Architectural Design Portfolio - Matthew Layford

Matthew Layford Architectural + Commercial Design Portfolio Screen Presentation Version

Foreword This document is a comprehensive demonstration of my skills as an architecture student, assistant and designer. It follows my journey from early projects in Stage 2 when my skills began to flourish and extends through to my most recent work as an architectural assistant.

The last pages also feature samples from my personal projects, as I feel they highlight my skills outside the structure of university and industry briefs.

This portfolio is intended to demonstrate skills in:

Academic Newcastle University, Architecture BA (Hons)

Industrial Corstorphine + Wright LTD, Darlington Office

Waterfront Housing Exploring Experience New Uses for Old Infrastructure

Charity Organisation Headquarters Renovation for a University Refurbishment of a Residential Home

Electronic drafting programs, including SketchUp; Revit; AutoCAD. Hand crafts such as sketching; painting; model making; concept art.

Adobe software, including Photoshop; Illustrator; InDesign; Premiere.

Personal Additional Design Work

BornUK Fashion Mariner’s Hollow

Waterfront Housing Leith, Edinburgh Stage 2 Undergraduate Project Sectors: Community, Public, Residential

New Community Facilities Waterfront Housing Project Cables Wynd House Park Development

Cables Wynd House The Leith housing project was and exploration of community redevelopment and social cohesion. It started with a site visit, during which I conducted interviews with local residents around the area in and around Cables Wynd House as part of a group activity.

These brief chats with people left me with a greater understanding

of the issues that concern the folk of this part of Leith, from which I drew the conclusion that the area needed more community-building opportunities and activities.

The first step of my re-development was to create a canal leading to the Waters of Leith. Running parallel to the Cables Wynd House, the canal

would be serviced by a community boatbuilding workshop located in some disused and derelict houses right next to Cables Wynd. To add additional scenic improvements to these landscaping changes, I integrated a park, providing new opportunities for young Cables Wynd residents to socialise with the outside world.

2015

2020

2025

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Flexible Housing Units The houses themselves consisted of three floors. Small dwellings would be on the ground floor, while large shared dwellings would extend fromt he first floor to the second.

The small ground floor housing units were designed to be as flexible as possible. I used removeable partition walls, giving occupants

the option to extend or divide their space. Larger dwellings were intended for communal living, with large shared spaces between private bedrooms. Each large-scale dwelling contians this feature as well as a balcony and mezzanine living room which are appropriate for social functions.

For this project, I used AutoCAD to create a lasercutting schematic. I felt this was the most appropriate technique to use because it let me duplicate designs to produce a complete row of houses. The models were flexible and featured walls and floors that could be added or removed for different configurations.

I took some outdoor photographs of the scheme– something I wanted to con housin

Exploring Experience Berwick-upon-Tweed, Northumberland Stage 2 Undergraduate Project Sectors: Culture, Leisure, Public

Digital Gallery Architecture is perhaps the most effective medium in which a designer can manufacture experiences, as it encompanies all human senses. The project’s brief was to develop a new cultural centre in the city of Berwick-uponTweed. My interpretation of the project resulted in a gallery and convention centre that would

encourage local artists, stimulate public spectacles and contribute to an emerging digital culture and economy.

The Berwick Centre for Culture and Technology is designed around a central, vertical gallery that features digital screens and holographic pyramids for projection art and

motion graphics. The gallery also provides adequate floors pace for conventions and large scale events.

My floorpan is designed in a way that creates a non-linear journey, encouraging visitors to explore as many facets of the gallery as possible.

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A rendered image of the hologram development suite This photomontage depicts the type of conference rooms made available by Project INSTALL, drawing business interests to the building

For this project, a lot of the story was told through physical models.

I created a series of study models that explored the enclosed central gallery, as well as different kinds of window shading in the side galleries. To show the use of these spaces, I produced photomontages of the Hologram Developmer Suite, the main Virtual Conference Room and the Northeast-facing gallery space with an astrological display.

A photomontage demonstrating the hologram gallery concept

New Uses for Old Infrastructure Dunston Staiths, Gateshead Stage 3 Undergraduate Project Sectors: Experimental, Manufacturing, Masterplanning

Site Exploration The historic Dunston Staiths was the site of a fire in 2008, wherein a portion of the East side of the Staiths was destroyed in an act of vandalism. My brief was to produce a facility that filled the gap and revived the Dunston Staiths, giving it new functions as a prefabricated building foundry.

My graduate project descripted the emergence of an industry from the ruins of Northern Powerhouse infrastructure. The project aims to

encompass not only the Dunston Staiths, but the entirety of this portion of the River Tyne, turning it into a bustling network of manufacturing, trade and shipping.

While investigating the Dunston Staiths, I highlighted a number of key areas of interest and opportunities which shaped my earliest concepts and design decisions. On my first visit to the site, I looked at the structure from all angle, finding that access was a significant problem.

This encouraged me to assess the viability of using the old rail route as an additional access point. I stayed until nightfall to see the Staiths as a silhouette, which drew my attention to the structural framework.

In later site visits, I examined and documented the structure in greater detail so that I could create sketches, physical models and digital renders of the site. From there, I considered the viability of using it as a frame for new construction.

‘Frames’

‘Ruin’

‘Facade’

‘Bridge’

‘Factory’

‘Network’

Exhibiting a Design Concept During the process of realising my final design, I put a lot of effort into creating fast, simple concept models and paintings that capture my feelings and initial ideas about the site. I pride myself on my ability to display designs in a way that benefits my presentations and helps me sell my ideas as concepts.

The first piece of exhibition work that I produced was a series of study models which showcase different uses for the site, as well as

different functions and outlines that can be created by filling the empty space between the East and West portion of the Staiths.

Another piece was a series of watercolours which I produced on site, in which I aimed to capture immediate feelings of the site in a surreal depiction of the dark silouette of Dunston Staiths. The old pieces of infrastructure gave me inspiration to research Northern Powerhouse utilities.

One utility that interests me is the ‘coal wheel’, which was a type of elevator used in shaft mining.

I decided to incorporate this in my own building as a bespoke component that powers a freight elevator used to transport heavy materials throughout the facility.

Shared Foundry Facility

Maker Studio Director

Construction Supervisor

Studio Chamber

Maker Studio Employee

Bespoke Product

Metamorphic Industry My design was for a production facility which specialises in prefabricated buildings that could fit between the structure of the Dunston Staiths. These prefabs would be called ‘test chambers’.

Independent studios would come to the facility, using its prefabrication workshops to produce their own bespoke modular offices,

workshops and design studios which I refer to as ‘test chambers’.

The possible functions of chambers can be so varied that the idea is to create a patchwork of experiemental industry, both creative and scientific, and house in across the newly reinforced Dunston Staiths with the potential to spread to the surrounding area.

The facility proposes the re-opening of the rail line for the construction stage and for later use as a transit system. The foundry uses vehicles such as rail crane, forklifts and tugboats which make it possible to transport test chambers into the Staiths’ reinforced infrastructure.

This three-step process shows a test chamber being designed and produced in the workshop facilities of the foundry. It is then given a floatation device and transported via a tugboat to the other side of the building. Once in position, a rail crane moves the chamber into position on the Staiths, where it is aligned manually and with the aid of forklift cabs.

Development Timeline 2020 AD

Construction of the main facility completed, Staiths are reinforced.

2025 AD

Utilising the existing infrastructure, first chamber development begins.

2030 AD

Chamber construction extends beyond the first development.

Transit System Railway Boat Access via River Tyne Pedestrian Access

‘Transit Terminus’ Photomontage

ROOF

R01 Environmental Control

LEVEL 5 501 Environmental Control 502 Observation Room 503 Administration LEVEL 4 401 CNC Workshop 402 General Workshop 403 Wood Storage LEVEL 3 301 Transit System Terminus 302 Visitor Centre 203 Maintenance

‘Foundry Floor’ Photomontage

LEVEL 2 201 Forklift Charging Station 202 Offices 203 CNC Workshop

LEVEL 1 101 Upper Foundry Floor 102 Observation Room 103 Storage LEVEL 0 001 Main Foundry Floor 002 Equipment Storage

Annotations ‘Flat Roof with Window Detail’

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1. Flat RoofHouses environmental control features.

2. Sole PlateReduces chances of cold bridging

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‘Composite Floor with Ceramic Panel System’ 3. Composite Ceramic FacadePanels crafted on-site contain clay dredged from the salt banks and marshland of

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the Dunston Staiths. Tiles are sized to be interchangable with fenestration without interrupting the facade’s symmetry.

4. Composite In-Situ Concrete Floor SlabChosen for rigidity, can be rapidly constructed on site and easily assembled following the facility construction plan.

5. Aluminium Superstructure28mm aluminium structure needed to support the heavy weight of facility

‘Flat Roof with Window Detail’

‘Ground Floor with Pile Foundations’

equipment. It holds the ceramic panelling together using ties.

‘Ground Floor with Pile Foundations’ 6. Pile Foundations

Technology

Transferal of loads onto these vertical members was inspired by the site’s existing structure. The piles penetrate the uneven

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ground conditions at a depth of 20m in the same manner as the staithes themselves.

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‘Composite Floor with Ceramic Panel System’

The facility is based on a series of deep pile foundations that bear the load of the building in a similar way to the staiths themselves. Its construction is a steel frame with concrete floor stabs.

The cladding system is an idea that I touched upon in my work but required extra development upon critical reflection. It was intended that the cladding be a form of masonry created on site using aggregate mixed with silt clays dredged from deposits on the banks of Dunston.

Presentation Model One of my goals with the project was to create a large centrepiece in the form of a functional site and facility model. I made a 1:200 scale Balsa wood model on an A1 base with a piece of reflective acetate to represent the River Tyne. This model helped a great deal with explaining my scheme and the

wider context of Dunston Staiths during my presentations, critiques and exhibitions.

The model comes in sections that can be taken apart and reassembled to show the metamorphic industry that the experimental facility strives to create.

Charity Organisation Headquarters Newton Aycliffe Industry Project Sectors: Charity, Medical, Transport

Atmospheric Rendering One of the projects I was involved with in industry was the redevelopment of a refinery office building at the request of a well-known charity organisation.

My tasks on this project mostly pertained to visual representation, though I did produce some minor internal elevations for a tender

package. One of these drawings was for internal finishes which had been designed to replicate the trademark colours of the charity’s helicopters.

My renders were created in Lumion using a retextured Revit model. As these images were intended for

press release, they needed to be visually appealing but also explain the scheme effectively. The main office’s aluminium-clad external façade is a bespoke quality that I needed to highlight in these images.

Refurbishment of a Residential Home Darlington Industry Project Sectors: Residential, Home Extensions

Tender Package Schedules Our clients were a couple who wanted to renovate their newly purchased property and make it more suitable for family life and modern amenities. The house is in an idyllic location, flanked by trees in the front and back garden which adds to the sense of privacy and exclusivity.

My contribution to the scheme was a budgeted opening schedule, which was drawn and documented as part of a tender package during the planning stage of the project.

The exercise provided me with more experience in the technical and economic side of the industry.

Renovations for a University Middlesbrough Industry Project Sectors: Education, Interior Design, Landscaping, Masterplanning

Concept Design Another project for C+W Architects was a concept proposal for a univesity building which is awaiting renovations to house an art department, business school and science facilities. Our idea was to incorporate Corten steel in some way, as it is a functional material that can be used to easily retrofit decorations and wayfinding.

I proposed a scheme in which Corten runs from the landscaping on the outside of the building to the interior, cladding several walls on the ground floor with bespoke wayfinding signs and decorative motifs. Negative space was employed by proposing that sections of the Corten should be cut or lasered to create patterned

holes and spaces that mark the university’s logo.

On the outside of the building, I drafted multiple designs for unique planters and benches that could be crafted in the material.

Masterplan - Animation Following my work on the previous building, I was assigned additional tasks related to the redevelopment of a quadrant. I met with Mirukshi Brunton, a landscape architect redesigning the quadrant around another building in the university.

She suggested that the best way to present her landscaping proposal to the university was through a flyover video exploring all aspects of her design. I modelled the scheme and expanded on her ideas of creating bespoke planters, flower meadows and Corten wayfinding signs. Through research, I found local suppliers for decorative Corten which gave us a better idea of the bugetary and dimensional constraints of the work.

BornUK - Born Lucky Newcastle-Upon-Tyne Design Commission Sectors: Commercial, Fashion, Product Design

T-Shirt Designs I was commissioned to produce a range of t-shirts for the North Eastbased fashion company BornUK. The shirts had to incorporate images related to luck and would be presented as a series of simple symbols emblazoned on the pocket position of each shirt. This was an opportunity to explore a different side to my creativity through a more casual, non-architectural project.

The exercise left me with a wealth of test pages for logo designs, as well as photographs of my work being showcased by BornUK’s own in-house modelling team.

Mariner’s Hollow Tynemouth, North Shields Personal Project Sectors: Experimental, Virtual Reality, Residential

Presenting Space in VR My most recent project is an exploration of virtual reality. Having recently acquired an Oculus Go and development tools for VR, I decided to create an architectural environment based on an idea I had for a residential bunker in Tynemouth Long Sands.

The aim of this fantasy project was to create a home that provides a unique experience of space, while maintaining a design brief that is tailored to the needs of a personal friend of mine. Conceptually, it derives from the design of WWII beachhead bunkers. This the idea

of embedding a shape deep into the sands, bracing it against the elements and the test of time. The entrance tunnel to the building is accessed through a sister bunker overlooking the beach on Grand Parade.

I drew a great deal of inspiration from Andalusian architecture and the design of Roman villas that organise themselves around a central courtyard. The Hollow contains a central ‘Crab Garden’, a manmade rockpool intended for meditation and observing local lifeforms. Due to the height of the

building, high tides will provide the building with a regular supply of fresh crustaceans. The circulation spaces of the building run alongside the East and West sides of the courtyard.

Like with my animations, designing a space for the purposes of rendering it as a walkthrough gave me more appreciation for scale and how spaces are experienced from a first-person perspective. I believe that this approach to design presentation will be indespensible to the future of architecture and interior design.

End Page Thank you for taking the time to view my work.

I can be reached via email at : MatthewLayford@outlook.com