Antigua Fábrica

Utilising Social Enterprise as a Platform for Production, [Re]Connection and Exchange within Post-Industrial Poble Nou
      Masters Design Thesis Project set in Barcelona, Spain
 

Located within Barcelona’s post-industrial district of Poble Nou, this project addresses the scarred urban landscape of abandonment, upheaval and degradation left in the wake of the 2008 economic crisis. Whilst thoroughly destructive, the crash brought to a halt previous failing urban management models and presented an opportunity for change and renewal within the urban context. It is this particular point of inflection that provides the spring-board for this design thesis, taking the opportunity to re-examine the foundations of urban living and explore innovative regeneration strategies that shift the focus away from the individual and towards the collective. Through investigation of the pre-proposed 22@ plan for the area, this design strategy considers new methodologies that translate spatially concepts of social cohesion, community, identity and collaboration with the aim of sparking revitalisation in both economic and governance systems that will prove not only resilient but socially responsive. 

First term work completed as a group of three people, whilst second term work was a further development of the project into an individual design thesis.

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Lost and Found

A Study of Navigation and User Experience in Places of Memory
      Masters Dissertation

This body of work unites, compares and contrasts concepts rooted in scientific research but evolved through an architectural lens to facilitate a comparison of two design precedents: Niall McLaughlin’s Alzheimer’s Respite Centre and Peter Eisenman’s Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, with the aim of investigating the influence that navigation has on the user experience in places of memory. Considering the neurological relationship between memory, orientation and sense of place as a framework for analysis, the study analyses and compares the two precedents from a first hand perspective. Further lines of enquiry gleaned from academic research - namely the use of narrative, way-finding strategies, sensory and emotional responses, embellish the investigation and provide a platform for interrogation and cross-examination. Sub-categories tangental to the main theme and identified through further exploration, such as colour, light, location and material allow for a more intimate examination and discovery across both case studies as well as providing a structured critique for site visits.

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Student Retreat

Design of a Student Sanctuary set in Cardiff, Wales

      Masters Year 1 Project
      (completed in conjunction with year-long industrial placement)

    

Located in the heart of Cardiff, adjacent the Student Union building, this 'Student Retreat' seeks to bring a place of calm and security:  a metaphysical utopia in the heart of the urban fabric. The building serves as an enclosure for escape from the bustle and stresses of University life and a place to re-establish the ineffable connection between self and soul. Whether secular or religious, this scheme focuses on the users’ journey throughout the building; manipulating and contrasting light, sound, texture and  volume to evoke the senses and help define a hierarchy of spaces suitable for spiritual and emotional expression, either as a mass or an individual. 

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City as Wilderness

Design of an Urban Sanctuary set in Gloucester, England

      Undergraduate Thesis Project

    

For my fourth-year individual thesis project I chose to expand upon the given brief of 'The City as Wilderness' and explore the ‘Wilderness of the Soul’ through the design of an Urban Sanctuary; addressing the sensitive issue of suicide and emotional trauma which is particularly relevant to our current economic climate.

I drew upon the monastic archetype to create a sanctuary for the city, a place that would provide a secure environment for people to momentarily escape the stresses of their lives. The sanctuary would also serve to promote communication, education and awareness in order to overcome suicide as an ‘unspoken’ subject and go some way to helping people before they take their own lives.

 

 

 

Floating World

Design of a temporary theatre in London, England
      Final Year Group Project
 

This project was the collaboration of three architecture students and two engineering students and formed our entry into the annual University Basil Spence Competition. Our brief was to design a temporary theatre which would enable London's National Theatre to remain operational during their 2013 refurbishment.

 

We wanted our design to focus on experiencing theatre, both as an art form and an architectural form. We realised that this experience begins much before the entrance to the building, and therefore we built our project around the journey of theatre, blurring the thresholds between interior and exterior and ultimately creating a liminal world between fiction and reality.

 

 

 

 

 

The Invisible, the Unknown and the Unknowable
Exploring the essence and design of sacred architecture

      Undergradatue Research Essay

    

Further to my final design studio project, I completed an essay entitled, ‘The Invisible, the Unknown and the Unknowable;’ an investigation into sacred architecture with studies into memorial sites, Buddhist Temples and Christian churches with the view to answering the questions: ‘what makes a space sacred?’ and ‘how far does architecture contribute to the creation of sacred space?’

 

 

 

 

 

for examples of earlier work, please feel free to ask