Roundhouse Foundations

[Image: Aerial photo of the roundhouses site, courtesy of Network Rail].

Another short piece from Archaeology this month highlights the discovery, earlier this year, of the remains of railway "roundhouses" outside York, England. Sadly, they'll soon be covered over by new construction: "Archaeologists are working to record and preserve the site, which is still called by its nineteenth-century name, 'The Engineers' Triangle,' before the new buildings are erected on top of the roundhouses."

It would be a fascinating design challenge to incorporate the oddly shaped foundations into the plans or local street pattern of any future construction, even—or perhaps especially—if the resulting building is not itself circular. Inside, strangely nested curved rooms, ramps, and corridors corkscrew down to the basement, where, embedded in the ground like a mandala, are the unexplained stained bricks of an earlier industrial era, still influencing the movements of people above.

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Anonymous Anonymous said...

I love roundhouses!
-- Georgia

August 14, 2012 9:43 PM  
Anonymous Matt S. said...

BB. - fyi - an existing roundhouse in London is used as a music venue - innovatively called 'the roundhouse' - at basement level it has rehearsal / studio spaces around the central cartwheel of open corridors and brick foundations. Ta.

August 15, 2012 3:21 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

That's the plan in the Sacramento Railyards.

August 17, 2012 1:49 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

There is what's left of one in upstate New York, used to take pictures of it while I was in school. Local kids used it as a hangout with a few skate ramps.

August 19, 2012 12:27 PM  
Anonymous CplusC said...

Eerily similar to a current proposal we have for a stormwater catchment system beneath a sports oval

August 20, 2012 4:26 PM  
Anonymous Liana said...

There's a good example of this in Vancouver, BC in Yaletown where the roundhouse has been partially preserved as a home for a historically valueable steam engine, community centre, and public open space.

see: http://www.roundhouse.ca/
and http://www.greatervancouverparks.com/Roundhouse01.html

August 20, 2012 6:38 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

and then there are round houses -
https://roundhouses.wordpress.com

February 12, 2013 4:11 PM  

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