Nicolas Howden _ Architecture Portfolio + CV _ 2023

NICOLAS HOWDEN ARCHITECTURE PORTFOLIO 2023

Nicolas Howden

CV

Nicolas Howden

MArch BSc

Email: nicolas.e.howden@gmail.com

Phone: +353 89 611 2369

References: Available on request

Lotus Architects Freelance Part 2 Architectural Assistant

March 2023

· Developed proposal for RIAI Town Centre Living housing competition.

Irish Museum of Modern Art Exhibition designer + consultant

Oct 2022 - Ongoing

· Designing exhibition layout for upcoming exhibitions alongside curators.

· Meeting with curators from other mesums to discuss proposals.

Donaghy + Dimond Architects Freelance Part 2 Architectural Assistant

Aug - Oct 2022

· Designed proposals for new housing typologies through model for their award winning competition entry to Housing Unlocked.

EXHIBITIONS + PUBLICATIONS

“A Global Moratorium on New Construction, Charlotte Malterre Barthes”

Lecture review. due for publish in Architecture Ireland (2023) Issue 328.

“Is there space for sex?” published by Type.ie (2023) Dogma+Opinion Issue 4

“Queer Domesticities” published by Architecture Ireland (2022) Issue 326

“2 Queer Homes” due for publish in Story, Building edition 2

Clubless Dublin exhibition (June-September 2022) Richview School of Architecture.

Gender: An Architectural Agenda exhibition (June 2018). Richview School of Architecture, RIAI The Architecture Centre.

EDUCATION

Master of Architecture University College Dublin

2019 - 2022

Independent Design Project Freelance Architectural Designer

Aug 2021 - March 2022

· Designed a scheme to develop an old horse stables into a small dwelling.

. Conducted client meetings, presented models and sketches.

. Liased with consulting civil engineer to prepare drainage plan and report.

· Compiled a planning package to submit to the local planning authority.

ODOS Architects Part 1 Architectural Assistant

Sept 2020 - Sept 2021

· Prepared planning drawings and compiled a successful planning package for a new house for which I was design team lead.

· Made client presentations with design proposals and references.

· Created 3D renders in Sketchup and Enscape for client presentation.

· Managed consultants input and coordinated with markups/comments.

· Amended design of a previously refused planning application with clients and prepared a successful appeal to the Irish planning board (ABP).

· Developed construction drawings and detail designs.

First Class Honours 3.88 GPA

Portfolio Award 2022 Winner for my thesis project on queer coding.

RIAI Scott Talon Walker Student Excellence Award in Architecture 2022

Selected for Exhibition for my thesis project.

Dissertation Award 2022 Winner for the best Major Research Essay by a student in their final year.

Invited as guest lecturer with Ellen Rowley’s seminar group on ‘Alternative Homes’ to discuss my research on queer domesticity.

RIAI Student Writing Prize 2022 Winner.

École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Paris-Belleville

2020 (Erasmus)

Bachelor of Architectural Science

University College Dublin

2016 - 2019

Second Class Honours 3.54 GPA

Richview Venice Photography Competition 2018 Winner

2D CAD

· AutoCAD

· Vectorworks

3D Modeling

· Sketchup

· Revit

· Rhino

· Microstation

· Archicad

Rendering

· Vray

· Enscape Adobe

· Photoshop

· InDesign

· Illustrator

· Lightroom

· Premier Pro Laser Cutting

EXPERIENCE SOFTWARE LANGUAGES

· English Fluent (Native)

· French CEFR C1 Level (Advanced)

· German Beginner

Nicolas Howden

1.

QUEER CODED

UCD Masters - 2022

Queer coded is a thesis project concerned with queer infrastructure in Dublin city and the architectural signifiers which reveal queer space.

The primary design is situated on bow street in Smithfield between a dormitory building for the old Jameson distillery workers and an industrial block formerly the Crean soap factory. The work explores different approaches in designing queer space based on queer theory, various levels of coding, and a brief derived from the needs of existing LGBT+ organisations in the city (Outhouse and TENI).

The main spaces focused on are for a queer crisis and community centre including emergency care and treatment, short term and long term housing, spaces of public engagement and protest, and event/club spaces to raise money for a grassroots approach to queer urban development.

Nicolas Howden

Hal Fischer’s ‘Gay Semiotics’, 1977

Inhabited section through Outhouse.

Existing queer infrastructure in Dublin is mapped. Orange showing permanent queer nightlife venues, pink showing existing community centres Outhouse and TENI. Rather than creating new monuments in the city to signify queer space, the existing network of churches (blue) are coded as the primary long ranged signifiers of new queer spaces. One of these new queers spaces is designed here (red).

Significant structures are drawn in axonometric. Blue here represents traditional or existing structures and red represents new or queer additions/changes.

The proposal avoids flattening the site to build new queer space but instead allows a ‘queering’ of the existing buildings to take place. There is a push back against binary construction and conservation techniques, instead embedding new queer production within the complexity of the city.

Painting exploring queer domestic structures.

King Street North

1. Supported living facilities, shared kitchen and dining spaces, private external courtyard, counselling rooms.

2. Long term housing, 2 bed apartments with shared living facilities in the circulation space.

3. Dedicated support facilities, legal aid, medical aid, mental health support, management.

4. Exhibition space, porous facade to allow engagement with public and control to occupants to seal when needed.

5. Artist shared workspace.

6. Bow st. entrance gate, can be arranged in multiple positions to allow access to roof garden, cafe, or fully open.

7. Club and event space, with more casual bar space to Bow st. Club provides funding for the rest of the facility.

8. Rear laneway entrance gate, with rampart above.

Nicolas Howden

Gordon Matta-Clark, ‘Conical Intersect’, 1975

George Rousse, ‘Anamorphoses’, 20102015

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Nicolas Howden

Site and project model at 1:200

Queer Space Exhbition, Shopfront, 1994

Use of colour intends to democratise architectural elements, queering the building, and coding it.

Club features no dead ends, a non-hierarchical dance floor, and lockers to allow ravers to change.

Nicolas Howden

Flikkers club at Hirschfield Community Centre.

Club and event space model at 1:50, a mix of existing warehouse structure + new queer space.

2.a BACKLANDS INFILL

ODOS Architects - 2020/21

The site for this project is within an architectural conservation area along the grand canal. It is a backlands plot which abuts the back gardens of houses from terraces all around. These constraints resulted in a set of rules which directed the development of the project.

The second storey had to be set back from the boundary and high level windows and roof lights had to be used for the majority of natural light to prevent overlooking. The multiple ridges of the roof softens the shadowing onto neighbouring gardens,

I was involved in the project from conception and took on a leading role as several staff left the office. I coordinated with the client, consultants, and reported to the director of ODOS. I drew and laid out the planning application with the supervision of one other staff member. Planning permission was granted in 2021.

Scheme

Nicolas Howden

development to fit difficult infill site.

Front gate design for pedestrian and car access from Lullymore Terrace.

Nicolas Howden

Sketch development of proposal showing 1F plan and sections.

Nicolas Howden

Planning drawings: Cross section through courtyard (top-left), GF Plan (right).

Internal render (below-left) made with sketchup and esncape.

2.b HORTA GRANDOLA

ODOS Architects - 2021

This project was developed during my time in ODOS Architects. It is sited in Portugal, near Grandola in a reclusive and heavily contoured cork forest. The design works with the contours of the landscape and utilises deep set wall openings and a basket shaped roof to provide shading for the occupants. Using a deep reddish pink pigment from the local soil several blocks are arranged on the site sometimes connected by lightweight links.

The heavy planted roof gardens and varying ground levels dictated by the site contours create a series of terraces which are balanced against the external walls and overhangs of the blocks.

Nicolas Howden

Model studies of blocks and links.

Nicolas Howden

1:100 Plan, thickness of the walls are exaggerated for shading and to hold built in storage.

3d model is rendered with Enscape.

Adapting project form to local regulations.

Nicolas Howden

Roof drainage and pool system sketches.

2.c HOUSING UNLOCKED

Donaghy + Dimond - 2022

To unlocking housing, we need to take nimble yet gradually sustained steps; approaching dwelling from various angles. We must study the ground and receiving environment as it stands now and over time. The close, holistic study of context finds the niches in which new homes may take root. This project takes the Liberties in Dublin as a living laboratory from which to learn about housing.

I worked on making a new model of the territory by hand, and developing scale insertions to unlock the context through model. Studying historic plots and types, from 11th C burgages to deck access flats reveals the structure. Dwelling between old walls, at gables, on roofscapes, in gardens and stable lanes, re-using stock. Grafting in new homes, augmenting, re-using, upgrading & enriching existing blocks and estate.

This study ranges between: the incremental re-inhabitation of a house, garden and work/

shop on Francis Street already built and where the office is now located, sample study of aggregate infill opportunities in neighboring blocks -street, garden, lane, reclaiming the street from abandoned road widening, reassigning space to dwell in, darning in new homes at terrace & flat block gables - relining & extending stock, re-planting urban ground for those who dwell within in it.

Working models.

Nicolas Howden

Nicolas Howden

1:500 exhibition model, representing a freeze-frame of design at the Pimlico site.

3. STABLE HOUSE

Independent Project - 2021

This was an independent architectural project I did for a for a client to make a planning application for the development of an abandonded horse stables on their property into a small dwelling. Following a pre-planning meeting the proposal would maintain the existing footprint, and only some small alterations would be made to the exterior thorugh several carefully placed openings.

The existing grid of stables was to be maintained and form the basis for the organisation in plan. The simplicity of the project meant that each decision had to be carefully made, only 3 internal walls were to be demolished and the rooms would maintain the characteristics of a series of stables.

4. COOKING SCHOOL

UCD Undergrad - 2019

The goal of this facade onto Aran Street east was to create a blank facade, which would draw you in to entrances to the side. The only opening is a circular win- dow which lights up the white restaurant in the evenings as the final rays of the day pour through.

Aran Street East is currently used mainly by wholesale market workers, with deliveries being made and forklifts driving up and down. Because of that this is not the main entrance, and the building mostly turns its back on this street. However it gives back a beautiful brick construction with garden balconies cre- ating some green space for the industrial area.

This undergrad project is for a cooking school in Smithfield, Dublin. The design focuses on creating a gradation of experience teaching and learning as students progress through the years. Kitchens and classrooms for early year students are open and exposed to the street and main atrium, encouraging collaboration. The final year ‘test kitchen’ and public restaurant are more solitary, naturally lit from above and allowing those creating and consuming food to be totally engrossed in the ritual of cooking and eating. Solitary herb gardens on the roof levels, and shared food tasting spaces create a balance between collaboration and isolation allowing students a variety of learning methods.

The materiality of the project is derived from the brick and concrete block. The hardness of these materials reflects the industrial agricultural mix of the surrounding site while still allowing for ornament and interest within the form of the facade.

1. Insulating thermalite block

Design Development II

Brick Detailing 1:10

2. Steel channel drain

3. Ground Buildup: Paving stones

Detailed entrance study, externally dimensioned to the scale of the brick, internally to concrete blocks.

Construction details plan and section showing facade around structure.

Fine sand Fine gravel

Coarse gravel

Geotex fleece mat

Unsatisfied with a timber facade, chose a wall buildup that included an insulated cavity and an English bond rainscreen. The choice of a double-thick brick coursing allows me to create protrusions in the facade more easily and also places where the bricks pull back in to create a more interesting facade. In the drawing below, the brick coursing detail can be seen. There are 3 types of brick specials labelled 1, 2, and 3. As well as a standard queen closer. Otherwise the bricks are the standard 102.5 x 65 x 215 dimensions. The facade is not flat but instead undulates in and out around the concrete columns.

4. Floor buildup: 100mm screed

115mm insulation

200mm concrete

50mm lean concrete

5. Wall buildup: Concrete blocks (215x215x440mm)

Vapour barrier

125mm insulation

Standard brick (65x102.5x215mm)

6. Adapted English bond brickwork coursing

3 unique brick types make up the form of the expressed columns.

Nicolas Howden

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