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Moving Bricks

02

2025
Adaptive Reuse

London Underground, Highgate Railway Station, UK

Changwan Lim

Serena Ip
 

Experimental project that introduces a community art (graffiti) sharing platform to the abandoned Highgate Railway Station. Reusing site materials and surfaces that graffiti has been painted.

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From the site research, various graffiti were painted on different surfaces each creating a unique design. The project is decided to celebrate graffiti art and introduce a new platform or a canvas for the artist to interact. Also, to stimulate regular tube (subway) users and local community interaction.

Before moving into design phase, sustainability of the building structure and the environment had to be considered. Three stages of cycle is introduced: painting, exhibiting, and scanning / cleaning which the building perform like a machine. Each of the stages has different circulations of people: artist, regular commuters, and office workers. 

In the painting phase, graffiti artists can paint on the vertical surface of the building that rotates horizontally like a conveyor belt. The rotating wall consist of staggered transparent bricks connected by a pole. Between each brick, metal washers are placed that allow free movement of the bricks with less friction. The walls are rotated to allow scanning and cleaning machine to maintain the structure and project scanned images to the transparent display of the large roof which cover the site.

The exhibiting phase includes daily tube commuters and local communities to exhibit and interact with the artwork the artists created. Artworks can be exhibited by the transparent display underneath the large roof or from the graffiti pattern non-moving wall situated on the topography of the site. The moving wall can be exhibited from the Archway St.

Lastly, the scanning and cleaning phase include sophisticated mechanical system. When the graffiti is rotated towards the cleaning side, the machine first scans the wall and starts pressure washing. The washed paints are transferred to the paint segment filter machine which filters the paint from the water for environment sustainability. These complex mechanical system is located at the core of the building which can be accessible by the maintenance staff.

© 2025 Changwan Lim Architecture Portfolio

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