ACADEMIC
Contents
Design Project Year 3
PROFESSIONAL
User behavior analysis
Working experience
CRITICAL
Articles and writings
Drawings
Model making
ACADEMIC Design Project Year 3 This Project aims to connect and reconcile the participants and professionals within the planning processes in England while also making citizens part of the process by offering transparency and opportunities for engagement. It is often the fact that decisions which shape the cities, and spaces we inhabit are made without enough engagement from the public. This project opens the doors of urban planning and invites citizens for a glimpse into how their city is changing and how they can express their views about it.
Location & Brief
Formal and informal meetings Citizen services
This project addresses the current lack of connectivity and engagement of planning industry with regards to the public, parties of interest and other institutions. Carrying huge responsibility for the direction in which cities and areas develop I believe there should be more transparency and opportunities for engagement with the planning system in England.
Spatial organization The building is organized in vertical hierarchy so that meeting and research spaces are on lower levels - and the debating chamber has a prominent location on the second floor and is distinctly communicated on the facade - to enable views both in and out. Made for the city it is located in, the NAPR is a distinct and dynamic opportunity for more public participation in transparency within urban planning.
A place that fosters discussions and democracy
Planning & projects information and updates
Accessible and central location
Internal organization Service cores positioned in close proximity and in both wings
Circulation axis outisde and inside the building
Opening up to the surroundings
Precedents Seating layout and its influence on users and their behavior
Connections between the interior and exterior Established by prominent positioning of the debating chamber and the glazed parts, allowing views in and views out
UK, Australia adversarial seating layout
Wales, Germany - circular seating
Views out Views in
Moderator
Additional participants Core participants in debate
- Fixed seats - Scene for an argument - Stationary - Not encouraging agreement
- Flexible seats - Encourages interaction - ‘Together’ - not separated
Both the Reichstags and National Assembly include spaces for visitors which give direct views and connection with the processes happening inside - demystifying the usually concealed idea of a debating or assembly space.
Orthographic drawings
Short section
Second floor
Long section
First floor
Ground floor
Structural model
Bolted steel connections between beam and column
Mechanical separation between layers: Support structure, Insulation and Finish
S
I F
Debating chamber - Interior space section 1 2 3 4 5
Raised floor finish Foamed glass insulation Screed RC concrete precast slabs Steel beam
6 Roof concrete paves, set on pedestals 7 Water flow reducing layer
8 Foamed glass insulation - 250 mm 9 Waterproofing layer
10 RC concrete 150 mm 11 Steel decking 12 Steel beam carrier
Interior views and renders
Section through east wing
Left: Reception Right: Exhibition space
Left: Atrium Right: Debating chamber
Interior space study Left: Daytime Right: Nightime
Exterios views and renders
Section through atrium Site section
Oracle corporation
Tower Wharf
National Centre for Planning Resolutions
Temple way
Natwest Glass
One glass wharf
PWC Office
Colored panels
Red brick Stone
When completed
in 2-3 years
in 5-7 years
Located in an rapidly changing area - a building that adapts to its environment. The main cladding material - recycled copper sheets will change their color and gradually adopt to the turquoise material pallette of the Enterprise zone in Bristol
ACADEMIC User behavior study
PROFESSIONAL Internship Project
Internship Arteks Engineering
Master plan for a housing development in the outskirts of Sofia
Zones and constraints
Constraints and regulated zones
2
2
1
Regulations and zoning according to Bulgarian law Zone 1 - allowed development with density either 20% or 30% depending on site size Zone 2 - green space conservation zone - no development allowed
2
1
3
2
Zone 3 - river zone - no development
Design considerations
Location plan
Luxurious Development Diversity in home types
Access
Emphasis on green spaces
Exposure and desirable areas Orientation regarding the sun Noise and proximity to road
Access
Least to most desirable exposure
Entrance Vehicular access Within the Development
Pedestrian Pathways
Public road
Final Master plan and types of housing Type 1 Housing block
Type 3 Detached
Quality, size, pricing
Type 2 Terraced
Type 4 Semi-detached
17 single family houses 5 terraced 6 twin 6 detached 4 multifamily buildings (living blocks) 6 apartments in each Size for single family houses - 10 500 m2` Size for living blocks - 6000m2
Car access and car space to every home
Private green space Community green space
Orientation and equal sun exposure
Orthographic drawings Second floor
First floor Long section
Short section
Master Bedroom view
Single bedroom view
2 small bedrooms and a master bedroom on first floor
Kitchen and lounge on ground floor
Ground floor
Flexible studio space on second floor
PROFESSIONAL 1
Articles and writings
Interview with Michael Jones, Foster + Partners
The winner of the 2018 RIBA Stirling prize – Bloomberg Headquarters is undoubtedly an impressive and innovative building in a number of ways. Reaching a 99.1% in BREEAM the building is surely setting the standard for sustainability in office design. Michael Jones – deputy Head of studio at Foster + Partners and architect on the Bloomberg project was interviewed by students in our department – Ekaterina Petkova, Annie Davies and Suleiman Al Saadi. We had the privilege to spend an hour with Michael and ask him a range of questions, from his career path, the winner of the Stirling prize and his opinions on some hot topics in architecture today: What makes the Bloomberg HQ special in your opinion? The client. You are only as good as your client. With Mike Bloomberg we had a client who was brave, he was prepared to invest a lot of money into pushing the boundaries and take risks. Clients don’t really like to come out of their comfort zone normally and Mike was the complete opposite. He said to me very early on; “I’d rather you beg for forgiveness than ask for permission, so if you have an idea and you think it’s good, even if it’s the most off the wall idea, let’s have a go and if it goes wrong I’d rather you beg for forgiveness then”. Clients like that are very rare and that was defining part of the project. The Bloomberg HQ has raised the bar for sustainability, Lord Foster has been quoted saying that sustainability was a driver from the outset, was this always in the brief or did the practice push for it? People ask a lot about the brief, in reality it was a list of 10 things written on a piece of paper after a meeting with Mike. From that list, 1 thing was written at the bottom, in big capital letters: SUSTAINABLE. So yes, it was there from the beginning, and really, it’s no surprise as Mike is a Climate Change Ambassador at the UN. As a practice, we are also very interested in sustainability and it was a great meeting of minds. A lot of things we tried to achieve in the building had never been done before and to test it, Mike even built us a laboratory, otherwise, we would not have been able to deliver them. We decided to measure the building’s success under two ratings, the BREEAM, and the Wellbeing ratings. In its early stages it was clear that the building would perform very well under BREEAM, which meant they had to extend the range. We scored 98.5 in the design stage. On delivery, the building scored even higher reaching a score of 99.1 rating.
Interview and article with David Mikhail and Analie Riches
Mikhail Riches are the winners of the 2019 Stirling prize award. Redefining social housing and giving it Passivhaus standard they tell the story of how it all happened. A five yearlong collaboration with Norwich city council and the results speak for themselves – residents love the houses and visitors pile up to see the architectural solution. David and Analie tell the story of the award-winning project First of all, congratulations for being the team behind the Stirling Prize for the first time for social housing. Goldsmith street has been described as a ground breaking project and outstanding contribution to British architecture. Firstly, how does it feel to have that recognition. Analie: Quite strange, we keep forgetting and remembering (laughs). It’s amazing – our client did a lot of very unusual things in their project. Hopefully it will have an impact on the way people are thinking about what’s possible in housing especially within a green agenda. Has it had a lot of impact on your company? David: We won lots of work before the Stirling from various competitions, but weirdly since we won Goldsmith street, we have not won any new work. Someone said to me ‘winning the Stirling is like winning an Oscar – everyone assumes you are either too busy or too expensive’Analie: People have told me that it is changing their work culture, someone just said to me the other week they are rewriting their sustainability agenda now. This makes me feel positive and hopeful that it’s changing something. What influenced your idea of what housing should be and were there any specific precedents or housing estates that you have taken any principles from? Analie: We are working on Park Hill in Sheffield which is quite an important building and although it was not a direct influence it definitely made me want to be involved in social housing. I am quite blown away by the ideas behind it, not necessarily how well they were resolved, but the ideas themselves: like keeping places for children to play safely, orientation towards the south to maximize sunlight.David: I can’t point you to a body of work and say ‘we love that’ but why housing? I think It’s because I’ve been more in love with cities and backdrop architecture than standalone buildings that ‘shout’.In the many years I have spent traveling around Europe seeking the work of heroes I am often left slightly ‘deflated’ by the reality of what I find. I think gradually over the years that meant that I became less interested in architectural icons and more interested in backdrop city making and place making and a modest set of aspirations as a designer.
CRITICAL Hand drawings
Pencil and soft pastel drawings Measured drawing in 1:5 and 1:10 exploring materials and textures.
CRITICAL Model making
Physical modeling
Variety of modeling techniques explored: 3D printing, laser cutting and hand crafted models of cardboard plastic and recycled materials.