Briefing document mobile version

CHAPTER

1.1

1.2

1.3

1.4

CHAPTER

2.1

2.2

2.3

2.4

‘confined to 9 by 5, and that closed in on me, as a 20 year old, immediately’

CHAPTER

3.1

3.3

CHAPTER

REFERENCES

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Project 2 drew on themes of self-help through reflection and meditation. This project will seek to specialise, and provide a means of self-help to particularly vulnerable individuals in Preston.

Female prisoners as a particularly vulnerable group have been used as an example. Shifting perceptions is an important place to start. Most women in prison are victims as well as offenders:

CHAPTER 1: AIMS, AMBITIONS + ASPIRATIONS

• women made up 22% of all prison self-harm incidents, despite making up only 4% of total prison population. over 1/4 of suicides occur during the first month of a sentence.

• the rate of suicide attempt is 5x higher inside prisons than out.

• 46% of female prisoners have attempted suicide before.

• over half of the women in prison have suffered domestic violence.

• 53% of female prisoners reported experiencing emotional, physical or sexual abuse as a child.

• approx. 17 000 children are affected by maternal imprisonment each year.

Furthermore, more women are in prison for theft-related offence, than for violence, robbery (theft by force), sex offences or drugs combined. This fact should open the question of whether most of these women are really a danger to the general public, and if a sentence is an appropriate punishment.

This project will therefore seek to empower these vulnerable members of the community, and challenge public perceptions. An extensive and supportive rehabilitation scheme will be necessary to offer the women the skills they need to readjust to freedom, and re-integrate into society. The scheme must be sensitive, and conscious of the fact that many of the clients may be disadvantaged by far more than just their prison experience.

Another ambition of this project will be to foster a sense of autonomy and community within Preston. This feels especially relevant as we find ourselves recovering from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. The UK government now face a resentful and distrusting population, who continue to suffer the consequences of indecisiveness, dishonesty, and fatal delays in action.

As the virus loosens its grip on the way we live, the transition back to a restriction-free world presents interesting opportunity to make positive environmental lifestyle changes. I question what lockdown habits we may hang onto. Throughout the earlier days of the pandemic, self-sufficiency felt more important than ever, as national food-shortages and hysterical stockpiling left the shelves of supermarkets barren. Many used the time at home to learn new skills, like bread-making or gardening.

People also relied on local shops more, recognising the importance of supporting small businesses during difficult times, and preferring to reduce travel. The value of community is widely appreciated in times of hardship, and often forgotten with prosperity or ease. Self-sufficient, resilient communities create opportunities for locals and can control more aspects of the way they live. Another ambition of this project will therefore be to engage a community, and reap the social and environmental benefits.

Preston suffers from pockets of extreme deprivation, with many derelict areas of boarded-up shop fronts and unpopulated, decaying buildings. By developing a derelict site, the ambition of ‘reform’ can be extended to the urban environment.

CHAPTER 2: CULTURAL/POLITICAL/ PHILOSOPHICAL/SOCIETAL POSITIONINGS

THE PRISON EXPERIENCE = THE DEATH OF IDENTITY

Dostoevsky’s semi-autobiographical memoir recounts four years at a Siberian katorga, where he served a sentence for his involvement in the Petrashevsky Circle, a progressive, anti-tsarist Russian literary discussion group.

He describes the harsh physical conditions of the labour camp, those he encountered, and the intense and unbearable sense of restriction that plagues the prisoner’s psyche.

‘beyond this there are light and liberty, the life of free people... one thought of the marvellous world, fantastic as a fairytale. It was not the same on our side’

‘a great gate, solid and always shut; watched perpetually by the sentinels and never opened.’

‘the centre of the enclosure is completely barren. Here the prisoners are drawn up in ranks, three times a day’

UNIFORMITY AND INEQUALITY

‘habits, customs, laws. Were all precisely fixed.’

‘It was the house of living death’

‘Long, low, stifling room, scarcely lighted by tallow candles and full of heavy and disgusting odours’

4

‘The soldiers on guard are suspicious, and clever at counting’

SPECULATIVE PLAN OF SIBERIAN KATORGA

BARRACKS

BARRACKS

CELLAR/BARN

KITCHEN

HOSPITAL

SURVEILLANCE STATES AND THE EROSION OF FREEDOM

Foucault criticised the power of the modern bourgeois capitalist state, idealising a Marxist, anarchist utopia. He radically argued that contemporary systems of authority were less humane than medieval ones, and better at obscuring their inhumanity.

Foucault uses retribution frameworks as a primary example, asserting that the public execution and torture of the Middle Ages allowed the convict to preserve his dignity and become an object of sympathy, while the executioner became the locust of shame. The transparent nature of punishment left room for public opinion and challenge: it was not uncommon for riots to break out following an execution.

Though a cruel abuse of power, Foucault argued that this system was no more damaging than the modern prison, which operates entirely behind closed doors, and is therefore impossible to resist.

BENTHAM’S ‘PANOPTICON’: the prisoner learns discipline in a constant state of uncertainty, never knowing whether he is being watched.

Foucault also questions fundamental freedom in a modern society, which is constantly monitored by advanced surveillance systems. Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon unknowingly predicted this existence, where we are equally restricted outside the prison as we are within.

The threat of punishment is as much of a behavioural control system, with the risk of being sentenced disproportionately higher for some groups than for others.

HMP Preston is a Category B prison housing 757 male inmates known for its issues with overcrowding and violence. A report from the Prison Reform Trust revealed that it was England and Wales’ most overcrowded prison, with 90% of inmates sharing single cells.

‘The Preston Approach’ was coined to describe the obstructive control and restraint methods rife among staff, as well as the comparatively high number of assaults against both prison staff and prisoners.

The everyday context of this proposal will be a supportive rehabilitation centre aiming to help female ex-prisoners reclaim a sense of identity and independence. The scheme will offer psychological support and opportunities for employment and education.

The extraordinary context focuses on anarchist ideas from Foucault, and the current public sentiments of betrayal and distrust at the hands of the government. The second function of the scheme will be a settlement moving towards small-scale self-sufficiency, to set an example for wider Preston.

This will directly benefit the ex-prisoners, and potentially other vulnerable people at risk of offending, as these groups are marginalised from the rest of society in many ways anyway. For example, it is far more difficult for somebody with a criminal record to find a job. If desperation, hopelessness or anger was what provoked an individual to perpetrate a crime in the first place, surely ending a prison sentence with even fewer opportunities ensures reoffence for many?

Self-sufficiency will empower ex-prisoners, providing them with ways of not having to rely on a system which they may feel has failed them before. The wider community of Preston will benefit in the same way.

HMP PRESTON IN THE PRESS

METAPHORICAL PRESENTATION OF MARGINALISED GROUPS

CHAPTER 3: TYPOLOGY STUDIES

‘Flatland’ is satirical 1884 novella by Edwin Abbott Abbott that points out the inequalities and ironies within Victorian society. The story describes a world inhabited by two-dimensional shapes, where the women are straight lines, and the men are polygons with multiple sides. In Flatland, social status is determined by the number of sides to the shape, therefore women populate the very lowest social stratifications, as a line only ever has one side.

GENERATIONAL SOCIAL ASCENT

‘no way can Women entertain such hopes’

Social status is also dependent on the regularity of the shapes, and it is regularity that enables discrimination in Flatland, and the implementation of a system of inequality. A stranger’s social status is ascertained by the language of Feeling, where one touches the vertex of the other, and can tell the number of sides by the angle.

‘ ‘‘Once a Woman, always a Woman’’ is a decree of nature, and the very laws of evolution seem suspended in her disfavour’

‘miseries and humiliations are at once necessities of their existence and the basis of the constitution of Flatland’

‘inferior to the very lowest of the Iscoscles, they are consequently wholly devoid of brainpower, and have neither reflection, judgement nor forethought, and hardly any memory’

The vertices of an irregular polygon of course, are all different angles, and therefore these shapes are impossible to conventionally understand, and pose threat to the entire power system built upon foundations of inequality and obedience.

‘a woman is a Needle... practically invisible’

The vertex of a straight line is a sharp point, which viewed face on, is almost invisible. Women are considered equally as unpredictable and dangerous, and so are also marginalised.

Overall, ‘Flatland’ makes an interesting comment on the oppression of marginalised groups in society, and the threat that those who do not conform pose to oppressive power systems.

.

mother father daughter daughter SON

Every man has one side more than his father. Sons elevate a family’s social status.

SON daughter

mother

EXTRACTS TAKEN FROM RECORDED CONVERSATION WITH EXPRISONER

‘prison’s a humanity processing plant. It starts off with clothes, take off your own. It continues with privacy, so get naked and turn around’

‘It’s easy physically, but it’s very difficult in your head’

‘sleep my sentence away’

‘you’ve lost control, you’re not in control anymore: you have someone controlling everything about you’

‘blood on the mattress... toothpaste on the walls... no nothing. Full of sorrow’

‘no privacy means no trust. No lasting community, no rest’

‘it’s never your home. Prison and privacy share the first three letters but they have no overlap whatsoever’

‘a cocktail of brittle egos. Hierarchy, lost kids who became men. Fear manifesting as aggression, fear manifesting as fear. Trauma manifesting as drug abuse. Drug abuse manifesting as cold turkey, and cold turkey manifesting as diarrhoea’

‘constant noise: women arguing, women crying. Women having a laugh’

‘the daytime is full of clattering chaos from the minute you’re unlocked’

‘The sounds of jails: well worth mentioning, because over the years and months they burrow deep into your mentality’

‘confined to 9 [feet] by 5, and that closed in on me, as a 20 year old, immediately’

‘bars on top of bars on top of bars’

‘halogen electric light makes you feel like a lab rat’

‘minimal light as well as minimal oxygen... the irrational brain takes over the rational’

‘people who don’t pay for their TV license get sent to this shithole. And then while they’re here, they don’t have to pay for a TV license’

‘how many reformed people are rotting away, when they are ready to be released’

ARCHITECTURE DESIGNED TO PROTECT THE VULNERABLE

The independence of the children is further encouraged by the adaptable plan, where rooms can be annexed or separated as needed. This creates a spontaneous experience of spaces, which invites exploration. Social areas like the cafeteria and the children’s dayroom foster interaction between inhabitants and create a sense of community.

Aldo Van Eyck’s ‘Mothers’ House’ was designed for an organisation in Amsterdam providing single mothers and their children with temporary housing, aid and therapy. Unconventionally, the mothers’ bedrooms are separated from the children’s, in the roof of the building where the sloping attic ceilings create a comforting and protective retreat for potentially traumatised users.

This language is continued throughout the building, in elements like alcoves and bay windows.

Van Eyck’s use of transparency combined with enclosure is an especially interesting feature of the shelter’s design. The paradoxical pairing of ‘openwelcoming’ and ‘closed-private-sheltering’ creates an environment where the inhabitants are safe to comfortably heal, without shutting them off from the rest of the world, in which they are aiming to reintegrate.

This precedent serves as an example of a scheme which seeks to empower vulnerable women, and improve their quality of life through a design which stimulates feelings of warmth and safety. The balance of public and private space within the building feels highly relevant in the design of the rehabilitation centre, where the users must be supported in the transition of re-adapting to freedom.

large areas of glazing counterbalanced with colourful painted steel facades and mullions.

‘THE

LAST FREE PLACE IN AMERICA’

Slab City is an off-the-grid community based on a former US Marine artillery training range in California. Constructed upon a square mile of disused public land, the scheme is relevant to the extraordinary context of this proposal. Slab City represents a small-scale anarchist community, who live autonomously and lawlessly, valuing freedom over comfort or amenity. The community mostly self-polices and self-governs, relying on learned technical expertise in the generation of electricity by solar panels.

CHAPTER 4: ENVIRONMENTAL + TECHNICAL STRATEGIES

Though a true embodiment of anarchist ideas, Slab City is not a utopia. Only 150 of the 4000 inhabitants are permanent, year-round residents, and these are mostly driven to the area by poverty, rather than a desire for self-sufficiency or isolation. In 1995, almost the entire population collected disability benefits, social security or unemployment.

STRUCTURES WITH REPLACEABLE PARTS

Liberation and autonomy will lie at the heart of this project. The Japanese Metabolist movement embodies similar themes, idealising an independent lifestyle of Nomadism, and embracing change.

The Metabolist movement developed in response to a post-war climate, whose population were coming to terms with intense trauma. One of the symptoms of this trauma was a deep suspicion of authoritarian powers, as an after-effect of a war lost under totalitarian regime. Nationalist propaganda that had falsely presented the war as a victorious effort, and counteracted accusations of atrocity perpetrated by the Japanese government eroded the trust of an entire nation.

As mentioned in Chapter 1, the political climate today does not feel totally dissimilar. Now feels like a time to turn to architecture that encourages independence and self-sufficiency.

Radical Metabolist designs involved detachable parts with established ‘lifespans’, demanding future update to ensure a high standard of design was maintained, and that the building could be adapted to suit evolving human requirements.

JAPANESE WARTIME SATIRE, AND 2021 UK POLITICAL CARTOON

‘CAPSULE HOUSE K’ DETACHABLE CAPSULE SYSTEM

‘The Capsule is opposed to uniformity and systematic thinking’

4. https://post.parliament.uk/effects-of-covid-19-on-the-food-

Constructing architecture which can evolve in parts will reduce the need for renovation and/or demolition, as the building gradually updates. Looking at the Metabolists’ design philosophy could aid in the creation of a building which keeps up with constantly developing environmental technologies, and with different inhabitants. This feels relevant, as the proposal will house temporary residents.

REFERENCES.

CHAPTER 1

1 http://www.prisonreformtrust.org.uk/WhatWeDo/Projectsresearch/Women

2 https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2021/dec/21/ben-jennings-on-boris-johnsonschristmas-rules-cartoon

3 https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2021/dec/14/ben-jennings-on-the-introduction-ofcovid-passes-for-clubs-cartoon

4 https://houseofcommons.shorthandstories.com/EFRA-covid19-food-supply/index.html

CHAPTER 2

1 DOSTOYEVSKY, F. (1861). The house of the dead. p.7

2 ‘‘

3 ‘‘

4 DOSTOYEVSKY, F. (1861). The house of the dead. p.9

5 DOSTOYEVSKY, F. (1861). The house of the dead. p.8

6 DOSTOYEVSKY, F. (1861). The house of the dead. p.7

7 ‘‘

8 FOUCAULT, M. (1975). Surveiller et punir: naissance de la prison

9 https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jul/23/panopticon-digital-surveillance-jeremy-bentham

10 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/lancashire/3560486.stm

11 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/475362.stm

CHAPTER 3

1 Abbott, Edwin Abbott, 1838-1926. Flatland: a Romance of Many Dimensions.

2 https://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Abbott/paper.pdf

3 ‘‘

4 ‘‘

5 ‘‘

6 https://www.archdaily.com/575732/book-excerpt-edwin-abbott-s-flatland-a-romance-of-many-dimension s/5482085ae58ecef0ed00001e-figure-2-gif

7 https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/aspiring-to-a-higher-plane

8 https://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Abbott/paper.pdf

9 The Secret Life of Prisons Podcast: Carl Cattermole

10 http://vaneyckfoundation.nl/2018/11/23/g-j-visser-house-retie-1974-6/ 11 ‘‘

12 ‘‘

13 https://www.architectural-review.com/buildings/street-urchin-mothers-house-amsterdam-by-aldo-vaneyck

14 https://www.architectural-review.com/buildings/street-urchin-mothers-house-amsterdam-byaldo-van-eyck

15 ‘‘

16 http://vaneyckfoundation.nl/2018/11/23/g-j-visser-house-retie-1974-6/

17 https://www.architectural-review.com/buildings/street-urchin-mothers-house-amsterdam-byaldo-van-eyck

18 http://vaneyckfoundation.nl/2018/11/23/g-j-visser-house-retie-1974-6/

19 https://www.architectural-review.com/buildings/street-urchin-mothers-house-amsterdam-byaldo-van-eyck

20 https://roadtrippers.com/magazine/slab-city-california-desert/

21 https://www.mapsimages.com/works/slab-city/

22 https://roadtrippers.com/magazine/slab-city-california-desert/

23 https://roadtrippers.com/magazine/slab-city-california-desert/

24 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slab_City,_California

CHAPTER 4

1 http://www.psywarrior.com/JapanPSYOPWW2.html

2 https://www.pacificatrocities.org/blog/visual-puppeteer-japanese-propaganda-during-worldwar-ii

3 https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2021/dec/28/ben-jennings-on-borisjohnson-and-boosterism-cartoon

4 Kurokawa, K (1977). Metabolism in Architecture p.84

5 https://www.metsawood.com/global/Campaigns/planb/building-extensions/all-entries/Pages/ metabolism-2.aspx

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

ABBOTT, E. A, 1838-1926. Flatland: a Romance of Many Dimensions. [New York], Dover Publications

FOUCAULT, M. (1975). Surveiller et punir: naissance de la prison. [Paris], Gallimard

JOHNSON, R., & TOCH, H. (1988). The Pains of imprisonment. Prospect Heights, Ill, Waveland Press.

Kawazoe, N (1960). Metabolism: Proposals for a New Urbanism

Kurokawa, K (1977). Metabolism in Architecture

Senk, P (2013). The Concept of Capsule Architecture as Experiment

http://vaneyckfoundation.nl/2018/11/23/g-j-visser-house-retie-1974-6/

http://www.prisonreformtrust.org.uk

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/preston-prison

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HM_Prison_Preston

https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/aspiring-to-a-higher-plane

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jul/23/panopticondigital-surveillance-jeremy-bentham

https://www.archdaily.com/110745/ad-classics-nakagin-capsule-towerkisho-kurokawa

PART TWO

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER 5

5.1 Project premise...............................................................................33

5.2 Initial masterplanning.....................................................................35

5.3 Key design features.........................................................................37

5.4 Integration scheme.........................................................................41

CHAPTER 6

6.1 Capsule House K............................................................................43 6.2 Le Fresnoy......................................................................................45

6.3 Far Moor Bridge..............................................................................47

CHAPTER 5: DESIGN PROCESS

CHAPTER 7

7.1 Material choices..............................................................................50

7.2 Designing for Deconstruction.........................................................51

7.3 Passive design strategies...............................................................52

REFERENCES

On one level, this is a temporary housing project aimed at vulnerable individuals needing of a sanctuary. In attempts to analyse the type of client I may be designing for, I dedicated earlier chapters of the briefing document to better understanding the prison experience.

I was struck by the commonly shared sentiment between ex-inmates that prison is ‘easy physically, but very difficult in your head’, emphasising the ways in which people are impacted by the loss of their freedom during their sentence. Highly restricted visiting hours, a lack of rehabilitation facilities and a criminal record mean that the vast majority of people seem to leave prison burdened with more problems, and even less support than they had to begin with.

Following this narrative, I developed a line of enquiry into philosophical perspectives on prisons and the societies which enable them. Foucault’s take on the ‘docile body’ particularly piqued my interest, and widened the scopes for my aims for this scheme.

The notion that all of us are enslaved to a modern surveillance state, (which Bentham’s Panopticon served as a pre-microcosm of), culminates to the ultimate question of whether or not any of us can truly consider ourselves free, if we are to reap the State-provided benefits of a city today. 1

Following this, my avenues of interest for this project expanded as I looked towards making elements of the scheme more mainstream. Attracting a wider audience is a key re-integration strategy I have employed for this project.

Creating opportunities for new communities to develop in territory familiar to marginalised groups can help to achieve the following:

... eventually creating an environment in which people feel supported and empowered.

4

eating resting learning creative expression 2 3

1. a large community kitchen, which hosts cooking lessons encourages the sharing of resources, skills and facilities. Has the potential to reduce energy consumption within a community.

2. a community fridge and store cupboard. Offering dignity and place to the traditionally transient food bank.

3. a public living room and library. Quiet and loud areas designed for resting in. Computer and learning facilities accessible to all

4. flexible outdoor spaces to be used for the mundane as well as events

Maslow’s heirarchy of basic human needs (left) [1]

shelter is offered at all levels of involvement with the scheme, somebody waiting for a taxi in the rain finds sanctuary in the facade of the new building. existing layout of the street is referenced, but not strictly adhered to.

INTEGRATING PRIVATE HOUSING WITH PUBLIC SPACE

connected network of central core structures representing alwaysneeded public spaces at street level (e.g. toilets, bike shelter)

private housing for temporary residents ‘bolted on’. limited facilities required, as network of connecting public spaces beneath provide the communal ‘home’

demountable floor slabs attached to cantilevering beam structure. opportunities for ever-evolving public spaces.

CHAPTER 6: PRECEDENT STUDIES

LOCATION: Nagano Prefecture, Japan

BUILDING TYPE: Private housing

ARCHITECT: Kisho Kurokawa

CLIENT: [private]

This precedent has been designed with four capsules independently cantilevering off a central concrete shaft. Each compact capsule represents a different function for the house, with the inner core containing a circulation and living space.

The capsules are lightweight and pre-fabricated, attached to the shaft with four high-tension bolts, and designed to be assembled and deconstructed with ease and speed. Kurokawa identified the lifespan of a capsule as 25 years.

This precedent has been designed to be deconstructed, giving it the ablity to sustainably adapt and respond to both mechanical deterioration, and changing social needs. This is a strategy which has inspired my design process.

The Metabolists envisioned buildings that would adhere to the laws of nature: growing, metamorphosing and eventually dying. This building embodies this philosophy, with detachable capsules designed to be replaced at the end of their lifecycles.

The philosophy behind the capsule considered it as a mobile sanctuary, within which one could truly be free.

Inside his capsule, the inhabitant is able to ‘recover his subjectivity and independence’, protected from uniformity by ‘perfect shelter’, ‘just as an astronaut is… from solar winds and cosmic rays’

(Kurokawa, ‘Capsule Declaration’ 1977).

This has influenced my scheme, which is seeking to create housing evoking feelings of safety and independence.

LOCATION: Tourcoing, France

BUILDING TYPE: Contemporary arts studio

ARCHITECT: Bernard Tschumi Architects

CLIENT: [public]

This scheme connects a mix of existing and new architecture with a suspended high-tech canopy roof, and a box-like facade. The ‘resolutely contemporary facade encloses the ensemble of builidngs’ in corrugated steel and curtain walls, with open sides offering the user and the passerby with views of the old and new.

existing 1920s leisure complex:

cinema

ballroom dancing

skating

horseback riding

supplemental program:

exhibition spaces

library

sound studios

cinema

restaurant apartments

Nearly all of the existing buildings were retained.

Historical tile roof buildings restored and reinforced. The new roof is constructed from steel and polycarbonate. 1920s architecture is juxtaposed with modern industrial materiality.

Exposed heating, ventilation and air conditioning ductwork suspended beneath the new roof, and above the old ones. Suspended circulation also hangs from the canopy. Spaces between the roofs are left open for installations and film projections.

The juxtaposed areas of transparency and enclosure are highly relevant to my scheme. The series of connecting circulation routes is something I would like to replicate in my own design. The canopy roof stretching over the network of spaces offers this precedent continuity. I would like my scheme to achieve the same.

LOCATION: Yorkshire, UK

BUILDING TYPE: Bridleway bridge

ENGINEER: Forest Civil Engineering

CLIENT: [public]

This bridge spans across the River Ribble in remote moorland on the Yorkshire Dales, and has been designed for horses, cyclists and walkers who take the Pennine Bridleway National Trail. Timber was the primary structural material, and stress-laminated timber was used to construct the arches. The result is relatively low-cost, and highly sustainable, as well as being scalable to my scheme.

By utilising similar materials and methods to construct connecting bridges along my highly urban site, I can contribute towards increasing public confidence in timber as a viable structural material, as well as integrating into the rest of my scheme as an environmental strategy.

MATERIALITY + SUSTAINABILITY

plantation timber

recycled steel in small amounts

concrete foundations kept to a minimum through the use of structural connections to transfer load

the pressure treatment for the timbers uses Tanalith E used in pressure treatment for timbers: least toxic and most sustainable option

The bridge can be dismantled, and its material reused, by de-stressing the tension bars and taking apart the deck and arches, one laminate at a time. It is also possible to lift the bridge off its supports and take it apart off-site.

STRUCTURE

The site is rural, entirely vacant and greenfield, embodying all which Church Street is not. The sites are incomparably different. In this way, many of the design motivators for this precedent were not applicable to my scheme. For example, measures taken to respect the natural wildlife, and preserve existing habitats dictated construction and assembly methods. Complementing the surrounding rural land was also of paramount importance.

Though the motivations for this project are very different, I see benefit in utilising some of the same construction methods. Stress-laminated bridges are both low-cost and sustainable. This precedent has been useful in understanding the specifics of creating timber structures, and the measures that can be taken in material choices to minimise environmental impact.

My scheme will aim to transform its decaying, inner-city surroundings, rather than blending in with them. For this reason I see aesthetic relevance in this precedent.

CHAPTER 7: CLIMATE CHANGE STRATEGIES

This scheme follows a polycentric urban model which prioritises mixed-use zoning: planning that encourages the establishment of self-sufficient quarters of the city. At its core, this scheme promotes sustainability; regenerating deprived urban land to provide spaces for the sharing of local facilities. However, a number of strategies will be employed to reduce the embodied and operational carbon of the structure, and set a positive example for the rest of the city.

MATERIAL CHOICES:

The impact of use, (for the same purpose) of reclaimed construction, can be 2-12 x lower than the use of brand new equivalents (Life Cycle Assessment).

Locally sourced reclaimed red brick will be used for the heavy structural cores. These represent a large surface area of the buildings in my scheme, and so are important to construct sustainably. They are the most visible features of the buildings from street level, and so will also help to blend the scheme with the surrounding buildings on site.

The embodied carbon of CLT is relatively very low. It’s composed of wood, which if sustainably sourced with reforestation, is a renewable resource. No burning of fossil fuels is required during its production, and it sequesters carbon, making it a virtually carbon-zero construction material.

It is a pre-fabricated product, therefore there is very little waste associated with using it during construction. Any leftover wood can easily be recycled. It is a lightweight material that can also easily be deconstructed from a temporary structure, and used for a different project afterwards.

The floors are the most material-intensive building element in this scheme. Reducing the embodied carbon in this part of the architecture is therefore of paramount importance. Everywhere within the line of weatherproofing, CLT will be used for the floors.

1. reclaimed brick

2. Cross Laminated Timber

DESIGNING FOR DECONSTRUCTION

Some of this scheme will be designed to be temporary, to fit around the old and the new permanent structures and suit a unique and growing community. For these parts of the structure, appropriate joinery will be considered in order to ensure easy dismantling. Mechanical joinery, instead of sealers, glues and welding are the most appropriate.

PASSIVE SUSTAINABILITY

The central core in each of my public spaces can be taken advantage of when designing for comfort control. Natural light for the higher levels can borrowed through use of void in the core, where it is no longer supporting heavy loads. This will reduce the need for artificial lighting.

By constructing with deconstruction in mind, materials can be re-used in future projects. This reduces waste and improves the embodied carbon of the next project. Opportunity for easy disassembly also engages communities, providing them with local construction and environmental knowledge.

An effective ventilation system can also be located within the void, that can serve the capsules it supports. The housing units are relatively small and can be pre-fabricated off site, and then lifted onto the core structure.

This offers opportunity to insulate to a very high level, also improving thermal comfort and reducing operational energy consumption. Modular prefabrication also reduces material waste.

REFERENCES.

CHAPTER 5

1 https://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html

CHAPTER 6

1 http://hiddenarchitecture.net/capsule-house-k/

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4 https://www.gridsecondlife.it/progetto/le-fresnoy%E2%81%A0-national-studio-for-contemporaryarts/#WHAT

https://www.trada.co.uk/case-studies/far-moor-bridge-far-moor-near-selside-yorkshire/

CHAPTER 7

1 https://www.archdaily.com/943366/a-guide-to-design-for-disassembly