CHRISTOPHER ADAMS
| 07720048263 | chris_adams_design | 2024 Design Portfolio
PORTFOLIO
chris.adams652@icloud.com
ADAMS
AND THIS IS MY PORTFOLIO....
By means of brief introduction, I am a 23 year old student who has just completed RIBA Part II MArch at the Welsh School of Architecture - for which I am expected to receive a First Class Honours. Having previously worked during Part I at Make Architects, and before that as a Bachelors also at the Welsh School of Architecture, I am now seeking to re-engage with the manifested realities of architectural practice, and expand my design references as far as possible.
During my previous experience at Make, I worked on a number of commercial workplace and mixed-use projects in the West Midlands, London, and Cambridge. During this I assisted in the production of drawings and concept images for schemes from RIBA Stages 1 to 3, including those drawings necessary for pre-app, planning applications and feasibility studies. During this I gained a high level of competency in modelling software, in particular Revit, and in the coordination of drawing packages for clients and consultants alike. I further gained a breath of on-site experience, including supervision of strip-out/demolition works, and of schemes operating later in the construction process.
Raised in rural Somerset, I’ve always aspired to participate in the crafting, and ever-shifting moulding of the built environment - especially so in a more diverse and culturally layered context. I’m passionate about the possibility of retrofit, infill, and adaptive reuse projects to enhance the urban fabric, and have focused especially on schemes which seek to intimately connect to enhanced and active democratic public spaces.
Owing to my range of working experience combined with my success at university, I hope proves my strengths as a fast-learner and tirelessly hard-working, efficient, and competent member of any team. Over the next few pages, I enclose my curriculum vitae and a selection of my work for you to enjoy.
00 CURRICULUM VITAE
EDUCATIONAL EXPERIENCE
2019 - Present Welsh School of Architecture, Cardiff University (BSc/MArch)
2003 - 2019 Queen’s College, Taunton
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
2022 - 2023
Summer 2021
Winter 2020
Summer 2018
Summer 2017
Make Architects (Part I Architectural Assistant)
Roadchef Taunton Deane (Customer Service)
Eastville Park Lido Community Project, Bristol (Volunteer)
Willmott Dixon Ltd. (CAD, Site, Construction Process)
Trevor J. Spurway Architects (CAD, Site, Client Meetings)
SOFTWARE EXPERIENCE
Modelling Revit, AutoCAD, SketchUp & Rhino
Adobe Suite Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, & Premiere Pro
Rendering VRay, Enscape & VuCity
Miscellaneous Photogrammetry (Meshlab) & Space Syntax (DepthMapX)
EXTRACURRICULAR EXPERIENCE
Volunteering CAUKIN Live Construction Guatemala (Summer 2024)
Physical Sports PADI Open Diver, Brown Belt Aikido, Rock Climbing, Hiking
Debating Elected Secretary-General of College Debating Team
Student Society Elected Secretary of the Student Association of the WSA
QUALIFICATIONS & AWARDS
MArch Degree Expected to Achieve First Class Honours
BSc Degree First Class Honours (81% Final Mark)
A-Level Results One A* (EPQ), Two A’s, Two B’s
GCSE Results Ten A*’s, One A
Awards T Alwyn Lloyd Architectural Travelling Scholarship
Miscellaneous LAMDA Grade 8, Gold DofE, Army Ten Tors Award
01 INVESTING THE MARGINS
TUDOR STREET, GRANGETOWN, CARDIFF, WALES
2023/2024 THESIS PROJECT (MArch Y2)
An invested margin: a new social housing commons to facilitate intergenerational exchange. A place where young and old live and age together, no longer territorialised to the peripheries, no longer marginalised within interstitial spaces. A realm of shared tenure, in which elderly gather with younger co-living individuals who constitute a social support network and medium for daily interactions.
This thesis project offers a re-examination of the opportunities of marginalised and interstitial urban sites as remedies to the housing and demographic crises. Through a sustainable retrofit, infill and fabric first approach, a perceptively dilapidated social housing estate in North Grangetown is transformed. The project acts as a rallying cry to reject the policies of weakening housing standards, social displacement, and territorialisation, and instead argues for reinvestment in the margins, whereby community empowerment transforms marginalised spaces, marginalised people, into something which is more integral to the life and vitality of the city.
Location within Wales
Location within Cardiff
Litchfield Court: Proposed Schematic Section
The dilapidated and perceptively marginalised social housing of Litchfield Court is transformed. Deck access within a new timber lattice structure remodels the exterior facade, improving relationships to the street. At ground level, new active frontages draw the public in, whilst community spaces provide new mediums for residents to assemble. Bedsits are abandoned in favour of larger inter-co-coflex units. Older lead tenants share with younger lodgers in intergenerational reciprocity. Each receives their own small private and flexible facilities, whilst sharing onto larger south-facing communal spaces and external terraces.
[9] [10] [11] [12] [14] [13] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [27] [28]
Private south facing external terraces provide residents an essential space for mental and physical wellbeing Retrofit infill and additional mass above Tudor Lane provides acoustic and visual buffer to railway behind, insulating the plaza below Community hall and patio plaza beyond sunk by 300mm to delineate space and gain incremental height internally [1] Reduced wdith Tudor Street [2] New bus stops and street furniture activate roadscape interstices [3] Improved surface cycle lane [4] Activated street frontage [5] Arched reception gallery faces street [6] Drop cabinets improve ergonomics [7] Community kitchen [8] Hatch to service community hall [9] Cork flooring provides soft surfaces [10] Community hall facilitates events, residents meetings, and gatherings [11] Bifold screens enclose space [12] Steel reinforcement of existing structure permits opening of ground [13] Sliding doors open out into plaza [14] Sunk patio plaza spills out from hall [15] Raised planters and pergolas frame winding routes and nooks to sit amongst landscape [16] Short root, max biodiversity tree
[1] First floor Second floor Roof height 2885mm Third floor 2885mm 3870mm 3480mm [2] [3] [4] [5] [7] [6] [8] [25] [26] [29] [30] [31]
South facing and without overshadow (thanks to the railway), rooftop PV’s are opportune for energy generation
line Ground floor community spaces provide active
street
life
visual
Litchfield species chosen for landscapes [17] Raised planters with wheel access [18] Timber lattice treehouses extend landscape vertically and provide access to units above Tudor Lane [19] Lift overrun forms turret [20] Infill above historic coachouses
Supported by steel hangers off the timber lattice structure, hanging planter balconies provide wider moments to pause along the deck Improved continuous cycle routes and active travel form an integral part of the wider strategy of works along the
frontages to the
and deliver
and
permeability to
dwelling
bedroom
living
[21] Shutter blinds prevent overheating from solar gain along South elevation [22] All units recieve a south-facing private external balcony overlooking plaza [23] Nook bench seat built into bay window [24] Murphy bed allows transfiguration of
from
to
[25] Bench nook provides privacy to deck [26] Shared deck access, provides new communal space, and buffer to road [27] Small kitchenettes facilitate co-living [28] Clerestory windows draw in morn light [29] Rooftop PV’s and battery storage [30] Raised planters at unit front entrances
Litchfield Court
Baseline condition, the marginalised site of Litchfield, Whitworth and Tudor Lane adjacent to the railway
01 02 Internal structural reinforcement allows creation of throughroutes at ground level Apply freestanding timber lattices around site in order to support new deck access and terraces 03 04 Institute new vertical circulation and lifts, convert former dark staircores into lightwells Apply new massing above Litchfield and Tudor Lane, introduce arch roof as unifying element 05 06
Omit roof and strip out Litchfield, selective demolition of derelict units along Tudor Lane
Tudor Lane
Whitworth Court
Deck access assembly: A regularised glulam lattice
Whitworth Court
[1] 1B2P studios retrofit bedsit units of Whitworth Court [2] Existing stairwell provides vertical circulation [3] New south facing deck with shading provides shared external space and circulation [4] Larger 1B2P studios retrofit existing bedsit units of Whitworth Court [5] Triple height space above new lift atrium [6] New lift access improves accessibility [7] Tree canopy above plaza [8] West-facing protruding balcony frames visual termination of Tudor Lane’s deck access [9] New deck access runs above existing mass of Tudor Lane, providing shared external space [10] 2B2P co-living units built above coachouses of Tudor Lane [11] Timber lattice treehouses provide vertical circulation to mass above Tudor Lane and elevated extensions of landscape and public space [12] M4(3) wheelchair accessible studios sit above infill terraces [13] 2B3P co-living unit built above middle coachouse of Tudor Lane [14] External south facing loggia [15] Additional M4(3) wheelchair accessible studios [16] 2B2P units above coachouses [17] Railway watching lounge [18] New deck access replaces dark double loaded corridors of old [19] New vertical circulation and lift [20] Small private territories and flowerbed benches at front door [21] Bin chutes save walking down [22] Shared lightwells deliver fresh air and light deep into the plan 10 0 5 1-300 m Clare St
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [18] [21] [22]
Beauchamp Street
Litchfield Court
Great Western Railway and Valley Lines
[19] [20]
[17]
Deck access: 1-50 sectional detail
[1] Street SUDS improve drainage
[2] GRC clad arched bay to street
[3] Deck eaves provide drip detail
[4] Insulated deck connector
[5] Openable windows for x-vent
[6] Glulam deck lattice structure
[7] CLT decking fixed to glulam lattice
[8] Hanging planters articulate deck
[9] New level built w/ straw bale SIPS [10] Lift overrun casing
[1]
[2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [8] [7] [9] [10]
01 02 03 04 Communal Spaces Secondlvl Additional lvl Firstlvl Additionallvl Deckaccess Deckaccess Deckaccess TheRailway
A view down Tudor Street
TudorStreet
LitchfieldCourt
TudorLane streetExtendaxis Railway watching box New landscaped plaza Shops and Services Private dwelling space Public realm Building services Programmatic Strategy
WhitworthCourt
02 INHABITING THRESHOLDS, KOCHI
ERNAKULAM MARKET, KOCHI, KERALA, INDIA
2021/2022 FINAL PROJECT (BSc Y3)
Kochi is a city suffering a crisis of its own making. Poor development and planning has left the urban landscape increasingly territorialised, gated, and closed off - depriving it of democratic public space. This project took the conception of threshold spaces, and sought to inhabit them in turn creating new permeable corridors through city blocks, and new public realms for civic activity.
The proposed scheme comprises three key interventions. The “Andaralam” atria, is a proposed street market pavilion retrofitting and opening up two existing buildings which block access to the site. The “Thekkini” forum, is a mixed-use complex, comprising residential above, and retail below. Meanwhile, enveloped by these two is the “Nadumuttam”, a terraced public square which frames views around an old Jewish Synagogue at the heart of the site. These interventions collectively sought to create a common space free from the hectic congestion of the cityscape - one which is openly accessible, permeable, and constantly inhabited by residents with eyes on the street.
Location within India
Location within Kochi
PERMEABLE ROUTES THROUGH
“THEKKINI” MIXED-USE COMPLEX
MATHER BAZAR-BROADWAY MARKET ALLEY
RESTORED KADAVUMBAGAM SYNAGOGUE
COMPLEX
“NADUMUTTAM” CIVIC PLAZA
“ANDARALAM” ATRIA TO SITE
A A B B C C D D E E
THE “THEKKINI” ( MIXED USE RETAIL AND PRIVATE RESIDENTIAL )
THE “ANDARALAM” ( ATRIA )
MATHER BAZAR
01 02 03
04 SECTION
6.
7.
8.
2.
RAW STRUCTURE EXPOSED
PERF. BRICK JAALI’S INPUTTED
PINE LOUVRES FITTED
SAIL ROOF FIXED ABOVE
3. VERTICAL COLUMNS ADDED
4.
HORIZONTAL MEMBERS INSERTED
1. EXISTING CONDITION
5. STAIRS AND RAILINGS ADDED
03 MICROHOME COMPETITION
ENVISAGED IN A POST-INDUSTRIAL URBAN AREA
SUMMER 2021 (BEEBREEDERS STUDENT COMPETITION)
Collaborating with three other student colleagues, this project was an entry to the annual Beebreeders Microhome Competition of 2021. In developing the concept for this submission, we settled on a parasitic, adaptive-reuse typology, reusing a post-industrial site in an urban area. This seemed the most natural avenue to develop a microhome (a constrained spatial context), and the most exiting to conceptually envision.
Spatially the project is imagined as a hanging tree, with a large “trunk” suspended from a warehouse frame, which in turn supports “stems” containing the various living spaces. These spaces, arranged in a vertical hierarchy, create a clear division of space and privacy in a mere 25 m2 floor area. Each “stem” has a clear function (kitchen, living/ dining, bathroom, and bedroom), with privacy escalating as one spirals upwards around the trunk. In fully realised fashion, these hanging trees would be tessellated around a retrofitted industrial warehouse, with a bustling community space, market, and gardens located below.
Envisaged location in the UK Envisaged location in London
No
No
No 1. Trunk and branches
2. Stems applied
3. Tree structure inverted
Kitchen, lounge, & bathroom
Lounge, bathroom, & bedroom
04 SENIOR LIVING COMPETITION
ENVISAGED ALONG THE WALLS OF CARDIFF CASTLE
SUMMER 2023 (BUILDNER COMPETITION) - (HONOURABLE MENTION)
The National Trust empowers nearly 60,000 volunteers, the majority of whom are over-65, and who provide immeasurable work as custodians of Britain’s heritage. This is a primarily social endeavour, regularly educating the public, interacting with visitors, and cooperating amongst others in a team. Counterpoint this with the reality that some 1.4 million of the UK’s 11 million pensioners are regularly or severely lonely, and there is great opportunity in coalescence.
Collaborating with three other student colleagues, this project proposes a new typology of senior living, built in association with the National Trust, along Britain’s heritage assets. Residents become tour guides, live communally, and act as custodians of their new territories. This is imagined architecturally in the machicolation: a projecting or hanging timber structure above the parapet of medieval walls. This age-old typology is re-imagined, and provides new home to these custodians: living amongst and providing social value to heritage assets, rather than leaving them static to crumble.
Envisaged location in Wales Envisaged location in Cardiff
Morning in the castle grounds
Communal breakfast at ground
Coffee on the front porch with neighbours
Social interaction tourists
Tour ends at rooftop community garden
interaction with
Senior residents lead castle tours
Activities for residents in communal ground
Evening views over park before bed
05 A LOOK THROUGH THE LIVING
2023 SEMESTER ONE PRIMER PROJECT (MArch Y2)
A primer project investigation of an existing student dwelling, examining how it can be adapted in order to facilitate ‘ageing in place’. Commencing with a practical and philosophical justification for the principles of ‘ageing in place’, the research identifies the centrality of the ‘living room’ as the primary space for the act of dwelling: that being the place where the greatest variety of social interactions and spatial configurations occur, but also as the primary space where the ‘environmental press’ so often forces the elderly to retreat into.
Consequently the project invited practitioners to re-examine the ‘living room’, and investigate new means of flexibility and multi-functionality such that it can serve throughout the changing orientations of life. Taking the current student dwelling as a case study, the folio offers a design solution which adapts the ‘living room’ as a private apartment for an elderly owner-occupier. Younger lodgers act as a social support network, whilst flexible furniture allows the room to be reoriented and adapted for a variety of different daily uses and guests.
Location within Wales
Location within Cardiff
DOGFIELD STREET, CATHAYS, CARDIFF, WALES
View
ViewCrywstowards Road View towards the garden [4] [5] [2] [1] [3] [6] [7] [10] [11] [8] [1] The coffee table [2] The dining table [3] The kitchen [4] The sofa [5] The armchair [6] The chimney and fire [7] Door to the ‘living’ [8] The kitchen annex [9] The ‘living room’ [10] The front door [11] The pavement [12] The street [12] [9] The ‘living’ room at the heart of student dwelling Isolation and confinement within cellular, private bedrooms Social activity and interaction within the communal ‘living’
DogfielddownStreet
Anatomy of a student dwelling
An analysis of a typical student house: six bedrooms squeezed into a converted Victorian terrace. A typology duplicated along the street, and indeed the whole quarter of the city. Separated into cellular individual ‘living’ spaces, the former ‘living room’ is identified as the centre of social activity in the home, and thereby the primary focus for works of adaptation.
[7] [6] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13]
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
[6]
[7]
[8]
[9]
[10]
[11]
[12]
[13]
[14]
[15]
[16]
[17]
[18]
[14] [1] Level change at front entrance
Bins clutter front entrance
Front door awkward to enter
The ‘living room’
The hallway
Steep stairwell
200mm short step down
Wash door opens onto WC door
Downstairs bathroom
600mm step up to garden
Shed overgrown/cluttered
Garden overlooked by terrace
Upstairs bathroom
Half landing stairs
Tenant master bedroom
Inaccessible attic
Abandoned chimney pipe
Opposite terraces [17]
Ground level First floor Second floor Roof height 440mm 3040mm 2970mm 2800mm SWlight SWlight
The Living Room
[2]
[1] [3]
[4]
[5]
[15]
[16]
[18]
A brief history of the ‘living’ room
The “hut dream”, the primitive, communal ‘living room’ set around the fire. Louis XV’s Palace of Versailles and his demands for the construction of a parallel, private world for retreat and rest - the first formal orgins of the ‘living room’.
The Georgian terrace, an increasing typology towards segregated internal spaces by use - for living, for cleaning, for eating.
The cramped, functional hovel, the ‘living room’ for most of the population for most of history.
The Victorians introduced new formalities to dwelling, demanding new spaces for retreat from guests.
The Victorian ‘(with)drawing’ room, not necessarily a place of comfort but certainly an early prototype of the modern ‘living room’.
“Nothing to be gained by overcrowding”, inspired by the ‘garden city’ movement, argued for universal ‘living’ spaces away from the overcrowded slums of Victorian cities.
The “Tudor-Walters” report of 1918. Argues in favour of post-war homes with distinct rooms for cooking, living, and sleeping.
The seminal “Parker-Morris” report of 1961. Formally recommended new informal, multipurpose open-plan ‘living spaces’ over antiquated formal ‘drawing’ rooms. Mandates this in all new homes.
The Thatcher government briefly rolls back government standards demanding a distinct ‘living room’ in new homes, arguing they add needless cost and regulation to construction.
Mayor of London, Boris Johnson introduces the London Housing Design Guide, for the first time specifying minimum space standards for the ‘living room’.
Concerned by the proliferation of local standards following London’s lead, the second Cameron government introduces the Nationally Described Space Standards in 2015, mandating minimum sizes and approximate layouts for the ‘living room’ in all new homes.
[1] [2] [4] [3] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] 1912 1918 1961 1979 2010 2015 1870 1850 1740 1770 1000 1840
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]
[8] [9] [10] [11] [12]
[1] front porch (decluttered)
[2] the ‘living room’
[3] shared entryway
[4] stairway upstairs
[5] the kitchen
[6] lodgers shared kitchen
[7] M4(2) accessible WC
[8] rear reception room
[9] access to garden
An age-adapted condition for Third Age
to the street
750mm, M4(2) 2.25b bed clear access zone
1100mm, M4(2) 2.9b compliant, but not M4(3)
to the neighbours to the hall & tenants (plan mirrored on other side of entryway)
1500mm clear access zone, M4(3) 3.32b compliant
1100mm deep opportunity for wheelchair adapted storage
900mm clear opening door width, M4(3) 3.24d compliant 900mm
1370mm, sufficient for improved elderly accessibility but not full M4(3) compliance
[1] [3] [4] [6] [7] [9] [8] [5] [2]
06 DRUM, BIRMINGHAM
NEW STREET STATION, BIRMINGHAM, WEST MIDLANDS
2022 - 2023 (MAKE ARCHITECTS)
The primary project undertaken during my Part I at Make Architects; the Drum scheme seeks to adaptively reuse an abandoned John Lewis department store located directly above Birmingham New Street Station. Maintaining the existing 2014 facade, the project integrates a mix of uses including offices, retail, events and health and wellbeing spaces - all located around the focal point of a new stepped atrium lightwell. Due to the prominent position of the site within the city, there is a strong desire to see the building repurposed and as such the scheme positively responds to enhancing the local context.
Collaborating with a small team of three others, I assisted in the development of drawings for the scheme from RIBA Stages 1 to 3, including those necessary for the production of a pre-app document, and ultimately final planning application, which was unanimously approved in March 2023. These included schematic drawings and concept images, area plans, demolition and strip-out plans, elevational and sectional drawings, and early-stage technical details.
Location within the UK
Location within Birmingham
INSET CYCLE ENTRANCE, SOLID CEILING
OPTION ONE:
INSET CYCLE ENTRANCE, GLAZED CEILING
OPTION TWO:
ENTRANCE,
CEILING, FRAMELESS
FOUR: PROTRUDING CYCLE ENTRANCE, SOLID CEILING
FIVE: PROTRUDING CYCLE ENTRANCE, GLAZED CEILING
SIX: INSET CYCLE ENTRANCE, GLAZED CEILING & PORCH
OPTION THREE: INSET CYCLE
GLAZED
OPTION
OPTION
OPTION
07 TOWER, ELEPHANT & WONDER
THE ELEPHANT, COVENTRY, WEST MIDLANDS 2022 - 2023 (MAKE ARCHITECTS)
Opened in 1966, the Elephant Building, alongside the adjoining Wonder swimming pool constitute a significant architectural focal point for Coventry city centre. Nevertheless, due to increasing disrepair and maintenance demands, the leisure centre was closed in 2020, and has since seen a number of different proposals for its adaptive reuse.
Accordingly, in my professional capacity during my Part I at Make, I was invited to develop revised design proposals as part of a feasibility study for the project. This involved the drawing up of concept images, schematic plans, a selective demolition scheme, and the required GIA and NIA area plans as part of a feasibility document. The proposals settled on a mixed-use scheme, combining a VR/AR studios and events space within the Elephant building, with an adaptive reuse of the Wonder swimming pool into an artisanal food hall and co-working space adjacent to the university. These would be combined with a new buy to let residential tower, thereby activating this corner of the city with new permanent inhabitants and active social spaces.
Location within the UK
Location within Coventry
Elephant - AR/VR Studios & Events
Wonder
- Food Hall & Co-Working
08 ILLUSTRATIONS
VARIOUS INDIVIDUAL LOCATIONS
2019 - 2024
Alongside my studies, a great pasttime of mine has been to produce small illustrations and artworks. I find them a brilliant way to explore the built environment around us, and also to develop my drawing and artistic skills as I progress as a student of architecture.
Over the years I have sought to develop a rough ink style, making use of layered cardboard canvases painted above with acrylic, ink and bleach. These provide background frames around which images might then emerge. The first image, shows Berlin Cathedral, which I had the pleasure of exploring in 2016, imagined emerging, or rather descending, into the canvas’s own ruination. This was a particularity pleasurable piece to produce, and I spent some time studying and drawing the details of its neoclassical facade and dome atop. The second image is a piece inspired by the artist Valery Koshlyakov, done in a more scratchy, abstract style to understand the hierarchies of built form. The final image meanwhile, is an ink, chalk, and pencil detail of a shadowed window in Venice, looking at its relationship with ornamentation.
Location of work within the UK
Location of work in Somerset
PORTFOLIO
2024