Architecture Portfolio

‘Transparent Process’ Electric engine assembly plant with teaching facilities Architecture and Planning Design Studio 4 Jonathan Gomes 12010141

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Contents

- Brief

- Context - Analysis

- Regional Masterplan - Analysis

- City Wide Masterplan - Analysis

- Com St and Usk Way Masterplan - Analysis

- City Quarter Masterplan - Site Plan - Masterplan Phasing

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- Process

- Electric Engine Assembly Plant

- Schedule of Accommodation - Speed Planning

- Development of the Masterplan - Environmental Moderator

- Design Iteration 1

- Design Iteration 2

- Design Iteration 3

- Design Iteration 4

- Building

- Plans - Sections - Elevations - Form - Access - Materials - Use - Environmental Strategies - Structural Strategies - Atmosphere

- Retrospective Design Changes

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Brief

The brief for this building calls for the creation of a development based around the reintroduction of industry into Newport. This will be brought about by the introduction of an electric engine assembly plant with teaching facilities into the south of the city, at a hinge point between the industrial area of the city and the centre.

The building will bring together the acts of meeting and making to reinvigorate the local area and remove the standard impermeability of industry. The building will consist of three parts; the factory space, the teaching space, and the gathering space. The implementation of teaching and gathering with the industrial process brings social interaction, and the learning of skills that will help to re-bolster Newport’s economy and identity within its national context and reintroduce it as an area of importance.

The general architectural approach of the design will be one of transparency, to fight the monolithic and impermeable nature of industry. This will bring trust and engagement with the process and by extension, trust in industrial processes. Trust in industry will then bring pride in the community and solidify community relations across the city.

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CONTEXT

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Context

Newport is a coastal frontier town near the border between Wales and England. Situated to the east of Cardiff, it has all the infrastructural benefits of being located near a capital city. This close vicinity also brings problems as Cardiff acts as an economic sponge for investment, taking it away from other potential investment areas (such as Newport). Despite this, Newport has many resources future development can harness to bring the city back to its former standing (such as the strong University links with the University of South Wales).

Within its national context, Newport sits on the frontier of the UK automotive industry in which it currently takes no part in. Bringing this industry into the city will connect it to this vast network of innovation and manufacture whilst bringing the economic boom Newport so desperately needs.

Newport has a been deeply rooted in industry since the industrial revolution and experienced vast growth during this time. This being most prominent during the years of the coal industry. With the closure of the coal industry and the current failing steel industry, Newport is quickly losing not only its viability, but its identity also. A city without identity cannot inspire social, and in turn, economic growth. This is Newport’s most pressing issue and its remedy is bringing in this new industry to latch onto whilst diversifying its main industries to maintain its stability.

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Industrial Context of the UK

UK economy 2013

Looking towards the possible candidates for a replacement industry in Newport, these are the exports currently from the UK. The largest export category in 2013 was machinery and electrical. This means that the UK specialises in mechanical and electrical products.

Looking deeper into this category, it shows that the three largest exports in this category are gas turbines, automatic data compilers, and compression ignition engines. Gas turbines and automatic data compilers are impractical for Newport as these industries are already saturated in the UK and so Newport would receive little economic benefit pursuing them.

The third industry provides promise as although the engine market is saturated at this point, the combustion engine as it stands is nearing obsolescence. This is quickly being replaced by electric engines as the world tries to move away from fossil fuels before their inevitable depletion.

Electric engines provide Newport with a great opportunity. Not only does it plug a gap in the UK export market, it will help propel Newport forwards with the rapidly increasing market for these engines.

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Looking at the graphs from 1995-2013. It is evident that the market for electric engines has been steadily growing for the past decade. Almost every continent has seen production rise over this time. Although this has happened, the market is still very small as it only reaches nearly 50 billion dollars globally. This is approximately 1/9th of the UK’s economic output for 2013.

This provides Newport the perfect opportunity to jump into this industry whilst it is in its infancy and leverage the current steel industry in the city to achieve faster and more efficient output than other cities in the UK and globally.

Extending on from this, Newport could even, using these electric engines, create its own electric vehicles for the global market. This would be beneficial as the market for transport in general in the UK has been steadily growing whilst other categories have stalled. Newport also has access to workers with the right skill sets, large amounts of cheap land, and the transport infrastructure to make this possible.

The University of South Wales also could provide the new skills required for some aspects of this industry through the campuses that exist in Cardiff and Ponty-Pridd. Extending the engineering based courses to Newport would further this as well. This ties in to the region as a whole even more through the new development of the ‘Circuit for Wales’ that will be built in Blaenau Gwent, to the north of Newport. This will provide a breeding ground for technical innovation that will link perfectly to Newport and its new automotive industry.

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Region Infrastructure

Road Networks

The clustering of road networks around Bristol and Cardiff help benefit Newport due to its close proximity to both cities. This connectivity will allow an industrial boom in Newport to have the required infrastructure to function.

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Dock Exports

The export capabilities of these cities vary. Swansea and the dock near Bristol export the most in the region by sea and so would be the ones to directly compete with through this export method.

University Locations

Universities

The major cities in the region all have at least one university. This opens the ability for region wide university collaboration to focus around Newport.

Universities with Automotive Courses

The prominence of the universities of these cities educating in the automotive related industries are similar. Newport is the one major city in the area without a university campus that educates in this industry. This provides the opportunity to introduce one to compete and collaborate within the region and beyond.

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Regional Masterplan

Circuit of Wales, Blaenau Gwent University and Industry Collaboration Circuit of Wales

Caerleon Ponty-Pridd SWANSEA

PONTY-PRIDD Bridgend Ford Factory SWANSEA & CARDIFF

UK Automotive Industry BRISTOL

The plan for the region is to move the automotive relevant courses in the main engineering campus of the University of South Wales in Ponty-Pridd to Newport. Doing this will allow the campus to directly link to the site as well as allow better infrastructural connections from the campus to all the important identified sites.

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NEWPORT

Exports

Bridgend

CARDIFF

BRISTOL

Newport will aim to be the new industrial hub of the region and surpass all the docks in the area in terms of exports. Its new identity will be safeguarded by a restricted development zone between Cardiff and Newport and expansion will instead be allowed to the north and east.

Newport Location

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Newport Environmental Constraints

Newport is situated in the south of Wales to the east of Cardiff. It is a city constrained by the multiple SSSI areas throughout the county and effectively prevents expansion to the south towards the coast. This has meant the city expansion has spread along the tendrils of the roads leaving the city towards the north and east.

The only expansion options available for the city would be towards the north and east regions of the city due to these constraints. This is beneficial as it maintains the barrier between Cardiff and Newport and stops the capital city absorbing Newport.

The other implication these environmental constraints have is the clear divide between the east and west of the city due to the restricted development caused by the SSSI areas.

Protected environmental areas

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Current City Wide Proposals 2011 - 2026

The proposals for the city are the new M4 relief road to the south of the city that has the implication of cutting off part of the dock from certain height vessels. This reduces the capacity of the dock and means a new dock will have to be proposed to deal with an industrial boom The next proposal seeks to place new housing (the pink) across the existing brownfield sites throughout the city. This will increase the population within the city and so to prevent Newport becoming a suburb of other cities, its internal employment must increase.

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City Scale

There is a clear divide between the industrial and residential areas in the city. This has the implication of making industry a secondary part of the city and diminishes its importance in the eyes of the public. Since Newport has historically gotten its sense of identity from its industrial processes, the city is shunning its own identity. This leads to the place feeling empty and without purpose.

Residential and Industrial Zones

The city has a strong transport link (the M4) to the north of the city that allows for easier exporting and connections to the rest of the UK. This is beneficial for industry as it provides the required infrastructure to carry out business.

There is also a dock to the south of the city that will provide export infrastructure via the sea. This allows heavy materials that are uneconomical to transport by plane to be moved economically. This has implications for the current steel industry as raw material can be brought in by sea and the finished product can be shipped abroad if production allowed.

Infrastructure 18

There are multiple barriers to the communities across Newport. This being mainly the rail line, river, and major roads. This has the implication of making walking within the city difficult and promoting car use and anti-social tendencies.

Movement Barriers

Using these barriers, this image highlights the residential areas and where permeating the fabric of the city is difficult or impossible. This difficulty is most prominent in the southern quarter of the city as difficult to cross roads cluster in this area. The city will need a tram network to knit the areas together and reduce traffic to make these difficult areas more easily passed.

Divided Communities 19

Transport

Bus

Rail

The bus network in the city is evenly spread between the east and west of the city. This is beneficial as it provides some of the transport needs the site will require. Some routes will need to be detoured due to the closure of the Usk Way to traffic and so a tram network becomes the perfect solution.

The rail services in the city provide the perfect infrastructure for rail freight for the increased industrial output as a result of the masterplan.

This further demonstrates the high level of infrastructure available to industry in the city.

Cycle Paths

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Major Car Routes

The city as a whole is poorly serviced by cycle routes. The main connection points are from the centre and south of the city to the rest of the region. This has the implication of only bringing people from outside of Newport. Due to the distances involved, this is likely to be few. One benefit of the current network is that it connects the site to the centre of the city easily.

The major car routes divide the city into east and west. This prevents easy permeation between these two areas and so the Usk Way route poses a major problem. This will be remedied by pedestrianising this route and allowing traffic to flow around the city rather than through it. The southern route will also be reduced to two lanes from four and made a one way strip. This will make crossing this barrier easier and safer, especially for the site.

Local Economy

Initially, Newport’s industry was based around the exporting of coal. This provided the majority of the jobs for the city and so the city expanded during this time to accommodate the economic growth. With the closure of the coal mines, a large part of the city’s economy closed off with it. The steel industry being a later but still large part of the economy helped to keep the city afloat in the last century. Now the city faces the closure of its main industry again with pressure from cheap Chinese steel imports around the world. This lack of ability to compete will see the majority of the steel industry dry up in Newport and further eat into the economy of the city. This being clearly evident in the fact Newport has lost 4000 jobs between 2005-2009, even though this was a period of extreme economic growth.

The problems left from these factory closures will be;

- The unemployed skilled work force

- The raise in poverty levels

- Drop in city image and loss of identity

- Lack of funding to prevent flooding Newport has always been a manufacturing city and through this it has gained its identity. The loss of this industry has diminished the identity of the city and left it feeling hollow. This highlights the need for a progression from the steel industry as it is to a system that uses the output from this industry to fuel another more valuable industry. Such as the automotive industry. Such an industry would generate a demand for steel, which would help maintain current jobs, whilst creating a new industry that would generate more revenue and diversify Newport’s industry.

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Education

Community Learning Centres

Residents Without Qualifications

There are 3 community learning centres in Newport which supply support services, courses and services for those with special needs. These are clustered around the city centre.

Residents without Qualifications. The intensity of the colour indicates the percentage of residents with no qualifications. The most severe averages at around 40% a ward.

This has the implication of drawing all social activities for young people towards the centre and leaves the rest of the city disused by this demographic group.

This means that a large percentage of population in Newport lack the qualifications to work in the higher tier jobs of industry. This means that some form of re-education will be required to bring this demographic into work.

Significant Unemployment Rates

Comparison Between Lack of Qualifications and Unemployment

The above diagram maps the wards with the highest unemployment rate. This was compared with resident’s qualifications to see if there was any link between the two.

This further emphasises the need for re-education to integrate people into work (especially in industry).

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Two of the wards indicated a link between unemployment and low qualifications.

This confirms the need for the development to have some form of educational spaces for all ages to help remove the current trend in these areas towards no qualifications whilst helping to reintegrate those who have fallen victim to this trend.

City Master Plan

The master plan for the city proposes a set of mixed use zones extending into the centre of the city. These zones will relax planning regulation to allow the conversion of use from residential to light industrial/ business. This allows for light industrial as well as R&D business to permeate into the centre of the city.

The inevitable residential expansion of the city is zoned to the west of the city to allow for unobstructed growth and prevents Newport and Cardiff merging together.

New restricted development areas are designated for the west and north west of the city. This helps to preserve rural communities in these locations and keep a physical barrier between Cardiff and Newport.

A new dock will be built to replace the lost capacity due to the new M4 relief road dividing the dock. It will be situated on the site of a current energy facility which will close within 10 years due to it being a coal-fired, aging plant.

The final proposal in the plan is for a cross city tram network that will help to knit together the inner city, suburbs and more rural out skirt communities. There is also an express tram line between the proposed development site, and the Newport and Caerleon campuses of the University of South Wales. This link will provide quick connections between the campuses and with some reorganisation of course locations for the university, the site will provide invaluable learning experience through its teaching facilities.

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Commercial Street and Usk Way Area

The residential areas (pink) are entirely separate from the industrial (purple). The industrial acts as a large impermeable wall between the Usk Way and the south of Commercial Street. This has the implication of dividing communities and causing a lack of social interaction between the spaces.

This will be remedied by the mixing of residential and industrial uses to allow people to permeate industry more easily.

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The current access across this area is predominantly for the car (red). There is pedestrian access (black) along the riverbank and partially in the centre but there is no easy connection between these two routes. This disconnect makes movement between south and north difficult on foot and as such prevents some from accessing the centre almost entirely. Pedestrianisation of the Usk Way and Commercial Street will help to remove this disconnect and knit together the inner city.

River Tide and Flooding

High and Low Tide from the Site

14th October 2013 Floods

The River Usk has some unique qualities;

- Second highest tidal rise and fall of any river in the world.

- Every spring tide, some 70,000 tons of silt are carried in on the tide and then out again.

- Flow of water can vary from 10 cubic metres per second to 1000 cubic metres per second.

- Largest tidal range known for Newport is 13.45m.

These qualities have the implication of making the river extremely prone to bursting its banks. This means either vast amounts of land need to be set aside for flooding, or the river bank needs increasing in height through the use of flood walls or dykes.

The River Usk has flooded repeatedly in recent history. These floods have disproportionately affected the east of the city. This shows the urgent need for strengthening of the east bank flood defences. Despite this, the west bank of the river also needs some strengthening as it has started to fail and flooded some of the low laying areas of the city. The proposed development is situated in one of these flood-able zones. This means that increased flood defences would be needed to protect the site as well as the current development in the area by creating a continuous defence.

Some flood-able land to the east may be necessary to alleviate the flooding on the east bank. This would be best located to the north outside of the city. This would mean the water would be caught in a flood plain before it has a chance to reach the city. Unfortunately, flood plains are fairly land intensive and so may not be economically viable.

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Industrial Push and Flood Defence

The proposal for the Commercial St and Usk Way portion of the city is for the introduction of the designated zones that will allow the change of use classes from commercial and residential into business and light industrial. This is proposed to help reintroduce the manufacturing and, by extension, designing into the city. This is aimed at restoring the identity of the city and help attract further investment.

A number of derelict sites have been identified along the Usk Way that would be ideal for mixed use developments between these use classes. This mixing of uses will help people living in the area to become more involved and trusting in the industrial and design processes. This will inspire pride in the community as they will feel a part of the city and its processes.

Looking at Commercial St, there are a number of buildings in poor condition and unused that would be perfect seeds for investment into the area by demonstrating to potential investors the benefits of small industrial and design businesses and what they can contribute as a whole to a company.

The final proposal for this area would be the redevelopment of the river bank area of the site and beyond. These areas can be prone to flooding so flood defences along this portion will be implemented. This will protect the Pill area from the increased frequency of floods expected due to climate change.

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Access

Commercial St and Usk Way will be almost entirely pedestrianised to allow for a more pedestrian friendly connection through the proposed areas of use class changes. Pedestrianised streets have also been proposed between these two streets to make direct connections from both streets to the new Friars Walk shopping centre development. These connections will make the both roads become one area rather than the two clearly different spaces they currently are.

The proposed access changes to this area are the introduction of the tram network across the city and the express line running through to the site which was referred to in the city wide proposal.

The final proposal is for a new pedestrian bridge towards the bottom of the Usk Way area. This is connected straight through to Commercial St and helps to knit together the populations in Pill and the east side of the river bank. This is important because the majority of the bridges crossing the river Usk in the city give priority to the car. This makes the bridge feel less safe and people will be less inclined to walk across it.

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Site

The site is located to the south of the city at the bottom of the Usk Way. It is currently grassed over with a tarmacked route running along the south river bank. There exists a listed building on the site called the Maltings building. It is currently inaccessible due to fire damage and its closure for safety reasons.

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Pedestrian Access

Residential and Industrial

Matching the residential and industrial make up of the site and surrounding area with the movement barriers demonstrates the massive disconnect in the area. Not only are the industrial areas entirely impermeable, access on the site is blocked to the west. A perimeter around the existing Maltings building also currently exists which further restricts access on the site.

Access Barriers

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Spatial

Section 2

Section 1

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Section 1

Spatially, the site is very flat and is dominated only by the Maltings building. It is by far the tallest man-made object on the site and one of the tallest in the surrounding area (only passed by an apartment block and the bridge. This makes the site very exposed but provides a lot of potential for design freedom.

Section 2

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Views

The Transporter Bridge

The Maltings Building

The A48 Bridge

The major views within the site and surroundings are the transporter bridge, the Maltings building itself, and the bridge crossing the river.

These views are important as they are the highest objects in the area and so act as position markers in the city to help people to orientate themselves as well as contribute to the overall skyline.

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Local Climate

Highest Recent Flood Event

Local Sun Path

The local climate is one of the warmest and sunniest in the UK due to the shielding and warming effect from the gulf stream. This makes schemes designed around harnessing solar gain perfect for Newport.

The Maltings building is an important structure on the site and so how the sun shadows this building is important. In the summer the sun hits every face of the building and due to the exposed nature of the site, the sun path is unobstructed. In the winter the northern faces are cast in shadow for the entire day. This provides a refuge from the direct sun in the winter months.

Recent flooding shows the entire site is currently at risk. A flooding intervention would be needed to be implemented to make the site usable and protect the areas beyond that would be flooded in the future as sea levels rise.

Local Wind Directions

Summer Shadows

Winter Shadows

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Maltings Building and Site History

1880

1900

In the 1880s the current Malting building didn’t exist and the site was dominated with industrial buildings relating to the iron foundry to the north-east of the site. These were all serviced by rail and the freight was carried to the dock and beyond.

In the 1900s the Maltings building came into existence and began operations. This was serviced by the existing rail infrastructure and allowed the output from the building to be transported across the country.

1950

1970

In the 1950s, the output from the Maltings was exported via rail only as the old dock had closed and the Wharfs that lined the river bank had been decommissioned. The iron foundry to the north-east of the site was expanded during this time and continued exporting via rail.

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In the 1970s the Maltings building was decommissioned and left derelict for 35 years until the building succumbed to an arson attack in 2005. It has been left in ruins ever since. The remaining industry on the site has diminished over the coming decades and now the site is entirely industry free with some light landscaping to allow people to access the site.

City Quarter

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Site The trees on the site will be moved into this new position and more local tree species will be planted in this location. They will be used as a visual and acoustic screen to the turning circle for deliveries.

The interactive play space will be surfaced with tarmac, the same as the rest of the site. This will be broken up though with patches of wild bushes to create small paths and spaces. These spaces will then house the play equipment.

Tarmac will be used as the surface across the site to continue the current use of materials across the site whilst providing a hard wearing material that will be easily maintained A new bridge will be provided across the old lock to help better connect the site to its surroundings and make the lock less of a connection barrier to entering the site. The new bridge will also serve as a way to view the mudflats from above to observe the wildlife that interacts with it.

Small one meter dykes border the flood able area of the site to prevent water completely flooding the site. These dykes are cut into with stone walls similar to those that currently exist on the site. This is to give a sense of continuity across the site as well as add a bit of old local vernacular back. Benches are then attached to this wall at regular intervals to allow for resting places for the elderly and disabled.

Wild bushes help to slightly reduce the strain on the river capacity during high rainfall events by drawing in some of the water. The wild bushes also cause a natural barrier to prevent anyone falling onto the mudflats or into the river, improving the safety of the site.

The old lock will be cleared of the plant life that currently exists there to allow for the mudflats to come back. This will provide more habitat for local wildlife and enable a viewing area of this wildlife within the site.

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Rough patches of daffodils are planted around the site to introduce some colour into the predominantly grassed areas. This vibrant yellow also ties into to bright factory machinery colours to create an overall aesthetically pleasing environment with welsh plant life bringing character to the place.

Layout The tram station was best located where it is because it allows visibility from most directions around the site and from the building itself. It is also placed along the proposed tram line lane, before the vehicle access to the site. This allows for deliveries and visitors to access the site without interrupting the tram service drastically.

Placement of the mixed use blocks was dictated by the preservation of the view channel to the transporter bridge to the south-west. This is an important view in the area and so keeping it mostly in line with the engine factory reduces the visual impact of the development. The restricted amount of land due to the flood plain is another factor.

The flood able area allows for increased river capacity during high volume rain events that is able to be used during normal weather conditions. This risk of flooding constrained the site and restricted development along the river bank.

The whole site has been designed so that it is all the same level to ease access for all groups of people. The only interruption comes from the dyke styled flood defence that borders the flooding zone. This small 1m high dyke is ramped at specific important access points to allow for permeation of the site and access for all.

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Transport Access Tram Access (Light Blue With Dots)

Road Access

Car Access (Light Blue)

Trams are able to be accessed by all and cater to disabled and the elderly by allowing them to cross the city quickly and with ease.

The road has been divided into two and the lane closest to the site has been devoted to tram use only. The remaining lane has been turned into a one way lane running east to west to allow traffic to flow in one direction and make crossing safer.

Cars can enter and exit to the north of the site but are restricted to that area.

This tram station is intended as the main transport node to the site and car access is given second priority

Cars can also pass through to the mixed use blocks to allow residents to own cars.

Industrial Vehicle Access (Purple) Industrial vehicles can also enter only through the north of the site.

Lorries are restricted to direct in and out access without access to the mixed use blocks and smaller vehicles are allowed to pass through to service the mixed use blocks.

Destinations These are the site destinations by vehicular access

Vehicular Access 38

Pedestrian Access Access across the site is suitable for all groups of people including the elderly and the disabled. This is due to the whole site being one level. The one change of level and the flood defences slopes up slowly to allow easy access over the dyke.

Within the building there are two floors. The top floor can be accessed via a lift for these vulnerable groups and there are no steps or change in levels that would encumber their movement anywhere else.

Bicycle access is available across the entire site as the site has been catered towards wheel chair access. Fast cycling would not be recommended on the site due to the elderly, disabled, and children occupying areas throughout. The single level of the site though would help any cyclists to see any potential hazards long before they reached them so safety wont be affected.

The Public (Blue) The public have access to all areas on the site.

The building itself allows access into the garden space and along the circulation space looking into the factory.

Students (Green) Students from the University of South Wales have access to all areas of the site. Their access within the building is allowed everywhere apart from the factory space. The factory space is accessible through the health and safety orientation room on the first floor of the teaching space. They will then be accompanied along the gantry and through the factory.

Local people can have access to the teaching space with the same conditions as students during night classes which are aimed at improving local skills.

Staff (Red) Staff have access to all areas of the building and site at any time day or night (depending on if it is during their shift or not).

Destinations

During the event of a fire, people will congregate in the car park and await the emergency services.

Emergency access is available through the same entrance to the site other vehicles use but they are able to follow the pedestrian route all throughout the site as provision has been made to make the paths wide enough for ambulance access.

These are destinations for the people entering the site. Their colour designates the group the area is most likely to be used by.

Pedestrian Access 39

Site Design

Enric Miralles - Olympic Archery Range 40

Enric Miralles uses straight paths to dictate the flow of people through the site. Usually people would rebel against such order and would take unintended short cuts. This is remedied through the use of rounded corners between these straight elements. This gives a much softer form and more flexibility to movement across the site.

Using this approach, the design of the site consists of straight elements with rounded corners to give a less dictated route whilst maintaining an order within the site. The curved routes also serve to draw people through the site as long straight paths tend to deter people and make a site less interesting to move through.

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Masterplan Phasing

Phase 1

New bridge implemented

Infrastructure Changes Pedestrianisation of the Usk Way and Commercial St. Implementation of the tram lines and tram stations Conversion of the A48 road into a two lane, one way street.

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2016 - 2020

Phase 2

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2021 - 2024

Landscaping and Flood Defences Planting of wild bush along the river bank Patches of daffodils spread throughout the site randomly to give a wild aesthetic Path changes Dyke with walls implemented

New park space ready for building completion New bridge over the old lock Trees planted to mask areas from the road

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Phase 1

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2025 - 2027

The Building Trees implemented to mask lorry noise Front car park and lorry turning circle completed The building is completed The interactive play space is fitted with the learning equipment

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Phase 2

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2028 - 2040

Industrial Expansion Policy change causes expansion of industry into the centre of the city Mixed use blocks are built

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PROCESS

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Programme Specifications

UQM Factory Precedent

The electric engine assembly plant with teaching space lends itself perfectly to Newport because of the economic climate it exists in. It sits between the service economy of Cardiff and the arts and service economy of Bristol. The only way to diversify the economy of Newport is to play on its strengths and pursue its industrial history. The current industries it is home to are failing due to the global market but the automotive industry provides promise. With the advent of electric engines, Newport can jump on this industry in its infancy and leverage its resources of strong infrastructure, workforce, and large amounts of cheap land. This combination will allow this industry to take root in the city and be fed regionally and locally by the network of universities across the region.

The industry will function much like the German automotive industry where instead of having one extremely large plant, you have hundreds of smaller units that each make something distinct. This collaborative method of manufacture will help to involve the whole city, rather than the limited area a large plant would affect.

The building itself will make electric engines for the automotive industry and teach students of the University of South Wales, and local people, how the engines work and how to make them. This will give them the skills to push this industry in Newport and bring up the local skill base and employment rates.

An example of a factory that makes the type of electric engine Newport will make is the UQM factory in Colorado, USA. This type of electric engine is highly durable and can be used in all forms of road vehicle. The factory itself is semi-automated. This means that the engines are partially assembled by machine and partially by hand. This approach would likely carry into the future and so will be the approach of the factory in the design. This means that the factory will be able to employ locals in Newport and teach them new skills rather than be entirely driven by profit.

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Power inverter and controller

Electric Motor

Spaces Required

These are the optimal sizes for the required spaces based on the amount of people that will use the building and the machinery required.

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Speed Planning

The masterplanning process was started through a group speed planning session. This lead to some of the major ideas in the project such as the closure of the Usk Way and development restricted zones.

This process was helpful as it allowed for the testing of ideas and provided the first step towards a masterplan approach.

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Progression of the Master Plan

The initial overarching idea for the master plan was the blending of residential with industrial zones. So much so that the actual buildings themselves become mixed use. This has the benefit of reducing travel times and increasing trust in industry as the processes are more transparent and friendlier to people.

This progressed to the idea of a set of centres across the city that are served by a cross city tram network to facilitate this growth in industry whilst connecting the city together more. This version of the master plan also had the introduction of restricted development zones around the perimeter of the city to restrict expansion and buffer Newport from Cardiff. This was later removed from the north and east as it was decided it was too restrictive of the city’s growth. The buffer zone to the west of Newport was maintained for the sole reason of keeping a physical barrier between the urban fabrics of Cardiff and Newport.

Further in the design process, the idea of industry permeating residential zones was taken further and pushed up into the centre of the city to attempt to apply a sense of identity that would be consistent in large parts of the city. The expansion of residential zones was also explored and projected large growth towards the east and north of the city. This was later removed as it is over estimating the growth of the residential areas of the city.

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Scale Tests

Tesla Factory - California, USA

The Tesla factory is a famous example of an electric car plant that makes their own electric engines. The factory is enormous and in terms of scale, takes up a space the size of the Usk Way quarter of the city. This plant broken down into its parts though can easily fit in the brownfield sites across the southern portion of the city. This gives the opportunity for the electric engine assembly plant to feed other automotive buildings to create an entire vehicle.

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McLaren Production Centre by Foster & Partners, London

UQM Technologies Scale Test

The McLaren factory is an example of an combustion engine car factory.

The scale of this building fits within the site and has to house entire cars.

This demonstrates the outer limits of space needed for engine assembly.

The UQM factory implanted into the site is even smaller and shows a similar scale to what is required from the building in Newport. This being the factory most similar to the aim of the building, this scale has served as the reference for the requirements of the building.

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Environmental Moderator

The environmental moderator task was useful as it allowed for the testing of approaches of manipulating the environment. In this case, light and views. The main approach learned from this project involved manipulating the light through elements to change the quality of light in the space.

The project also served as a test for approaches that in the end didn’t work. This was mostly based around the treatment of materials in the design. The specified material didn’t have the required durability for the site and in the end wouldn’t have worked.

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Design Iteration 1

The initial design iteration involved testing the possibilities of the site.

The process started with filling the site entirely and breaking it down into spaces gradually until arriving at the T-shapped building. This form lent it self to the industrial process as industrial buildings are often long forms to maximise the linear process from raw material to final product.

The secondary function of the building originally was to create an art space for scrap materials but this wasn’t carried on to the next iteration due to the nature of the low waste from assembly plants.

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Design Iteration 2

The T shape of the building morphed into an L shape and gained a second floor. The secondary function had changed from exhibition to teaching. These uses were carried through the rest of the year as they provided the opportunity for the building to become an important part of the masterplan.

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Winch process for the engine

Visibility into the building

Education Industry

The main aspect of this design was the eight pods that the engine would be winched into and assembled. This would have been done in front of a glazed wall to show off the assembly process to the public. This approach was adjusted in the next iteration to just show off the process of assembly and allowed a more flexible layout for the factory space.

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Design Iteration 3

This design iteration took the Maltings building that exists on the site and began to occupy the space. The design changed a lot during this process but the final positioning of the building was to the left of the Maltings building and within it.

The idea behind the design was to create a continuous building with the Maltings that reflected the form of it but gave a more contemporary design solution with modern materials.

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The relationship between the building and the site changed from the previous iteration and now the building became a barrier protecting the rest of the site from the noise of the road. The continuous flow of the building as well as the overarching structure created a barrier that was permeable for people but opaque to noise.

Treatment of the site lead to a formalised and structured urban fabric that was designed towards drawing people towards the public square created by the building. This would have provided the perfect observational space for people of the assembly factory within.

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Visibility into the building

Cafe & outdoor space Education Industry

Elevational building sections

Schedual of Accomodation Plant Vehicle Storage Loading Storage Quality Control Reception Office Classrooms (x2) Teaching Space Toilets (x3 Pairs) Kitchen Canteen Open Space

Total M2 576 240 180 504 196 30 60 200 240 168 128 180 912

The building was formed of three floors. The industrial processes occurred on the ground floor, the educational spaces on the first floor, and the meeting spaces were on the roof. This lead to a design that flipped the traditional model of a building and put the public space on the roof.

The bottom floors then became inaccessible to the public, apart from the reception and stair cores leading to the roof.

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Interim model

View from the A48

The result of the interim review lead to the dropping of the design and starting forming the building from scratch. The method of extending the old Maltings building was unconvincing and lead to issues of material junctions between the old and new buildings.

Looking at the history of the building, it was also decided that trusting the structural integrity of the Maltings building entirely would have been problematic due to the fire damage it had sustained previously. This lead to the approach of the final design of encasing the building and occupying it independent of the fabric of the Maltings.

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Final Design Iteration (Post Interim Review)

Breaking down the building into components, the process for this iteration began with piecing these together in different forms. It was based around the cyclical process from storage of raw material, through the assembly process, and then back into the storage area. From here the finished engines would be exported.

This cyclical process provided the perfect system to be observed and so the entire building was designed around viewing into this space.

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The site itself needed an entire redesign from the previous iteration due to the new form of the building. Looking at the flooding analysis, it was evident that a highly built up site would be impractical and in fact large parts of the site would end up flooding in the future as sea levels rose and the river burst its banks more frequently. This led to parts of the site being designed to flood during these times so that the river had increased capacity and allowed the water to flow into safe places rather than into the surrounding area, causing substantial damage.

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Nagasaki Prefectural Museum Kengo Kuma

The above model was eventually settled on as the beginnings of the final design. Taking inspiration from the Nagasaki Museum, the new portion of the building that wraps around the Maltings building is entirely transparent with a louvre system to alleviate the solar gain typical for entirely glazed buildings.

The height of the building also served to inspire the final iteration as the scale of the building was perfect for the site as it would be fairly low compared to the Maltings building, maintaining view paths to it.

Louvre walls letting views through and blocking sunlight

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The transparency of the building allows for view channels into the building and to the Maltings building. The entire approach of transparency was decided on to demonstrate a sensitivity to the local context and set back the new development whilst clearly exhibiting the industrial process within the building. This visual interaction helps to break the monolithic nature of industrial buildings and create a building that can engage the community whilst serving its use.

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Views through the building

The elevational treatment at this stage in the process involved the teaching space being entirely louvred and protected from solar gain. This light mediation was only used on the teaching space and the factory was left entirely unobstructed glazing. This had the benefit of allowing entirely clear views into the building but was impractical due to the controlled light necessary in a factory space.

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Development of the teaching space

Originally the teaching space was designed to contain two lecture theatres, three classrooms, toilets and a safety orientation room. The classrooms were later reduced to two and the lecture theatres were merged to make one large theatre.

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East elevation

Horizontal louvre diagram

Rear elevation

The final major changes to the building form involved the implementation of louvre walls to the east and west of the building and horizontal louvres along the rear face of the building. These were implemented mostly to alleviate the solar gain from the factory space due to the transparent nature of the building.

Ground floor plan

First floor plan

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Technical Development

Structural Model

The structural treatment of the building initially involved one continuous structure over the Maltings building. This was designed with the assumption that the whole building would be one internal climate.

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1 to 1 detail

The 1 to 1 was used to explore the implications of this structural approach.

The results of this led the design to separate the shelter structure from the rest of the building. This had the benefit of allowing the Maltings building to be semi-ambient and so reducing the costs of the build. This led to a structural redesign to allow for the two structures to co exist.

1:50 detail of the circulation space This is the result of the structural redesign to separate the two structures.

The building was split into two sections, the large corten portal frame shelter spanning the Maltings building, and the glazed building to the rear.

The other major change to the building involved the replacement of glass in the portal frame structure with ETFE. This was done because not only is this material cheaper than glass, it lets through 99% of light which makes it perfect for internal garden spaces.

THE BUILDING

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North to south long section 1:1000

The building is the largest in the area when the structure encasing the Maltings building is taken into account. This structure is designed to highlight and showcase the Maltings building whilst the rest of the building is set back and lower than this structure. It also reflects the scale of the area where the majority of buildings are the height of a general house but a few buildings climb up eight or nine storeys.

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Ground Floor

Ground Floor

First Floor

First Floor (with flooded site)

Front Elevation 1:200

Front Section 1:200

Rear Elevation 1:200

East Elevation 1:200

West Elevation 1:200

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West Section 1:200

Uses

Uses

The building is divided into three uses, industrial, educational, and recreational. These uses are merged within the Maltings building. This makes the Maltings building an important part of the design as it unifies the three uses in one space. This helps to knit together the spaces and create interaction between local people, students, and staff.

This interaction is expanded to the local industry and a gathering point at the restaurant opposite the site provides a perfect point for industry in the area to interact and organise collaboration. This collaboration reflects the same collaborative mix of uses within the building itself.

Interactions between uses

Interactions between industrial uses and the restaurant opposite the site

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Form

Production The McClaren Factory - Foster and Partners Visitation

The design is recessed away from the road to help to preserve views to the Maltings building and help to distinguish the new portion of the building from the ETFE shelter over the listed building.

The building is divided into three sections: - - -

The public garden space and observing areas The factory space The teaching spaces

The division of the building into the visitation and production areas is a useful technique for promoting safety and showcasing the production within the building. Using this approach, the design is divided aesthetically into two distinct sections, the ETFE shelter and the rest of the building. Unlike the continuous form of Foster’s building, the design distinctly separates the spaces to further help people to draw the distinction between observation and production.

Functionally, the building has less of a distinct separation as the factory space leaks into the Maltings building for storage and as a space for the factory engineers to work. The teaching space also shares this building with a collaborative classroom that enables the factory engineers and students to work together in an intermediate space viewable by the public.

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Recessed design

Breakdown of spaces

View of the linear elements of the building

The design of the building follows a strict linearity that runs from the entrance of the building through to the rear. Everything from the structure, to the ceiling slats follow this linearity to draw people through the building and highlight views through the factory space.

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Access Sunday

Night Classes 7-10pm Mon - Sat

Weekdays 8am-5pm

Students and local people

Students and local people

Local people

Staff

Staff

Students

The factory space operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The rest of the building and teaching space opens at 8am and closes at 10pm. The teaching space is open Monday to Saturday and the garden spaces are open every day of the week.

Staff have complete access across the entire building day and night (depending on their shift).

Students have access to the whole building apart from staff only areas (such as the staff room) and have limited access to the gantry space above the factory whilst supervised.

Local people are only allowed into the ETFE shelter area unless they are attending a night class. If this is the case, they are allowed within the teaching space too.

The building is designed to be occupied by up to 300 safely. This includes 166 students and 27 staff. The remainder of the capacity is for local people to explore the ETFE sheltered area.

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Staff

Emergency Escape

Able-bodied

On the ground floor, the factory space and plant room are fire restricted areas through the use of fire retardant materials. The exit points are the main entrance and the delivery area of the building. The fire assembly points are to the north of the building. The factory and teaching spaces are fitted with sprinkler systems to combat fire originating in these areas.

Disabled

On the top floor, the safety orientation room is a fire restricted area as it is also made with fire retardant materials. This allows disabled people to wait in the safety orientation room, safe from fire whilst the emergency services deal with the situation. The exit points of the floor are the stair core in the teaching space and the emergency stairs on the steel gantry to the opposite end of the building. The building complies with document B for its fire safety and document M for its accessibility.

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Material Palette

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Corten steel

ETFE

Zinc roofing

This is used to help differentiate the old Maltings building from the factory and teaching spaces and ties the structure over the old building to it aesthetically.

This is used because it is transparent and so maintains views to the Maltings building. It also lets though 99% of light which makes it perfect for allowing light into the garden space.

This is useful with the low pitch of the new building roof and helps to maintain views to the Maltings building by preventing unnecessary slope increasing the building height.

Polished Concrete

Steel

Glass

This is the perfect material for the factory space specifically as it is easy to clean and highly durable.

This is used in the louvres as it is durable and opaque so it prevents unnecessary solar gain.

This is used to help make the use of the building transparent to the people outside and help build trust in the community. It also helps maintain view channels in and outside the building.

Local Vernacular

Example of brightly coloured play space

The local vernacular consists of gritty and old materials such as brick and stone. This gives the environment a dark, and aged aesthetic. The building uses materials that fit this aesthetic over the Maltings building. The factory and teaching spaces use a different, more modern aesthetic with glass and steel. These materials although different, are used as complimentary materials that are submissive and allow the Maltings building itself to take the visual spotlight.

Examples of the local material palette

To draw attention to the use of the building rather than the building itself, the equipment within the factory and the interactive play space are coloured in bright primary colours to maximise their visibility through the glazed walls of the factory. This type of colouring is used in Newport in other play spaces such as the one on Commercial St. 89

Ground Floor (with materials) 90

First Floor (with materials) 91

Industrial Process

Stage 1 The delivery lorry enters the site and turns around in the turning circle.

Stage 2 The lorry backs up to the loading bay and the parts for assembly are offloaded and stored in the storage area. The parts are then taken when needed and fed into the cyclical assembly system.

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Stage 3 Once assembled, the ready made engines are put into the storage area and wait there until a lorry comes to pick them up. They are then brought from the storage area and loaded.

Stage 4 The lorry exits the site and if the way is clear of trams, it crosses the tram lanes and turns right along the one way street.

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ENVIRONMENTAL STRATEGIES

Sun path plan

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Winter Solstice

Summer Solstice

8am

8am

12noon

12noon

4pm

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Summer Solstice

Winter Solstice

Although the entire building is designed to be transparent, the approaches to the ETFE shelter and the rest of the building differ. The ETFE shelter is designed to capture as much solar gain as possible to harness this heat for the rest of the building. The rest of the building is designed to mediate this solar gain and prevent it causing discomfort within the building. This is achieved through louvres and ceiling slats to allow views through the light mediating elements but prevent excessive light penetrating the building.

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ETFE trapping heat

ETFE allows through visible light and UV whilst regulating solar gain

Summer months

ETFE makeup

In the summer months, the ETFE shelter acts as a ventilation passage.

When the hot air is let out of the roof of the shelter, it pulls air through the entire building due to the pressure differential.

In the winter months, the ETFE shelter warms up due to solar gain and this heat is pumped into the building through the plant room and into the rest of the building. If this heat isn’t enough, it is then regulated with electrical heaters to bring the temperature to a standard ambient temperature of 20 degrees.

This thermal approach wouldn’t normally work in the UK due to the amount of sun during the year not being adequate. This isn’t the case in Newport as its sun averages are higher than most of the UK and so a design based around solar gain is appropriate. Also, as global warming takes effect in the future, this will become an important asset in regulating much more erratic temperature variations.

Winter months

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Nagasaki Prefectural Museum - Kengo Kuma

Internal view through ceiling slats

Internal view through horizontal louvres Interior The Nagasaki museum provides a useful precedent for the slats on the ceilings throughout the building. They are used to not only restrict the amount of solar gain from the roof lights, but to hide the structure behind them. This means that when you look up through them, you will see large patches of sky which will make the building feel entirely transparent.

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Rear Elevation

West Elevation

Exterior The approach of restricting solar gain into the building via free-standing louvre walls is useful as it prevents entirely the transferring of heat into the building when it isn’t wanted. It also retains view channels into the building which is advantageous when trying to maintain a building with transparent uses.

View into the factory through the horizontal louvres

View of the west vertical louvre wall

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88 Wood St Richard Rogers

Views through the louvre wall

The use of brightly coloured elements behind glazed walls is useful for highlighting aspects and increasing architectural transparency of the building. The building uses this approach to highlight the use of the factory space rather than highlighting the structure in the case of wood street. This will be achieved through the use of normal primary colouring of factory machinery and insisting on this when the machinery is specified.

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Views through the horizontal louvres

The views from the interactive play space capture the three major views on the site. The transporter bridge, the Maltings building itself, and the A48 bridge. There are also clear views from all around the site and surrounding area of the Maltings building due to the recessed nature of the rear portion of the building. The transparency of the factory space also allows small views through the building itself of the listed building.

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Internal views of the Maltings building

The building is designed to give views of the Maltings building from within as well as from outside. The glazed walls of the factory and teaching spaces allow views from almost every space within the building.

This visual connection helps to highlight the importance of the Maltings building to the scheme as well as demonstrate the sensitive treatment of the building.

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STRUCTURAL STRATEGY

The building has two distinct structural approaches. The large corten steel frame that spans the Maltings building and houses the ETFE structure, and the standard steel frame of the factory and teaching spaces.

These structures are aesthetically distinct from each other but they have been carefully designed so that they follow the same structural grid. This gives the building a sense of continuity within that isn’t so immediately evident from the outside.

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Willis Faber Building Foster and Partners

Views through glass fin system

The Willis Faber building uses the structural approach of suspending glass fins off of a steel structure to create transparent structural support for the curtain wall system.

This approach has been used within the factory and teaching spaces as well as the engineers office and collaborative classroom within the Maltings building. It allows the design to maintain its transparency as well as allow the building to be structurally sufficient to hold a large amount of glass.

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Summer airflow

This 3d detail shows a standard detail of the structure and services that exist within the teaching and factory spaces. Steel I beams with holes at regular intervals allow for the services to be run easily throughout the building and allow them to be mostly hidden from view by the ceiling slats. These beams are braced with small junctions interfacing between the column and the beam at the corner to maintain the clear spans and remove the need for bracing blocking the curtain walling systems.

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1:5 ETFE shelter and factory junction detail 113

ATMOSPHERE

View from within the factory space

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The Factory

View of the factory and circulation spaces 115

View from within the teaching space

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View of the collaborative classroom and engineer office from the garden space

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View of the front of the building 118

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RETROSPECTIVE CHANGES (POST FINAL REVIEW)

Post review, it was evident the interactive play space had multiple issues that needed addressing. The first was the wasted space between the space and the building. This created an unnecessary barrier that could be cut into more. The second issue was the form of the play space itself. It is incredibly large for the small amount of use that it has and so requires another complimentary use to the electric engine assembly process.

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Looking at potential additional uses for the space, electric go karts provided the potential for children within the space to use the engines created within the factory and experience the applications of such technologies. This combined with the learning equipment creates an all encompassing learning experience that is also fun for children to get involved with.

Looking at the makeup of go kart tracks. They consist of the track itself, and the storage area for the karts (with kart rental space). This rental space can be surrounded with the learning equipment and give children a learning experience whilst they wait for their turn in the karts.

Go kart track precedents

The other benefit of the go kart track is the ease of maintenance, especially when the area of the site floods. This durability makes it perfect for implementation within this flood able area of the site.

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The development of the track design was based around creating a track within the space of the play space with ease of access from a safe point on the site.

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Track Access

The final design of the track takes up the entire play space and is interacted with through the building to the right of the track. Classes of children can be taken through this building and can wait on the other side for their turn. Whilst they wait they can interact with the learning equipment and watch the factory through the rear elevation.

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