alexgaul
MArch University Work
Competition Entries
Live Projects
Masters of Architecture thesis project and published group research-based study completed at the Manchester School of Architecture.
Shortlisted entry for a bird observation tower and entry for a prison design ideas competition. Both were completed as part of a pair.
Two design and manufacture projects for festivals completed as a group of four, plus a sample of work produced on Part 1 placement.
Portfolio 2018 Architecture and design work samples by Alex Gaul RIBA Part 2
Application for Part 2 Architectural Assistant position. alexanderstgaul@gmail.com +447981038491 linkedin.com/in/alexander-gaul
2018 Edition
CONTENTS
MArch University Work
Competition Entries
Live Projects
2.
24.
28.
What if Google Owned the North?
Pape Bird Observation Tower
MCR International Festival Entrance
MArch University Thesis
Competition Entry
Live Project
Sept 17 - May 18
Aug - Oct 17
July 17
32.
36.
40.
Threshold Festival Performance Spaces
Data Mapping Cornwall Research Study
Arizona Prison Puzzle
Live Project
MArch University Project
Nov 15 - Feb 16
April - July 17
Sept 16 - May 17
Competition entry
42. Part 1 Placement Experience While at FCH Architects Feb 15 - June 16
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CONTENTS
ALEX GAUL PORTFOLIO 2018 Edition
GOOGLE NORTH
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What if Google Owned the North? Thesis Project Dates Sept 17 - May 18 Team members Alex Gaul + Morgan Wild Organisers Manchester School of Architecture My final year thesis project completed during the Masters of Architecture course at the Manchester School of Architecture.
This project sits within a speculative scenario in which Google acquires the North and takes over the governance of the Northern Powerhouse district. It anticipates nation-states as the next avenue for disruption and attempts to contribute to the growing discourse around the power and influence of technology companies, their increasingly manipulative products and how society and culture have responded to them. It can be understood as
both a polemic and an architectural fantasy. The design of Google’s ‘civic campus’ includes a ‘city in a tower’: a completely open plan office twisted-up into a tower that requires specialised GoogleSole shoes to use, with enough amenities to mean enthusiastic Googlers never have to leave. GoogleBubbles reinvent the home, through micro-apartments wrapped around synthetic
reality chambers and explore the persuasive nature of social medias, the distinction between the digital and physical, and question our perception of reality. The Temple of Googology is home to the religion/ science of Googology, which promises immortalisation in cyberspace (the GoogleCloud) by believers dedicating their physical life 1.0 to the generation of a digital self.
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Castlefield Site: Existing Green Spaces
Castlefield Site: Proposed Green Spaces 4
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The Exchange contains everything that an enthusiastic Googler could ever need: from an 18-hole golf course, a jungle, a bowling alley and swimming pools to sleep pods, a brothel and a maternity ward. Big Tech companies are presiding over the rebirth of the 20th century Company Town. A neo-feudal model of participation inspired by capitalist utopias that fuelled the dystopian novels of Huxley, Orwell and Bellamy, the Company Town aligns undeniably with Google’s desire to build the perfect world. Big Tech’s idealistic urban reforms, in the latest attempt to imagine a utopia, look more like a corporate paternalistic relationship with their employees; in which they provide highly enticing infrastructure and facilities to increase productivity and fulfil their employees’ consumerist hungers. Rather than lead the way through oppression and intimidation, they manufacture consent through desire, consumption and pleasure.
The Exchange: Section 5
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The Exchange: Structural Axonometric
Facebook claim to have the largest open plan office in the world. Apple’s new headquarters, on the other hand, has the largest piece of curved glass in the world, pizza boxes invented to prevent the pizza from going soggy and all the doorways designed to be perfectly flat, with no threshold, so employees do not lose concentration when they walk through a door. Much has been made of Big Tech’s company culture, with their employees trading their lives for swimming pools, indoor football pitches, massage rooms and all the other bells and whistles. But now, while they solidify themselves as the world’s most valuable companies, they are building structures that define their time. Their desire to achieve utopia and perfection, in order to state a permanent presence on the planet, means they will go to unheard of lengths to achieve the most spectacular, the most iconic, and the most innovative. 6
Smaller footprint available due to the city-centre location.
Facebook’s Footprint (currently largest open plan office in the world at 40,000m2)
Facebook’s footprint rationalised into a strip.
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Strip is looped into a continuous floor plate that fits on the site.
The loop is extended vertically until it is the tallest building in the North - also far outstripping Facebook’s floor area.
The Exchange is no different in that respect, Facebook currently have the largest open plan office in the world at 40,000sqm, without a wall or cubicle in site. While Facebook have the luxury of a relatively low density sprawl in Silicon Valley the GoogleNorth site in Manchester is constrained by the density of the city. The footprint available would usually call for a series of stacked
identical floor plates, but that just won’t do for Google. The Exchange is one continuous never-ending floor plate, without a single step in the whole building, making it the largest open plan office in the world. The floor plate is based on the geometry of the Möbius strip and loops around a central atrium that hosts the glass elevator transportation system.
The Exchange: A Sample of Amenities
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US008395773B1 (12)
United States Patent
(10)
Fakename Jr.
(45)
Patent No.: Date of Patent
US 8,395,774 B1
Jul.8, 2023
ABSTRACT
(54)
LEVEL ADJUSTABLE SOLE
(76)
Inventor:
Jimmy Fakename Jr., 722 S. Orange Ave., Santa Ana, CA (US) 92701
(*)
Notice:
Subject to any disclaimer, the term of this patent is extended or adjusted under 35 U.S.C. 154(b) by 0 days.
(21)
Appl. No.: 11/749,090
(22)
Filed:
May 15, 2022
The Googlevator : a glass elevator transportation system for high speed travel around the North and local travel around the campus.
Every big technology campus has their own transport system. In Silicon Valley Google have brightly coloured GoogleBikes for their employees to use on campus. They also have the controversial Google Shuttle Bus system to pick up their employees for work – pretty environmentally considerate of them. However, the introduction of these bus stops to a neighbourhood coincides with rising house prices and increase evictions for the non-Googlerlocals. With the GoogleNorth campus there is a lot more verticality than a Silicon Valley campus – due to the city centre location. As we know, Google’s employees cannot be distracted by the chore of climbing stairs so a glass lift network that connects the whole campus is envisaged. The Googlevator is also the primary transportation system for the Exchange tower; multiple rails wind through the building and connect to the primary rail which winds around the edge of the floorplate facing into the atrium which runs up the length of the building.
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Googlevators can use facial recognition and IoT technology to transport employees to where they need to be without any manual input.
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2
KEY 1 - Rotary motor powered trolley 2 - Reinforced rails 3 - Heist to allow vertical adjustment to varying floor to floor distances.
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US008395773B1 (12)
United States Patent Fakename Jr.
(45)
Patent No.: Date of Patent
US 8,395,773 B1
Jul.8, 2023
ABSTRACT
(54)
LEVEL ADJUSTABLE SOLE
(76)
Inventor:
Jimmy Fakename Jr., 722 S. Orange Ave., Santa Ana, CA (US) 92701
(*)
Notice:
Subject to any disclaimer, the term of this patent is extended or adjusted under 35 U.S.C. 154(b) by 0 days.
(21)
Appl. No.: 11/749,089
(22)
Filed:
As the whole building is one looped floor plate, the floor slopes gently the whole way around the building. Illustrating the lengths Google is willing to go to achieve their ‘perfection’ the building is accompanied by a newly patented GoogleSole that allows users to walk normally on the sloped floor. Like Apple changing their accessories with every new release, The Exchange is not compatible with shoes from other suppliers and every user must wear Google’s product. Inspired by the completely legit fact that mountain goats have two legs longer than the others so they can stand on the side of a hill, the GoogleSole uses localised geolocation monitoring to track every move their employees make adjust the sole of their shoe to expand or contract depending on the gradient of the slope they are standing on. To the user it would always feel like they are standing on a level surface.
May 15, 2022
A
(10)
B
3 7
4 1
2 8 6
FIG. 3 5
KEY
1 - Adjustable levelling feet connected to stiff 2 - Stainless steel rotary ball joint 3 - Padded foam sole 4 - Stiff layer to spread the load of the levelling feet across the sole. 5 - Stiff layer. 6 - Control box containing RFID microchip and inertia monitor that syncs location and movement data with localised floor level data stored in Google’s system and adjusts levelling feet accordingly. 7 - Expandable foam folded sole cover. 8 - Springs in tension.
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4 3
1
5 GoogleVator/ Floor Slab Detail 1 - Automatic opening glass balustrade system. 2 - Googlevator rail steel arm support connected to primary structure.
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3 - Googlevator system (see patent drawings) 4 - Primary structure steel column 5 - Primary structure atrium perimeter steel beam
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2
3 11 10
4 7
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12 6
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Double-skin Facade Arm Detail 1 - Anodised aluminium ‘pod’ flashing fixed to supporting framework. 2 - Electrochromic curved glazing integrated into Internet of Things based facilities management system which responds to the internal temperatures and light levels within the building to adjust the transmission and colour properties of the glass. All windows to achieve better than 1.6 W/m2K. 3 - SFS to support glazing and cladding framework fixings - fully filled with mineral wool insulation. 4 - Cement particle board fixed to outer face of SFS and 100mm Kingspan insulation to achieve 2.0 W/ m2K.
5 - Adjustable rotary connection bracket to support angled glazing units. 6 - Steel perimeter beam 7 - Steel arm with thermally broken connection to primary structure. 8 - ETFE facade structure 9 - ETFE fabric (Ethylene Tetrafluoroethylene) woven with solar cells on the southern facing areas of the façade. 10 - Composite floor slab with profiled steel deck fixed transversely to primary steel beams 11 - In-screed under floor heating 12 - Ventilation ducts and services through steel beam openings.
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Tipping hall
Waste Bunker The Processor
Is Google the closest we have ever come to experiencing a god? “Nowadays, the most interesting place in the world from a religious perspective is not Syria or the Bible Belt, but Silicon Valley. That is where hi-tech gurus are brewing for us amazing new religions that have little to do with God, and everything to do with technology. They promise all the old prizes – happiness, peace, justice and eternal life in paradise – but here on Earth with the help of technology, rather than after death and with the help of supernatural beings.” “Of course, this does not mean that these techno-religions will fulfil all their extravagant promises. Religions spread themselves more by making promises than by keeping them.”
The Grinder The Cyclones
Air Locks
The Quench/ Wash Towers
Ultra High Temperature Gasifier Baptism Pool The Desiccant Canisters The Compressors
Googology is a religion/ science founded by Google which promises eternal life in cyberspace by believers dedicating their physical life 1.0 to the generation of a digital self that will be immortalised in the GoogleCloud.
Pressure Swing Adsorption Unit
Final Compression + Fuel Cell
Waste to Energy / Process of Googology
Electrical GenSet Flares
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Storage Tanks
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Googology: Dome Roof Plan 13
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Googology: Temple and Gardens of Googology Roof Plan 15
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Architectural Storyboards: A Tuesday on Google North 21
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3D Printed Models: The Exchange, Temple of Googology and the Bubbles
The project ‘What if Google Owned the North’ was completed during my final year of the Masters of Architecture course at the Manchester School or Architecture as part of a pair. The project was submitted in three instalments over the course of the year and was awarded a Distinction grade each time with marks of 78%, 78% and 85%.
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LAKE PAPE TOWER
COMPETITION ENTRY
ALEX GAUL PORTFOLIO 2018 Edition
Bird Observation Tower Competition Entry SHORTLISTED Dates Aug - Oct 17 Team members Alex Gaul + Morgan Wild Organisers Bee Breeders and Pasaules Dabas Fonds (WWF) Shortlisted in a professional architecture competition, organised by Bee Breeders for Pasaules Dabas Fonds (WWF), to design a bird observation tower within the Pape Nature Reserve, Latvia.
Exploded Structural Axonometric
The contrasting ideals of human intervention and the natural environment were the stimuli for this proposal; with the aim of representing a harmony between the two. The Pape Nature Reserve has been subject to varying re balancing of the relationship between human intervention and nature. Prior to Soviet rule, there was a synergy between humans and nature with a few local farmers that understood the
unique biodiversity of the area. However, during the Soviet Era, Pape was forced to adopt Soviet farming methods and large scaleagriculture and settlement drove out many of the native species. Since independence, WWF has made significant progress in readdressing and rebalancing Pape’s unique ecosystem. The significance of this harmony between humans and nature is one that we intended to be
represented within the design and form of the bird observation tower. Questioning the traditional ‘tower’ typology, as one that represents a clear mark of human importance on the landscape, we proposed an elevation of the landscape itself. One that reaches out over the edge of the lake as both a symbol of sensitive intervention and progress, as well as a response to a unique environment which it strives to become synonymous with.
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View from Lake Pape
COMPETITION ENTRY
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View Down the Pier
COMPETITION ENTRY
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M.I.F F E S TIVAL
LIVE PROJECTS
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MCR International Festival: Square Entrance Dates July 17 Team members Alex Gaul, Morgan Wild, Andrew Singer, Andrew Scoles Client Manchester International Festival Contributors BuroHappold Engineering, M3 Industries Ran a competition for undergrad students to design the main entrance for the festival square (Albert Square, Manchester), before developing the detailed design and coordinating the manufacture with the festival organisers and fabricators. Assembled the entrance on site, which was then used by over 150,000 people.
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LIVE PROJECTS
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MIF Festival Entrance Proposed Axonometric Diagram
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FESTIVAL ARTIST S PA C E S
LIVE PROJECTS
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Threshold Festival: Artist Performance Spaces Dates April - July 17 Team members Alex Gaul, Morgan Wild, Andrew Singer, Andrew Scoles Client Threshold Festival Co-designed two spaces for art installations and performances. Sourced and manufactured the building components and coordinated undergraduate students to construct and assemble for a music and arts festival in Liverpool.
The undergrads after assembling the frames.
The ‘Events’ programme at Manchester School of Architecture assigns four masters students with around 15 undergraduate students and two weeks in which to arrange activities. In advance we reached out to Threshold Festival who tasked us with designing spaces for artists with a £300 budget, then, for the final two days after the MIF project competition, as a ‘treat’, we took the undergraduates over to Liverpool to construct them. 33
Completed Artist Spaces
LIVE PROJECTS
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The Undergrads assembling the frames
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D ATA MAPP I N G
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Data Mapping Cornwall: Research Study PUBLISHED Dates Sept 16 - May 17 Team members Alex Gaul + Infrastructure Space Research Group Organisers Manchester School of Architecture Clients/ Contributors Satellite Applications Catapult, Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnership, Cornwall Council and the NHS.
Generated from a starting point that considers Cornwall as a contemporary urban space within a rural context, the work comprises exploratory mappings that compare and spatially represent existing data sets to identify opportunities and challenges for the county. Distance and physical connectivity provide challenges within Cornwall, yet today’s digital communication and applications technologies offer opportunities to reimagine how communities can thrive when supported within wider and more responsive real and virtual networks.
With an overarching goal to understand the context that supports healthcare in the UK, focussing on Cornwall as a place, the study considers existing and potential relationships between physical and digital infrastructures. It explores the potential of creating intertwined relationships between these infrastructures and the spaces they define and inhabit to elevate performance and enhance health provision in the region. The research embeds architectural understanding of human interaction with place and space.
This is developed through critically testing, intersecting, representing and refining findings produced by analysis of data sets, supported by targeted field visits within four key themes: Networks and Connectivity, Demographics and Economy, Energy and Power, and Health and Lifestyle. I was part of the group ‘Infrastructure Space’ while at Manchester School of Architecture, who co-authored the study which was subsequently published.
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Future Ec onomy)
Bu s Put iness Loc off es in C ating orn wal l
Lack of Skilled Workfor ce (in
Young People Leave
.E. fH in ko Lac urses y Co onom s Ec or ure Sect Fut
S Ec mall on om y
tic lis re Ho utu mic F o y on tit Ec Iden
Using the Data Mapping research we identified vulnerable demographics and framed the conditions and circumstances that have caused their situation. We then developed proposals aimed at creating a framework to provide positive opportunities for these forgotten, left-behind communities by revitalising the area with true the needs of local people at the heart of the developments.
No
Na Cor tio nis na lis h m
: the cyc all le nw
Disillusioned with UK & Government of Lack h it ity w ectiv the UK n n f Co o t Res
f Lack o al Physic ucture tr s a fr In
inite depr inf iv
co r
f k o s in Lac enitie reas Am ban’ A ‘Ur
of
Detac Popula hed ti Left B on: ehind by Prima Declining ry Ind ustry
ion at
Lack of Local Connectivity
Attr a Envir ctive Land onment Clas / sific atio
of ck La ter’/ ar able t ‘S rd es fo m Af Ho
Low Averag e Income
Sec o Hom nd es
e nc sm lia ri Re Tou on
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al son Sea nomy Eco
Spatially and theoretically framing Cornwall’s cycle of deprivation
n
High Percentage of Temporary Work
Ho Hig (F use h La or P nd Lo rice / ca s ls )
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inw Re ardtir ed migr Po ati pu on lat of ion
Cornish Miner Dispersion
Cambourne, Cornwall outline proposal diagram
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Cambourne, Cornwall site identification and analysis
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PRISON PUZZLE
COMPETITION ENTRY
ALEX GAUL PORTFOLIO 2018 Edition
Prison Design Competition Entry Dates Nov 15 - Feb 16 Team members Alex Gaul + Morgan Wild Organisers Combo Competitions International design ideas competition ‘Prison Puzzle’ was an opportunity to explore how architecture can help in shaping environments that influence behaviour. The goal of Prison Puzzle was to design a medium-security prison complex with a capacity of 500 inmates, located in the desert of Arizona, United States.
The concept of the project addressed recidivism and how it can be reduced, at the same time considering the different interests and requirements found in inmates, victims as well as society as a whole. The proposal aimed to change the prison mentality into a process of development and growth, rather than fear and oppression. The ‘Progressive Prison’ aimed to counter the growing rates of recidivism in the United States
by creating a prison environment that promotes self-betterment and reminds prisoners of their potential to make an important contribution to society. The scheme is a direct response to existing practices within incarceration that damage and dehumanise their inhabitants.
A cohesive society was envisaged within the prison through presenting opportunities to the inmates that allow their own development, socially and technically, while also bettering the situations of their companions around them.
A central flaw with incarceration in the US is the vast juxtaposition between the prison environment and modern day society. The scheme aimed to reduce that gap by creating a parallel community within the prison walls.
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PART 1 EXPERIENCE
Work produced at FCH Architects on Part 1 Placement Dates Feb 15 - June 16 Falconer Chester Hall Architects I joined AJ100 practice FCH at a busy time and benefitted from a large amount of responsibility on a number of interesting projects across all RIBA Work Stages. All the work on these pages was produced by me unless otherwise stated.
Sefton Quarter, Liverpool (£74m) 25 storey residential tower Stages 3 - 5
LIVE PROJECTS
ALEX GAUL PORTFOLIO 2018 Edition
No. 2 Moorfields, Liverpool (£20m) (right-hand page) 139-bed residential change of use Stages 4 - 6 Made regular construction site visits, completed site surveys and produced construction drawings including the detailing of ‘punched’ windows through an existing facade. Gained approval for minor material amendments with attractive visuals to enhance the applications.
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LIVE PROJECTS
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Lamb’s Passage, London (£15m) 101-bed hotel scheme - Stages 2-3 Solved complex spatial and escape strategy problems caused by the overlapping of different building uses and ownerships, within listed vaults, through close communication with the client. Infinity Towers, Liverpool (£250m) 1002 apartments across three towers - Stages 1 - 2 Explored massing options and developed facade treatment models. Worked with the visualisers to develop visuals which convinced the Mayor of Liverpool to personally support the project. (Visual by others).
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LIVE PROJECTS
ALEX GAUL PORTFOLIO 2018 Edition
Cardinal Court, Greater Manchester (£8.5m) - 142 micro apartment scheme - Stages 4 - 5 Resolved construction details of obscure areas of the building’s facade in response to queries and requests from site and produced detailed strip sections. Produced technical drawings throughout the construction phase including elevation design, general layouts, fire strategy, internal and external wall build-up strategy, window and door details, stair detail and external works plans.
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alexgaul Part 2 Architectural Assistant alexanderstgaul@gmail.com +447981038491 linkedin.com/in/alexander-gaul 2018