D3SIGN Yearbook 2019-20

D3SIGN BA (Hons) Architecture 2020

Bea Martin Christian Nakarado Dr Matthew Jones _

Juliet Rob Annable Matt Hayes Rebeca Walker Ian Shepherd Paul Wakelam _ Foreword by Victoria Farrow

D3SIGN BA (Hons) Architecture 2020 Bea Martin Year 3 Leader

Christian Nakarado Year 3 Deputy Leader

Dr Matthew Jones Unit Leader

Juliet Sakyi-Ansah Visiting Tutor

Rob Annable Visiting Tutor (term 2)

Holly Doron Visiting Tutor (term 1)

Matt Hayes Visiting Tutor

Rebecca Walker Tech Tutor

Ian Shepherd Tech Tutor

Paul Wakelam Tech Tutor

Folatomi Akinyemi Mayce Arebi Luh ( Dea) Arimbawa Iletutunimoba Awosika Alexandra Ayrton Sofia Browning Masimbaashe Chimbetete Ryan Cooksey Sohail Dad Sabrina Dalvair Miya Davies - Patel Younes Dehairi Jacob Doherty Shaaista Ebrahim Clement Ellewelapahalage Meelad Faris Mark Ferreras Yvonne Freeman Harriet French Sami Gevdetasan Raheem Gilligan Christian Gonito Oana-Magdalena Halapciuc Chiquita Hart Rameetha Hussain Saylah Hussain Taibah Jabin Abdou Jallow

Duval Jones Lewis Jones Gavinder Kandola Moslem Khalid Shanice Langford Pei Lee Chiu Yeung (Thomas) Ma Abdullahi Mahmoud Chardonaire Martin Victoria Miller Ritesh Mistry Sufyan Muzaffar Sehama Nuur Jordan Pardoe Rebeca Parry Nirayan Patel Ruby Phelps Wiktoria Piotrowska Rares-Constantin Pop Liam Ram Sara Del Peral Rodriguez Sophie Roper-Hall Thomas Rowntree Harpinder Sihra Sadiyah Tijani Laura Viterbo Chloe Walpole Daniel Ward

In a dynamic interaction between the city, the school and its studios, Year 3 investigates the design and creation of living spaces under the slogan “Architecture as engine of Change�.

Created through open dialogue on the role of architecture in solving current societal issues, L6 studio is a laboratory where we work together to provide visual and physical inspiration for the architecture of tomorrow.

FOREWORD

A

t the Birmingham School of Architecture and Design, students are welcomed on day 1 with a talk by the Head of School, Professor Kevin Singh, who guides them to spend their time well, work hard, enjoy it, remember that time goes fast and to always adopt a “what’s next attitude”.

Our class of 2020 joined us in September 2017 and fully embraced this advice. Complete with enthusiasm, energy and an eagerness to explore, the cohort quickly established their place in the memory of both the BA architecture course and also the staff, as one of the most lively L4 groups and have certainly left their positive mark.

The BA architecture course is designed to give students a grounding in L4 and a foundation from which to build skills, knowledge and confidence, which will carry them through the course and enable consistent further learning. It also instills professionalism and a positive approach to multidisciplinary working and collaboration.

Although group projects were

never (from memory) a favourite amongst this group in first year, they never failed to deliver on interesting designs and ideas and were always ready to present their proposals with a sense of pride. Upon the departure from their first year tutors, the group entered L5, ready to attack a new set of challenges.

What stands out in particular, is their involvement in the Live project, based at a Birmingham nursery. Here the groups set about working with their first, real life clients - a class of 2 and 3 year olds. Most pleasing to see was the completion of this project on site, after the students worked tirelessly, in the mud and rain, to construct the winning proposal for the excited children. This certainly is evidence of their determination to succeed!

Arriving in Level 6, it has been exciting to watch these talented individual projects develop and the creativity that has come about as a result of the exciting briefs and challenges that form part of being a final year student. The hard work and passion that has been put into the

huge range of design proposals that can be found within this yearbook is a credit to all involved. Students and tutors.

We are now at the end and as Course Director, it is a pleasure to see how far they have come. The class of 2020 are no longer the new learners, setting about how to establish their place within the school. They are mature, professional, confident and outgoing architectural students, preparing to enter practice and make their mark on the outside world. If I were to compliment the advice received when they first joined us in 2017 with a departing piece of guidance, it would be, “never lose the passion that you have shown us throughout your 3 years on the course. Take your portfolios, your hard earned knowledge, your fantastic skills and all of the enthusiasm that you brought to the school years ago and take those first steps into your careers and your budding futures. And of course keep in touch!”

Victoria Farrow BA Arch Course Director

YEAR 3 – THE BIG PICTURE

THE GRAND CHALLENGES The Government’s Industrial Strategy sets out key Grand Challenge themes, aimed at putting the UK at the forefront of future industry. The four Grand Challenges – Artificial Intelligence, ageing society, clean growth and future mobility – are set to transform the way we live our everyday lives.

It is hoped that these Grand Challenges will bring Government, businesses and learning organisations together to make a real difference to people’s lives.

Our year 3 programme aims to help future architects and designers develop the skills needed to, in a cross-disciplinary collaboration, explore integrated solutions in three action areas related the role of architecture in solving current societal issues.

For most of us, design is unnoticeable. The automobile, the motorway, the airplane, the skyscraper, the smart phone, are no longer considered unnatural. They are banal, understated pieces of our everyday life. We are unaware of the designed infrastructures that support them. When such systems fail – accidents, disasters, crises – we become temporarily conscious of the extraordinary force of design behind them.

Today, our world faces profound challenges, many brought on by

design innovation itself.

If Vitruvius had written his De architectura today rather than a couple of thousand years ago, he would probably have made naturability (sustainability) his central quality requirement, which, along with usefulness, durability and beauty, constitutes the foundation for architecture. Back then, sustainability was a perfectly natural, and therefore not particularly noteworthy, condition. Most buildings were created from and in harmony with their context. With

the help of local materials, cooled or heated by natural element like wind, sun, and water, the best constructions would survive, just as in nature.

While pre-modern architecture can be characterised as architecture that was shaped in close interaction with the context out of sheer necessity, a view of architecture that ignored the importance of context grew out of the ideological stand of the modern departure with historical tradition, and the apparent limitless

technical opportunities.

With a blinded belief in universal form, rational functionality and the promise of a brave new technological world as the answer to the great socio- architectonic challenges of the time, the importance of creating an ecological connection between vision and nature was ignored. There seemed to be only one way forward throughout the disasters that marked the 20th century: the ravaging of irreplaceable natural resources, increased pollution and the subsequent environmental consequences.

Here, almost two decades into the 21st century, the magnitude of past and present decisions are undoubtedly jeopardising the future of human existence that the famous chaos theory analogy - that the beating of a butterfly’s wings in South America could cause a storm in North America – appears to have gained new relevance.

We are now certain that even the apparently simple local form-generating decisions could lead to incalculable consequences for the global environment. Fortuitously, technological research have reached a level at which we have an equal opportunity to

take a more sustainable stance in our dealings with the planet’s resources without losing our basic quality of life. However, this is on the condition that we also think on a global scale when we act at a local level, and that we take our share of accountability for the big picture individually, collectively and in everything we do. So, how can we, architects and designers, take responsibility and respond to the present crisis?

Around the world, architectural education is already trying to evolve in response to a climate crisis agenda. ‘If we [architects] don’t rise to this challenge, we do not deserve to exist,’ RIBA President, Ben Derbyshire speaking about the very real climate emergency we are facing. Advanced technologies, innovative business and heightened concerns for ecological and social sustainability are also changing the practice of architecture and the built environment, directly positioning architects to take charge for these issues. However, in order to realise this potential, academia must

lead the way.

We must take responsibility for ensuring that the next generation of designers are equipped with a solid foundation of knowledge, methods and skills so that they will be capable of making their contribution to a sustainable development. The success of a new sustainable urban form will depend on a close interdisciplinary cooperation so that it can draw on the latest knowledge from many academic disciplines in an integrated form-generating process.

In response to this critical world challenge, the last year of the BA Architecture programme, here at BCU, is centred on the design of the world rather than the world of design.

Our three action areas, crucial to better the future, are: Sustainable Communities (sustainability) Diverse Society (habitation) and Emergent Technologies (systems)

Bea Martin

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PROGRAMME

Design Studio

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The overarching theme for year 3 focuses on a common problem in the world of architecture: Context.

Context is often regarded as a starting point or pivotal point for architectural proposals. It can be defined as a system of relations within which something occurs, or simply to mean place. It is a precondition, which is critical to the production of architecture by architects. This is so because, whether we want it or not, we always influence the surroundings we are planning for, regardless whether it is a matter of landscape treatment, an urban square or a building. We always interfere.

Context understood as place is one of the most significant premises of architecture. Nonetheless, context is culturally dependent and, consequently, utilised in very different ways and with varying importance and meaning.

This year, students tested ideas, readings, and approaches against the following statement: The context of a project – the place, its environment – is much larger than the city or piece of earth upon which it will sit. It is greater than the historic discipline, larger than the traditional composite methodology. For us, there exists an amplified concept of context, in the same way that we understand that a work of architecture is not only found in its construction.

Building Relationships Design studio, at level 6, asked students to look for the consequences and opportunities that lie in our current cultural and social urban condition, whilst maintaining a foresight into what, and how, architecture can provide a positive impact to the environment.

The Site: Digbeth, Birmingham Digbeth is a dynamic inner-city area, one of the most colourful and varied in Britain, ‘slightly Bohemian’, a ‘pretty cool place’, ‘Birmingham’s Shoreditch’, or like ‘Berlin’s Kreuzberg’.

Digbeth is an area likely to undergo considerable change in the near future, with the arrival of the High Speed 2 line to the north of the area, adjacent to the former Curzon Street Station. The creation of the station will most certainly lead to development pressure on the area to the south, which is currently a mix of light industrial and commercial spaces, particularly used for artistic and cultural activity.

The area’s distinctive 19th century industrial urban character, much of it in a conservation area that includes a number of listed buildings and archaeological remains, has been utilised by businesses with the Custard Factory and Fazeley Studios key focal points. Digbeth’s character derives not just from individual buildings, but also from a distinctive public realm. Digbeth

has the ingredients to become one of the most distinctive and vibrant quarters in Europe. All sites of investigations will assume a speculative approach and response.

Programme The L6 project, for this year, was the design of a community hub, part of a mix uses larger structure further developed by each unit.

The aim and objectives of a new community centre in Digbeth is to: 1. Provide space and facilities in the interest of social, recreation and leisure time occupation with the purpose of improving condition of health and well-being for its inhabitants; 2. Create a cohesive community within the Digbeth area. 3. Improve understanding and increase acceptance between different groups within the community.4. Improve access for local people to the services and amenities that they need.

Both Design Studio modules (ARC6011 and 6013) worked on an extended proposal looking at site research, experimental design techniques, architectural resolution and detailed technical integration. This acted within each studio’s approach in which it was able to test proposals and generate an adaptation of the schedule of accommodation. Students were encouraged to contradict it at all levels if able to justify why they were acting against the brief.

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UNIT 1

UNIT 1 SUSTAINABILITY

Christian Nakarado LEAD TUTOR

Juliet Sakyi-Ansah

U.1 SUSTAINABILITY

VISITING TUTOR

Christian Nakarado LEAD TUTOR

Juliet Sakyi-Ansah

BRIEF

Death and Shopping

Rebecca Walker TECH TUTOR

VISITING TUTOR

Rebeca Walker TECH TUTOR

A

ll architecture, given time, is impermanent.

Yet very little of what we build today seems to last as long as we think it should.

Amidst the grinding machine of contemporary architectural production, as Adam Caruso wrote over 20 years ago, “stasis is never good enough. As genuine demand within existing markets becomes satiated, increasingly contrived desires need to be created and then satisfied by multinational companies desperate to increase their market share.� Architects play a significant role in this process, and we have an obligation to ask harder questions of ourselves: How long should a building last? At what cost do we rebuild? What is the best use of our time, energy, material, and intellectual resources when faced with the infinite possibilities of architectural creation?

In the Death and Shopping studio, we sought answers to these questions by examining what might be called problems of permanence. These are problems of resource use, waste, and ecological destruction inherent in the tendency to think of architecture and large portions of

the constructed world as fixed, stable, unchanging elements, and the incredible amounts of energy spent and massive quantities of carbon emitted upholding this imagined condition.

These tendencies could be dramatically improved by finding a compelling way to build less; by being satisfied with imperfection, the traces of age, the impermanence of architecture; by understanding buildings not just as fixed objects, but as systems in flux: their physical forms mere moments in a continual flow of energy and materials. We have a responsibility as architects to think carefully about this fact. As we give shape and life to a building we may be credited with its birth, but we are also in some sense bound to its eventual death.

From the Greek Agora and Roman Forum, to the Medieval Square and Renaissance Piazza, to the covered markets of early industrialisation and the shopping centres of the 20th century, the marketplace has always generated architecture that defines the urban public. These places of exchange provide a flexible framework for communities to gather, for people to in-

teract, and for a concept of local civic identity to emerge. For better or for worse, commercial developments today are often the most intensively visited sites in most cities. In many, they are the only public spaces where a broad cross-section of the population comes together as something resembling a com- 017 munity. They are also sites particularly susceptible to cycles of construction, obsolescence, and demolition.

Studio members have been asked to design a piece of commercial real estate (typically thought of as work and market spaces) that engages critically with its context in Digbeth and is explicitly designed to address the problems of impermanence and sustainability that make up the conceptual framework for the unit. Ultimately each project should create either a lasting or an ephemeral structure that reduces the incredible waste associated with the typology, yet still fulfils its basic functional goals, and creates a sense of community and a vision of the public.

Critiques of conventional contemporary commercial spaces are welcomed.

Christian Nakarado

UNIT 1

Sofia BROWNING Full-time

@sofiabrowningstudio

Digbeth, Birmingham

Civitas Project

018

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y project is based on the idea of how buildings make people feel. Throughout the studies of light, shadow, colour, and materiality I created the concept Civitas. This building is a community space designed to promote co-working spaces as well as focusing on mental and physical health with a meditation centre.

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UNIT 1

Miya DAVIES–PATEL Full-time

@miyavalentino

Digbeth, Birmingham

Verdigris Project

020

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erdigris is a powerhouse of sustainable systems that are self-serving to the site. From semester one, the project has developed from ideas of sustainable energies and decaying materials into how these sustainable energies would manifest on the site to create this powerhouse of sustainable systems. From studying these elements in semester one, I had become fascinated with the movement on the viaduct level and how that would transition down into the site. From researching wind turbines, I developed a concept about harvesting energy from the kinetic energy that would take place on the viaduct level. Then researching copper, I learned that it is a very sustainable material

021 in longevity. Unlike other metal elements like steel, copper does not decay over time but grows a protective patina layer, which shows the beauty in decay. Following the concept of sustainable energies, I had chosen to create sustainable activities on site that would serve back into the system, for example; using the beehives on site as an activity and then selling the honey in the retail store. From the retail half of my scheme, I was inspired to create an office space for people in the area to come and work. These people who would be using this space had the potential to not have a space to work or hold business meetings. Similarly, to the people who would work in the retail space.

UNIT 1

Younes DEHAIRI Full-time

@architexturised

Digbeth, Birmingham

Creative Ecology Project

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reative ecology is the theme to my project in which I explore the cohabitation of natural ecology and users on the site. The project’s aim is to reach high standards in internal conditions through eco-friendly means, that provides a minimal effect possible to the surrounding Ecology of the environment.

The incorporation of nature within, around and amongst the structure, will inhibit psychologically wellbeing amongst the digital designers who require the use of the (open) office spaces. The project shall consider both: the professional field (i.e. a digital marketing firm) and a digital community hub, that extends its service through providing relaxing open office spaces and digital exhibits to enjoy and learn from.

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UNIT 1

Clement ELLEWELAPAHALAGE Full-time

@ellewelart

Digbeth, Birmingham

Monumentality Project

024

M

y monumentality project was an exploration of what gives buildings the permanence and physical presence that would classify them as a monument.

Research into architects and the theoretical beliefs based on the perception of these buildings shaped my final project outcome.

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UNIT 1

Yvonne FREEMAN Full-time

Digbeth, Birmingham

Upcycle Centre Project

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T

he UpCycle Centre provides spaces for interactive learning, exploring sustainable artwork and understanding the circular economy that exists in Birmingham.

All buildings on this site will be constructed by local or sustainable materials and aims to achieve a low carbon footprint.

Furthermore, this park aims to be an iconic place where people are reminded that waste can be repurposed, recycled and reused to reduce the carbon emissions in the UK. This exhibition centre is also an interactive space where people can learn about the importance of sustainable living and how art can be fun way to incorporate sustainability into yor lifestyle.

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UNIT 1

Harriet FRENCH Part-time

@hlf_architecture

Digbeth, Birmingham

How Digbeth Stacks Up? Project

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T

he studio began with a close analysis of the materials consumed and carbon emitted through the activities that contemporary architects are involved in every day: the construction of new development, the dramatic renovation of buildings that are no longer considered fashionable, and the demolition of structures no longer considered useful.

Material and energy flows have been extensively researched to plot their rates of consumption, accretion, and dispersal over time on one of the two given studio plots. I also investigate the history, durability, and perishability of commercial structures, particularly by looking at the uncertain fates of retail and office buildings in Birmingham.

These two areas of research will be my focus throughout the two

029 distinct phases of ARC6011: 1. Analysis: I have produced 10 graphic representations for the first phase of my project. 5 plotting their specific areas of energy and material flow, and 5 investigating the legacy of a specific piece of commercial real estate in Birmingham or a specific retail or workplace typology. My 10 infographics are aluminium, arcade, boutique, coal power generation, construction energy used, house of Fraser, Ikea, office booths, plaster and polystyrene.

2. Exploration: The (minimum) 200 graphic representations produced during the first phase have been pooled into a resource base for the studio to draw from in common. Each member of the studio has chosen 3 of these graphics to develop in the second phase. The

3 infographics I decided to move forward with for the second stage were concrete block, construction waste and website development. Where I will further excavate the ideas present in the original images. The graphics gave additional layers, complexity and depth, in some cases developing into three-dimensional analytic models, developed alongside the other 2 requirements from the second phase: (A) a declaration of conceptual form (simple plan and physical model) and (B) a conceptual space within the anticipated project that communicates the most essential ideas from the analysis. These must all be presented together cohesively at the final review and portfolio, making up each studio member’s “project manifesto.�

UNIT 1

Raheem GILLIGAN Full-time

@only_raheem

Digbeth, Birmingham

Elevate Project

030

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levate is a project based around social sustainability. It explores the link between architecture and people, exploring what effect architecture can have on user health and helping improve social issues. Coming from the death and shopping studio that focuses on permanence and workability, the project aims

031 to combine the two to propose a solution to knife crime. This is through providing young people a place to work and express themselves with others; and through providing the local community a place to commune and learn about the work young creatives are doing. The link between the two spaces is an amphitheatre space where

the community can witness live performances from the young creatives. These performances then rise above the amphitheatre via a tower element which displays their work to those passing on the train on the viaduct. Helping young people grow and be understood rather than die and fit social stereotypes.

UNIT 1

Oana-Magdalena HALAPCIUC Full-time

@h_o_o_o_m

Digbeth, Birmingham

Artha Connection Project

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T

he Artha concept is rooted in the site analysis and history of Digbeth. The initial study of the project focused considerably on the connection between the site and Digbeth community; this highlighted the role of experiencing and seeing art in strengthening the connection of the people to the place they live in.

Thus, the Artha project aims to create a bond between the creator of the art and its observer-the outsider.

A major consideration in designing the building is represented by a sustainable project proposal. Therefore, the functionality and durability of the building over time will be the primary concern of this project.

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UNIT 1

Lewis JONES Part-time

Digbeth, Birmingham

Waterway People Project

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T

he challenge for this project was to create both a sustainable marketplace and an office space that together would become a community hub. The project’s concept is about bringing the canal community to a unified hub that is sustainable in it’s construction and operation. The building aims to last the test of time and embrace surrounding wildlife with the use of its extensive green roof and internal courtyard gardens. The aim of cultivating a forest on site is to

035 reduce the building’s carbon footprint. This is by being able to harvest cladding directly on site when it is required to be replaced.

The idea around bridging the canal is to capture the view towards the ancient viaduct as

well as the activities and transport within the canal system.

The community courtyard is designed around the idea of all canal users coming together to enjoy this outdoor space and visit the community centre directly from the waterway.

UNIT 1

RiteshMISTRY Full-time

@arc.rm73

Digbeth, Birmingham

Paradigm Project

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aradigm is a complex of three building typologies which reflect the music industry, these typologies are retail, performance and studio space.

This project reflects the current affairs in the music industry today, with the death of physicals, the decline of grass root ven-

039 ues and the rise of capitalism.

This rhetoric is the basis for the project however time changes everything and with the introduction of the Covid 19 and social distancing leads to the demises of the scheme and the re-emergence of the culture in 2120 as a new generation of people create an underground scene.

This project takes abstractions from gig culture, festival culture and pub culture, and personifies into a cyclical theme. The idea of sustainability is one of the underlying components to the project as part of the RIBAs Climate act to reduce the amount of carbon emissions from a building as well as the embodied carbon within the material.

UNIT 1

Sufyan MUZAFFAR Full-time

@5ufyan_

Digbeth, Birmingham

The Mesentery Project

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he project started off as design exploration where in the first term I had to construct a conceptual form that had the idea of a multifunctional fitness centre that created sustainability for the human body. The viaduct being there for so many years, having these old rusty bones that still stand today and I wanted to take that into my idea and extend on what the viaduct already had.

Taking this idea forward the design came to a stage where it was a smooth form that had this richness and luxury to it which was going to be constructed by concrete to give it the same effect as the bones that would

041 last many years. The project in second term started to take a different design approach soon as walls and measurements got involved. The form then went through many developments in elements like floor plans, sections, and elevations. The 3D perspective of it was the most challenging in my case where my buildings structure changed into a thin shell structure that supported itself.

To create the structure was one challenge but to design the form was another. At the end of it all the design came to a smooth curve shape that had these grand stairs to allow an

entrance point from ground floor to 1st floor for those who wanted to access the fitness area. The ground floor held its own entrance that could be used for people wanted to access the pool or cafe area. The project was all based around health and sustainability, the building being sustainable but using the environment to its advantage and providing sustainability to the human body by offering fitness. The Mesentery would last many years due to its concrete structure; it might lose its flesh, but its veins and bones shall always stand. It is an art to look after your body and I wanted the building to represent that.

UNIT 1

Jordan PARDOE Full-time

@_jordanpardoex

Digbeth, Birmingham

Digbeth Outlet Project

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y approach to the brief is a luxury shopping outlet that includes both office space and retail space. A communal space that all people can visit and socialise. The design is sensitive to the issues we face today and in the future with the global crisis of global warming.

There are many environmental factors and strategies included within the design of the build-

043 ing to help the project be more sustainable. As the building is to age, it will become more beautiful and overgrown with greenery creating the feeling of a healthier, happier lifestyle in Digbeth. The shopping outlet will be around for a long time and hopefully expand as time goes on, which would mean there is no demolition of the project only to expand or if necessary, reuse materials for an-

other project and the materials chosen are reusable. The idea of a shopping outlet in itself is a sustainable way forward, a there is less waste from products being thrown to waste, instead send to be sold for better prices making it more affordable for many people.

UNIT 1

Rebeca PARRY Part-time

Digbeth, Birmingham

Hinterland Project

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H

interland. My project is based on the premise that coal derived from trees which fuelled Birmingham’s Industrial Revolution, a concept derived from my initial infographic research.

Returning the site to nature while still providing usable office and workshop space. The name Hinterland was chosen as I thought its definition best fitted my project, a remote wild area or an inland area providing goods. Through a combina-

045 tion of materials, construction method and design strategy I have created a design concept with both the environment and future in mind. Materials have been chosen for their low environmental impact and ease of recycling. The site scattered with 5 buildings, 4 smaller one story cabins with multi facades to create the illusion of a smaller building and one larger office building surrounded by native species of shrubs and trees.

UNIT 1

Ruby PHELPS Full-time

@rxbyphelps

Digbeth, Birmingham

Connection Project

046

T

he concept for the project is to create a new community within Digbeth and in turn bring back the old community of Mosley Road Baths. This was a place for people to either appreciate by themselves or in the company of friends and enjoy the experience, over all the theme of wellness is expressed here.

The ideas used within this have influenced the project as the elements which are still key to this day of creating an enjoyable

047 experience have been brought through to this project. In addition to this, in order to make the project current and fit with the themes of modern-day life and the life in 100 years, there have been additional elements included within the project.

These are not only the buildings included in the site but also the integral part of the site itself, this being the sustainability of it along with the materials and how the landscaping helps to bring people through the site.

UNIT 1

Wiktoria PIOTROWSKA Full-time

Digbeth, Birmingham

Bricks and Mortals Project

048

T

here is a common misconception of architecture being immortal, when in reality it is only a matter of time before any given building vanishes – most recently an example of this is the Notre-Dame de Paris which was lit up in flames.

Almost instantly declarations for rebuilding the Notre-Dame were made when in reality, it might have been worthwhile thinking about the building itself and whether it is actually worthwhile being rebuilt. The vast carbon-emissions and energy spent on buildings which

049 are thought of as being fixed, stable and unchanging come with the cost of waste, resource use and ecological destruction.

Rather than being fixed objects, buildings are in flux: as time passes so does the material, resulting in decay and signs of age. The idea of permanence does not necessarily result in infinity; my project explores the argument of certain structures being permanent – specifically the viaduct in Digbeth which is an inherent component of the area, creating the basis for my project.

UNIT 1

Liam RAM Full-time

@Lr_archigram

Digbeth, Birmingham

Future of Mobility Project

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he death and shopping in Digbeth focusing on the present of mobility but also being aware of the future of transport. Which also is to Design for a specific subject area which is always changing throughout time but also making sure the design will be sustainable and last through many years of the transportation industry allowing it to be changed and extended as time goes on to the future but still keeping some memories from the past. Creating a space in such a dominant location to the culture buying, selling, and the overall culture of automobile in Digbeth. However also doing this by bringing both the craftsmanship and the Designers of Digbeth together to make a foundation of a space for the customisation and selling of customised vehicles for e clusive individuals. Enhancing the surroundings of My Grill in Digbeth with there being alot of car dealerships and garag-

051 es around the site that can be worked with alongside for partnership. With Digbeth having the Custard Factory containing alot of designer firms located nearby this would help bring them together with the steel workshops in Digbeth bringing the two to combine in a space for vehicles, bicycles, and any other further forms of transport which may develop on in the future. The main manifesto

of the project is focusing on the creativity and the craftsmanship in Digbeth. It also focusses on the sustainability aspect of electric mobility and the future of transport and what the future will bring with mainly being aimed at electric cars providing a custom shop and showroom space as well as an onsite charging station and retail space for charging cars and bringing the community together.

UNIT 1

Sara Del PERAL RODRIGUEZ Full-time

@saradelperal

Digbeth, Birmingham

The art of pre-con serving Digbeth Project

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ow does this project accommodate impermanence and change in a sustainable way?

What can we expect from 2120?

In an apocalyptic digbeth, where this project would become obsolete, the first thing that would be developed would be that green roof top cover, which would burst into the interior of the building and would degrade with roots many of the less durable materials such as brick or ceramics. The vegetation is the main protagonist of these degradations of the building but the metallic cover is not left behind either, which in 100 years would be corroded.

Because the project seeks to minimize the use of non-biodegradable materials and to reduce the embodied carbon, recycled materials are used for the windows and skylights, wood is replaced by metal and concrete, and green roofs are enhanced.

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UNIT 1

Harpinder SIHRA Full-time

@hks_design

Digbeth, Birmingham

DIGB[EARTH] Project

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igb[Earth] focuses on the sustainability of materials and using the site as a source for healthy materials to be sourced into and sold in the marketplace, where workshops and learning activities also take place. Design exploration explored the form of my building by analysing how the material plaster cracks in the form of primary and secondary cracks, portraying a sign of impermanence.

This concept of cracking has been carried through into my design by having permanence and a more sustainable design underground and elements of the market above the ground with the intention for impermanence in the future, as the building above the ground is likely to be damaged over time first. Therefore, my project adopts a sustainable strategy of reusing earth materials on the site in order to reduce the carbon footprint.

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UNIT 1

Kaitlin WATSON Full-time

@ktln_studios_

Digbeth, Birmingham

The Fifth Degree Project

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t what degree do we go, to try and save a death created by blind consumerism? At what point do we stop for a moment and try to understand how our actions as a community are affecting our planet and shaping our future?

When do we decide to stop covering the importance of climate change with fake news about our highstreets dying when in reality what’s really dying are our ecosystems? This project aims to create a long-lasting building that is designed to accommodate a future Birmingham where a temperature increase of 5°C is reached within the next 100 years. The project has been designed as a response to climate change with a mindfulness of how it is possible to design commercial real estate that is self-aware of the effects of climate change and what type of future our actions will lead to if we reach The Fifth Degree.

057

UNIT 1

UNIT 2 HABITATION

Bea Martin LEAD TUTOR

U.2 HABITATION

Rob Annable T.2 Holly Doron T.1 VISITING TUTOR

BRIEF

[insitu]ationist

T

his studio asked students to become a social actionist – an [insitu] ationist. To contribute to the field of architecture by intersecting design, social criticism and activism as a key ‘creative driver’ in the advancement of innovative spatial design processes. To explore a new generation of ideas and tools for innovating our physical and social infrastructure.

The insituationist is an architectural manifesto that instigates rebellious design collaboration at an interdisciplinary level.

With a role as important in the verbalisation of architecture as that of its design, the ‘insituactionist’ either produces a new space or gives an existing one new meanings and uses contrary to established behaviour. In so, the architect’s action is tied together through a common sensory ‘fabric’ that arises from a shared distribution of the spectacle – defining the way of being together.

Digbeth’s Terrain Vagues This studio was interested in the form of absence in the contemporary city. The abandoned areas, on obsolete and unpro-

ductive spaces and buildings, often undefined and without specific limits, places to which Solà-Morales applies the French term terrain vague.

The studio proposed new urban situations that could be assimilated as a process of unfolding, of differentiation, and of a quest for information that is often not quantifiable and escapes the logic of analysis systems of traditional urbanism. Specifically the study aimed to investigate how architecture can develop design methods that negotiate with these vacant sites in Digbeth, in order to maximise opportunities for occupation and social involvement, while retaining the sense and potency of Terrain Vague qualities.

The studio’s methodology was divided in three stages: 1 [Geo]graphical Conditional Context: Mapping Students started by exploring the site’s material information.

Focusing on the interpretation and analysis of the collected site data, through indexation, taxonomy, scale, and language.

Leading to the identification of all vacant sites in Digbeth. Fol-

Ian Shepherd TECH TUTOR

lowed by a visual translation of the patterns of information.

2 Inform[action] Operative Context: Field Diagram Here, students approached the site for an insitu-action. There were three main concepts for 061 investigation: [1] Developmental context – to grow, [2] Modulational context – to modify, and [3] Reparative context – to amend.

To test and develop these concepts, a catalogue of verbal operations was provided.

3 Morpho[logic] Formative Context: Assembly Working from their Explorative process, students at this point, approach the site to resolve their [insitu]ated infrastructure. Formative Context means “to shape”, it describes the process of how something came into being. The logic approach to form, and on how to assemble the architectural device.

In all, this studio was interested in a ‘shape architecture’ defined by a desire to act, and to (inter) act . That is, to activate, to generate, to produce, to express, to move, to exchange and to relate within the wider fabric of our built environment Bea Martin

UNIT 2

Luh (Dea) ARIMBAWA Full-time

@Arim_Arch

Digbeth, Birmingham

Seeing Project

064

S

eeing as an architectural project developed thorough a mind-set of being an [In-situ] ationist where it aims to be a ‘creative drivers’ to understand and achieve a conceptual force within an abandoned space or a Terrain Vague to find or create a new meaning that anchored strongly in its urban context. As an architectural proposal, the Seeing building provides and act as social activism to solve a social issue, in this case, to create a Community Centre and Halfway House as an in-between space to bridge the neglected part of the society (ex-convicted) to greater achievement. Through the concept of Gradual Level of Seeing in the aim to manipulate the spaces within the building through a device of For_Seeing.

065

UNIT 2

Sanmar AUNGON Full-time

@sanm.ar.ch

Bewdley, Worcestershire

Terrain Project

066

T

his project translates the concept of terrain into a building and is a gallery.

Further from this, the design of this building is a reflection of Bewdley in more ways than one. These features include the varying heights of the roof form that allows the building to blend in with the skyline and hilly terrain of Bewdley. The building is merged with the landscape horizontally, either physically or visually. This is due to the green roof on one side blending with the grass and concrete on the other to blend with the urban fabric. The interior is simple;

067 overall concrete structure and finishes with hints of glass and exposed steel features to create that industrial aesthetic reflective of Bewdley’s rich industrial history. In addition to this, the building houses a makerspace which is to reignite that industrial side of Bewdley again allowing visitors and residents of Bewdley to start making again.

UNIT 2

Alexandra AYRTON Full-time

@alexandraayrton

Digbeth, Birmingham

Symbiosis Thesis

068

069

M

y project is called symbiosis and it studies the absence of connection between nature and human, in the highly industrialised area of Digbeth, Birmingham. My project aims to resolve a symbiotic environment between the two.

It is a study of biomimicry in Architecture and the use of

mycelium as a new organic building material. Looking at mycelium as an organism, studying its growth and behavioural patterns to develop a skin that almost mimics this living organism to resolve a structure, that grows on the neglected viaduct of Digbeth. The final structure is an internal garden, with a

composition of smaller inner elements accessible to the visitors, branching to one another mimicking the way mycelium grows. This gives the visitor a new experience and a gateway towards nature and ventures to restore the connection, right in the heart of the industrial city.

UNIT 2

Jacob DOHERTY Full-time

@jacobdohertyarchitecture

Digbeth, Birmingham

Duality Project

070

P

roject narrative: My project stems from my study of graffiti, and more in depth colour. This led me to my concept title ‘duality’, whereby my architectural design process revolved around creating dualities. The proposal itself is designed as two separate forms

071 that converge and overlap towards the site’s main entrance, which is the building’s main atrium and key space. This then breaks off into the other two parts of the building: a translucent glass cladded community centre for the creative arts, and a concrete panel clad residen-

tial (halfway house) wing for ex-convicts. In its entirety, my building is supposed to represent graffiti itself on the local urban fabric through its unusual geometries and unique spaces, tying it back to my initial design exploration.

UNIT 2

Meelad FARIS Part-time

@meelad_faris

Digbeth, Birmingham

Penumbra Project

072

T

he objective of my design is to reconstruct the viaduct into a community center, a building which can question the public’s perception of an ex-con and most importantly break the ex-con self-identification with her/ his criminal past, by creating a lifestyle which will prompt the capacity to revolutionize his/ her own life. By altering the dynamics of a traditional building and empower people through

073 architecture, the ex-con is integrated into society through encounter and play by achieving maximum participation from the local community and creating situations of spontaneous, everchanging, and continuous life experiences. Ultimately construct new moments of life, allowing local community and residents to drift in building a living organism that is sympathetic to human ludic and social need.

UNIT 2

Sami GEVDETASAN Full-time

@sam_g_4

Digbeth, Birmingham

[UN]NAMED Thesis

074

I

nvestigation into the local road network triggered a fascination by the unclassified aspect, and how it intersects the recognised and remembered road network. My concept developed as I explored the unknown and it’s duality with the known.

Upon resolution, I took an interest into how institutionalised convicts experience a change of dynamics and emotion as they decay from memory over time, towards a state of dystopia. The change they experience involves being removed from society and constrained by in-penetrable architecture, often cold and dark. Prison culture describes the psychological experience of this, emphasising a to return to open society.

I chose to explore this through a thesis - an opportunity to compare a utopian and dystopian narrative reflected by how prisoners perceive space - these

075 spaces are described as the ‘Remembered’ space and the ‘Forgotten’ space, which like my concept, resemble the known and the unknown.

The remembered space contrasts the forgotten space, being remembered for its innovative and utopian attributes - the form stands radiant amongst the fabric of the urban realm.

It is contextual, therefore memorable. A monumental form raised above ground, it is where the forgotten prisoners desire to ascend.

The forgotten space remains concealed beneath - it is consigned to oblivion for it is a not a space to be remembered.

It triggers fear in the mind sharp, dangerous devices and ornament embedded within decaying surroundings, which describes the deterioration of a prisoner’s memory as he descends.

UNIT 2

Chiquita HART Full-time

@

Digbeth, Birmingham

Blurred Boundaries Thesis

076

T

he first part of my exploration involved the concept of diffusion through the mapping of enclosed spaces within Digbeth.

Inspired by Jun’ichiro Tanizaki, I created a matrix which resulted in a field diagram, a tool in which rules and hierarchies may be applied to help bring outside forces into the site, essentially helping me develop form. Following from this, with my first element being art galleries and Digbeth being the home of the arts, I felt compelled to manipulate the community centre halls into a flexible art

077 workshop for young adult excons, specifically BAME. Furthermore, as I began exploring my thesis I was heavily influenced by the idea of this changing phase within these young adults’ lives. Arnold Van Gennepe’s, ‘Les Rites De Passages’ discusses the phases which are present in our lives, however the ‘liminal’ phase was one which created intrigue.

The users, being ex-cons and young adults are faced with the challenge of re-integrating into an existing community and society, where their pasts become attached to them and their iden-

tities. Using this philosophical idea, I approached the matter architecturally using readings from Subha Mukherjil to explore what can be described as this intangible “blurred boundary” where the user, activity or space is not explicitly confronted or defined.

Through my thesis I aim to study these “blurred boundaries” through lighting and creating a canopy which inhabits blurred boundaries and spaces.

UNIT 2

Saylah HUSSAIN Full-time

@

Digbeth, Birmingham

Synchro[city] Manifesto

078

T

he design is one that is multifaceted and complex. The concept of ‘pattern’ is one which covers how the city is an ordered series of arrangement and display of a particular thing. The conceptual form tries to embrace the contradictory features and qualities of the site in order to create an architectural form which is stimulating for all.

Designed for migrants, the main objective for the

079 architectural form is to allow people to write their own version of Je me souviens, recall memories, create a quasiautobiography to define Digbeth with their own unique configuration formed from their own set of recollections.

Therefore, the framework is made from patterns of stories.

How can the architectural form created become something that is sensitive to these recollections?

UNIT 2

Abdou JALLOW Full-time

Digbeth, Birmingham

Flow Project

080

W

ith the brief demanding a community space where people can work and ideas can be shared, I created a workflow in which I believe this process tends to happen and adapted the spatial layout to this.

The upcycling centre provides a lecture theatre with supporting seminar and class room spaces.

These can be booked to hold events or meetings for those around the area who see it fit for

081 the running of their programs.

It also provides an exhibition space in which people experience the possibilities and see the value that can come from upcycling. Following this, it provides an open space collaborative work space. All open to the public.

With accompanied or granted access, the workshops and membership collaborative workspaces can also be accessed.

Its main storage facility is also a very important feature to the projects program. Encouraging the contribution and usage of materials considered to be at the end of use by offering the option for the public to drop off materials as well as pick some up.

UNIT 2

Duval JONES Full-time

@duval_architecture

Digbeth, Birmingham

Overgrown Project

082

A

s part of my exploration, I became interested in how the built environment affected the natural environment. The element I chose was greenspaces in which I mapped its various aspects.

Grass and growth formed a major part of this exploration.

This in turn formed my field diagram, the contextual anchor of my design process, where the major lines form cut lines and the minor lines form score lines.

The conceptual form mimics that of blades of grass which

083 have been unmanaged and left to overgrow, a direct connection to the idea of terrain vague and succession. The resolution stage saw me using growth as the anchor for all decision made then on. This drove how I tackled the

studio’s social agenda, in which I chose to look at the mental health of ex-convicts. The outcome was a simplistic, powerful yet purposeful building which effortlessly conveyed my concept across all scales.

UNIT 2

Gavinder KANDOLA Full-time

@gavin_kandola

Digbeth, Birmingham

Motivity Project

084

M

y project focuses on contextualising graffiti, not only as an art form, but as a device for helping ex-convict rehabilitate, in order to help them re-intergrade back into society. The project focuses on capsulising the movements of a graffiti artist into geometric shapes used to create a form. In order to create these geometric shapes, I made a device in which I could use these movements to create complex 2D geometries.

By understanding these move-

085 ments and the natural laws of motion in which they expelled, I was able to create a concept, to then develop into a building. To implement my concept into all

aspects of this project, I looked at how the users could move around the inner spaces and how the spaces could be used for rehabilitation.

UNIT 2

Pei LEE Full-time

@peishanglee

Digbeth, Birmingham

Growinn Project

088

G

rowinn is an 8- floor living community center and halfway house designed for ex-convicts in Digbeth, Birmingham, on the corner of the junction between Moseley Road and Bradford Street. The community center occupies the two floored volume attached on the ground, covering an exsisting convenience store. The two main facade is covered with a second layer triangular Corten coated steel frames taken the from my field diagram, and the concept of growth. The triangle shapes derived from the zig zag lines

089 from the field diagram.

The triangles pointing upwards to a larger row of triangles symbolises by looking upwards, one can see a bigger picture of oneself and the world.

On the accommodation spaces, three main blocks were extruded from the main corridor.

The blocks is spreaded out into small units symbolises growth and multiplication. Starting from the first floor, each floor has more beds in a room. Each flat have a common room so that the residents can interact with each other.

UNIT 2

Abdullahi MAHMOUD Full-time

@Arch_amg

Digbeth, Birmingham

Light Project

092

T

he name concept of the project is Light and the concept was originally developed from mapping sawtooth roof in Digbeth after anylsing the impact sawtooth roof has on space and proven the fact that sawtooth roof brings the most amount of sunlight in into the building. Taking the idea further into design exploration, the forces into my site were transformed into a building. Trying to get the idea from Digbeth and giving it back to Digbeth. From the field diagram, a rule was made by creating grids and projecting to get a form. In Design exploration my aim was trying to convert the conlight into architecture and how that wass achieved through breaking down the concept into

093 light and dark. To achive that, the field diagram from design exploration was being man brought to design exploration and a pattern was made evenly according to the amount of light the area requires.

UNIT 2

Sehama NUUR Full-time

@sehama.n

Digbeth, Birmingham

Interstice Manifesto

094

S

tarting this project on terrain vague, I saw the beauty in one of the many abandoned lots in Digbeth.

The fascination of mapping windows came about from all the broken windows and pieces within the building. As the project developed, I started to investigate words derived from windows and came upon interstice; the space between and with this concept, it allowed me to explore a lot of ways for my forms. In connection to the brief, at first, I was interested in the mental health and wellbeing

095 of prisoners and their aftermath of being released so my semester 1 hybrid explored the play on scale and use of vast space to confuse but also confront the idea that the mind is never empty; it is filled with chaos. With the internal manifestation framing the scene. With a lot of consideration my topic steered towards the fine line between real and fake and exploring that on an urban scale and the final drawings produced through my resolution tried to capture the essence of navigating through the underground to escape the city.

UNIT 2

Thomas ROWNTREE Full-time

@tomrowstudios

Digbeth, Birmingham

Sequence/Sequel Thesis

096

D

esign is a puzzle, solving problems and providing solutions. Design resolution requires us to respond and resolve the information we gathered during our research. It is a continuation that will utilise the themes and approaches of our design exploration to be able to respond conceptually and contextually in forming a building. In resolving our research, we will work through the macro, meso and micro scales to develop a well-established solution.

The thesis is an intellectual proposition grounded on design research. The questions posed should be addressed and the methodology must be precise.

097

UNIT 2

Sadiyah TIJANI Full-time

@tijani_arc

Digbeth, Birmingham

Obscurity Manifesto

098

F

ollowing my studio topic that revolves around social issues my project narrative is about the idea of Women+Obscurity. This Manifesto expresses how women’s minds are obscured from socialisation to internalise particular norms and values that can result in negative trauma and more extreme experiences leaving vul-

099 nerable women behind.

This journey of my built form follows the life process of the woman with each definitive stage being a separate experience for users to pass through like a home, stacked with a lift that takes you to each level, passing through the Bordesley viaduct until reaching the Garden of Eden where they are

able to hide and enjoy a biodiverse utopia above the viaduct and the evils of society as pure, healed and free women. By creating a safe haven for women with experienced trauma I am obscuring and camouflaging them into a safe, free space for them to exist.

UNIT 2

Chloe WALPOLE Full-time

@chloewalpolearc

Digbeth, Birmingham

Transitory Frequencies Thesis

100

M

y project is a thesis and explores how sound can be translated into space. I derived a taxonomy and explored how this could be used to interpret sound and the how this could be applied to my building to order the different spaces within. I focused on movement as a

101 concept which is seen throughout the building at various scales. I first came up with a set of taxonomy, which combined with my field diagram defined the heights of my building.

The different heights determined the volume of sounds for each level. Sound therapy works at different frequencies

to provide healing to the body in many mental and physical ways. The building is for the use of ex-convicts so I decided to include sound therapy in my building as it have many benefits and will aid them with their rehabilitation and integration back into society.

UNIT 1

UNIT 3 SYSTEMS

Dr Matt Jones LEAD TUTOR

Matt Hayes

U.3 SYSTEMS

VISITING TUTOR

Paule Wakelam

BRIEF

TECH TUTOR

1000 Trades

I

n this studio we will strive to create characterful architecture grounded in the realities of site and context. Based in Birmingham, the city of 1000 Trades, we will explore the craft and technology of making buildings and how an in depth understanding of material and process can influence how we make and remake the city, sustainably shaping its spaces and places.

‘Learning though making’ forms a central practice of our studio, drawing on a synergy between art and industry, culture and production and the creative context of the Faculty of Arts, Design and Media.

During the exploration phase, students will explore and experiment through making at varying scales up to 1:1 to inform their ideas about craft, making and exchange.

The brief: This year, 1000 Trades has been exploring how we can challenge business-as-usual construction through the lens of sustaina-

ble production and the circular economy.

To start Design exploration, students were asked to create a personal log of their inputs and outputs to understand the impact of our studio on the environment. At the same time we were (De)constructing Digbeth, using mapping processes to exploring specific layers of production, industry and the industrial vernacular through close reading and mapping of material, surface and detail. As part of the studio’s ethos of design through making, students explored a particular process of reducing, reusing, recycling or reconstructing through material experiments, mapping the steps and stages of production and creating test pieces.

In Design Resolution, students have been asked to design a high density creative production hub alongside the community aspect of the DR3 brief.

The brief aims to bring together creative re-making and the community and be a beacon

for reducing, reuse, recycling and remaking with Birmingham’s creative heart. It will provide spaces to make, prototype, work and play. The hub should be a place for creatives to gather and make and a resource for the wider surroundings. It should be a visible, distinctive building 105 with a sense of civic presence and contribution to city life without overwhelming its context. It will contain some spaces that can be used for many functions at different times of the day (and night): Lectures, exhibitions, meetings or education.

It should be a place of discovery, gatherings and exchanges for its users.

Students have been asked to reflect on the community aspect of the DR3 brief through the lens of their making processes and adapt this aspect of the building to suit their brief.

However, all projects must contain a public-facing aspect to link the making processes to the wider community.

Dr Matt Jones

UNIT 2

Mayce AREBI Full-time

@mayce_ar

Digbeth, Birmingham

Revival Thesis

108

W

e often sacrifice real craftsmanship at the altar of expediency.

While we are still capable of recognizing the value of something that has been expertly constructed, we often choose

109 the cheap and easy option instead.

The craft of an item is recognised instantly due to the designers attention detail and the consistency of their work. I focused on welcoming back craftsmanship into Digbeth, restoring unused ma-

terials and making them into valuable unique goods with individuality. A rare occurrence in this mass-produced era.

UNIT 2

Iletutunimoba AWOSIKA Full-time

@

Digbeth, Birmingham

The Upcycle Centre Project

110

W

ith the brief demanding a community space where people can work and ideas can be shared, I created a workflow in which I believe this process tends to happen and adapted the spatial layout to this.

The upcycling centre provides a lecture theatre with supporting seminar and class room spaces.

These can be booked to hold events or meetings for those around the area who see it fit for the running of their programs.

It also provides an exhibition space in which people experience the possibilities and see the value that can come from

111 upcycling. Following this, it provides an open space collaborative work space. All open to the public.

With accompanied or granted access, the workshops and membership collaborative workspaces can also be accessed.

Its main storage facility is also a very important feature to the projects program. Encouraging the contribution and usage of materials considered to be at the end of use by offering the option for the public to drop off materials as well as pick some up.

UNIT 2

Ryan COOKSEY Full-time

@ryancookseyarchitecture

Digbeth, Birmingham

An essay in brick Thesis

114

I

have recognised that the construction industry is accountable for a large proportion of emissions contributing to the problem of global warming, something that is currently extremely topical. When exploring Digbeth it’s clear that the ‘workshop of the world’, ‘a city home to a thousand trades’, will be demolished to make way for the regeneration of HS2. I have explored that brick is a material used in masses within Digbeth, which in recent years has become part of an unadventurous circular economy. With the waste material being used as an aggregate, such as hardcore

115 and temporary roads. What I find depressing is that something that was once ‘beautiful’, is now reused as a less inventive material forming a compacted base. I explored the significance of masonry, through recognising its value of aesthetics and embodied energy. I Focused on

the permanence that masonry materials hold. In an aim to celebrate the aggregate and find a form that allows authenticity true to the material. Concluding with a community hub that celebrates brick and ‘lets brick be brick’, Because “even a brick wants to be something”.

UNIT 2

Shaaista EBRAHIM Full-time

@Arch_Shae

Digbeth, Birmingham

Instill Project

120

M

y design project is based on my building design called the “Hidden Gems Up-cycling and Community Hub”. My work is split into two parts entitled ‘Distil’ and ‘Instil’. The concept behind the design is about encouraging the public to interact and participate with not only the process of upcycling and recycling but to also enjoy the journey behind it. Upcycling, also known as creative reuse, is the process of transforming by-products or waste materials into new materials or products of better quality and environmental value. Recycling on the other hand, is the process of converting waste into reusable material. Book 1 entitled Distil and book 2 entitled Instil encompasses sustainability,

121 creative remaking, reuse and recycling of waste materials.

Forgotten stories of the Anthropocene and trash are embedded within the design to create an impactful atmosphere. My design aims to explain what happens to waste materials after they’re thrown away, how these

are reused and what happens to the environment as depicted by the ‘Hidden gems upcycling and community hub’. By involving the community and raising awareness of the whole up-cycling process, the impact of waste on the environment can be minimised.

UNIT 2

Mark FERRERAS Full-time

@mark.studio_

Digbeth, Birmingham

Remaking Roofscape Project

122

T

he concept of my project is to explore how I can recreate the existing roofscapes found in Digbeth and transform it into a creative community hub which focuses on reducing, reuse, recycling, and remaking.

Known for becoming the first centre of industry back in the 18th century, Digbeth played

123 a vital part in the evolution of technology, manufacture, and economy for Birmingham, and remains at the forefront of creativity for the city. My initial exploration for this project was to identify the most frequent roof structures found within Digbeths industrial fabric.

Through my mapping studies and further research, I noticed

that different roof structures had different properties, in terms of size, shape, orientation, and daylighting. This became the foundation of my design development, whereby by identifying the characteristics of a roof type and structure will then give me an informed decision on what the function of that space is.

UNIT 2

Christian GONITO Full-time

@archris.g

Digbeth, Birmingham

Rewilding Project

124

M

y project ‘Rewilding’ focuses on the integration of nature into architecture. The concept is to break boundaries which prevent the stages of rewilding in order to continue the flow of greenery into Digbeth. The process of rewilding is done naturally rather than being placed intentionally.

The idea of ‘Architecture vs Nature’ is practiced in this scheme by incorporating a double

125 tracked, sliding timber walls in the corridors which separates the functional spaces from the central courtyard. These moveable walls allow the user to adjust the environment and atmosphere of the corridor space from light to dark; thus, creating different views and openings into the courtyard. ‘Architecture vs Nature’ is expressed through the contrast of a dark, internal corridor space against the bright, well-lit courtyard space.

UNIT 2

Moslem KHALID Full-time

Digbeth, Birmingham

Community Growth Project

132

T

he Digbeth community is always looked down on as people don’t feel comfortable walking through the streets of Digbeth. The crime rates have not changed in the past 3 years only relocated. My project is about giving Digbeth a chance to grow together. It is about giving them a place to come work together and create artwork and memories for decades to come. When you help build a community, I believe you bond together and value the community more.

Using advanced skills such as Japanese joinery, it is also a skill you will take on board for the rest of your life. I will also provide apartments for the people of the community. As the city grows the living prices grow along with it and sometimes it drives out the people who grew up here but can’t afford to live there anymore, but I believe it is important to help people who love their community for what it is.

133

UNIT 2

Victoria MILLER Full-time

@vcmllr

Digbeth, Birmingham

Craft Curation Thesis

134

M

y thesis is called CraftCuration and is a process of collecting and documenting Birminghams long rich heritage which helped it once acquire the title of ‘workshop of the world’. Over

135 time, buildings and industry have been replaced and these highly skilled trades are gradually becoming lost and the hand skills are being forgotten. The Warwick Wharf site will compliment the already creative quarter of Birmingham offering a site dedicated to building a rich archive of old crafts, donated objects and stories as well as a workhouse full of studio spaces where people who have these

dying skills are able to pass on their trade and learn new ones, creating a community atmosphere which would have been found in old workshops. On arrival, the welcome building acts as a gateway to the wider site as well as being the public face of the site and so my element study, cast tiles which are a component of documenting Biminghams past, communicate the concept within.

UNIT 2

Rares-Constatin POP Full-time

@rares148

Digbeth, Birmingham

The Threshold between Permanent and Temporary Spaces Project

138

I

nterested about temporary and permanent structures and what is the difference between them two such as materiality and specific architectural elements. The key objective of this project is to provide creative temporary spaces for local children and opened to public on ocasions that would sit within an existing building which is an old industrial abandoned warehouse while keeping some of its elegance such as the existing facades or the roof with its structure.

139

UNIT 2

Dan WARD Full-time

@dan_blade

Digbeth, Birmingham

Riverside Retreat Project

144

145 Our site in Digbeth is a brownfield site. In order to develop our scheme the land must be cleared of its buildings. This leads to a large amount of waste material and whilst some may be crushed and reused, most will end up in land fill.

I explore whether brickwork could be reused in an altered form, in a similar way to the limestone davy blocks - a waste material remanufactured.

CONGRATULATIONS CLASS OF 2020!

To all L6 graduating students, this is a moment to recognize your achievements. This is the time for you to celebrate your journey — the friends you have made, the tutors you have engaged, the knowledge you have gained, and the experience you have earned on the way to your degree. This is a time to reflect on what you have mastered — the ways of questioning, thinking, and innovating as well as the ways that you will apply them.

As you graduate, after three long years of hard work, you should celebrate your transformation, considering your dreams upon arriving and now leaving

university.

This is also an extraordinary time to graduate. On the other side of this pandemic lies a whole new world. You graduate into an uncharted landscape to be explored, into an environment that will become increasingly important, and into a place where our communities will become ever more critical to our lives. We will live, work, and play in ways that need to be reimagined. You came to BCU to prepare for this.

You graduate as the agent for change in this environment. As you go forward as the newest members of the BCU alumni,

remember to act broadly, to work with passion, to lead with integrity, and to share your knowledge as inspiration for future BCU classes.

Yours will be a longremembered graduating class.

From lockdown to remote learning, the many tales of your resilience will undoubtedly be re-told.

This yearbook is a way to commemorate this final year, as well as your dedication and professionalism.

Please celebrate your many achievements with your family, friends, and our community.

With many good wishes,

Bea Martin

Year 3 Leader

Folatomi Akinyemi Mayce Arebi Luh ( Dea) Arimbawa Iletutunimoba Awosika Alexandra Ayrton Sofia Browning Masimbaashe Chimbetete Ryan Cooksey Sohail Dad Sabrina Dalvair Miya Davies - Patel Younes Dehairi Jacob Doherty Shaaista Ebrahim Clement Ellewelapahalage Meelad Faris Mark Ferreras Yvonne Freeman Harriet French

Sami Gevdetasan Raheem Gilligan Christian Gonito Oana-Magdalena Halapciuc Chiquita Hart Rameetha Hussain Saylah Hussain Taibah Jabin Abdou Jallow Duval Jones Lewis Jones Gavinder Kandola Moslem Khalid Shanice Langford Pei Lee Chiu Yeung (Thomas) Ma Abdullahi Mahmoud Chardonaire Martin Victoria Miller

Ritesh Mistry Sufyan Muzaffar Sehama Nuur Jordan Pardoe Rebeca Parry Nirayan Patel Ruby Phelps Wiktoria Piotrowska Rares-Constantin Pop Liam Ram Sara Del Peral Sophie Roper-Hall Thomas Rowntree Harpinder Sihra Sadiyah Tijani Laura Viterbo Chloe Walpole Dan Ward

In a dynamic interaction between the city, the school and its studios, Year 3 investigates the design and creation of living spaces under the slogan “Architecture as engine of Change�.

Created through open dialogue on the role of architecture in solving current societal issues, L6 studio is a laboratory where we work together to provide visual and physical inspiration for the architecture of tomorrow.

D3SIGN www.d3archstudio.org