Welcome Everybody!

So the Final Study Project is supposed to be the culmination of all our skills developed through out our time on the MSc.

We started the project officially at the beginning of May and should be bringing it to a close for the 12th July and the Free Range show @ The Old Truman Brewery, Brick Lane, London.

We will be exhibiting there between 12/07 and 16/07 before returning to Nottingham Trent University for an MA/MSc Degree show running from 16/07 until 20/7.

The brief of the project is entirely up to us, though it should be generated through an interest in a particular technology or area of study discovered in the past 8 months. The project should also look to tackle a current issue through innovative thinking, thorough research and appropriate technologies ... going beyond the ordinary.

I shall be documenting as much as i can in a sort of running commentary fashion (albeit with a slightly delayed start) So keep your eyes peeled for regular updates. 

Oh and just quickly... ignore the dates listed on each post, unfortunately i have had to alter these in order to get the posts in the right order!! I feel it reads best as a story if the oldest post os at the top. I cant seem to find a logical way of doing this though via the blog! If you have any quieries regarding dates please just let me know.

To kick things off i looked over all my projects done to date, went through sketch books and generally read over lecture notes and any other material i still had. 

I had in my mind that my project was likely to be based, in some manner, around adaptability, but through reading all my notes i was able to pin point a couple of key areas of interest.

I was also set on steering clear of anything residential based, i've got previous experience in this, 2 or 3 of my projects covered it and i was keen to explore new areas of architecture.

As my research progressed i began to notice a small gathering of information and precedents using cad/cam processes to produce temporary structures and installations. Having a keen interest in joinery and having previously worked in carpentry i decided to explore this route further...

Turns out 2012 could be a pretty good year for temporary.. not even touching on the poor economy... there are events such as the Queens Jubilee, Poland and Ukraine Euro 2012 and the London 2012 Olympics. All these events will in someway bring lots of people together which got me thinking.

Research then led me down the route of temporary stadia, cinema, and performing arts. The idea was that using cad/cam processes the same file could be sent worldwide allowing for a temporary structure to be erected using sustainable, recyclable materials.

But where? Where in, say... Nottingham, might this work? somewhere public, somewhere central, but would it be in door? out door? would this vary depending on the climate on a larger scale? how many people might it hold? could this be increased easily for bigger events? An interesting project was evolving in just a short period of time...

MA/MSc Degree Show Catalogue

Arriving way sooner than expected was the request for an image and a small amount of text to be published in the Nottingham Trent MA/ MSc Degree Show catalogue. Being in the early stages of the project it was decided that the image produced would be representational of what my project was going to be based on whilst not giving too much away, inviting the reader to want to see more.

Without having a site at this stage i actually decided to use two images to show the extents at which this method of architecture may exist.

Below is the image and text submitted...

Joe Williams

MSc Architectural technology and Design

Joewilliams_1988@hotmail.co.uk

An occupation of negative space

This project sets out explore and develop an experience-driven design approach for the manipulation of space. Questioning our relationship with the spaces we use and inhabit it challenges design as a medium to incite new or different ways of interaction with the current state of our environment.

Technology driven, the project investigates and tests CAD/CAM processes as a means of generating temporary structure that is affordable, recyclable and adaptable. Its intention is to use open source technology to develop and refine architectural interventions.

Image: Negative ground space within a figured plan

By: Joe Williams

Taking things forward..

Whilst on a walk through Nottingham city centre it became apparent to me that there were unusual amounts of empty shops.. and after some research in to this i found out that Nottingham is listed in BNP Paribas' 'Retial Risk Index' as the riskiest major city in the UK.

On a one hour walk around the centre this is what i saw ... Just click an image to enlarge it..

I found that there are a number of city-based initiatives in place to help revive the high streets but few involve occupying the empty spaces and most are merely covering up whats behind.. This provoked some research in to the 'pop-up' movement, usually associated with a temporary installation that is used to experiement, promote and gauge interest in a new idea or product.

A Knight Frank report too supports the idea of a 'pop-up' shop, especially during these tough economic times. They state that landlords are embracing the short term contracts, they believe that this sort of tenant help keep the site occupied whilst negotiations for longer term contracts take place. 

Nationwide there are many projects and concepts that strive to regenerate the units that are left abandoned following the recession, many of which i have noticed involve art.

At this stage i started to bring together a few notes i had made and began developing a brief.

- The project should include a series of temporary structures
- They should provide a space with in a space without affecting the original sturcture
- The installation should be easily deployed and removed when necessary

> Next stop is to identify a site and to continue exploring technologes suitable for the task in hand.

Sites

The document below taken from the City Council 'Urban Design' brochure shows the location of alleyways around the city. My aim was to try and find empty shops that feed off of these alleyways allowing my installation to offer both inside and outside spaces whilst also giving me the opportunity to create a journey, a new experience for the user.

From this i was able to identify 6 potential sites, these are highlighted below in red along with photos... Once again just click to enlarge..





Site : Picked!

Soo, I have chosen i site! I went for Site 6 shown in the previous post. Bridlesmith Walk, Nottingham is currently home to a public footpath and a small arcade of 8 shops, two of which front the busy Bridlesmith Gate high street, a boarded up pub and a small cafe.

Of the 8 shops currently just three are occupied, that is the two that face the high street and then a beauty salon further up the walk. For the purposes of this project the two shops at the front will remain however it will be deemed that the rest of the shops are free and ready for regeneration. This decision has been made by myself along with my tutors so that the area can be re-branded as a whole, increasing the scope of the project and the potential of the space.

It was also decided that in order to get the footfall required through the site it may be necessary to include some permanent fixtures to the design as well as the original temporary 'pop-up' idea.

Below are plans and sections of the site generated from various sources including site visits and the planning portal...

Now i could see the spaces in plan and the site had been visited several times i began brainstorming what occupation might best suit the site...

Further research in to the site actually showed that over the past 15 years it had been redeveloped on 3 occasions, and always with an 'A1' use class. This prompted a widening of the thought process and an exploration in to a more substantial, permanent but still adaptable redevelopment.

More research and brainstorming needed at this stage!! Time is getting tight!!

Space Intervention Precedent

Designing a space within a space is nothing new, and whilst the scale of my project is increasing the more i analyse the site, here is just a selection of some of my research into temporary and deployable architecture as well as some on CAD/CAM processes..

For me the last two pages shown above really capture my original vision for the occupation of empty shops. Oriented strand board (OSB) in my opinion is a lovely, sustainable material that that can be used in many different ways.

Scheme Development

So this week i presented a few ideas to my tutors of what might work within the site. The scheme has to retain the public footpath, its current status as a connecting space is a reason why i picked the site in the first place.

On top of this it was also important to me that i was respectful to the history of the site, two of the buildings are grade 2 listed. Research was then geared towards precedents that i felt worked with old and new really well..

Again this is just a small selection of my research in to this area.

Around the UK, and as already discussed in particular Nottingham, economic difficulties are causing shops to close at alarming rates, resulting in the 'Domino Effect' and an increase in unemployment, ultimately reducing the amount of visitors to the city centre. However, this has lead to the exploration of other methods to revive the city, boosting moral and bringing together a community when times are hard.

Many towns have looked to culture as a tool of regeneration in the past and will continue to do this in the future. Bilbao's Guggenheim has been recognised at a global level for its effect on the cities regeneration. At the other end of the scale but with equally substantial effects an article in journal no. 217 'Architecutre Today' on David Chipperfield's art gallery in Margate states

"Art galleries are the perfect weapon, social attractors for the kinds of people who might help lift the fortunes of a town like Margate." 

Designing a gallery for my final project is a million miles away from where i thought i would be when i first started this course 9 months ago. However, it should offer me a platform to really show my understanding of design and space to solve complex issues, allowing me to develop an environment that works within a site that has continuously failed in the past. Adaptability will still be important too giving me the opportunity to continue pushing existing ideas further.

Discussions with my tutors lead to this rough list of spaces required on the part of the gallery...

My First Massing Proposals

The site, aswell as having the footpath running through the middle also is on split level, entrance from the west is at what i called 'lower ground' level. The end of the arcade of shops sees a set of 20 steps rising approximately 4000 mm. This leads in to the small courtyard space before exiting to the east and on to Fletcher Gate.

And an aerial...

So, using Google Sketch Up I began working with some dimensions and initially developed four schemes looking at the key features required for a gallery... I wont talk over the reasons why i made certain decisions at this stage however as i get in to the development of these later on i shall explain all!

Development One

Following discussions regarding my massing studies shown in the previous post i began developing a scheme, i worked at first in plan and section before modelling in Sketch Up and then rendering the whole thing in white using Kerkythea. This allowed me to gain a bit more of an idea for how the spaces might feel..

I was working at 1:500 scale which later turned out to perhaps be a bit small, but it still gave me an idea spatially of how the things might be organised... Click the images to enlarge...

And the renders ...

Looking from the courtyard down the walk towards the Bridlesmith Gate entrance

 Showing the staircase to the left and the gallery spaces to the right

A view through glass from the bridge linking the top floors

Inside the cafeteria

A view back in to the shop from the halfway point on the ramp



The design had mixed feedback, it offered solutions to nearly all the problems posed originally but lacked coherence, circulation was messy and my tutors generally felt that it could be pushed a lot further. I was happy with this, i had produced this design purely as a starting point, a platfrom to build from. My mind is all over the place now though, a million different ideas running through it.. I hope to have a new scheme ready for the next tutorial in two days..

Development Two

After a very busy and very stressed couple of days I managed to rationalise the circulation and create a better flow through the entire site. I took some more drastic measures by moving the existing 20 steps further west along the footpath allowing for a usable space underneath them.

Meetings with my tutors also helped me question other areas of the site and resulted in the demolition of the existing pub which is currently boarded up. In the previous design this was going to become the entrance/reception area, in the new design is it removed and becomes a set of steps down into a double height reception and shop.

And some renders..

View into the reception, made possible through moving the stairs..

View back in to the reception from the classroom/studio..

Looking down the alleyway from where the stairs used to be..

Exiting the lift on the second floor..

In the gallery space..

On the top floor upon leaving the lift..

View from bridge linking the two galleries..

Seeing the design in 3D really helped point out the areas of this that required changing and i could see these before i even met with my tutors. In plan the spaces seemed to work out however in reality the scale of some areas that were essentially 'dead' space were far too great. The central staircase could be halved and still have the effect i was looking to achieve.

My tutors also commented on the attention i had being paying the 'admin' room. Its placement in this design could be prime retail, advertising or gallery space, and that in reality it needs to be tucked out the way, it really isnt that important, certainly not at this stage. They were also a little puzzled as to why the shop was within a double height space, questioning acoustics and the use of space above, really, 6 ft.

So lots taken on board once again! Althoug hthe CAD model does help visualise the space we decided that from now on in order to truly feel the space a card model would be produced...