PLP ARCHITECTURE PRACTICE EXPERIENCE INDEPENDENT PROJECT MATERIAL RESEARCH
A Re-Imagined Distillery Climatic Performance & Structural Study Net-Zero National Meteorological Centre Korea Confidential Project Compass House Cambridge Hanger Lane London Mycelium Material Study Art By Movement
INTRODUCTION
ACADEMIC STUDY I A RE-IMAGINED DISTILLERY
Introduction
The Re-Imagined Distillery project was my final-year studio project. The brief was to create a new whiskey distillery next to Manchester Airport. This project seeks to create a dynamic and engaging environment where visitors can immerse themselves in a multisensory journey. Additionally, it aims to create community integration by providing a space for both the local community and visitors to socialize, exercise, eat, and relax—all while celebrating the art and craft of whiskey production.
The design was inspired by the whiskey-making process and the user experience, aiming to create a one-way system, guided by the stages of whiskey production.
Site analysis
The project site was located near Manchester Airport, encompassing a large overgrown field dotted with old barns and four small Grade II listed buildings. Adjacent to the site is Manchester’s Runway Visitor Centre, a popular attraction for aviation enthusiasts to watch planes take off and land. Integrating the listed buildings and the aviation centre was essential to achieving an optimal design.
Site boundary
Existing access Listed buildings on site Existing runway visitor
INITIAL STRATEGIES
INITIAL STRATEGIES
ACADEMIC STUDY I A RE-IMAGINED DISTILLERY
Massing
Massing
Massing
The massing is also shaped by both the production process and the visitor experience, breaking into smaller, human-scaled arched buildings. This design allows heat from the whiskey-making process to escape naturally, enhancing sustainability, while also creating a dynamic and engaging journey for visitors
The massing is also shaped by both the production process and the visitor experience, breaking into smaller, human-scaled arched buildings. This design allows heat from the whiskey-making process to escape naturally, enhancing sustainability, while also creating a dynamic and engaging for visitors
The massing is also shaped by both the production process and the visitor experience, breaking into smaller, human-scaled arched buildings. This design allows heat from the whiskey-making process to escape naturally, enhancing sustainability, while also creating a dynamic and engaging journey for visitors. Create
Vary
Structural and sustainability sketches
Shape
Structural and sustainability sketches
Key Drivers
To achieve the desired design outcome, establishing key design drivers was crucial. These drivers guided the design process toward the desired result. Key drivers for this project included:
Fluidity & user centred
To ensure fluidity, service areas will follow a separate route from visitors. The buildings will be arranged to establish a one-way system, creating a seamless and engaging journey through both the production process and the visitor experience.
Human scale
The design will prioritize creating a series of smaller, thoughtfully distributed buildings across the site rather than maximizing the site area, fostering meaningful interaction with the surrounding environment while maintaining a more intimate experience.
Multisensory experience
The design will aim to interact with all of the visitors senses to create a multisensory experience.
Destination
Combine with the existing runway centre to create one large destination, as well as incorporating the listed buildings for a holistic design that benefits both the locals and visitors.
MASSING & PROGRAMME DEVELOPMENT
ACADEMIC STUDY I A RE-IMAGINED DISTILLERY
Process
To achieve the desired design, various research and visualization methods were employed to explore diverse possibilities and view the project from multiple perspectives. The process began with the use of physical models and sketches, emphasizing a playful and intuitive approach over precision. This exploratory phase aimed to stimulate creativity and organically shape the design.
Massing models & sketches
Research about the whiskey process informed how the facilities should be efficiently arranged on the site, ensuring a streamlined workflow for production while creating an engaging and enjoyable journey for visitors.
Interior vignettes
Next, studies were conducted to explore the desired look and feel of the interior, ensuring alignment with the project’s key design drivers.
A structural strategy was established from the beginning, ensuring seamless integration with the design to enhance both functionality and aesthetics.
models refine ideas.
Waiting room & reception
Mashing & Fermenting
Distillation Restaurant
Offices
Structural
Concept sketches
DESIGN DEVELOPMENT
ACADEMIC STUDY I A RE-IMAGINED DISTILLERY
Refining the design
To refine the design, more attention was given to material choices and how the spaces would come together. Both digital and physical models were used to explore ideas in more detail. Glulam timber arches were chosen to increase the projects sustainability while staying true to the key goals and the program. The images below show how different elements of the design were tested to create a balanced and practical result.
Structural and facade concept models
This physical model was created to explore the interplay between the timber structure and metal skylights inspired by
Materiality and light models
As the design evolved, various digital models were utilized to determine the optimal materials and lighting levels that best complemented the design.
Spatial models
A 1:200 physical model of the entire scheme was crafted to provide a clearer vision of the design and to refine the spatial layout into a more finalized concept.
Enric Miralles’ Scottish Parliament.
The final design
The final design reimagines the traditional whiskey distillery, creating a dynamic space where visitors, workers, and the public can interact, relax, and engage. It smoothly integrates the building’s structure, program, and sustainability, all while ensuring the whiskey-making process remains the focal point of the experience.
Play area
A safe space for kids to play, interacting with the parametric brick walls as well as with each other.
Restaurant terrace
The restaurant’s terrace is created by the space between the existing listed buildings, covered by timber arches that unite the old and the new.
The process house celebrates the machinery, transforming it into an intriguing space where mechanical equipment is suspended from the arches.
The design also includes a botanical garden, enhancing the multisensory experience while contributing to biodiversity.
Process house
Botanical gardens
ACADEMIC STUDY I A RE-IMAGINED DISTILLERY
Distillation + Fermentation
Mashing
Ageinghouse
Ground floor plan
1st floor plan
ACADEMIC STUDY I A RE-IMAGINED DISTILLERY
ACADEMIC STUDY I A RE-IMAGINED DISTILLERY
Rockwool
Terracotta Cladding
Secondary Timber Beams
Tertiary Timber Beams
Primary Glulam Arch
Vees
Service Pipes
Triple Glazing
Structural fragment
TECHNICAL STUDY
ACADEMIC STUDY I TECHNOLOGIES MODULE
Brief
A comprehensive series of detailed studies aimed at analyzing and enhancing a specific building fragment. The focus will be on optimizing structural integrity, improving environmental performance, and enhancing constructability to ensure efficiency, sustainability, and feasibility in the construction process.
Testing passive ventilation with butterfly in Grasshopper.
Maximising sunlight hours using parametric terracotta bricks & ladybug in Grasshopper.
Testing Pivot methods to improve constructability and interactive shading
300mm x 300mm Glulam Column
Triple Glazing with Argon Gas
50mm x 50mm x 1800mm Terracotta Cladding Rail
Steel Bracket & Brace
50mm x 50mm Terracotta Tiles
Galvanised Grill
Nut-held pivot
Parametric bricks
Under-slab ventilation
Horizontal gaps Under-slab ventilation + high ventilation Vertical gaps Final fragment
Underslab ventilation detail
Cladding detail High ventilation Middle pivot Hinged
NET-ZERO KOREAN NATIONAL
ARCHITECTURE I COMPETITION WINNER
About the project:
This project is dedicated to creating a new workspace for the field and support departments of the National Meteorological Center Korea, with the objective of establishing a world-class, carbon-neutral national weather center. The design emphasizes a commitment to combating climate change and sets a benchmark for carbonneutral policies through the implementation of passive design strategies.
My contribution
Worked closely with internal and external sustainability consultants to ensure the project met net-zero goals while effectively communicating this through visually compelling graphics. Additionally, responsible for creating engaging diagrams to showcase the final design, along with selected GA drawings.
Sustainable design
The design minimizes embodied carbon through a timber structure and a “box-inbox” concept, enhancing thermal efficiency while shaping a versatile, cohesive space. This approach also creates a controlled microclimate, allowing a vibrant Four-Season Garden to thrive year-round, reinforcing sustainability and promoting well-being through biophilic design.
Waste heat exchange from control centre Nature as buffer Buffer cold weather
Buffer hot weather
Vertical shade Self shading
Oversailing roof 6m floor to floor
L02 plan
About the project:
The project establishes a new prototype for a sustainable, residential-led mixed-use destination that efficiently integrates architecture and landscape with state-of-the-art sustainability and wellness practices.
My contribution I was Involved in the entire design process, from initial concept development to final submission. Responsibilities included conducting research, creating massing iterations, drafting plans, and producing final presentation boards and documents.
The design was based of the following principles:
COMPASS HOUSE PLP ARCHITECTURE I COMPETITION WINNER
About the project:
Compass House is a cutting-edge laboratory in Histon, Cambridge, designed to provide modern and advanced research and write-up spaces. The project integrates green spaces for the local community and includes housing. Aiming for BREEAM Outstanding certification, the design process began with in-depth lab research to ensure both efficiency and a high-quality user experience
My contribution
Compass House was a fast-paced competition with a small team, allowing me to be involved in all aspects of the project—from initial design concepts to the final proposals. I contributed to both the design, research, and presentation, ensuring the building was showcased in the best possible way.
Facade design
The façade draws inspiration from the historic Chivers Jam Factory, which once stood on the site and played a key role in shaping Histon’s identity.
Initial facade iterations
Massing Diagrams
Site with TPO trees & pipe Place buildings on site Cover site avoiding trees & pipe
buildings with a podium
green path from bus stop
service zones to safely transport gasses
green space and break massing
routes for different forms of transportation
HANGER LANE PLP ARCHITECTURE
About the project
Hanger Lane is a mixed-use development in the borough of Ealing, London. The project includes a hotel, cultural and commercial spaces, creative studios, and a multifunctional event venue. Having received planning approval, this was the first project where I directly collaborated with consultants to refine and finalize the design.
My contribution
Joined the project in its final stages, ensuring it was ready for planning submission. Initially focused on compiling planning documents, including the Design and Access Statement. Additionally, collaborated with consultants to refine the building design, ensuring seamless integration of MEP, structural, sustainability, and architectural elements at the highest standard.
Divide massing into facade types responding to surroundings
Final facade details
Create a distinguishable reading in distant views
To secure planning permission, detailed final drawings were required. I assisted in developing the facade details, working closely with facade consultants to ensure they were both functional and clearly presented.
Establish offset on south elevation
Surround core, creating variation in each side
Articulate podium with sawtooth to minimize overlooking
Lower West to match scale of neighbours
Massing & Facade development diagrams
MYCELIUM MATERIAL RESEARCH
INDEPENDENT PROJECT
Mycelium
Mycelium has been gaining popularity as a sustainable alternative for building materials. To explore its potential, I set out to create a product that would allow me to study its growth process and durability under regular use. For this experiment, I chose to design a jewellery holder. The piece features organic shapes, pushing the material’s limits and testing its structural and aesthetic potential.
Initial designs
The initial design variations evolved in response to the constraints of the 3D-printed wooden framework, which serves as the structural base for the mycelium to grow into.
Initial “hanging” design Thicker variations to allow mycelium to grow better
Design iterations
Process
iteration
The process began by mixing an organic substrate with mycelium, then carefully adding the mixture to the 3D-printed wooden structure, ensuring it was evenly distributed for optimal growth. Maintaining sterility was crucial to prevent contamination from unwanted moulds. Once the individual pieces were filled, I assembled them and placed them on an acrylic base. The final piece was then left in a dark, humid environment—a sealed box with a cup of water—for three weeks to allow the mycelium to fully develop.
Final
Substrate mixed with mycelium 3D printed wood structure being filled with mixture
Final piece ready to be left in the dark for mycelium to grow
INTERACTIVE ART - ART BY MOVEMENT
PERSONAL PROJECT
Art by Movement
Art by Movement is a series of interactive art experiments that use motion tracking and gesture recognition to generate dynamic artworks in TouchDesigner. By integrating a MediaPipe component, the system employs machine learning to detect hands and gestures, transforming movement into a visual expression.
Below are two examples from the series:
Time Grids (Top)
This installation captures movement over time to create a unique visual composition. A camera, combined with real-time filters, records the creator’s movements. The process is triggered by closing a fist, signalling the system to begin recording. It then captures an image every second, arranging them into a grid to form the final artwork.
This piece explores the relationship between time, space, and movement, ensuring each composition is entirely unique.
Particle Behaviour (Bottom)
In this installation, hand position and gestures directly influence the behaviour of a particle system. Moving the hand to the left makes the particles drift apart and move calmly, while shifting it right brings them closer together and increases their speed. A closed fist triggers erratic and unpredictable movements.
This piece simulates organic, responsive behaviour, demonstrating how movement can shape digital environments in real time.
