Ben Simpson (University of Newcastle) 2nd Year Portfolio by Ben Simpson

ABOUT | ME

Summer 2015 Placement (3 months) with Farrels. Volunteering in Palestine in September - building skate parks for disadvantaged children

Spent the past year being a representative for British University Snowsports Council (BUSC)

Placed 4th in the National (BUCS) Snowboard duals race.

BA Architecture 2nd Year Newcastle University 2

BENJAMIN SIMPSON CURRICULUM VITAE

BEN CLEARLY PICKS UP NEW SKILLS QUICKLY AND EFFICIENTLY WITHOUT NEEDING TO ASK EXCESSIVE QUESTIONS.

MISSION STATEMENT:

GARETH CALLEN

PARTNER AT RYDER ARCHITECTURE

I’m currently a second year architecture student at the University of Newcastle. My working style is very kinaesthetic with a hands on approach modelling by hand and drawing before converting to a digital representation. I have strong Photoshop, Revit, Autocad & Sketch-Up skills in terms of 3D modelling and editing as well as good InDesign skills when presenting project work. 2.1 grade achieved in first year, looking to progress to a 1st in second year.

REACH ME:

EXPERIENCE:

07468 576385

ZIRCOM LTD June 2011 to present during holidays

ben.simpson94@hotmail.co.uk

At Zircom I have been involved with many aspects of a marketing and web design company. From website updates for companies such as Shell to organising office maintenance. I continue to work at Zircom during holiday periods and every time I’m there my knowledge of the business and my general skill set develops.

35 Cavendish Place, Jesmond, Newcastle-upon-Tyne NE2 2NE

ONLINE JOURNAL:

FRANKLYN’S BAR & KITCHEN Sep 2012 – Jan 2013 & July - Sep 2013

ACHIEVEMENTS & ACTIVITIES:

EDUCATION:

• Newcastle University Mens Hockey Team Squad member

UNIVERSITY OF NEWCASTLE September 2013-Present Studying Architecture at University of Newcastle (AAA – Offer)

• Selected for North of England Junior Regional Performance Ctr (Manchester Pumas) Hockey team and Wirral County Hockey Team • Member of School 1st Team, reached the finals of the National Schools Championships and toured Holland and SW England. • Won Calday Grange Grammar School Academic prize for Product Design & Psychology – top in my final year

Fully trained bartender. Worked full time during my gap year. Trained in free pouring as well as basic flair. Extensive cocktail knowledge. The bar operated an over 25’s policy so I learnt how to deal maturely and responsibly with younger members of the public that were not allowed in and older guests.

• Accomplished musician, member of Wirral Schools Wind Band, Grade 7 Clarinet and selftaught piano.

MERCHANT TAYLORS SCHOOL Oct 2012 – Dec 2012

• Gold Duke of Edinburgh

Employed as a hockey coach at Merchant Taylors School Crosby, I worked twice a week coaching boys from age 11-14. I was CRB checked and was responsible for up to 30 boys each session. Having responsibility of the children allowed me to learn how to interact effectively with younger children as well as keeping their attention and disciplining them when necessary.

WORK EXPERIENCE:

CALDAY GRANGE GRAMMAR SCHOOL 2005- 2012 A2 GRADES Psychology - A* Biology - A General Studies - A Design Technology - B

AS GRADES Biology - A Design Technology (Product Design) - B Psychology - A General studies - A

GCSE GRADES: Product Design - A* Religious Studies - A* Music - A* Physics - A*

Biology - A Chemistry - A Maths - A English Literature - A

English Language - A History - A Spanish - B

PERSONAL STORY:

Oct 2012 – Dec 2012 • 2 weeks spent at South African orphanage, Refilwe

RYDER ARCHITECTS (LIVERPOOL) June 2011

• Volunteering at Brookfield Nursing home, West Kirby

At Ryder I worked closely with a part 1 graduate attending a site visit as well as various meetings and client interactions. I also underwent a crash course in basic Revit as Ryder heavily promoted the use of BIM in all areas of practice. The time spent at Ryder gave me my first insight into architecture within a professional practice and was the driving force for my choice of architecture as a professional degree.

• Volunteering at St. Michaels and All angels Sunday school

Born in Watford, General Hospital overlooking the Watford & Saracens Sports Ground.

Played “footy” for WK Wasps before realising that Hockey is the game - touring Holland, and playing in the nationals.

Learnt how to mix Cocktails in my first proper job at Franklyns in Heswall.

Working at a South African orphanage, Refilwe was amazing.

Travelled in Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia during my Gap Year

Grandad was a fighter pilot in the R.A.F

I didn’t think of myself as an academic until sixth form

Love travelling and have visited Kenya, USA, France, Italy, Spain, Croatia, and Holland.

Sun or snow. I love Snowboarding so has to be snow.

Liverpool or Everton – come on the reds.

SKILLS & COMPETENCIES: IT & TECHNICAL

AutoCad Revit

Google Sketch-up

Adobe InDesign

Adobe Illustrator

Adobe Photoshop

MS Publisher

MS Office (Word, Excel, PPT)

INTER-PERSONAL

Full clean driving license

Customer Service

Grew up in West Kirby a beautiful coastal town near Liverpool/Chester Cash Management

Training

Communication

HSSE & Security

Writing & Photography

Music has always been important to me - G7 at Clarinet and can smash out a few tunes on the piano.

YEAR DESIGN REPORT The second year of a life long learning process has been one of technical developments, subtle

inaccuracies and a feeling of deeper engagement. Reflecting on this year I’ve drawn on three key issues in my learning experience, some positive and some negative but all productive issues. These elements are concept, graphical representation and programme engagement. Concept§, concept, concept, ….. Looking back on this year I can already clearly see development in engaging and initialising conceptual ideas and themes that run throughout a design project. I progressed from a seemingly concept - less ‘Place, Displaced’ project through to the deeply thought research project I chose to undertake in ‘Prospect & Refuge’. After my conceptually lacking initial design project I vowed to always research and develop a series of concepts early on in the design process. I’ve found these concepts to be a useful anchorage point in every project, always giving me reference and a wider picture for all design decisions I make. From my initial pin up for Placed,Displaced - which was text heavy and hard to ‘read’ I chose to learn and research the skill of ‘diagramming’ and this became a pivotal aspect of my concept work. From there on I always diagrammed my concepts early on in a project in a way that made them easy to read without needing text to back them up. These individual diagrams then acted as my anchorage point across all aspects of work. Looking towards Stage 3 in relation to conceptual development I will continue to diagram my concepts early as a reference point, but engage with the research of my ideas on a deeper level - perhaps beginning to develop concepts for more specific areas of a design programme as opposed to the current broad concepts I’ve been developing. An area that I feel I have perhaps struggled with this year is engaging with the design programme in regards to space creation and the reflection of this in Plan. In multiple projects the end feedback has been an “overall nice project, however some spaces won’t work”. In the simplest terms, I have yet to become proficient at the layout of spaces in regards to satisfying the brief. In Place, Displaced my main issue I felt was a lack of maturity and perhaps research into condensed housing and the layout of small spaces. Inaccuracies during early stages of plan development also often left me with sketch plans that looked sufficient to the eye, but when accurately drawn on AutoCad resulted in cramped spaces that looked unappealing and sometimes unusable. Moving onto Living on The Edge I again had similar feedback - this time my main issue was the large triangular void I created coined ‘fracture’. This left odd spaces either side, creating issues when trying to create regular sized rooms with a coherent layout. Looking back at this project I feel I needed to first create a regular and consistent room size for areas such as bedrooms and then look at how to effectively wrap these spaces with external walls as opposed to fixating on a set form that disrupts the internal flow of the building and created negative spaces. Next year in regards to space development I aim to explore testing options of spaces in relation to the brief as early as possible. This will include exploration tasks such as volumetric modelling, i.e. blue foam modelling, creating 2-dimensional objects than can be overlaid to show different options for spacial integration as well as zonal diagramming varying layouts. Then when specifying layouts I aim to be as accurate as possible early on the drafting process purely to avoid a panic when drawing up on AutoCad.

Perhaps the biggest development in my work and as a designer is in my graphical representation, its an area that I find intriguing and plan to write my dissertation on. Throughout the year i’ve experimented in different styles of working and found good reception in my diagrammatic approach to work through axonometric work and iconographic sections. In terms of technical proficiency I have improved massively and i’m very proud of my axonometric work from Prospect & Refuge, as well as the construction diagrams and work I created for the latest Crossover project. However, sometimes my focus on graphical representation can become my achilles heel, often spending a disproportionate amount of time on final pin ups compared to the specific design content. It is this area which I aim to work on moving forward into Stage 3, I take great pride in the visual element of my work and I want to make sure this can accompany a thorough design programme that satisfies briefs and stretches me as an individual. Pushing myself in new ways is something that I only started to attempt in Prospect & Refuge under the guidance of Kieran Connolly. Kieran encouraged me to move away from a ‘classic’ project and treat this work as a more researched based programme. This was the first project where time spent in the library, reading the works of John Hejduk and members of the Chicago Five, coupled with non-design module work (20th Century Architecture), became so clearly useful and hopefully apparent in my design. Initially an intrepid move to not draw sections and avoid conventional representation, the project was the first time I followed my gut and perhaps dissatisfied some tutors whilst attempting to question aspects of architecture that we as students perhaps rarely do so to Kieran I owe many thanks. In summary, Stage 2 of my education has provided me with many areas to work on moving forward, but also given me the skills to represent my designs in a professional way. It has given me the desire to question the norm and shown me the rewards of deeper academic reading. Hopefully my work at Farrels over the summer break will keep me engaging with all aspects of architecture on a daily basis and should provide a great stepping stone for Stage 3.

We cannot actually see thought, we can only see its remains John Hejduk

CONTENT CROSSOVER A three week project with 3rd year Civil Engineers creating temporary timber structures for a busking festival in Newcastle (3 x 3 x 3)3 A warm up project over the Christmas break saw us take the perfect form of a cube and place these cubes in uninhabited spaces. PROSPECT | REFUGE A 6 week project based in the coastal town of Amble saw us desgining a shop window for the Universityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s department of Geography and Marine Biology LIVING ON THE EDGE A large scale residential project in Ouseburn to house and rehabilitate disadvantaged young people.

PLACE | DISPLACED A small terraced family home designed to have space saving features and utilise day lighting. CHARETTE WEEK For this years Charette week I was part of the social consolidator project.

11 1632 4455

Crossover PERCEPTION

The Crossover project was the final design project of the year and saw a collaboration between second year architects and third year civil engineers. We were tasked with creating a temporary timber shelter / expereince for a busking festival held at various locations across Newcastle. The final output being an exhibition containing models / drawings and film.

PATHWAY |CORRIDOR

LONG | SECT ION 4

PERFORMANCE|SITE

PROPOSAL | AXO

PERFECT DISTORTION

CHANNELLING DESTINATION

STOCK SIZE TIMBER

CONSTRUCTION | AXO 7

STAIR | AXO

COUNTER WEIGHTING

PERFECT FORM RE-DEFINED

DETACHABLE PROTECTION

E X T E R N A L V I S U A L C U E S9

CONSTRUCTION | SERIES

(3 x 3 x 3) x 3

An interim project over the Christmas period to lead into Living on the edge saw us designing 3 cubes, each 3x3x3m in volume. These cubes were to be placed in an unhabited space which was real and we knew well. We mapped and diagrammed the space and the inter-relations between each cube and then designed internally a dwelling cube, doing cube and an experiential cube.

My presence, never seen, often heard, I cause chaos, I cause destruction, I fuel the future, I rule the sky And as the cold, dark winter approaches, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll seek shelter from my path.

Prospect | Refuge

A project based in the coastal town of Amble saw us designing a University shop window providing a space of prospect & refuge for post graduates to study and reflect. Offering educational services as well as exhibition space with a fixed form of a cube. For this project I undertook research into the cubes purest form and the work of John Hejduk, a memeber of the ‘Chicago Five’. Hejduk’s unrealised work attempted to disrupt the rectilinear form of the cube with organic and parametric shapes. I’ve chosen to develop this concept from the 2D into a realised 3D design. 16

REFLECTIONNOITCELFER

This project for me was a chance to follow in the footsteps of John Hejduk, a man known for his, sometimes, irrational thinking and his sensitivity to space and linear delegation. By nature we, as students of architecture in the broadest sense, have always chosen, either through force or perhaps by blind agreement, to enclose spaces, create strict boundaries and break a space up into smaller separate zones. I have never questioned the reasoning for this, and I believe this has led me to follow a strict philosophy of space creating without a sense of the real feeling inside such a space. With this project I wanted to change my view on such linear delegation, through the use of biomorphic shapes, inspired by the Diamond House drawing project of Hejduk. I aimed to create a radical space that acts as much as a question as an answer, juxtaposed against a set grid Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve aimed to individualize spaces yet house the masses. In many instances this project has allowed me to follow the thought processes of an architect as well as a philosopher and thinking in such a way has allowed me to come to decisions which in a past mind set I would have never made.

SITE MAP & FEATURES DENSELY POPULATED TOWN PROVIDING SENSE OF REFUGE

EXPANSIVE VIEWS CREATING PROSPECT ISOLATED SITE INTERGRATION IMPORTANT

BIOMORPHIC INTERNAL WALLS

EXTERNAL CIRCULATION

WALLS CREATING POCKETS OF PROSPECT & REFUGE

JOHN HEJDUK | DIAMOND HOUSE

Pockets of Refuge created by Biomorphic internal walls.

Hays, K.M, 2002. Sanctuaries: The Last Works of John Hejduk. 1st ed. Harvard: Whitney Museum of American Art.

I chose to use Hejduk’s diamond house drawing series as a start point for the project for a variety of reasons. The most simple is due to his use of a consistent grid and a set cube which bears similar resemblance to the constraints set in our project. Hejduk’s drawings aimed to challenge one’s notion of space creating and he broke up set linear spaces with biomoprhic projections and curves. Through my first investigation (shown above) I quickly noticed the spaces he created resulted in pockets of shelter, providing refuge and thus potential prospect from them. Hejduks challenge of conventional internal spaces was something I wanted to incorporate into my project, where many restraints were set, this was an area that allowed me to challenege the norm and engage on a project at a deeper level 22 I had previously. than

REALISING | HEJDUK

Eventually it was necessary to move from a 2 dimensional scale with which Hejduk was working and begin to realise his theories as a tangible space. I did this through firstly breaking up a linear space (the wooden block) with non-linear elements (the string) and looked at the effect this had in creating pockets of refuge and the resultant prospect. I then developed further into using a set grid of structural supports and creating biomorphic walls within these spaces to identify the resultant spaces created. 23

CONCEPT | MODELING

LEGEND 1. ETFE pillow detail 2. ETFE Antecedent (Cloud 9) 3. External Circulation Diagram 4. Inhabited wall Model

ETFE Pillows (200-500 PA) User P = 700 PA

AXONOMETRIC DIAGRAM | CIRCULATION

AXONOMETRIC DIAGRAM | BIOMORPHIC

AXONOMETRIC DIAGRAM | GRID FACADE

PLINTH LEVEL

FIRST

FLOOR

3. 1.

1m 4m

LEGEND

1. Lecture Theatre 2. Cafe

1. Seminar room 1 2. Seminar room 2 3. WC 4. Flexible learning space

SECOND

FLOOR

THIRD FLOOR

2. 3. 1.

1m 4m

LEGEND

1. Group Learning 2. Indiviudal Study Cells 3. WC

1. Observation Deck

LIVING ON THE EDGE

This project took us to a region of Newcastle called Ouseburn, a bohemian area with a strong arts scene since the decline of the industrial heartland of the area. This was the back drop to our Foyer housing project - a foyer being the coined phrase for a home, temporary or semi-permanent for the disadvantaged and the homeless.The brief specified living space for 8 residents and a mentoring family, a furniture building workshop and an exhibition space open to the public providing key spaces.

WHAT HAPPENED HERE?

SITE ANALYSIS &CONCEPT DIAGRAMS WOODEN FURNITURE WORKSHOP

HEAVY TRAFFIC FLOW OUSEBURN

RIVER

VERY FEW DOMESTIC RESIDENCIES

54째 58 26.3 N, 1째 35 23.6 W

SOCIAL | FRACTURE

NON-INTRUSIVE SURVEILLANCE

OUT TO WORK

SHORT | SECTION

LONG | SECTION

“ Man needs his difficulties

because they are necessary to enjoy success A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

“

NON - INTRUSIVE SURVEILLANCE

1m 4m

N FIRST FLOOR

GROUND FLOOR

1m 4m

1. Split - level workshop 2. External Workshop 3. Paint Spray room 4. Material Lift shaft 5. Material Store

1. Private Entrance 2. Reception / Home Threshold 3. Private Entrance 4. Exhibition 5. Design Room

N SECOND FLOOR

THIRD FLOOR

1m 4m

1. Tutor Outdoor Space 2. Tutor Room 1 3. Tutor Room 2 4. Tutor Kitchen / Dining 5. Resident Outdoor Space

6. Resident TV Room 7. Resident Study Room 8. Resident Kitchen / Dining

1. Bedroom 1 2. Bedroom 2 3. Bedroom 3 4. Bedroom 4 5. Laundry

6. Disabled Access Room 7. Bedroom 6 8. Bedroom 7 9. Bedroom 8 39

PRIVACY WALLING ENTRANCE

BEDROOMS TUTORS FLAT PUBLIC EXHIBIT BEDROOMS SOCIAL SPACE HOME/WORK THRESHOLD

EXTERNAL WORKSHOP 40

WORKSHOP

MODELING | PERSPECTIVE

LEGEND

1. Entrance facade 2. Concept model - Privacy Screening 3. Concept model - Privacy Screening 4. Liverpool St. Facade 5. Model In-situ with adjacent design 6. Exhibition corner cut-away 7. Entrance Facade

PLACE DISPLACED

Our first project of the year is a terraced housing project situated in Waldo street, North Shields. The client is a young family of three, the father runs an athome online internet business and the mother is a haematologist working late shifts. They are an active family and are looking for a new home to settle into. The footprint of the site is small and space-saving measures will be adopted at every stage of the design.

SITE ANALYSIS

WALDO STREET 55.0097째 N, 1.4448째 W

DENSELY POPULATED AREA

EXTENSIVE VIEWS ACROSS PORT

CONCEPT DIAGRAMS

1. IN SIDE

OUTSIDE

POLYCARBONATE SCREENING ALLOWING SOLAR GAIN & INCREASING PRIVACY

UPSIDE DOWN LIVING

COMPACTED LIVING 47

MODEL DEVELOPMENT

PLANS N GROUND FLOOR

1m 4m 50

FIRST FLOOR

N SECOND

FLOOR

THIRD

FLOOR

1m 4m

4m 51

INTERNAL PERSPECTIVE

Charette Consolidator

For this years Charette I joined a group of 6th year students to take part in the Charette Consolidator. This was a recording process of the whole charette with various outputs including a physical book, social media outputs and a website. Over the charette period we documented the whole school to capture what charette week is about and create a lasting memeory as opposed to a week long one.

SOCIAL MEDIA LEGEND 1. Instagram page showing images throughout the various charettes. 2. Website set up to organise and display work. 3. Imagery from construction charette.

CONSOLIDATOR

I was in charge of developing social media sites including twitter and instagram, the influence of social media in modern business and practice is important and this week gave us a chance to understand the philosphy behind social media in business. 56

The majority of the charettes involved modelling on various scales. The creative ‘hands-on’ approach that is advised serves individual memebrs of each team well for the upcoming academic year. The charettes offer varying challenges and concepts that help promote ‘out-of-the-box’ thinking which one will try and continue throughout all design projects in the upcoming year.

MODELLING LEGEND 1. Image from Machine for Living 2. Image from Charette 3. Image from Charette

Non - Design Work

ARCHITECTURAL TECHNOLOGY ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES& DESIGN 2 0T H C E N T U R Y A R C H I T E C T U R E DISSERTATION PROPOSAL PLACE OF HOUSES 59

The realization of architecture: an investigation into the changes in architectural

representation over the 20th Century and the affect they have on the realization of buildings.

To what extent does the architectural representational language of the period become reflective in the final output? For example, does a set of abstract collage’s initially produced, go on to inform and direct certain design decisions and thus change the realized output? “Value-laden tools of representation underlie the conception and realization of architecture”1. In essence Peréz – Goméz sees the mode of representation of an architectural program as being essential and influential to the form and thus the process of design with an output of a realized building. I aim to investigate the changes and developments within architectural representation across a mixed media, including hand drawings, photography, photomontage, collage, diagrams and photo-realistic rendering. I aim to see whether differences in representational techniques change the final product and if so, does this occur on a chronological scale or are certain representational techniques more persuasive than others in influencing a buildings design? I will begin with an over view of the changes and development of architectural representation over the 20th century. I will be specifically looking at ‘case study’ scenarios where practices such as OMA are used as well as the work of Peter Eisenman, John Hejduk and others. In addition to this I will be concentrating on practices and movements that are well known for their pioneering “anti-heroic and proconsumerist ”2 representation, such as Archigram, despite the fact that in this case, only hypothetical outputs ever occurred. I will be comparing these with buildings designed and realized by like minded architects and philosophers.

‘Plug in city’: Archigram’s collage series debates on technology and society, challenging standards of architectural discourse today.

I’m also interested in the habitation of architectural imagery and modern day representation and how this has changed over time. I want to question how and why we inhabit our images in the current workspace, often creating somewhat ‘haunted’ imagery with blurred images of emotionless people. We’re in a current state of additive habitation, where the corporation, being architectural practice or state led, is dictating the use of space within architecture, a backward notion that results in ghost spaces and un-real architecture. I want to detain whether in current architectural programs there is a uniformed mode of representation and if not, has this led to an incoherent style of architecture within modern times. I will also look into the history of habitation and how focuses have changed across time, perhaps politically with state leaders and emotive peoples being introduced to architectural imagery creating much more than a representation of architecture and in fact introducing politics and political motifs into the imagery that we associate with selected buildings.

1 Pérez-Goméz & Pelletier. ‘Architectural Representation and the Perspective Hinge’. MIT Press. 1997. p. 3 2 Simon Sadler. ‘Archigram: architecture without architecture’. MIT Press. 2005. p.161 3 Peter Cook, ‘Plug-in City’ (1964) [Collage]. At: http://www.archdaily.com/399329/ad-classics-the-plug-incitypeter-cook-archigram/ (Accessed: 23/04/2015

Bibliography:

Cook P. ‘Plug-in City’. (1964). [Collage]. At: http://www.archdaily.com/399329/ad-classicsthe-plug-incity-peter-cook-archigram/ (Accessed: 23/04/2015) Pérez-Goméz & Pelletier. (1997). ‘Architectural Representation and the Perspective Hinge’. MIT Press. Sadler S. (2005). ‘Archigram: architecture without architecture’. MIT Press.