BSoA
ARCHITECTURE level 5 annual review
ISSUE #1
2014 1
THIS IS LEVEL 5 2
contents
foreword
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ARC5001
6 - 29
ARC5002
30 - 113
ARC5004
114 - 115
ARC5007
116 - 119
erasmus
120 - 125
credits
126
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Tutors:
Professor Jim Low Hannah Vowles Jim Sloan Ian Shepherd Tom Tebby Christian Frost Visiting tutors/specialists/mentors:
Jonny Muirhead Warren Whyte Mark Griffiths Tom Higginson Alasdair Ferguson Alan Budden Kevin Singh Alessandro Columbano Cecile Brisac Joe Holyoak
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foreword
may 2014
This publication covers the extent of work completed by Level 5 students in the year 2013/2014. Primarily covering the two studio design projects, ARC5001 and ARC5002, it attempts to delve into the various methodologies that students took when approaching their own personal design problems as well as exhibiting presentation styles and process drawings. This is the first year that an annual review for the year has been produced, we hope it will continue in the future.
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Level 5 2013-14 started off with students designing a 9-tsubo house, the project is about designing and making the minimum house within Masuzawa’s 6x6x6m envelope. We then embarked on a series of one-week exercises starting with a series of precedent studies on housing typologies including precision drawings reproduced in an elegant bound volume. From there we went on to consider the contrast between a magnificent, even fearsome view, the mysteries of nature, and the logic and rationality of designing a Belvedere, a structure to capture and frame that view. Following a site study we designed a university library on a tight urban site in Eastside, Birmingham.
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[01] 9_tsubo house
Glen Mรถelo
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Tom Majski ‘Origami Treehouse’ 11
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Joe Bowman 13
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[02+03] research + representation
Using work created for ARC5001 [02+03] precedent analysis + representation, a bound publication was created covering the thirteen different housing projects that were looked at for the task. The final work was published with a digital copy available by scanning the QR code left.
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[04] belvedere
Jac Doody ‘A journey of views’ 17
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Taylor Beech 19
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[05] library for 400,000 books
Ashley Stubbs
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Tom Majski
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Lucy Dunn ‘Skeleton’ The design transformed around the idea of the ‘skeleton’ steel framed structure. The frame is exposed to the elements as well as interior spaces. The steelwork of the façade is placed in front of the glass, similar to the Pompidou Centre by Richard Rogers, this is to express the industrial feeling of the building. The steel columns seen from the exterior are used as a grid reference for the interior spaces.
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Ben James
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Callum Campbell ‘More Human than Human’ 29
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In term two we considered Living and Working in Digbeth asking students to develop a design concept for the site bounded by Park Street, Bordesley Street, Shaw’s Passage and Allison Street which has a long tradition of accommodating green and sustainable enterprises, through a process of “learning by making and building.” We asked how far is it appropriate to describe younger people today as ‘Generation Rent’? Does the housing system provide sufficient opportunities and space for self-help, self-build and co-production – what might be some of the barriers and how might they be overcome? Should social housing be solely about renting and about bricks and mortar or should people also be facilitated in other ways, for example to find jobs and pay the rent?
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Stina Ahlqvist
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Taylor Beech ‘Urban Creation’ 35
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Jack Berrett 37
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Joshua Boardman ‘Streets in the Void’
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Joe Bowman ‘Digbeth Co-operative’ The Digbeth Co-Operative is a micro-community that aims to reintroduce artisan living back into Digbeth. The community adopts a modular construction system allowing for a unit to expand and contract over an occupant’s life cycle. The community hub acts as the centre point for the phased development, providing a shared workshop, learning and administrative spaces.
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Lewis Buckley The scheme takes inspiration from The Custard Factory in Digbeth, providing a number of workshop spaces that can be rented out by graduate students and young entrepeneurs. The housing scheme is built up of apartments for the workers and students as well as a number of multi-bedroom dwellings.
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Callum Campbell ‘Temple Street’ Comprising of a number of different elements, the Temple Street masterplan draws inspiration from Temple Street in Hong Kong, a bustling metropolitan area in the city. Taking this concept, it has been applied to the completely different demographic of young artists and designers, giving them opportunity to rent and exhibit their work in a completely new way. The twist is that each retail unit is only leased for four months at a time, allowing the street to constantly change and evolve. 47
Bonnie Carswell ‘The Glass Quarter’ The concept behind Digbeth Glass Quarter focuses mainly around a stained glass recycling plant which is located on site, collecting stained glass from around Digbeth and recycling it, with residents on site working at the factory. I wanted the housing on site to facilitate the needs of glass workers, yet also concentrating on Digbeth as a place of heritage, merging in with the modern Birmingham city centre.
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Frances Chappelow 51
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Saffa Dehghani ‘Live, Study, Work’ In pursuit of sustainability, the project embodies both the social and the economical. Located beneath each of the residential units and included within the rent is a commercial space where residents have the opportunity to set up a small business in relation to their studies. This could be an outlet of their creative studies or a more pragmatic option such as a franchise store.
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Jac Doody ‘Digbeth Colour’ The textiles industry in Britain is becoming resurgent; from the 19th to the 20th century it provided jobs and livelihoods for many residents of northern towns and cities. To allow Birmingham to join this fleeting industry once limited to the north, I propose a cotton farm in the centre of the city, encouraging trade, production and tourism. Exciting housing blocks and bright colours bring the site to life merging social classes and generating income allowing the community to become self sustainable. 55
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Vitalijus Duk 59
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Lucy Dunn ‘The Tower Velodrome’ The Tower Velodrome is the only velodrome in Birmingham to date. The complex as a whole also caters to cycling enthusiasts, whether advanced or beginner. In addition to the cycling complex, there is also a bespoke
bicycle factory, Rea Bikes, as well as the Cycle Cafe and Tower Bikes, making the building a complete experience. In addition to this, housing located on the ground floor caters to those who wish to stay longer. 61
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Matt Evans This housing scheme aims to not only house many residents but also to regenerate the once lost entrepreneur base that Birmingham had in creation and manufacturing ideas. This is carried out by having entrepreneur unit spaces and workshops on the bottom of the site creating a public realm in that area, thus the ground is lowered. The private realm of the housing is therefore kept at a higher height for privacy. 63
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Kimran Farooq 65
Stanley Fu ‘Metal Gardens City’ The housing project integrates with a metal sculpting workshop. Whilst the site is split into two, one for the workshop and one for the housing, the courtyards are exhibition areas for the metal sculptures created from the workshop. Like a sculpture, the building is cut and chamfered at different angles, the chamfering is decided from the site analysis. As the main focus is on the exhibition, there are several places which create 'viewing platforms' looking into the courtyard such as the rooftop and the glass façades for the circulation space. 66
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Richard Grimes ‘A New Oasis in Digbeth’ With the lease on the existing premises for the Oasis market in Birmingham city centre due to end in May 2014 and redevelopment of the site a certainty, the alternative markets that have become an institution for the subculture and alternative minority will be left without a venue. I am proposing a move for the market and it’s close community to a site on the edge of the Digbeth border with Birmingham’s core. 69
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housing block 71
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Dagmar Heiman ‘LIVING in Digbeth’ 73
Ben James 74
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Jeyani James
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site build up over time; modular building system
Gaurav Janey ‘Plugin City’ 79
Anna Kassberg 80
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Klara Kohls 83
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Michalis Kounounis Revolving around the introduction of olive trees into Birmingham, this project circumnavigates the needs of these trees, sunlight and precipitation, therefore influencing the buildings form and function, employing a stepped level system. This allows the trees to have maximum exposure to the elements which allows them to grow. The building complements its Mediterranean feel with a terracota rainscreen covering that envelopes the buildings’ steel structure. 85
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Tom Majski The project is concerned with the use of film to preserve both the heritage and the memory of the site and it’s surrounding area. Cinema is not directly concerned with truths and a series of filters and alterations are applied to present the audience with the images and emotions the director wants to stimulate. By removing the filters from the camera lens and re-configuring them as part of the building, the participants are put into the world as imagined by the director, something that normally exists merely as a post-production illusion. 87
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Mariam Mann ‘Foundry Renaissance’ 91
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Glen MĂśelo ‘Health + Culture’ Based on the site analysis and the charrette day, I orientated the site to become an eco friendly area. I kept the warehouse and the listed building to integrate well with the new buildings. The site is pedestrian focused, with a green barrier protecting it against the road. There is also large green spaces interlaced throughout the site to connect it with the existing path and to connect the buildings and retail created.
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Laura-Elena Nicula 95
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Anila Safeer ‘Refract’ The concept behind the scheme revolves around Birmingham’s historical past in jewellery making. Taking inspiration from a diamonds facets, the trillion cut has now been applied to the façade of the housing blocks. This creates dramatic light conditions that challenge societies’ pre-conceptions of how an apartment block can interact with the public realm. An on-site jewellery complex covers all the stages of the design process from conceptual ideologies to retail units. 99
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Magdalena Salmi 101
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Jagdeep Sehmar The estate is to provide low-rise, high-density living accommodations for approximately 54 occupants. The public routes cutting through the site sculpt the form of the estate fundamentally. The programme comprises of reviving the clay and wooden toy industry in Digbeth, enabling the opportunity for livingworking accommodations.
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Obinna Springer-Williams ‘Feed the city’ The idea behind the project stems from a community of artists within the city, providing a feeling of removal from the economic and cultural centre. Looking into organic production and consumption, the community promotes the radical ideal that fruit and vegetables, natural produce, should be free to all. This incorporates into the notion that the project can feed both the minds and bodies of the people of Birmingham.
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Ashley Stubbs 108
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Ryan Taylor ‘A carbon free future for Birmingham’ An algae bio-reactor is used for cultivating algae on purpose to fix CO2 emissions or produce biomass. The primary benefit of this concept is the mass production of oxygen that can be released into the cities atmosphere. Residents are brought together as a community to manage and maintain the industrial process of algae cultivation. This concept can also be applied to the wider area of Birmingham, allowing it to become carbon neutral if around 450 of these towers were to be built. 111
1. art studio 2. single/double apartment 3. family apartment 4. art shop 5. retail units 6. circulation space 7. parking spaces 8. social area 9. exhibition space 112
Shuxiao Zheng ‘See No Evil Academy’ Graffiti has become a popular form of contemporary art. However, there are still a majority that feel graffiti is a distraction and antisocial behaviour, which is often created by teenagers. The main aim of this project is to use graffiti art as a tool to enrich the culture of Digbeth, and to change people’s perception of Graffiti Art, incorporating blocks that are inspired by an artists way of life.
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Forming part of the cultural context module, ARC5004 centres around the development of western architecture during the twentieth century. In addition to this, the study trip for the year was to some of the most iconic pieces of residential architecture in Europe, linking in with the second studio design project. A popular destination was Amsterdam, where a number of projects reside such as the Whale by de Architekten Cie. and WoZoCo Apartments by MVRDV, this led to a magazine review investigating the building and its context.
ARC5004
Jac Doody ‘The Whale’
Magdalena Salmi ‘Life behind the walls of the Donnybrook Quarter’
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Technology was examined through fully integrated construction, structural and environmental information incorporated into the Digbeth project and through a project for a gallery for HS2 in collaboration with the City Council and Network Rail. Students considered how environmental strategy, structural strategy, cost planning, accessibility and fire safety can drive design solutions at a conceptual level to develop a meaningful approach to technology within buildings.
ARC5007
Joe Bowman Fran Chappelow Lucy Dunn 117
Taylor Beech Adam Clarke Ben James 118
ERASMUS 120
This year for the first time an exchange was organised with Umea University, sending two students from BSoA and receiving four students from UMA; as well as receiving students from Germany and France in Birmingham. It provides a great learning opportunity, allowing students to experience the studio environment within a different culture as well as living in another country. Tamanna Akhter and Ellen Davis were our representatives in Sweden this year and a summary of their projects continues...
Image credits: Tamanna Akhter 121
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Tamanna Akhter ‘Occupying the Hinterland’ The brief was to design a public building in Holmsund, a hintertown just outside of Umea, Sweden. The allocated site sits between two large industrial areas and is isolated from the rest of the town. In order to bring more people into the area, I designed a Fish Market that allowed the local community and visitors to gather. The site is central to all the best fishing points in Holmsund and would allow those fishing to come to the market place and either sell or cook their catches of the day. The timber structure plays on the traditional Swedish construction with modern mechanics. The open roof acts as a fish drying rack and can be opened and closed to reveal the view of the bay in the distance as well as shade.
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Ellen Davis ‘Occupying the Hinterland’ At the edge of the hinterland of Holmsund, a slither between sea and sky, there exists a void, that cannot be part of the industry that is encroaching the site, yet it cannot be a home. On this peninsula, the swimming pool, rather than being an end destination, is instead a journey, for reflection and appreciation of the hinterland. A continuous series of experiences through transitions between exposure and enclosure, light and darkness, and a continuous entwine of basaltic stone, warm softwood, and cleaning water reeds. Upon entering the pool, the swimmer transcends into the internal lagoon, into the pool itself, guided by the stone path. At intervals, there are islands of rest, saunas for contemplation, as part of the journey around the lagoon. As the journey progresses, the swimmer is to contemplate and reflect on their connection to the hinterland of Holmsund; are they a part of its public life? Would they like to partake in an onwards journey of change? 125
STUDENTS 2013-2014 Adejoke ADEWUNMI Stina AHLQVIST Tamanna AKHTER Taylor BEECH Jack BERRETT Joshua BOARDMAN Jack BOWDEN Joe BOWMAN Lewis BUCKLEY Callum CAMPBELL Bonnie CARSWELL Frances CHAPPELOW Adriana CHESARU Adriana CHIRITA Adam CLARKE Ellen DAVIS Saffa DEHGHANI Jac DOODY Vitalijus DUK Lucy DUNN Matt EVANS Kimran FAROOQ Stanley FU Richard GRIMES Dagmar HEIMAN Ben JAMES Jeyani JAMES 126
Gaurav JANEY Anna KASSBERG Klara KOHLS Michelis KOUNOUNIS Tom MAJSKI Mariam MANN Aron MATEFI-TAKACS Glen MÖELO Laura NICULA Corina OANCEA Naheeda RAHMAN Anila SAFEER Jatinder SAGOO Rachelle SALAZAR Asose SALIH Magdalena SALMI Jagdeep SEHMAR Obinna SPRINGER-WILLIAMS Ashley STUBBS Ryan TAYLOR Jessica TYLER Jorn WAGNER Sam ZHENG
CREDITS: Tom Tebby Prof. Jim Low Hannah Vowles Edited and complied by Jac Doody printed by mixam.co.uk
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Birmingham School of Architecture //2014
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