Portfolio_AmandaChua

PORTFOLIO

Office Rebuilt, Wesminster

A nine-story office redevelopment in the City of Westminster, this project emphasizes preserving the existing façade while offering high-quality office space. Its strategic brief centers on sustainability, aiming for a design that endures for over a 100 years.

My Role

Coordinating and producing drawings for tender

My Role:

• Leading the delivery of several Stage 4 tender packages

• Participation in design team meetings, tender interviews and coordination workshops

• Responding to tender queries and RFIs from contractors

• Coordinating BREEAM and WELL evidences

• Sourcing samples and refining our architectural specification

• Assisting in value engineering and feasibility studies

• Producing tender & construction drawings using Revit

• Producing operation and finishes schedules for tender

• Submitting documents and securing approval from the Building Control Officer

• Reviewing architectural scope documents with the project lead prior to contract execution. Engaging in discussions regarding fees and resource allocation with the project lead.

Atrium fire curtain detail - Reviewing and incorporating fire-tested details from suppliers into our tender drawings

Assessing buildability and performance requirements in collaboration with our main contractor and fire engineer.

Atrium stair details - Engaging with our access consultant and Building Control to achieve a design that aligns with Building Regulations (Part K)

Basement Thermal Analysis - Developed and coordinated basement floor buildup details to facilitate third-party thermal analysis, ensuring that the building achieves the updated Part L requirements

Atrium roof section - Assessing various atrium interfaces

the design team to comply with fire-tested specifications and ensure practical buildability

Door package - Liasing with our security, fire and UKPN consultants to formualte a door operation strategy that integrates the building’s health & safety protocols, and plant replacement requirements.

Construction drawings - Prepared basement slabs and stairs setting out drawings for construction issue. Reviewed substructure information to ensure coordination with services and structure drawings.

Office Refurbishment ,Soho

Cat A fit out of existing office buildings (3 no.) in Soho, London. Brief is to maximise retail potential at ground and basement and increase upper floor office space as the existing hodgepodge of building elements at the upper floors is currently inefficient and limits functionality.

Artist Studio, London

The approved masterplan scheme which was part detailed and part outline proposed a mixed use development providing up to 1,300 new residential dwellings and up to 7,000 sqm of new flexible commercial/employment space. A Reserved Matters Application (RMA) seeks to obtain approval for B11, 3360sqm of artist studios.

FAÇADE DESIGN CONCEPTS

FAÇADE DESIGN CONCEPTS

CONTAINING

CONTAINING DIFFERENT VOLUMES

The gas holder was not always a static permeable structure. Its appearance could change radically depending on the volume of gas. When the container was reaching the maximum capacity, at the same time, was becoming an imposing object in the townscape and more local context.

The gas holder was not always a static permeable structure. Its appearance could change radically depending on the volume of gas. When the container was reaching the maximum capacity, at the same time, was becoming an imposing object in the townscape and more local context.

These structures were varying in scale, appearance and detailing, while maintaining same principles. In their decline and dismantlement, these are still very evocative pieces of the current urban landscape.

These structures were varying in scale, appearance and detailing, while maintaining same principles. In their decline and dismantlement, these are still very evocative pieces of the current urban landscape.

Gaswork, London

Transformation of a redundant former gasworks into a contemporary and sustainable neighbourhood, whilst acknowledging the site’s important industrial past. The new community will provide a variety of new mixed-tenure homes and a beautifully landscaped public realm. The new built development will be utilising a fully modular design approach to accommodate circa 700 units.

BAY STUDIES LANDMARK BUILDING - TEXTURED

Pocket Living, London

Pocket living delivers grant-free affordable homes for purchase by individuals on moderate incomes, with Pocket homes sold at a 20% discount to local prices. The brief is for the erection of a 5 to 6 storey stepped building containing 82 one-bedroom homes. TFL is part of the consultant team due to

THE TRANSIT

A NEW TYPOLOGY FOR STUDENT ACCOMMODATION

The Transit is a speculative design project tackling the issue of settling within student accommodations. The project characterises existing typologies as Junkspace, a transitional space where identities are lost due to the effects of supermodernity and capitalism, where students are seen as characterless commodities with high turnover.

The proposal draws from the theories of ‘unfinished architecture’ and ‘activist architecture’ to challenge the existing perspective of students as consumers into students as producers. By shifting the power to students, enabling them to spatially manipulate the building to their needs and positioning student accommodation as a political tool, the new typology aims to build a culture of empowering students.

Modular Facade

Mass Timber Structure

Concrete Cores

CLT Floor Slab

Secondary Beam

6TH YEAR FINAL PROJECT MANCHESTER, UK

THE ROTATING FACADE

Detachable plywood panels

Aluminium channel

Dpm Sheet

Wood fibre sheating

Wood fibre insulation

Vapour control layer

Interior Plywood panels

Aluminium Furring Channels

Safety Nets

THE PERMANENT COMPONENTS

Adopting the temporal nature of student living and modular construction, the design methodology of [re]construction influenced the project’s architectural design, ensuring the building components are made for safe assembly and disassembly. The building components are designed to be split into two categories, permanent and temporary parts. The permanent components provide the constrains and structucal safety for students to work around. The rotating facade is one of many temporary components within the design where students are able to alter the plywood panels or extend their space conviniently and within the safety of the building.

THE DETACHABLE SYSTEM

Moving in, students would be met with only the skeleton structure of the building as a ‘blank canvas’. Communal spaces are intentionally left floorless and bedrooms are fully walled up. The detachable system enables students to remove planks from their walls to create floors or disassemble their entire wall to expand their rooms. The system allow various levels of adaptation to create spaces that suit each individual or flat. It creates a new routine within students’ daily lives and an ever-changing environment to live in.

Detachable channel

Plywood Planks

CREATING SMALLER TERRITORIES

Inspired by Oscar Newman book on defensible space, in order for inhabitants to feel ‘more settled’, identifying oneself with one’s territories became an important architectural consideration within the project. By limiting the number of students sharing a communal space, inhabitants can better identify spaces as theirs and feel confident that they have a right to control the activity taking place within it. Furthermore, assigning external grounds to each room will encourage students to linger beyond their bedroom walls. The projects aim to create spontaneous pockets of interactions between neighbours to improve the relationship among flatmates.

8 bed per flat

Smaller Territories

Place onto site

Facade Shell Kitchen Assigned Laundry Communal

UPPER FLOOR

3 BEDS THE TERRACE

Why do student accommodations need a cinema room or a bowling alley? The pandemic brought forth the drastic call to change how we design student accommodations to improve students’ mental health. The project integrates green terraces to create pockets of greenery within the accommodation in hopes of improving the socio-environmental and ecological benefits for student living.

7 BEDS THE COMMS

LOWER FLOOR

STUDENT ACCOMMODATION AS A POLITICAL TOOL

How can we utilise an interactive facade system to merge activism and architecture? How can architecture enable students’ voices to be integrated into society? Inspired by the rise in protests during the pandemic, we saw students protest whilst quarantining within student halls by covering windows with sticky notes and makeshift banners. As a result, the project changes the way we should interpret buildings as not stagnant objects but unfinished, active structures to empower communities.

The F is facing the wrong way!

Please click on the links to be redirected to youtube:

Edited Version (1 minute) : https://youtu.be/lPIPEB5UDYs

Full Version (3 minute): https://youtu.be/ke5sKYkBFcY

Brochure Link: https://issuu.com/amandachua77/docs/brochure

MERE GOLF AND SPA RESORT

GRADE II LISTED EXTENSION AND REFURBISHMENT

The Mere is branded as the most prestigious and luxurious resort within the North West. The vision for the project is to strengthen its position as a luxury resort whilst providing world-class facilities. The project brief was to design the extension of the hotel, conference centre, spa and golf shop. Careful consideration towards the overall design was important due to several factors:

• Grade II listed (Full planning and listed building application)

• Located in a Green Belt near Knutsford

• The current budget sits at £23 million

KEY

1 Facing Brickwork

2 Interlocking reconstituted slate tiles

3 Double height glazed entrance

4 Existing green wall

5 Steel balustrade with glass panels (design to follow existing hotel balustrade)

MAIN PROJECT

KEY

1 Dark timber cladding

2 Interlocking reconstituted slate tiles

3 Full height glazing

4 Steel balustrade with glass panels

5 Timber external french door

6 Lighter timber cladding material

The Mere, which was in RIBA stage 2, was my main project throughout my Part 1 experience. I worked collaboratively with my team from the initial design stage to its full planning submission stage. My main task was to design the hotel‘s extension layout and design the external elevation for the conference centre. My design intention for the elevation was to form a consistent architectural style with the hotel’s elevation, but utilising dark timber cladding to ensure a subtle yet clear distinction between both programmes.

COPTHORNE HOTEL

FEASIBILITY STUDY: 4* HOTEL

Copthorne Hotel is part of the Millenials Hotel Group. The brief was to design a high-quality hotel that would elevate Copthorne Hotel as the premier place to stay in Salford Quays. The brief was to construct a feasibility study for a 200 bed new built according to the 4* hotel rating specification and Copthorne Hotel brand standards.

During my part 1, I undertook many feasibility studies similar to this project. Through these exercises, I was able to gain knowledge on various hotel brand standards and building regulations, applying them to future projects of various scales and context.

FEASIBILITY STUDY

My responsibility was to produce a concise site analysis and several design iterations for discussion with the design team. By researching and referencing past Copthorne projects, I added my design inputs to the hotel’s elevation design. I adopted materials of contrasting texture and colours to add visual depth to the otherwise flat facade, all of which still reflects the sleek modern aesthetic suitable for a 4* Copthorne Hotel and the local context. My proposal was chosen to be brought forward, where I had to prepare a concise drawing package to be presented to the client.

Ground Floor

First Floor

Typical Floor

PRINCESS ST, EDINBURGH

GRADE II LISTED FEASIBILITY STUDY

I was responsible to conduct a feasibility study for a proposed redevelopment and refurbishment of the Debenhams store on Edinburgh’s Princess Street. The building would house a 4* Marriot Tribute brand. The Grade II listed building plans were extremely complicated to achieve a minimum of 220 beds due to the level changes and varying floor plans. However, I enjoy participating in challenging feasibility exercises, as I am able to advance my level of spatial awareness and explore various design strategies to work around them.

THE S-MART

A TRADITIONAL LIBRARY WITH A TWIST

The project proposes a new purpose for community libraries as a facilitator for skills-sharing activities. The site sits within Collyhurst, Manchester, and has a demogrpahic consisting of individuals in their 20’s-40’s, with high levels of unemployment, drug use and rehabilitation units within the area.

To improve the social and economical aspects of Collyhurst, the project proposes a new masterplan with a community library to help encourage community-led businesses. The project aims to encourage informal opportunities for knowledge exchange to strengthen the number of skilled individuals within Collyhurst, leading towards a more sustainable, inclusive and empowered community.

The project proposes to regenerate the existing wasteland and drug-infested site into a vibrant community hub. In order to achieve this, the aspects of visual permeability and high levels of active frontage were important considerations during the iteration process. The proposal seeks to allocate a community library at the centre of the site. Metaphorically, it symbolises learning as the heart of the community whilst creating an accessible central hub for the community to gather. By integrating community-led retailers below the residential blocks, the proposal forms a mini shopping plaza along the main pedestrian road through the site.

Commercial Area View

Communal Area View

Entrance Skills Market Traditional Library

THE SKILLS MARKET

How can we rethink the way knowledge should be acquired? How can libraries be both a space of learning and forming social connections? The project proposes a new typology for libraries, where various styles of learning, not just reading, are integrated into the programme. The concept of a skills market allow selected skilled individuals such as florist, artist, plumbers, etc to set up shop and share their knowledge with the community through informal chats and organised workshop. The traditional library is located away from the skills market and main street to ensure distance for noise buffer.

Skilled individual Interested individual

FLEX-BRICK FACADE SYSTEM

In order to maximise natural sunlight into the building, the design utilises a glass envelope paired with perforated brick as a shading strategy. The lightweight and permeable ceramic bricks buffer the heat and harsh sunlight into the internal spaces of the library. Aesthetically, the ceramic bricks and lattice design reflects the surrounding residential red brick facades, forming a consistent architectural style within the town’s fabric. However, the cream coloured bricks ensure a clear separation between existing residential builts and the new community hub.

Elevation A

Section AA

Specification to be confirm with supplier: Flexbrick

15mm Galvanised Steel Sheet

Steel anchor system attached to structural columns

Vertical Broken Brick Panel Brick Size : 243 x 97 x 45

70mm Shallow Steel Decking

Vertical Broken Brick Panel

Brick Size : 243 x 97 x 45

Brick Slip Rainscreen Cladding System

Horizontal aluminium brackets to support bricks’ base

Steel anchor system attached to structural steel columns

Metal Rod

200mm diameter circular column

Cavity Closer

Facade Detail

CPC RESIDENCE

CARE. PRIVACY. CO-LIVING

The project was to construct a feasibility study for the redevelopment of Southway Estate, Manchester. Each student was given a different constraint, with mine being the most challenging scenario of:

x3 density

High level of Retention

High private, low communal space

With over 50% of Southway residents aged 50 and above, over 1000 properties leased by elderly classified as ‘under-occupied’ and a theme of ‘Age-Friendly Strategy 2020’, the project proposes a key worker cohousing scheme as a strategy to tackle the existing issues within Southway. How can architecture enable the cohabitation of elderly residents and key workers in a high privacy co-living environment?

ONLY WAY IS UP

In order to resolve the ‘under occupied’ housing issues, whilst providing extra care for the elderly, the proposed scheme aims to pair elderly residents with key workers or families to create an age-friendly co-living scheme. With the criteria of x3 density and high retention, I proposed to retain 80% of the existing units and built up to achieve the extra 280 beds. Due to the typology within Southway town consisting of mainly low to medium building heights, it created another limitation. The proposal would need to ensure the maximum height of the built was capped to 7 storeys.

CATEGORY 2: ACCESSIBLE AND ADAPTABLE DWELLING

To ensure the dwellings are suitable for current and future needs of elderly residents, each bedroom typology is design according to Approved Document Part M : Accessible and Adaptable Dwelling regulations. Due to the requirement of high privacy and low communal spaces, each flat is equipped with individual kitchens and living room, with communal social gardens scattered around the estate rooftop.

Elevation A

Section AA

Barrier Panel Fasterner Air Space

Transfer slab to enable load from the proposed built structure to be transferred to the proposed columns. The proposition is for the existing structure to bear no load from the new built

ATTACHING THE NEW TO THE OLD

As a response to resolve the structural aspect of the proposal, a 700mm thick transfer slab would be attach above the existing 2 storey units. The proposition is for the existing structure to bear no load from the proposed built. This will ensure the existing built would be retained and safe to live in without any structural modification.

OFF THE GRID

FREELANCE PRIVATE RESIDENTIAL PROJECT

Located in Malaysia, the project seeks to design a ‘Balinese’ inspired 2-storey vacation home for a retired couple and their 2 children. The site overlooks an 18 hole golf course, with lush forestry surrounding the residential area. I was able to discuss the brief and aspirations of the project with the couple before embarking on my design iterations. The work I am presenting is the finalised proposal that I have submitted to an architect for him to take forward as I continue my postgraduate studies back in Manchester.

SPATIAL DEVELOPMENT

I began the project by interviewing the couple regarding their daily activities and lifestyle to form a design brief for myself. The building layout seeks to enable occupants to experience both the comfort of the villa’s interiors and the tranquillity of the tropical outdoors. Hence, the proposal provides a central courtyard, backyard deck and an open plan dining/living room with large sliding glass doors to enable the entire ground floor to be open up. The design creates a subtle transition between the interior and exterior, whilst taking full advantage of the golf course view. The internal courtyard enables a private space for residents to relax whilst creating a pleasing visual connection from every room.

Elevation A

Dining & Living Space

FACADE DEVELOPMENT

The design intends to incorporate various levels of privacy throughout the house. Mechanical timber panels were used to increase privacy along the front and side facade from the neighbouring houses. The timber panels act similarly to curtains, being able to be slid away if needed. Timber was mainly incorporated throughout the house to create a warm tone within the internal spaces, however, I decided to utilise a precast papercrete panel system to contrast against the wood, creating a more dynamic facade aesthetic.

STRETFORD CRAFT CENTRE

CREATE ON THE WEEKDAYS, EXPLORE ON THE WEEKENDS

The site is located in Stretford, Manchester. A study group was constructed with the resident within Stretford to investigate the existing socio-economical issues within the town. The lack of entertainment venues within the town affects the quality of life of Stretford residents, leading many to venture into neighbouring towns to settle instead.

The project proposal for a craft centre aims to establish a new form of entertainment and socialising venue within Stretford. The centre would introduce an array of craft activities and a weekend market. The craft centre aspires to bring a youthful and lively environment to revitalise the socio-economic status of Stretford.

EXPLORING THE MARKET

The proposal aims to design for spatial adaption, where internal spaces could conveniently house various programmes throughout the week.

During the weekday, the centre acts as a facilitator for educational workshops and crafting activities. During the weekends, the programme transforms into a craft market with the internal spaces converted to house independent pop-up shops. The integration of movable walls allows studio rooms to be easily adapted into market stalls.

The centre is open

Nearing closing time

OPEN OR CLOSE?

The site sits at the junction of the main road through the town. Rotating panels were integrated into the elevation design to create an attractive and active facade system. Firstly, the panels would act as an indicator for passersby to identify if the centre is open or close. Secondly, the panels act as sun shading, whilst enabling degrees of visual permeability into the centre.

OLD TO NEW

The site is located next to the Stretford Public Hall (Grade II listed) which currently serve as a workspace for several resident artists. The design aims to create circulation between the craft centre and the public hall, enabling the artists to inhabit both buildings. To achieve this, several of the public hall’s existing windows were converted into openings without the need to drastically alter the historical landmark. The decision to leave the hall’s brick facade exposed within the craft centre was also another approach to preserve the historical facade.

Sectional Model 1:50

THANK YOU