University of Bath Architecture Annual 2025 - Master of Architecture (RIBA Pt.2)
Bath Annual 2025
Department of Architecture & Civil Engineering
University of Bath
MArch Architecture
Masterplan Project
Sixth Year Individual Project
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Acknowledgements
Bath Annual 2025 team:
Alexander Whitwell
Karoline Woggon
Emma Pincha
Charles Ko
Sara Biscaya — Director of Studies, BSc Architecture
BSc & MArch students, for producing beautiful work
Typeset in Nimbus Sans and Nimbus Roman
4 East South, hosting first, third, and fourth year studios
Axonometric of 6 East, by Alison and Peter Smithson, home to second, fifth, and sixth year
Smithson, A. and Smithson, P., 2001. The charged void: architecture. New York ; Monacelli Press.
Fifth Year MArch ARCHITECTURE
Fifth Year
SAXONVALE REIMAGINED: A Community-Led Development of a Brownfield Site in the heart of Frome
For the main project this year the site is Saxonvale in Frome. A large brownfield site in the heart of the town that has lain derelict for some time and is about to be developed by a community led project. Each student was asked to choose a technology or craft for ‘making’ and develop a brief for their project around this. These included silk weaving, ironwork, brewery, ceramics, stone carving, perfumery, woodworking, stained glass, blacksmith, animation, printmaking and honey making (amongst others). In addition each tutor group was asked to develop medium rise housing typologies and masterplan these into the same site with a detailed public landscape for this quarter of the town.
The main aims of the studio have been to encourage each student to explore and develop their own design processes through a series of exercises, and to develop designs that address a range of scales from urban design and landscape to detail and material.
The students have undertaken:
• a ‘live’ threshold installation on campus, building a group design
• a manifesto on ‘beauty’ in image and text
• a group observing and recording exercise on a predetermined route across the city
• an individual response to place along that route in sketch, poetry and model
• an individual observing and recording exercise on site
• a group city morphology study for the adjacent city quarter
• a Rhino and Grasshopper parametric CAD modelling workshop
• a workshop on ‘asking, looking, playing and making’ as a way of developing ideas
• a typology development exercise called ‘muff on a huff puff’ shared with others in the year
• precedent studies of landscape, building, concrete, or timber
• a concrete detail with a fabric formwork workshop
• a timber detail with a timber strategies workshop
• a study of housing typologies and design of two or more new types
• a group urban landscape masterplan for the site
• a building environment workshop
• a series of book reports on current approaches to architecture.
Students have also been encouraged to design with models and to present their ideas through sketches or unfinished work. These combined have required the students to work very quickly and productively, to change gear from what some of them have been used to, to ‘jump in and splash around’ as Dennis Lasdun put it.
Toby Lewis, Fifth Year Studio Leader
Santushni Gunetilleke, Frome Stonemasonry Centre
John Li, Glassworks
Cameron Straughan, The Urban Apiary
Britney Tennant, Filigree & Deluge
Petra Oravecz, Frome Ceramics Collective
Masterplan Projects
MArch ARCHITECTURE
Almería, Spain — SEAWATER INNOVATION FOR — MOHALLA VAN page 210 Derry / Londonderry
— BAY OF RESILIENCE page 214 Le Havre
Madrid — BARRIERS TO BARRIOS page 218
Masterplan Project (Sixth Year)
REGENERATIVE CITIES
During the first part of the final year of the MArch course students carry out urban design projects in groups, based in a town or city of their choice. In 2024-25 the cities studied were Almeria, Bhopal, Derry/Londonderry, Gibraltar, Le Harve, Madrid and Sofia.
Groups spend the initial part of the year carting out analysis of their chosen town or city. Each group then develops their priorities and design principles for the project in the context of a specific locale within their study area, which they define. This locale is used as a vehicle to explore transformative urban design proposals. The group element concludes before Christmas with the presentation of their masterplan, based on the principles of regenerative urbanism. In
the last part of semester 1, students individually prepare a development brief for a site within their locale, with this forming the basis of the semester 2 studio project.
The second half of the year is spent entirely on each student’s individual design project, situated within the masterplan context. The projects provide the opportunity for every student to employ the full range of knowledge and expertise they have gained in the course of their architectural education.
Each student is encouraged to pursue their own agenda for the project and to use the opportunity it provides as a springboard in to their professional careers.
Professor Alexander Wright, Head of Architecture
FOR ARID CITIES page 208
Londonderry — DOIRE page 212
Gibraltar
Havre — THE MOUTH OF THE SEINE page 216
Sofia — CITY OF LAYERS page 220
Masterplan Overview
Almería, Spain
SEAWATER INNOVATION FOR ARID CITIES
Almería, ‘Europe’s Orchard’, is a unique city, characterised by it’s arid climate, limited water sources and rapid agricultural growth. Over the past 60 years, the region’s vast cover of greenhouses have supplied Europe 3.5 million tonnes of fruits and vegetables a year. However, this unsustainable farming has lead to a severe water scarcity crisis and numerous social challenges. This masterplan seeks to address the key issues of water scarcity, desertification, marginalised communities and urban sprawl in Almería by: rebalancing resources, reviving land, reconnecting
communities and renewing policies. Resources are rebalanced in the city using new saltwater technologies, utilising the sea for agriculture and releasing pressure on fresh water supplies. The dried River Andarax will be revived through productive halophyte planting, further utilising sea water, creating a new biodiverse environment. A new tram network will connect marginalised communities to the city, whilst policies focus on retrofiting delapidated housing, addressing urban sprawl and improving overall living conditions in the old town.
Niamh Gill-Ryan, Gabrielle Andalo, Ella Bowen, Julia Svendsen
Reconnect Renew
1:2000 Masterplan Model
TOP LEFT: Riverside Work-live Units
TOP RIGHT: Community Seawater Greenhouse
BOTTOM: Productive Landscape & Riverscape Walk
River-edge condition and schematic section of Seawater Greenhouses.
Evaporative Cooling
Oasis Effect
Halophyte Agriculture
Wetland Boardwalk
Bird- Watching Pavilions
Brine Store Fresh Water Reservoir
Riverside Walk
Seawater Panels
Condenser
Bhopal, India
MOHALLA VAN: Community Forest
By weaving together Bhopal’s rich social, ecological, and economic fabric, Mohalla Van envisions a resilient, regenerative, and inclusive future for its growing population. Through phased implementation, the project delivers future-proofed infrastructure whilst restoring ecological balance and cultural vibrancy. It integrates new homes for 40,000 people, essential amenities for 84,000 as well as 130,000m² of public green space, including revitalised rivers and tributaries as seasonal social hubs. A focus on upskilling and informal economies strengthens local livelihoods.
This proposal redefines urban planning through a new contextually appropriate design mode - domino urbanism - setting a benchmark for regenerative living in Northern India. It demonstrates how tactical, influential interventions, community collaboration, and alignment with national initiatives can drive regenerative development. As a replicable model for Bhopal and beyond, Mohalla Van offers a vision of urban change that reflects Indian aspirations, addresses the need for climate repair, and supports a harmonious coexistence of humans and more-than-humans alike.
The socio-economic node - a combined school and health centre for each five minute radius.
Urban vision - graphically inspired by the work of B.V. Doshi.
Joel Boyd, Siena Cornish, Jamie Ferguson, Ben Hanger, Beth Kippin, Marco Lin
origin native species
origin native species
opinion damagingly competitive size 10-27m h, 15m w
opinion damagingly competitive size 10-27m h, 15m w
origin exotic species
locale banks of Kaliyasot lake
locale banks of Kaliyasot lake alianthus alianthus
origin native species opinion sacred species symbol wealth, love, generosity distribution domesticated
origin native species opinion sacred species symbol wealth, love, generosity distribution domesticated cow cow
Nodal interventions - a kit of parts to catalyse uplift.
origin species bonsai size 12-18m 12-15m w
opinion bonsai cultivation size 12-18m h, 12-15m w
locale Bharat Bhavan,
locale Bharat Bhavan, Sanchi ombu
origin native, migrated region opinion species symbol strength, royalty, fearlessness distribution south of Kaliyasot
origin native, migrated to region opinion sacred species symbol strength, royalty, fearlessness distribution south of Kaliyasot
Excerpts from the inhabited continuum.
L-R: Kolar road, the tributary, Kaliyasot river.
Derry / Londonderry, Northern Ireland
DOIRE: A Connected Landscape
From the Old Irish word meaning oak grove, Doire, the etymology of “Derry” represents the lush oak forest that once covered the city. The proposal draws from this grove, using the oak ecosystem as a model for regeneration at the locale, city, and island scale to create a vibrant, connected, and sustainable place. From ecologically rich spines to neutral green nodes, the proposal reconnects Derry / Londonderry to its roots, creating spaces for people and nature to thrive together. Key city-scale threats have been mitigated through innovative approaches in water management, sustainable energy
distribution, transport, and the integration of diverse native ecological systems. The health and well-being of residents have been prioritised throughout by creating a pedestrian-friendly environment that puts people first. Foyle City Park sits at the centre of the proposal and aims to reconnect the divided city. The new ecologically entwined journey around the park blends the city’s regeneration with cultural celebration, moving beyond The Troubles. As the confluence of the spines, it forms a year-round backdrop to events and serves as a must-visit destination.
scale masterplan
Foyle City Park - the locale at the heart of the masterplan
Alice Kimpton, Amy Thompson, Caitlin Boeshart-Thomas, Caitlin Meier, Sophie Davies
TOP: The Peace Bridge intertwined with proposed floating reed beds BOTTOM: New ecological neutral node envisioned as biodiverse community space
New soft edge, an ecological marshland that integrates pedestrian trails
TOP: Soft and hard edges navigate diverse public realm conditions on each bank BOTTOM: The iconic views across the river towards the Cityside are synonymous with Derry / Londonderry is preserved and enhanced
Gibraltar, British Overseas Territories
BAY OF RESILIENCE
Located at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula, Gibraltar stands at a pivotal moment in its history. With sea levels projected to rise by 1.6 meters over the next century, the territory faces the looming possibility of becoming physically separated from Spain—effectively transforming into an island. This scenario presents both a challenge and an opportunity to rethink Gibraltar’s future resilience. Currently, Gibraltar grapples with a range of structural issues: an overreliance on Spain, an unsustainable economy, unreliable energy infrastructure, and the emergence of “ghost city” conditions
in underused urban areas. Recognizing these challenges, our vision seeks to reconnect Gibraltar not only with the Bay of Gibraltar but also with neighbouring Spanish cities—geographically, ecologically, and economically. Our strategy for a resilient and independent Gibraltar is built on five pillars: cultivating a green economy, designing inclusive public spaces, harnessing natural resources for renewable energy, rewilding diverse ecosystems from the Rock to the sea, and positioning Gibraltar as a global hub for research and innovation.
Rewilding the Edge: A Natural Connection Between Gibraltar and La Línea
Crystal Lee, Daphne Cheung, Han Kong, Jane Ng, Kelly Tai
Three Belts of Infrastructure: Harnessing Nature to Build Stronger Connections
Le
THE MOUTH OF THE SEINE: City of Reinvention
Le Havre is a city which faces challenges in its future due to the climate crisis and shifting social demographics. However, it is also a city of opportunities, with a rich cultural and industrial past that has shaped its development. It is a city that constantly reinvents itself, and now will have to reinvent itself once more to become resilient, connected and adaptable. To create a robust flood resilience strategy a combination of measures will be used. The most densely populated and historically significant areas of the city will be protected through an active bund edge. The southern area
of the city which we have identified as generally low quality warehouses and declining industry will be allowed to flood. The area will be naturalised into a biodiverse estuary landscape that reduces storm surge.
With this strategy some of Le Havre will be returned to the Seine. New edges of the city emerge primed for development and wonder. Le Havre remakes itself again.
Havre, France
Alice Davies, Octave François, Louis Marchini, Katy Sheridan, Georgia Tempest, Louis Wood
The challenges in Le Havre
TOP: North Edge masterplan proposal
BOTTOM: Basin Centre masterplan proposal
TOP: Improving canal connections in the Basin Centre MIDDLE: Aerial view of Basin Centre
TOP: A connected Seine BOTTOM: Arriving in Le Havre
Madrid
BARRIERS TO BARRIOS: Vision for a 2075 Madrid
Our strategy for a 2075 Madrid views the city as an organism, recognising its history of consumption, and future need to operate holistically to survive as a liveable city. The project, entitled Barriers to Barrios, envisions Madrid as a series of connected neighbourhood cells surrounded by plasma, realised as a cooling green network.
Our approach is captured in three documents including a detailed planning policy outlining our environmental and social and economic strategies. This includes an engagement strategy to develop
a response to each individual barrio neighbourhood to create a replicable city-wide solution.
This strategy is then explored in detail through two case studies: The communities of Entrevías and Vista Alegre. A data led urban surgery approach is proposed to strategically uplift each neighbourhood to be a self supporting 15 minute Barrio.
EXTREME HEAT UNCONTROLLED GROWTH EROSIVE BARRIERS
GREEN DENSIFICATION AND COMMUNITY CULTURE AND CONNECTIVITY
Conceptual Aproach
Pedestrianised Green Arteries
Thomas Harvey, Jeff Lam, Joyce Lam, Elizabeth Rand, Ria Wee
COOLING
URBAN SURGERY
CITY WIDE STRATEGY
SOFIA 2080
CITY OF LAYERS
CITY OF HERITAGE
CITY OF CONNECTIONS
Sofia, Bulgaria
CITY OF LAYERS
The rapid expansion of Sofia, marked by its complex historical transitions and post-communist transformations, has led to significant modern challenges. Problems such as widespread neglect of the existing building stock, environmental degradation, and an overreliance on car-dominated infrastructure have created obstacles for its citizens and strained the city’s potential. This proposal seeks to address these challenges by harnessing Sofia’s rich cultural heritage and leveraging its strategic position in the Balkans. These elements are integrated into various adaptive kits of parts
designed to retrofit and reinforce civic and traffic infrastructures, adaptable at the city scale to address different conditions.
Through strategies aimed at preserving its architectural legacy, improving urban mobility, and restoring connections with natural assets like Mount Vitosha, this framework aspires to revitalise Sofia. In doing so, it seeks to position the city as a modern and sustainable European capital, capable of meeting the needs of its diverse and dynamic population.
Posters of the proposed Sofia Masterplan’s vision
Da Ruey Ong, Fany Kotzeva, Imogen Radestock, Ma Sai Lam, Ruby Ngan Yuet Yee
TRANQUIL. LINK. VIBRANT.
TOP LEFT: Improved public transport map of Sofia, 2035
TOP RIGHT: Proposed green densification and urban densification zones, 2080
BOTTOM: Posters showing key development outcomes
Urban toolkit to be applied on a city level
LEFT: Proposed building retrofit style
RIGHT: Proposed newbuild typology
Sixth Year Individual Projects
MArch ARCHITECTURE
Tutor
The Masters of Architecture, this arduous title, is hard earned and rightly so. In that, it tempers resilience in students and in ideas. This year, Ben, Caitlin, Elizabeth, Eric, Imogen, Owen, Ruby and Stathis earned that title with projects that challenged and expanded their thinking, their capabilities and their understanding. They contributed to Ideas of Architecture. Their projects revealed something undiscovered of the long-established or sought something new.
This is why tutoring Sixth Year is a great privilege. My thanks to my students. Congratulations to them and to all of Sixth Year on graduating as Masters of Architecture.
ALAN KEANE
THE MAACH PROJECT: Theatre’s Public Path
Maach theatre, a vibrant folk tradition, embodies India’s deep history of cultural storytelling. As Bhopal urbanizes and informal theatre faces barriers, the Maach Project aims to revitalize platforms for inclusive theatrical expression and their associated allegories of ecological care, in a strategy to drive societal change through cultural entrepreneurship. The project’s central aim is to provide a platform for Maach performance and theatre education and form a base for its wider city operations. An orchestrated procession is crafted to guide visitors on an
experiential journey towards a lakefront. Interspersed are intimate moments of pause, offered through varied pockets of residual space, inviting courtyards, and shaded verandahs, offering a rich and complex sequence of space which accommodates Indian informal theatre practices.
A route of moments that frames landmarks and local narratives is created, unveiling a path of scenographic gestures which foster informal theatre and storytelling.
email: hello@benhanger.com social: benhanger.com
Ben Hanger
TOP: Aerial axonometric of scheme BOTTOM: Sketch render of the arrival experience
Axonometric of workshop space
Processional theatre within the building’s residual spaces
TOP: Section through building’s well BOTTOM: Rendered section
Render of well
Render of library
Render of waterfront
BREAKING THE SILENCE: A Music Venue for Derry / Londonderry
In a city carrying the weight of its painful and recent history, this project reclaims the Ebrington Barracks, once a symbol of control, as a site of rebellion inspired by the history of punk music as a unifying force during the Troubles. The scheme inserts and pierces the walls, framing a direct view of the Guildhall across the River Foyle, which divides the city. The sound of rebellion during the Troubles—the rattling of dustbin lids, where trash itself became an instrument of defiance—has been reinterpreted as adjustable acoustic reflectors. The project reclaims the detritus of the city through a material bank, where
trash is reconfigured as a powerful instrument of rebellion.
Asking ‘what in nature rebels?’, the image of weeds breaking through cracks informs a three-part proposal: taking root, growing on and taking over. This manifests in a vertical music tower for education, rehearsal and recording; a scaffold-like bar and informal venue climbing the barrack walls; and the adaptable main venue, constructed from salvaged materials like sheet piles, embracing the River Foyle as a living backdrop and challenging the static, inward-facing nature of traditional music spaces.
Caitlin Meier
Rising through the site, projecting a line toward a more hopeful, united future.
The scheme inserts and pierces the barrack walls both physically and symbolically to frame a direct view towards the Guildhall
Entrance bridges off the new ‘forest square’
TOP: A new axis connects Guildhall and Ebrington tower across the divide BOTTOM: The image of weeds breaking through cracks informs a three-part proposal
TOP
Inhabiting and activating the former barrack walls
BOTTOM LEFT: The scaffold-like bar and informal venue climbing the barrack walls
BOTTOM RIGHT: Spatial / auditory connection to courtyard below
TOP LEFT: ‘Rigging the walls’ - an informal music / bar
RIGHT:
A scaffold structure which transitions between bar space and performance space in the walls
The river becomes a backdrop to performance
Scaffold
CHILDREN OF THE FOREST: A Forest School in Kraków
The immediate need for school expansion in Kraków due to Ukrainian refugees presents an opportunity to innovate. The project reimagines the rigid education system, re-centering childhood learning around imagination and creativity through folklore and tales.
Inspired by the fable of Hansel & Gretel, this project proposes a forest primary school that places nature and wonder at the heart of its educational approach. Recognizing children as capable, motivated learners who thrive with agency, the school draws a powerful parallel between the learning journey and Hansel & Gretel’s venture into the forest. The forest, like life’s
challenges, becomes a catalyst for personal growth. By embracing perceived chaos and actively seeking growth, students, like Hansel and Gretel, emerge stronger and more independent.
Beyond education, the school aims to transform the neglected forest area into actively used, productive, and biodiverse landscapes, with students as key participants. This hands-on learning fosters a profound connection with nature, reconnects students to the forest origins of Kraków’s culture, and cultivates courage and self-reliance, empowering them to move beyond overprotection.
Eric Chan
Aeiral view of the forest
Entering the forest
Hansel & Gretel as design driver
Ground floor plan
Gathering Hall and Storytelling centre detailed section
Views of the amphitheatre, classroom and the Gathering Hall
Imogen Radestock VODATHEUM: A Sancturary of Water, for Sofia
This project envisions a civic complex in Sofia that unites water treatment, education, and public ritual through bold and expressive architecture. Situated on a river site, it comprises three core elements: a water treatment plant, a centre for water innovation, and a thermal bath house. The treatment facility cleans river water through a combination of natural and chemical processes, made visible to the public through transparent infrastructure and integrated observation routes. It transforms a typically hidden system into a civic learning experience. The education centre, constructed
email: imogenradestock01@gmail.com
from fine Sofia limestone, houses galleries, labs, offices, and a café. It acts as a cultural and scientific hub, promoting dialogue around water, climate, and urban futures. The thermal bath house is monumental and introspective: carved from heavy stone into vaulted, domed interiors. It invites visitors to engage with water in a slow, reflective way. Together, the three buildings form a new kind of public infrastructurefunctional yet symbolic, monumental yet accessible - where water is not only treated, but understood, experienced, and revered.
social: https://imogenradestock.myportfolio.com/
TOP: Perspective collage looking across the reservoir towards the lido.
BOTTOM: Section through Bath House and Education Hub
Model photo showing water treatment plant
Worms Eye structural view of Baths
TOP: Front street (south) elevation
RIGHT: Detail Section through Bath Entrance
LEFT: Model photo looking across sedemetation tanks towards baths
BOTTOM: Landscaping and experience section
THE LUNGS OF SOFIA: National Medical Centre of Pulmonology
Sofia, Bulgaria’s capital, faces a significant air pollution crisis that reflects a nationwide issue. While the Sofia Masterplan addresses city-scale social causes, this project aims to target healthcare system flaws. The programme of the project is built around 3 core elements to craft a cleaner Sofia:
[ 1 ] MEND – Deliver pulmonary treatment spaces to address the lack of specialist treatment.
[ 2 ] MEASURE – Integrate air quality monitoring and research facilities to inform policymaking.
email: owenmasailam@gmail.com
[ 3 ] MENTOR – Offer medical education spaces to revitalise the declining healthcare workforce.
The proposal challenges the typical sterile clinical environment, aspiring to curate a calming experience at every step of the healing journey. Courtyards and terraces that terminate on different levels are inserted into the building, forming a sequence of oases that traverse thresholds. This is further reinforced with the atria between these courtyards, bringing nature into both vertical and horizontal circulation.
TOP: The proposal nestled in the lush cityscape
LEFT: The main entrance invites visitors with a double-height exhibition foyer
RIGHT: Tiers of courtyards as seen from the park entrance
Owen Ma Sai Lam
Greenery is intertwined into every step of the healing journey
TOP: Nature traverses thresholds to connect internal and external space BOTTOM: Terraces and courtyards create a sequence of oases
Biophilic facade that supports the local flora and fauna Facade shading modules foster a dialogue with light and shadow
Sofia, capital of Bulgaria, is foreseeing a waste crisis where landfills will reach max. capacity in three years at the current rate of household waste produced. Glass is a material that is bulky and hazardous in landfills but holds much potential when recycled. One major issue, derelict buildings make up 1/3 of properties in the city, including the 120-year-old Sugar Factory left ruined on the site of this project.
The design entails for a new Recycling Centre that holds the Glass Recycling Processes and a Research Department at the top floor, with the historic Sugar Factory
conserved and repurposed into Glass Blowing Workshops and an Art Gallery for local artists and visitors. A crystalline massing adorns the solid brickwork, diamond-like glass panels announce the functions of the building. The new brickwork references the local context in material and the traditional Balkan patterns in design. The Sugar Factory keeps the existing facades in their ruined state, adding new structure behind the layers, so that the new does not overpower the old.
Glass Recycling • Research & Craft • Heritage Conservation
Ruby Ngan
GLASS HOUSE OF SOFIA: Reclaimed Space
Sketch Of Sugar Factory
Sugar Factory In The Evening Sun
TOP RIGHT: Approaching The Site From East
TOP LEFT: Aerial Model Photo From Southeast
BOTTOM RIGHT: Massing Concept Model
BOTTOM LEFT: Approaching From The North Road
Approaching From West Park
Glass Facade Panel Unit
Sugar Factory Structural Axo
Recycling Centre Structural Axo North and South elevations
SAMA-SAMA SPORTS PLAZA: ‘A breathing space for kids’
At the heart of this sports plaza lies a bold, community-driven vision: to create a layered, open landscape where a network of basketball courts becomes both the spatial and social backbone of the project. This network threads across varying levels, starting with playful courts for children at street level and rising through more urban, semi-professional courts, culminating in a landmark arena that crowns the site, a beacon of aspiration and achievement visible across the barangay. The architectural massing is divided into three distinct volumes: a commercial block engaging the street, a social and wellness hub
housing shared amenities like showers and changing rooms, and a training and performance zone containing the courts, gym, and arena. These volumes are strategically positioned to respond to the site’s natural contours and solar orientation, while bridges and open pathways connect them to preserve flow and openness. Landscape integration is central, with native trees that create breathable public space. Together, these strategies weave sport, wellness, and daily life into a unified, inclusive public realm, one that transforms the basketball courts from a solitary element into a vibrant and connective.
Stathis Laouris
Surrounded by the forest
A launching ground for young talents
Courtside and community pause
Resonating with the shared dreams of the barangay
Gabrielle Andalo — LA ROTONDA page 242
OF MARITIME TRADES page 244 Jamie Ferguson
Sheridan — THE LIVING CITY MUSEUM page 248
MARINE RESEARCH INSTITUTE page 250 Octave
LA RIVE page 252
Thomas Joy — LITERARY
ANNE CLAXTON
Tutor
Creative, hardworking, engaged and engaging - my sixth year group has been a pleasure to teach. You are also incredibly supportive of each other and keep the studio spirit alive and kicking. Thank you all, we have learnt much together over these last few months!
Georgia Tempest — A GUILD
Ferguson — KAHANI page 246 Katy
248 Louis Marchini — CSLN
Octave François — TÉLÉCABINE DE
EXCHANGE page 254
LA ROTONDA : A Community Green Hub
La Rotonda is a waste-reclamation and community centre for El Puche, a marginalised neighbourhood in Almería. The project supports the area’s strong culture of self-reliance, where residents often build and repair their own homes and furniture using found objects and discarded materials. This ingenuity is most visible in the weekly “waste souk,” an informal market where secondhand goods are traded, repurposed, and given new life. In a time of climate crisis and excessive consumption, this practice of reclaiming the discarded carries real social and ecological value.
La Rotonda builds on this culture by creating a community-oriented space where household waste, from plastics
and textiles to organic matter, can be transformed into useful products. Public spaces such as the market-park; a shaded street, lined with independent shops; and a community restaurant invite neighbouring residents to witness and engage with the processes of making and mending. A new community centre, organised around a food garden and the round hall, supports social connection and cohesion.
Occupying an underused roundabout, the project transforms a physical barrier into a welcoming and productive threshold that redefines El Puche’s relationship with the city.
Gabrielle Andalo
Schematic diagrams of key design moves.
INVITATIONS TO GATHER
PUNCTURING THE BARRIER
CONNECTING STREET COMMUNITY CLOISTER
Aerial view of La Rotonda
Site section through ‘Green Street’
TOP LEFT: Community Garden & Hall
TOP RIGHT: Exhibition Day in the Community Hall
BOTTOM LEFT: Street Pavilion & Community Restaurant
BOTTOM RIGHT: Workshop Machinery Hall
TOP: The shop-lined ‘Green Street’ BOTTOM: Covered Market Park
Georgia Tempest A GUILD OF MARITIME TRADES: A Civic Beacon
This project proposes a Maritime Guild as a civic centre that addresses Le Havre’s social and environmental challenges while reconnecting the city with its maritime heritage. By drawing from precedent studies, it envisions a collaborative space for innovation, skill-sharing, and cultural preservation. Reinterpreting the historic guild model, the project moves beyond exclusivity to create a welcoming hub where all generations and backgrounds can contribute to sustainability and craftsmanship. Through education, networking, and shared expertise, the guild aims to strengthen Le Havre’s social fabric
and ensure its maritime legacy remains central to its future.
At the heart of the Maritime Guild is a new maritime museum, envisioned as the heart of the new civic destination within Le Havre. The form of the building is directly inspired by its prominent location at the corner of the newly remediated landscape and by the beacons of Le Havre, such as the Dockers’ Tower. This influence is most clearly expressed in the glowing light box that sit on top of the dense seastone base. By night, the illuminated volume becomes a visible marker across the landscape.
TOP: Facade study model BOTTOM: Site ground floor plan
Maritime Hub Site Axo
Visitor Experience Renders
As well as living, Kahani is envisioned as a sequence of spaces of: discovery, dialogue, engagement and growth.
Jamie Ferguson
KAHANI: A pattern book and demonstrative project for a regenerative Bhopal
Bhopal [MP, India] is predicted to double in population by 2060, adding over three million residents. The current default is concrete and brick construction; unless something changes, the carbon cost of this growth will be immense. This project has two parts: a construction pattern book proposing a regenerative pathway for Northern India, and a demonstrative project, Kahani (meaning “dialogue”), which reimagines the resident-designer relationship and champions the notion of ‘home-grown’ architecture, evoking the traditional tool-house. The pattern book, designed for agile
email: ijferguson.arch@gmail.com
linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/jamie-i-ferguson
development, subverts Bhopal’s prevailing housing typology, challenging the construction status quo. Low-cost, low-carbon, circular, and fire-rated pre-fab bamboo frames slot between socioecological crafted stone cores.
Meanwhile, the incrementally evolving Kahani provides spaces for designers to grow within the local community, whilst showcasing the new construction system. The aim is to engender cross-demographic community authorship and cultivate climate-literate local enablers.
Kahani - created through model-making as participation.
Extracts from: Pattern Book for a Regenerative Tool-House.
Stone and bamboo design for mixed use development in Bhopal.
The pattern book as replicable model.
Sheridan THE LIVING CITY MUSEUM: A Placemaking Centre for Le Havre
The Living City Museum will act as an anchor throughout Le Havre’s Masterplan development, allowing citizens to be centred in the city’s evolving narrative. The new museum will be placed in a section of historic city, which is currently undergoing the process of gentrification. It will be important to retain a sense of place identity for the community, whilst celebrating the exciting potential of the masterplan. Therefore there is a desire for the building to both fit in and stand out. Speak to Le Havre’s past, industrial present and innovative green future. Connect with an existing community and invite
email: katysheridan2001@gmail.com
a new one to integrate. Embody the ‘living’ urban fabric of Le
To work within the layers of city the museum has been designed with 3 visual languages: brick base, metal facade, green shell. An existing school building on site is retained and incorporated into the design. Recycled brick wraps across a civic square. Metal forms emerge from the brick base. These are broken down into ‘houses’ to appeal to a childlike curiosity, and emulate the repetitive forms of industrial silos, referencing Le Havre’s maritime history.
Katy
Havre.
Community Building Section
TOP: Entrance to civic square BOTTOM: Long Section
‘Creative Corridor’ Exhibition Route Roof Plan
Think Tank - infill into existing school building
TOP: Long Section BOTTOM: North Elevation
CSLN MARINE RESEARCH INSTITUTE: Le Havre’s Marine Hub
CSLN is an existing marine research and conservation organisation based in Le Havre. The new research institute will significantly upgrade its current facilities and bring its operations, based in the Seine Estuary and beyond, to the forefront of marine science. By strengthening existing links with Le Havre University, CSLN’s research hub delivers on its mission to promote ocean literacy and innovative research, with an education building which offers a variety of teaching spaces for the university to use. This combined with facilities open to the public, such as an exhibition and rooftop café space, aligns with CSLN’s manifesto to bridge the
gap between academia and applied technology for a sustainable future. On a poorly utilised prominent stretch of waterfront, the new CSLN building dominates a previously barren site and, combined with the new parkland, offers protection from the exposed elements. Connected to the park, is a generous roofscape with elevated views across the port. An external screen, clad in repurposed marine timber, wraps around the building, acting as an exoskeleton offering further protection from the weather. Openable panels create different environmental conditions for the spaces behind.
MIDDLE: Courtyard from walkway BOTTOM: Viewing deck
Education building section
TOP: Event space under auditorium MIDDLE: Rooftop garden BOTTOM: Waterfront view
Octave François TÉLÉCABINE DE LA RIVE: Transportation Hub for Le Havre
This new multimodal station brings together the city’s two main transit lines: the cable car running north–south and the new tram line running east–west. But it’s more than just a place to change from one mode of transport to another. It aims to be a welcoming, vibrant destination with the necessary apparatus to make it an enjoyable place to stay and visit.
At its heart is a market space that reflects the richness of the region bringing together food and goods from the forest, countryside, and coast. It’s a place of exchange, shaped by seasonality and local culture. Complementing the market,
an iconic restaurant sources directly from its vendors, transforming fresh, local ingredients into memorable dining experiences.
The hub is built around sustainable movement, with integrated cycling paths, carpool services, and efficient transfers between tram and cable car. It simplifies travel while encouraging low-impact choices. By blending transit, culture, and commerce, the station serves as an attractive draw and place of establishment for people and businesses, as a catalyst for urbanisation.
Western Façade of the cable car station
Site skethc with the tram and cable car lines
TOP: Perspective of the pedestrian bridge BOTTOM: Aerial view of the site & Perspective from the cable car gondolas
TOP: Perspective from the cable car platforms BOTTOM: Perspective of the from the restaurant
Thomas Joy LITERARY EXCHANGE: A New Library for Tirana
The Literary Exchange aims to explore the concept of the library as a fundamentally social experience. A place that is accessible to all, bringing together groups and programmes that are typically isolated. The programme is experienced in 3 primary departments:
1. Learn - The Children’s Library
2. Connect - The Community Library
3. Advance - The University/ Research Library
These 3 departments will revolve around and be connected by the programmes core function:
email: tom-h-joy@hotmail.com linkedin: @Tom Joy
4. Exchange - The Hub & Circulation The site is located on the former Laprakë Airfield whilst the proposal re-purposes 3 existing former aircraft hangars - working with the existing structure to form new spaces. The scheme intends to build on the Tirana Masterplan proposals and address the issues facing the population of Tirana. The overarching aim for the project is to create a space that is of its place and for its community.
Parti Diagram - ‘The Bookends’
Connecting to the Park - (The Community Library)
BOTTOM RIGHT: EXCHANGE - The Social Hub
BOTTOM LEFT: ADVANCE - The University/Research Library
LEFT: Connecting to the Neighbourhood - (The Children’s Library)
RIGHT: Connecting to the City - (The University/Research Library)
TOP RIGHT: CONNECT - The Community Library
TOP LEFT: LEARN - The Children’s Library
page OLIVETUM page 266
Niamh Gill-Ryan —
SALA UBRANO page 262 Jeff Ting page 264 Ria Jasmine Wee —
NG BUHAY page 268 Marco Lin —
Lee — ODISEA page 272
Amy Thompson
CO-EVOLUTION: The River Foyle Bioremediation Centre
Once a site of ecological harmony between land and water, the River Foyle stands polluted and segregated from the land.
The proposal re-establishes the once symbiotic river edge as a living interface between land and water; architecture and ecology. Acting as an epicentre for active bioremediation throughout the bioregion, the centre restores natural processes and encourages stewardship through research, education and immersive design; inviting communities to engage with, learn from and
email: amy.tho@outlook.com
social: linkedin.com/in/amy-tho
care for the river’s future. Rooted in the context, the building straddles a conceptual ‘water line’ datum. Above, it rises from the land to draw visitors towards seaweed bioplastic clad buildings in the landscape. Below, a seaweed clad band wraps around purifying wetland pockets to hold the landscape and create a constant connection with active bioremediation. A reclaimed brick staircase and exhibition extrudes from the meeting of these ecologies, bridging the tectonics and guiding visitors through a layered exhibition from land to water.
Three Tectonics. Seaweed Bioplastic, Reclaimed Brick, Seaweed Band.
The Pools at La Hoya present a formulation of a past environment to provide experiences from a perspective of the present. Carved into the Sierra de Gádor, this project presents a patient negotiation with the land, a site-sensitive gesture born of stone, water and sunlight. Here, water is a sacred thread, drawn from an innovative hydraulic channel re-established through Almería’s masterplan proposal and gently revealed within the carved contours of the historic site terrain. The scheme thus reflects upon the intrinsic value of water within the strikingly water-challenged desert
landscape of Almería. Through a linear pattern language, the scheme hopes to connect visitors with the innate qualities of water, homogenising both agricultural landscape and architecture.
The resulting design engages with a site-specific program integrating place-making productivity into the landscape. Captured in an almond grove and mindful sequence of pools. The design weaves together the principles of sustainable water use with moments of joyful engagement with this vital element.
Above: Exploaded axonometric of the scheme’s water sequences
Above: The Lido embedded into the upper Sierra de Gádor landscape
Bottom left: Shower carved into the hillside
Below: A linear bathig space overlooking La Hoya Park
Joyce, Hoi Yan Lam SALA URBANO
Once a forgotten fragment of Madrid’s urban fabric, “Sala Urbano” is reimagined as a “ORIGAMI”— a continuous folding space where art and politics collide to encourage freedom of expression. The building located a inclined triangular intersection. Aligned with Madrid’s vision for Vista Alegre as a vibrant art & cultural district, the project transforms neglected boundaries into active Nucleus of the barrio. The folded geometry dissolves rigid boundaries, transforming the surrounding residential’s blank walls into a continuous social canvas. Each strategic fold
defines an entrance—a transition point connecting art, politics, and community zones—while responding to the topography. This embodies both transformation and new possibilities. Here, art serves as principal language of silent expression, and asserting a physical and symbolic connection to Madrid’s urban development. While Its folded form invites exploration inward— toward layered spaces of protest, creation, and dialogue. Where folds become thresholds, walls become voices, and architecture itself becomes an act of civic resistance.
TOP RIGHT: The Continous Route Though Folded Staircase
TOP LEFT: Main Gallery Entrance – A Folded Welcome
BOTTOM RIGHT: The Art Installatioin Plaza
BOTTOM LEFT: The Exchange Multi-purpose Hall (Politic)
TOP: Turbine Hall & Scuplture Hall
BOTTOM: Small Piece Exhibition Zone
PERDIDO Y ENCONTRADO: Lost and Found
’Lost’ directly references the project’s focus on remembring the fogotten dark history of Spainish dictatorship and experiences of the Carabanchel prison site, while ‘found’ signifies the empowerment of those who were once ‘lost’ to reclaim their rightful place in the collective memory. It also implies a journey of reconciling the past with the present, of finding meaning and healing in the reclamation of what was once lost.
It resonates with the fundamental human condition we all experience. We each carry our own histories, our triumphs and tragedies, our
times of being “lost” and our journeys towards being “found.”
The “Lost and Found” project is then an invitation to embark on a profound personal and collective transformation. It challenges us to confront our own shadows, to embrace our vulnerabilities, and to find the courage to step into the light. In doing so, it holds the promise of healing, of reconciliation, and of a more expansive and enlightened future.
Jeff Ting Cheung Lam
Isometric View
TOP RIGHT: Persecution Tower
TOP LEFT: Long Sunken Passage
BOTTOM RIGHT: Transition Zone
BOTTOM LEFT: Exhibition Hall
TOP: Prison Recreation
BOTTOM: Forest of People
G/F Plan
and eating.
This project addresses the pressures of mass tourism by reimagining the Camino de Madrid as a site for slower, more reciprocal forms of travel. Inspired by the Camino de Santiago, where movement is grounded in care and hospitalit, the proposal introduces a civic building that supports shared, everyday practices of growing, making, and eating.
The programme includes an olive grove and oil workshop, a pilgrim albergue, and a communal kitchen. Pilgrims enter through a spiralling timber cloister that wraps a central courtyard, offering views into herb
drying racks, rooftop gardens, and production spaces. This journey encourages participation in the building’s seasonal life. Sleeping arrangements are designed with a clear hierarchy to meet different privacy needs, while the kitchen fosters connection through public cooking and communal meals.
The architecture is materially grounded in place: rammed earth walls made from Madrid soil, local stone foundations, and prefabricated timber brought in from the city’s edge, mirroring the journey of the pilgrim to support the community.
The ground floor opens out to the landscape, with the communal kitchen at its heart, bringing pilgrims and locals together through the shared act of cooking
TOP: Plan
BOTTOM: Section through building, showing the olive production spaces, cloister and albergue.
Axonometric of the cloister structure
TOP: View from first floor over dining room into cloister BOTTOM: Outdoor spaces within the cloister
Birds eye view of the cloister
Greenery at the centre of the scheme
PUNO NG BUHAY: Reforestation Centre of Mariveles, Philippines
The Reforestation Centre of Mariveles is the cornerstone of Bataan’s broader provincial regeneration strategy, serving as a national precedent for ecological restoration and community-driven knowledge exchange. Marked by three phases- Recovery, Connection, and Balance- the scheme evolves in its landscape and building interventions through space and time. Beginning with Recovery in 2025, the analysis of topography and watershed networks creates an intuitive framework for land regeneration strategies. By 2050, the Connection phase uses temporal stilt buildings to support the cyclical nature of harvest seasons
email: muir.faith@gmail.com instagram: @faith_mrr
through a seed bank, water tower, and celebratory harvest ritual hall. All structures are formed by materials grown on site, and modular elements are constructed by the community under the sheltered microclimate of the stilts or in the conditioned workshops above. Accepting the degradation of natural structural materials reflects a deeper philosophy: that the transfer of building knowledge across generations holds greater value than the permanence of any single structure. Finally, Balance is reached by 2150, as established environmental resilience allows the forest and the community to adapt through the contexts of climate change.
Faith Muir
Bottom to top: Recovery, Connection, and Balance
Clockwise from top left: Water Tower, Celebration Hall, Construction Hub, and Forest Bank
Overview of stilt building intervention during Connection phase
Sketch
Progression from being rooted in the ground, elevated on the stilts, and emerging above the canopy.
Natural material palette sourced from site includes coconut coir, bamboo, rattan, and abaca.
Beyond the Boundary is a piece of urban furniture woven into the very fabric of the city.
The stadium becomes part of the city’s streetscape.
Marco Lin
BEYOND THE BOUNDARY: Taking cricket from streets to stadium
Stadia are where modern society coalesces, the descendants of amphitheatres, temples, cathedrals, and music halls. Despite this, there currently exists a pejorative connotation associated with sports architecture. Weaponised sports washing and thoughtless projects fuelled by vain political leaders inflict lasting damage on local communities and wildlife.
Instead, Beyond the Boundary seeks to challenge the dogma surrounding the existing typology of stadia, concerning its problematic impact on socioeconomical and ecological
email: marcolinkalok@yahoo.co.uk
linkedin: linkedin.com/in/marcolinkalok
sustainability by presenting an alternative, gradual roadmap towards a regenerative and interdependent scheme. Through gully cricket, the proposal provides a platform for aspiring young cricketers to become professional sportspeople, democratising the sport by taking them from the streets to the stadium.
Ultimately, Beyond the Boundary reimagines what a stadium is in an Indian context: a piece of urban furniture woven into the very fabric of the city that celebrates everything cricket, from the sport itself to the tea breaks.
TOP RIGHT: The stadium during a Coldplay concert at night.
TOP LEFT: Howzat! The stadium during a cricket match.
BOTTOM RIGHT: Workshops facilitates every facet of cricket.
BOTTOM LEFT: Civic spaces supports local communities.
The threshold of the workshops facilitates different activities supporting the stadium.
Beyond the Boundary proposes an alternative roadmap to a gradual development that embeds itself into the urban fabric.
The stadium interfaces with the city at different strata.
Gallery Hall –
Framing tank rooms and sea views behind gabion walls.
BOTTOM: Auditorium –
Framing views of rising seas, wetlands, and distant horizons
Odisea is a regenerative oyster research center in Rosia Bay, Gibraltar, where architecture, ecology, and heritage converge. More than a production facility, it serves as a public interface for marine restoration, education, and cultural reconnection. Anchored to an existing concrete plinth and framed by historic fortifications, its layered landscape adapts to rising sea levels while reinforcing Gibraltar’s coastal identity. At its core, Odisea is both beacon and catalyst. A microalgae-panel façade (harvested onsite) transforms the structure into a “green lighthouse,” glowing softly by night
and shimmering in daylight. The architecture blends a resilient steel frame with marine-grade timber and shell-based cladding, ensuring longevity and ecological innovation. Internally, it houses laboratories, hatchery systems, an auditorium, and FLUPSY platforms, alongside civic spaces for oyster tastings, tours, and community-led learning.
Reimagining the oyster not just as a delicacy but as a beacon of resilience and renewal, Odisea revives biodiversity and anchors Gibraltarian identity in maritime heritagecreating a living threshold between land and sea.
Schemetic digram showing the relationship of private and public building
Tank Room Reveal –Fiberglass tanks glimpsed through a fortification arch.
TOP:
Exterior Backdrop –The building with Gibraltar’s iconic Rock.
Public Building Addition –View across tidal pool toward the ‘Rock’ of Gibraltar.
TOP: Facade Transition – Blending the old and new BOTTOM: Final Model Assembly – Crafting arches behind wall
Alice Davies — ECOLOGIES OF STEWARDSHIP
SANCTUARY page 282
Joel Boyd — A HOLISTIC Julia Svendson — RYTHYMS OF THE SOUTH GREEN FOOD LAB page 288 Siena Cornish
MATTHEW HARRISON
I have thoroughly enjoyed getting to know the group of eight students I’ve had the pleasure of working with over the past semester. Their care, sensitivity, and passion for contributing to the creation of a regenerative built environment for a better future are evident both in their design projects and through their personalities. Their individual design briefs addressed global issues, including inclusivity across generations to combat social isolation, the celebration of women through dance (specifically Flamenco), food insecurity and localized food production, plastic pollution and remediation through mycelium, waste and knowledge upcycling and
exchange, phytoremediation and a managed retreat from flooding, human-nature ecosystem symbiosis focused on the little swift, and a centre for testing and evolving drought-resistant plant species. There have been many smiles and some tears this year. Each project has meant a lot to the students, and the pressure they place on themselves is great. I once heard an analogy about tutoring in the final year that likened the tutor to a rally driving co-pilot: preparing the driver for the road ahead or helping them slow down when they’re driving too fast! It’s been great to see the students with their hands firmly on the wheel.
—
Tutor
MORPHOSIS page 280
HOLISTIC SOCIAL ENTERPRISE page 284
page
This project addresses the urgent need for new models of stewardship, to support the longterm regeneration of post-industrial land. Located on the periphery of a proposed National Park in Le Havre - an industrial flood zone undergoing phytoremediation - the building supports the park’s regeneration without occupying or exploiting its land, and instead utilises a nearby urban infill plot. Architecture becomes an active framework for interdisciplinary practice, long-term environmental thinking, and civic engagement. Rejecting siloed working prevalent in public practice, the building fosters knowledge
exchange through interactive mezzanines, shared spaces, and public visibility to optimise stewardship of the land. Landscape is conceived as adaptive, perpetual systems rather than fixed compositions. A hybrid botanical-research garden integrates public engagement with scientific investigation, while a phased fluvial garden evolves incrementally, encouraging community participation and environmental literacy. Constructed from reclaimed steel and brick, the building embeds the origins of the national park into the fabric of the building itself, serving as a physical archive of transition and continuity.
Alice Davies ECOLOGIES OF STEWARDSHIP: The Le Havre National Park Stewardship Foundation
Isolation to collaboration: rejecting silo working
A catalyst for stewardship: weaving the landscape into the urban fabric
Inside the east bridge
Reinstating the elevation
50+ years of maturity without
10-20 years of growing
TOP: A hybrid garden
BOTTOM: An evolving civic landscape curated through stewardship, dialogue and time
Wildflower base
finality
TOP: Approaching through landscape BOTTOM: Fostering interactions for knowledge exchange
RECIPROCITY:
There was a line from Lawrence of Arabia (1962) that lingered in my mind during this project: “The virtues of war are the virtues of young men: courage and hope for the future… The vices of peace are the vices of old men: mistrust and caution. “
While I do share the sense of generational tension, I do not however take either to be virtue or vice. Youth, driven by curiosity and ambition, tests limits without fear of consequence. Yet age, shaped by experience and prudence, may withdraw too far – mistaking caution for safety, and isolation for autonomy. This project explores the space
between – where intergenerational connection is framed by shared ‘meaning-making’. Here, the building becomes a medium through which dignity, personal rhythms and presence can be safely negotiated and quietly celebrated across the ages. Yet, it is also a quiet resistance against cultural oppression – Ottoman, Soviet, and beyond. assuming the form of a historic native community typology, the Chitalishte, not as mimicry but to embody the sort of silent protest through preservation of culture and tradition which has sustained their communities through trying periods.
TOP: Community Gallery Perspective BOTTOM: Connector Block Perspective Section
A Responsive Home
Community Involvement
Generational Conection
Permeable Boundaries
Adaptability
Connection Through Familiarity
WSHP & Soil Integration
Celebration of Traditions
Connection to Kindergarten
Memory in Material
Resolution of Existing Forms Quiet Resistance
Mezzanine Dining Hall Perspective
The Node
Shared Art Studios Perspective
Daphne Cheung
MYCO MORPHOSIS: The Plastic Eating Mycelium Exhibition & Research Centre
Gibraltar’s location between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea results in heavy maritime traffic, contributing to marine plastic pollution. Combined with the absence of effective plastic waste management in Gibraltar, much of the plastic waste generated by ships ends up in the ocean, eventually breaking down into microplastics that pose a serious threat to marine life. In recent years, the Gibraltar government has recognized the emergency of the issue and began to implement new marine waste management. With the masterplan goal of Gibraltar becoming a catalyst of research to
empower the rest of the Bay, this creates an opportunity to research natural, low-carbon methods of breaking down plastic, such as mycelium-based bioremediation. Certain mycelium strands eg. Oyster mushrooms, secrete enzymes that completely biodegrade plastic, and the by-product - mycelium panels, can be composted or treated and reused as building materials. This project is dedicated to engage with the public on the issue of microplastic’s harm on marine ecosystems and provide pilot testing laboratories to research mycelium as a solution to plastic waste, and as sustainable building materials.
Almería, located in southern Spain, is a region with a large variety of native plants. However, due to intensive agriculture and rising temperatures driving desertification, these species are critically endangered.
This project seeks to protect and restore Almería’s native plant species by raising community awareness about their ecological and cultural value. By facilitating knowledge exchange in ethnobotany, the project supports marginalised communities through education and job creation. Dedicated laboratories help conserve plant
genetic diversity, improving climate resilience through seed storage.
The design takes inspiration from ‘ramblas’, natural gullies protecting plants from harsh conditions, and from Spanish vernacular architecture. Features such as wind towers, arched walkways and shaded courtyards work to mimic ramblas, creating cooled, humidified environments. The building is arranged around three courtyards, each offering a different level of enclosure and microclimate, supporting different plant species and offering shelter from the heat.
BOTTOM RIGHT: Ethnobotany Gardens Watercolour Study
BOTTOM LEFT: Ethnobotany Workshop
TOP: Ground Floor Plan BOTTOM: Short Section
Long Section
TOP RIGHT: Arid Gardens Watercolour Study
TOP LEFT: Greenhouse
RIGHT: Date Palm Grove Watercolour Study
Joel Boyd
A HOLISTIC SOCIAL ENTERPRISE:
Building agency for Bhopal’s informal waste dealers with regenerative architecture
A third of Bhopal’s residents live in informal settlements and lack access to the opportunities and rights afforded to others in the city. Many are informal waste dealers. This centre lays the groundwork to help this disadvantaged community build better livelihoods, improve their housing and advocate for their rights. Its regenerative architecture proposes a deeper idea of place that prioritises both environmental sustainability and human need.
Designed as a social enterprise, the centre includes a waste hub where informal waste dealers can process and sell their waste, and a skills hub where they can learn new
email: joelemmanuelboyd@icloud.com
social: linkedin/joelboydarch
skills to upgrade their livelihoods and homes. The community hub offers education, legal support and social connection. Overall, the centre provides the basic building blocks, including water and sanitation, to allow people to lift themselves out of poverty. Its three buildings act as demonstrators reinterpreting traditional Indian classifications of built form for a climate-conscious context, and encouraging a ‘domino urbanism’ effect. They offer a reinterpretation of tribal architecture, an informal settlement upgrade, and a challenge to the surrounding concrete vernacular.
Informal settlement with upgrades demonstrated by the Skills Hub
TOP LEFT: Stepwell inspired vertical circulation TOP RIGHT: This stair draws from the ghat-like descent
BOTTOM LEFT: Inverted corner condition, splayed to create social seating BOTTOM RIGHT: This stair echoes the side wall of a stepwell
TOP: Waste processing space, internal render
BOTTOM: Forecourt, external render
Community Hub (west)
Skills Hub
Waste Hub
Axonometric drawing of the cantilevered massing and vaulted canopy of the building’s main frontage.
Julia Svendsen
RYTHMS OF THE SOUTH: El Baile de Andalusia
This project proposes a new civic landmark for Almería: a Flamenco Centre that celebrates the emotional depth, rhythm, and cultural identity of Andalusia’s most iconic art form. Sited along the city’s central avenue, La Rambla, the building redefines a key urban intersection as a cultural hub and public destination. Striking a powerful dialogue with its surroundings and the adjacent public square, the building explores what a contemporary typology for flamenco might be—inspired by the enduring civic and cultural presence of the plaza de toros in Andalusia. It serves as a supporting framework
for performance and community, establishing a new centre for the people of Almeria to engage in local artistic expression. Featuring an innovative structural system of pre-tensioned and pre-stressed limestone the design reinterprets modern methods of historic vaulting techniques. This modular approach is low-carbon, demountable, and regionally sourced. The resulting architecture is rhythmically ordered, setting a spatial cadence that invites the user to become the performer, echoing the improvisational structure of flamenco itself.
TOP RIGHT: Visual of the ground floor dance vaults
TOP LEFT: Visual of one of the tiered balconies
BOTTOM RIGHT: Visual of the central foyer space
BOTTOM LEFT: Visual of a larger top floor dance studio
TOP: Ground level floor plan with annotated circulation.
BOTTOM: First level floor plan with annotated circulation and external balcony.
Internal visual of the second floor dance studios’ waiting area and balcony.
GREEN FOOD LAB: Agri-Food R&D Center in Gibraltar
Gibraltar, a British Overseas Territory situated at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula, is renowned for its strategic geographical position. It shares a northern border with Spain, overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and faces the Atlantic Ocean to the west. Due to its small size—just 6.8 km² and limited available land, Gibraltar’s food supply is heavily dependent on imports, primarily from Spain and other EU countries. This reliance makes Gibraltar particularly vulnerable to supply disruptions caused by border delays or political tensions.
This project aims to address these challenges by introducing an urban hybrid agriculture system that combines vertical farming, hydroponics, and greenhouse research units. By enabling Gibraltar to produce a portion of its food locally, it aims to reduce dependence on imports. Thus, fostering a more sustainable and resilient local food system. The masterplan features three main components: research facilities, market, and educational greenhouses—integrated with a park-like landscape. The research center will serve as the core backbone of the project.
Atrium space with fruit tree open soil cultivation in Agri-Food R&D Center.
Yan Na Tai
Diagram of resources loop and sustainable local food supply chain for Masterplanning.
The Masterplan.
The south facade elevation of Agri-Food R&D Center.
Interconnected strategies at the ground (water procession), understory (inhabitation), and canopy (symbiosis)
West elevation
BABEELA CHABUTRA: Bhopal, India
This project acts as a socioeconomic and socio-ecological node to the locale and city of Bhopal, India. It is located within the Mohalla Van masterplan, in the southern sprawl of Gehun Kheda. Coordinating with existing and proposed surrounding housing, infrastructural, and amenity development, this project is a nature-based solutions centre that engages with the symbiosis between humans, flora, and fauna in Bhopal. The ambition for this project is to generate change in the narrative of water, construction and ecosystems (locally and city-wide). This is done through craft, research, knowledge sharing, and observation.
email: sienacornish@gmail.com
In the short term, Babeela Chabutra (Little Swift bird house) specifically addresses the rising cases of dengue and the decline of Little Swifts. Over its future, the project can evolve to address other diseases and species. Through its own responsive building fabric and interdependent layers of programme, the project is a manifestation and moment of appreciation of the valuable ecotones that allow the city to function in a regenerative way. The buildings are a facility and demonstrative plot that stimulates biotic homogenisation over the future of Bhopal - a bottom-up version of ensuring biodiversity net gain during the growth of the city.
It was a privilege to work with a group of engaged, intelligent and creative individuals and share the evolution of their ideas through their interrogation of the social, cultural, physical and environmental conditions relevant to the communities that they visited.
In drawing on their own experiences and interests, they produced complex and demanding briefs which served as a baseline for our discussions and through their concerns, attitude and creative interpretation, evolved the narrative for the design journey.
Those that challenged their own ideas through drawing and making drew greatest benefit from the weekly tutorials and produced the most extraordinary schemes.
Experience a place with an inquisitive mind, interpret with an evolving understanding, represent with an attitude and discuss with an opinion.
ROBERT MITCHELL
page 298
300 Louis Wood — LE HAVRE
VELÓDROMO ENTREVÍAS page 306
Kippin KATHALAYA: A house of [counter]stories
The proposal envisions a network of public spaces across Bhopal, with the Kathalaya – a space for sharing stories, knowledge and communal experiences – mediating between city and community scales. The project draws on the notion of counter-stories to challenge dominant narratives, foregrounding the perspectives of those typically marginalised. The proposal is grounded in theory on enabling places, exploring how architecture can equitably empower communities, with equal regard for their more-than-human neighbours. Traditional narrative mapping
informed the design methodology, reframing the scheme as a collage of experiences, guided by four Bhopali enabling typologies: the tree, patiya, wall and shamiana. The proposed construction is conceived as a participatory, evolving space – continually shaped by local engagement in its making and care. It prioritises the use of bioregional, restorative, regenerative materials. Ultimately, the project envisions a future where Bhopal’s urban fabric can evolve into a more inclusive, resilient ecosystem, entangling spatial justice and ecological regeneration.
TOP: Enabling materials - grown, found, regenerated [extract]. BOTTOM: The bahirang in dry and monsoon season [extracts].
Caitlin Boeshart-Thomas
REVIVING THE URBAN FABRIC: A Vision for a Textile School in a Sustainable Landscape
The Ulster Institute of Sustainable Textiles is located in the city of Derry-Londonderry, in Northern Ireland, on the western bank of the River Foyle. Historically, the site was occupied by the, now demolished, Tillie and Henderson factory, built to sustain the thriving shirt industry at the time. To recognise the rich history of the site, the scheme proposes to reinstate a relationship with the textile industry and link to the university by establishing a sustainable textile institute for the University of Ulster.
The proposal forms a mnemonic device that preserves the city’s cultural identity and its memory of the shirt and linen trade history. As a resource for the textile industry, the scheme proposes to repair the connection with the surrounding agricultural landscape, using local materials and techniques to respect the culture and environment.
The ambition is to revive traditional sustainable textile practices to combat the modern fast fashion trajectory.
TOP: Sketch of Public Street BOTTOM: Sketch of Public Entrance
The Urban Hearth is a place where safety and culture meet. It offers a new kind of civic architecture—one that doesn’t separate care from public life, but binds them together. By bringing together a crisis centre and a Bulgarian chitalishte, the project gives both programs new life. The chitalishte is reawakened as a protector—not just of culture, but of people. And the women who come through the crisis centre are offered not just shelter, but a pathway back into a shared, supported urban world. The concept emerged from the tension between openness and protection. How can a building hold
space for healing and participation at the same time? The programme is structured around this dual role. The crisis centre includes a secure residential wing where women and children can recover in safety and privacy, along with a shared activities block offering a space to rebuild and reintegrate.
The chitalishte is arranged across three separate buildings: a hall with a central gathering space, a workshop building, and a library—where the journey ends.
Fany Kotzeva THE URBAN HEARTH
GF Plan
1. Establishing the Programme
2. Spatial Configuration
3. Introducing the Spine
4. Defining Thresholds
5. Integrating Landscape & Canopies
6. Articulating the Roofscape
Section through Chitalishte
Section through Crisis Centre
Quiet Yard, between library and workshop
Circulation spine, chitalishte
Detailed elevations
Micro-Organism Laboratory: visually linked to both the Bay of Gibraltar and the adjacent boathouse, seamlessly integrates into its natural and operational surroundings.
Jane Hiu Ching Ng
BLUE EDEN REVIVAL:
Gibraltar Underwater Research Unit
The Strait of Gibraltar, once a vibrant marine ecosystem, has faced severe degradation from industrial growth and human activity. Since the mid-20th century, Gibraltar transformed from a military base into a maritime services hub. While this shift boosted the economy, it caused ecological harm. Today, heavy maritime traffic, frequent oil spills, and untreated sewage have led to declining fish populations, reduced biodiversity, and damaged habitats. Rising sea levels also threaten critical infrastructure. To address this, the project proposes a permanent headquarters for the
email: janehcng@gmail.com
social: @works.jng/ linkedin.com/in/janehcng/
Gibraltar Underwater Research Unit, currently without dedicated facilities. Central to this is an artificial reef lab built from excavated material from the planned Spain-Morocco rail tunnel, turning industrial waste into underwater sanctuaries and a living laboratory.
The project also envisions transforming the industrial waterfront into a public wetland that filters pollution and reconnects the community with nature, aiming to restore Gibraltar’s coastline as a model of ecological innovation.
TOP: Artificial Reef Laboratory Loading Dock BOTTOM: Observation Platform
Concept Diagram
Tectonic Model
Circulation Routes
The Le Havre food hub aggregates produce from the surrounding farmland for sale within its market hall. It completes the centre of a city block - forming a public landscape and streetscape. It’s stone walls and floating roofs define ‘programmatic corridors’ that guide activity and the movement of people and goods.
Through the central street runs a loop of cargo bikes, picking up produce and making local deliveries all over the city, as well as distributing to a wider network of train and river barge shipments to transport the goods to cities upriver.
Simultaneously, smaller streets and corridors branch off the main street, and become both external and internal programmed space. This establishes a grid system - a series of programmatic corridors that span the width and depth of the site.
LE HAVRE FOOD HUB: Pocket park, market & cider brewery
Market corridor
TOP LEFT: North Courtyard
TOP RIGHT: Market Hall
BOTTOM LEFT: Circulation Space
BOTTOM RIGHT: South Courtyard
View from main street and south courtyard.
End of day wash-down
TOP: East entrance BOTTOM: Servery Market Hall
HARVESTING WASTE COMMUNITY ENERGY FARM
Amid the UK energy crisis, nearly a quarter of people in Derry / Londonderry face the daily choice between heating and eating. In response, the Community Energy Farm proposes a circular model that transforms two former coal yard warehouses into a community allotment and a biogas facility, where organic waste is converted into energy. A new visitors centre will act as a city destination, offering education on food / cooking and supporting biogas research.
The centre features an internal street that guides visitors through the site, connecting them with its key processes before reaching the heart, where social activity and energy production come together. Clad in charred timber, the monolithic structure takes inspiration from the area’s industrial past.
The Farm’s three distinct buildings provide dedicated spaces for learning, cultivation, and energy production, establishing a new model for circular sustainability.
LEFT: Circulation of the Visitor’s Centre and The Project Heart
RIGHT: Visitor’s Centre - Short Detail Section
Visitor’s Centre - Long Section
TOP LEFT: Visitor’s Centre - Exhibition Space
TOP RIGHT: Visitor’s Centre - Balcony Overlooking the Heart
BOTTOM LEFT: Processing Plant - Fermenter Tanks
BOTTOM RIGHT: Allotment Hub - Gardening Workshop
Thomas Harvey VELÓDROMO ENTREVÍAS : Community, Economy, Environment, and Sport
The project aims to create not just a sporting venue, nor just a commercial and community hub, but an amalgamation of these that can provide opportunity for all the residents of Entrevías. The design creates internal and external spaces that can help provide bottom up sporting opportunities, bring economic benefit to the barrio, offer social and communal activities for residents of all ages, help connect the barrio and bring environmental benefits. A holistic and inclusive approach will result in a site with almost 24/7 activity and life providing a safe community
environment. The scheme takes on the bold concept of raising the velodrome off the ground. This allows for an extensive shaded undercroft below that is used for a range of community activities.
The lower floors of the building support the community and commercial needs with the upper floors housing the velodrome track and spectator facilities.
email: tomharvey2000@gmail.com
Parti Diagrams
Ground Floor Plan
TOP: Night Section BOTTOM: External Render
TOP: East Elevation BOTTOM: Undercroft Render
Detailed Section
External Night Render
BATH ANNUAL 2025: A Selection of Projects from the BSc and MArch courses in the Department of Architecture & Civil Engineering at the University of Bath
