The project acknowledges design as a pursuit that is actively and primarily altered by subjective factors- an embodied schema framed by ‘‘want, emotion and striving’ (Mark Alan Hewitt, 2020). Through spacemaking, it aims to draw awareness to the impact of our physical environments, reconsidering architecture’s role in shaping the way people live, work, enable change andtransformation.
Pier Studios
Tynemouth, Newcastle upon Tyne
Set in Tynemouth, the building houses contemporary artist studios to support the labour of art-making while also accommodating the full programme of a public gallery and artist residence. Using light and translucency to explore certain qualities of space, the building becomes a calm and simple place that draws thought and imagination. The building merges into its context, sitting lightly on the sloping landscape.
Identifying the Site
The site presents a rural landscape with grassy mounds, hills and embankments. It features a panoramic view to the sea, priory and castle. The building intends to focus on certain viewpoints and drape over the existing landscape.
Spanish Battery, Tynemouth
Personal Explorations
Initial Study - An Incubator Project
The incubator serves as an initial study for my final year design project. The 2-person structure explores a choreography of space through a play of light and shadow.
Thinking through Sketching
Conceptual sketches for my final year design project which explored the building’s relationship with the landscape. The iterative design is informed by the building’s program and sequence of spaces, with a care for accessibility and social opportunity.
Drawing attention to the art sector in Newcastle upon Tyne; the building encourages themes of collectivity to ensure sufficient access to materials, facilities, and peer support for the precarious reality of artist lives (Industria,2023). A mixed-use program introduces adjacent spaces that ensure sustainable working conditions; connecting studio facilities to an artist residence, a public gallery and cafe.
The entrance guides visitors to the gallery and cafe through a ramped corridor The double skin facade reflects the changing natures of the site into the interior spaces, and provides thermal and acoustic insulation.
2 Interior Perspective
The Atrium
Collective Art Making
The Atrium is the heart of the building and houses studio spaces. The working space offers a visual connection to the sea beyond and a transforms during the course of the day. Returning to themes of collectivity, the atrium takes on an amphitheatre shape as various programs are placed at different levels and creates an image of being together. This scheme is simultaneously framed by the vibrant art scene in Tynemouth and supporting documents which show the diminishing proportion of working-class individuals in the arts (Industria,2023). The key-words ‘collectivity’ and ‘gathering’ encourage a programme that would enable peer support, sufficient access to basic needs, work materials and facilities.
Upon visiting the site, I recorded the changing haze of the sea, daylight and weather, compiling photographs into a drawing piece to express different environmental conditions during the course of the day. As the site has an exposed coastal environment, my approach is to use light through translucent building materials to signify time, allowing the building to transform with its changing exterior conditions.
The gallery is a gathering space for the community to celebrate artists’ work. The translucent double-skin facade focuses the occupants’ attention inwards while giving way to shifting exterior conditions; the changing light of the sky, haze of the sea, daylight and weather.
axo of gallery
A view from the first floor atrium to the bridge leading towards the gallery. Interior lighting causes the glass to glow, suggesting through moving shadows the activity happening inside. Through a strategic placement of windows and programmatic spaces, the artifice intends to visually connect the artist to the public.
Mezzanine Visual Connection
Artist Residence
Artist Residence
Nestled onto the hillside, the trees unfold as occupants approach and pass through the bridge. The space opens and contrasts visually with the translucent glass used in the public spaces, offering a moment of reflection as the occupant is reorientated to the outside world.
Pre-fabricated corner-supported modules are erected to the primary structure. There is more flexibility offered with corner-supported modules as it allows the occupant to rearrange spaces based on their living requirements. The roof structure is based on a precedent study on low cost housing prototypes in Bien Hoa by Vo Trong Nghia Architects, to protect the modular structure and introuce rainwater collection.
I
Construction Sequence
Primary structure
Concrete foundation
Concrete core
Primary steel frame
Composite metal deck for floors and roof
Retaining wall
Secondary structure:
Pre-fabricred corner-supported modules
Lightweight steel frame for the butterfly roof
First layer of dsf (curtain wallling) steel support system
Second layer of dsf steel support system
Internal light gauge steel frame
Tertiary structure:
External wall and roof finish installed to the dsf steel support system, including safety gratings and railings services
Internal wall finishes
Reflecting on my sketch of aerial imagination, there is a counter-visualis ation of a light and thin material against a heavy wall. Here, i tested the quality of rammed earth- a particulate material made dense by tampingin a curved framework.
Thinking through Making
Testing rammed earth structures as a sustainable alternative to conventional concrete construction. I poured the mix into a curved mold to test its application on curved interior surfaces.
Reflecting on my sketch of aerial imagination, there is a counter-visualisation of a light and thin material against a heavy wall. Here, i tested the quality of rammed earth- a particulate material made dense by tampingin a curved framework.
Testing sustainable alternatives to conventional concrete construction.
Cohousing project - Residential (2022-23)
Byker Alley offers co-housing units for the surrounding community of Shields Road in Byker, Newcastle upon Tyne. Reusing an existing concrete structure, the building accommodates varied co-housing units. The ground floor is designed to be a placemaking device–The large opening makes an inner ‘alley’ and activates the street with a gallery space that sits playfully across a cafe and community laundrette.
