilotis copythorn-pilotis, architectural rendering, 2013
/
/
the thorn had found a purpose
as pillar, or pilotis
which Iain described
in his first computer drawing
/
/
/////////LOOSE SKY
/////////TAUT STEEL
/
//////////////stele
/
/
we discussed how//our thorn supports
might have a bearing on//the hut’s
final built form
/
the thorn column//suggested
extending the angled roof//outward
beyond the bothy walls?
/
a space began to open
//a verandah
within which the thorn-pilotis
//would hover
/
/
I thought back to visits
a0t the hostel on Berneray
where on sunny days
people would laze
in the generous stone mantles
of the blackhouse windows
sheltered from the breeze
/
/
/////////AS FAR AS
//THE MOMENT SEES
/
/////////////view
/
/
/
/////////AS FAR AS
//THE MOMENT SEAS
/
/////////////blue
/
/
SB Drawing 1
/
/
in a small hut like Sweeney’s
a verandah deepens
the sense of being//in the wilds
/
the platform//creates a zone
that is part-interior//being sheltered
& at the same time
part-of-the-surroundings
/
/
when the sun shines
people can use
the verandah as a workplace
/
/
we began to consider
the threeness//of the interior
/
/
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////work
/
/
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////live/////////sleep
/
/
other ideas began to crystallize
as poems & sketches
/
/
three thorns
are decided on
each one
defined by its
purpose
/
/
/
threeness//of the//thorn
/
/
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////roof
/
/
////////////////////////////////////////////////////bed///////shower
/
/
/
SB Drawing 2Bothan Shuibhne, Iain MacLeod, 2013
the shower thorn is visible
/
/
SB Drawing 3Bothan Shuibhne, Iain MacLeod, 2013
showing the original thorn pilotis
/
/
the canopy floats
a hands-width
from the walls
/
/
SB Drawing 4Bothan Shuibhne, Iain MacLeod, 2013
/
/
/
/
/////////FLOATING BED
/
/////////////thorn-tree
/
/
/
text: AF
images: AF & IM
/
/
Bothan Shuibhne | Sweeney’s Bothy
/
Alec Finlay & The Bothy Project
commissioned as part of Creative Scotland’s ‘Year of Natural Scotland 2013’
/
Sweeney’s Bothy: Introduction
Some Huts