6.1 UG6 ‘One-Day Chair Project’. Using hand tools and palette timber, over the course of a single day each student designed and made a chair which reflected the structural principles of a different timber-framed building case study. These were built and photographed at HG Matthews Brickworks. 6.2, 6.8 Christina Economides, Y3 ‘The Homegrown Agora’ is a project which speculates on the possibilities which emerge from an integration of nature and architecture. Reframing agricultural waste and the growth of fungi as valuable resources for the production of biomaterials, the proposal explores how we can build with locally produced bio-based materials as substitutes for the high-embodied carbon products prevalent in the building industry. It is both a building and a system which incorporates growing, producing, using and decomposing materials. 6.3 Evelyn Salt, Y3 ‘New Urban Plan for Aylesbury Garden Town’. This site plan shows a cooperative housing proposal in the context of an urban plan developed collaboratively by the unit, with a number of different prototypical housing models arranged in organic clusters around communal green spaces. The project is situated within the new ‘garden town’ development of Aylesbury, the masterplan of which UG6 have redesigned in order to create community-centred spaces, where the programme, position and design of the buildings gives the town a distinct sense of place. 6.4, 6.9, 6.18 Maria De Salvador, Y3 ‘Mass Timber High Rise’. This proposal explores the use of mass timber frame structures in high-rise residential towers, and the potential role of the column in this system as both a structural and a spatial device. The mass timber structural columns free up the internal walls to vary from storey to storey, forming a series of dynamic private and public spaces. The plan leaves room for potential change and unprogrammed activities to take place, anticipating but not prescribing its future uses. 6.5 William Zheng, Y3 ‘The Chill Garden’. This project addresses the complexities of societal stress, and the desire to be both part of and apart from, the group. The proposal is for a densely occupied residential block with a carefully curated gradient of space, which navigates from the public social to the private realm. The design was developed through the interrogation of viewpoints and the experiences of the viewer and the viewed. The enclosures and openings that define the spaces have been calibrated materially and formally to recognise inherent social choreographies and promote social ease. 6.6–6.7 Thomas Keeling, Y2 ‘Earthside Terrace’. In this project, conversations between residents over light, land and space are resolved in negotiation between the hills and the walls. The outcome is a 43% reduction in basic construction costs; and an affordable, tailored neighbourhood which is embossed into the hillside. Construction techniques are exposed and celebrated: encouraging inhabitants to repair, retrofit and expand their homes as their relationship with the typology develops. This proposal aims to impact beyond the single instance of this development, shaping attitudes towards construction and reimagining our historically imbalanced relationship with nature. 6.10–6.12 Evelyn Salt, Y3 ‘The Bathhouse’. This project addresses how spatial and material decisions can help create the conditions for intimacy in an increasingly isolated society, explored through a prototypical co-operative housing typology composed of a primary in-situ timber frame and prefabricated hempcrete infill cassettes. Inward-facing openings are privileged over outward-facing ones, with large pivoting windows creating moments of connection across a courtyard allowing for relationships to be established at a distance and 98
generating an experience of togetherness. The ground floor of the building provides flexible social, communal and commercial space. In this instance it is shown occupied by a bathhouse, the communal spaces of which provide moments of encounter and interaction, places where relationships are formed and that foster a sense of community. 6.13, 6.15 Sophia Brummendorf Malsch, Y2 ‘Redefining the Rural’ investigates how our relationship to landscape and agriculture can define what living rurally looks like. It is a response to the unavoidable tension between enforced control over landscape through traditional agricultural practices, at the expense of complex forest ecosystems. The project proposes a provocative strategy of densification of agriculture and housing as a way of liberating arable land for reforestation. The building is designed for reconfiguration as well as disassembly, using prefabricated components that sit within a larger timber frame, which allows residents to customise their living space to their current and future needs. 6.14 Sara Mahmud, Y2 ‘Revolutionising Post-Factory Culture’. In the context of a growing disconnect between the places where things are bought and the places where things are made, this project advocates the reintroduction of manufacturing spaces into residential neighbourhoods, where communities can better understand the impact of their choices on the environments in which they live. The proposal is a series of small-scale fabrication workshops which coexist with one- and two-bedroom flats, exploring the interconnection of domestic and productive space and the potential for shared spaces between these two programmes. 6.16 Bengisu Demir, Y3 ‘The Talking Laundrette’. This project investigates how natural materials and passive systems can help create low embodied energy solutions for everyday life. The proposal is a series of apartment blocks, joined together by a communal laundrette where the residential community can gather, interacting with one another in the processing of carrying out often unacknowledged domestic labour. In exploring the social and ecological potential of rethinking the way we wash and dry our clothes, the building addresses both the material and cultural shifts necessary in a low carbon future. 6.17 Latisha Chan, Y2 ‘Healthcare at Home’. This project explores the notion of care, and the extent to which a building’s material palette and programme can positively impact the lives of its inhabitants. The proposal is a sustainable housing model, which integrates a series of social spaces promoting both physical and mental wellbeing. Natural and low embodied carbon materials were carefully chosen for the structure and finishes, and a central hanging garden creates a microclimate of purified air. Prefabricated systems allow the building to be constructed quickly. The project envisions a future where housing developments across the country incorporate this new typology.