Assignment 3

Buildings in use - The Spinnaker Tower

I have enjoyed visiting Portsmouth's landmark Spinnaker Tower a number of times over the past few years. We even considered it as a venue for our wedding party.

I’m not alone in liking the tower as it has welcomed  2.5 million visitors since 2005 attracted by the stunning 350 degree  views  of the city, Langstone and Portsmouth harbours and a viewing distance of 23 miles.

Why did I choose the Spinnaker Tower for this assignment?

P903 : F8 @ 1/500  22mm  ISO 400

I just love the design of what is truly the centrepiece of the redevelopment of Portsmouth Harbour. The shape of the 170-metre tower was chosen by residents from a selection of designs. Designed by a local firm HGP Architects and engineering consultants Scott Wilson , the tower reflects Portsmouth maritime history through its design. The tower represents sails billowing in the wind using two large, white, sweeping metal arcs which give the tower its spinnaker sail shape. 

This is an iconic building designed to be both a landmark and a tourist attraction incorporating observation decks, a cafe and a ground floor reception desk, shop and café. I decided to focus on how the Spinnaker's shape  influenced the use and design of space, particularly the three observation platforms towards the top as their size and use would be very much constrained ( or not ) by the actual design itself. 

P901 : F8  @ 1/250  18mm  ISO 200

P901 and P02 show the main observation deck and it's glass floor, the largest in Europe apparently. This is the largest of the three observation desks. I tried to capture the way the floor space and glass windows curve to follow the shape of the building,how the roof is designed to follow though the idea of billowing sails and what you can see of the harbour and beyond....

 

P902: F8  @ 1/400  18mm  ISO 200

The next deck has been converted into cafe area (P900 ) - the 'Cafe in the Clouds' ;  its selling point not only the delicious coffee served but the views over the harbour and towards the Isle of Wight.


 

P900: F5 @ 1/3200  31mm  ISO 400

The shape of the cafe area follows the same line of the building as the main observation deck below but is smaller.This shot is taken in the corner at the back to show how the seating area works and looks. I could have taken a wider shot across the space with the view to my left but felt this less attractive as it would show more tables and chairs than the way the shape of the building allows for lovely views.Difficult though to show the floor to ceiling glass windows.

The last observation deck is the crows' nest desk which as it's name suggest is at the top of the building as a crow's nest would be at the top of the main mast of a ship. This a much smaller area which follows the same space shape but is open to the elements. A difficult shot to take to show a slightly different perspective in design terms. In the end I opted for the angle in P904 which shows the wire mesh roof designed in a billowing fashion, I guess following through the idea of sails billowing at sea and a hint at the 350 degree views. 

 

P904: F14  @ 1/320  22mm  ISO 400

When I set off to photograph the Spinnaker Tower, I spent some time experiencing the building as a visitor and watching how other people used and enjoyed the observations decks and cafe . This gave me some idea as to what features I wanted to capture to best reflect how these spaces are used. At the start I did not realise what the real challenge would be. Not the actual shape of the building or its popularity (the fact that there would always be people milling around moving into and out of shot). It was the glass windows i.e..the colour and thickness.

It wasn't so much the reflection but the fact that somehow all the images came out with a blue tinge..possibly the windows are tinted to allow good views in extremely sunny, bright weather.More research failed to find any reference to this or the thickness of the glass that might affect the light in some way. At first I thought that it was down to what I was doing with the camera settings but I have noticed that other images taken inside the observation decks found elsewhere on the Internet and in publications also have this blueness. I used Lightroom to help adjust this tinge but have not been able to completely eradicate it. On the positive side, you could argue that the slight blue appearance is in keeping with the nautical theme of the design..

Looking back now at my images and own experience of the Spinnaker Tower, I do feel that the building is achieving what the design set out to do.Its design reflects the city's maritime past and the design and use of available public space for observing and enjoying views over Portsmouth, its harbour and the Solent is well done.