DD
Architecture portfolio Declan Duffy
Information Name : Declan Duffy D.O.B : 18/07/1987 Mobile : 0879572978 E-mail : declan.p.duffy@gmail.com
Education Theme of work This porfolio represents a selection of work from the final years of my formal education. Although not all work contained is strictly academic, each project describes overlapping themes which have developed gradually throughout my academic career. (i) Divide and Bind The first theme identified in my work, formed the back bone of experimentation and thinking in my foundation years. My approach was to design a building, divided into smaller entities. This reduced the appearance of massing and helped deal with the complexity of brief at a smaller scale. The individual components of the building bound together by landscape or a volume which preformed the role of landscape. This created a continuous connection and route of circulation through out the building, establishing a serve and servant type duality. In later projects, the role of landscape became another built component within the architecture which formulated the second theme in my work. Example projects - 4,5 and 7 ii) Artificial landscape The second theme to be identified in my work, formed my dissertation which ran parallel with my thesis. This was a natural progression from the previous theme of work, focusing entirely on the entanglement of architecture and landscape. There are various strategies in designing constructed landscapes, my approach focused on using built landscape as an infrastructural device which mediates the challenge between building and its environment. This new landscape would service the building, create connections in context and contain a portion of the program, visually reducing the apparent scale of the architecture. Example projects - 1,2 and 6
CBC Monkstown Secondary School (2000 - 2004) The Institute of Education (2004 - 2006) Furniture Design - Dublin institute of Technology (2006 -2008) Architecture - Dublin Institute of Technology (2009 - 2014)
Experience ODOS Architects - Summer 2012 Worked on a variety of domestic scaled projects both national and international.
L.S.D Competition Group
Organise and run a student competition group which competes in professional open stage architectural competitions.
John Duffy Architecture Worked alongside a team developing both domestic and commercial design documentation.
Competencies CAD / Model making / Digital drawing / Architectural portraits / Photography.
Contents
01
Parnell Courthouse Thesis 2014
02
Rutland Place Boxing Club 2014
03
Glasnevin Centenary Chapel Competition 2014
04
Basel Culture Pavilion
05
Tullamore Secondary school
06
Stepaside Primary school
Competition 2014
2013
2013
07
Francis St Workshops 2012
08
Furniture design 2010
Parnell Civil Courts My thesis project was to design a civil courthouse in a portion of land left undeveloped on east Parnell square. The site is long and narrow with a substantial slope grading away from the street. The site is currently owned by the neighbouring Rotunda hospital but has been disregarded throughout the hospitals expansion. I chose both brief and site in conjunction with the knowledge of this area which is steeped in a rich political history defining Ireland as an independent nation. The courthouse would be placed alongside the garden of remembrance, A memorial garden built in the 1970’s for all those who gave their lives in the cause of Irish Freedom. The focus of my dissertation was to investigate the theme of ‘constructed landscape’ within the spectrum of architecture. A constructed landscape is an idea situated at the intersection of architecture and topography. Built rather than formed, a constructed landscape couples the three dimensional characteristics of terrain with built components attributed to architecture and space making. The development of my thesis incorporated both theme and a study of the evolution of the courthouse typology which originates from demarcations in the landscape. Constructed moot hills and the space beneath overhanging trees were historically appropriate places for court proceedings and have a much longer history than the court building itself. The design for the Parnell civil courts is an accumulation of research which has been used to inform the development of this architectural project. My dissertation in the ‘constructed landscape’ and the overlapping history of the courthouse typology provided a platform and strategy in terms of dealing with the complexity of both brief and site.
Constructed landscape
Origins of the courthouse
Design Parti
1.200 context model
1.200 context model
Site elevation
Grand staircase
Perspective section
Tectonic expression
Axonometric
Rutland Place Boxing Club This project was a testing ground for themes that would form the basis of my dissertation and forthcoming thesis project. The project is a boxing club in Rutland Place, an industrial back land off Parnell square. The site is a narrow lane fronted by low scale Industrial units with a variety of pitched roofs. The site was suitable for a boxing club because of its city center location while maintaining a subdued and quiet quality which boxing clubs thrive in. The internal environment is designed as an artificial landscape for activity and sport, containing three open plan training areas and two closed environment studios. The main portion of the building is a poured concrete three dimensional terrain, cast with deep pockets, stairs, terraces and a lift core. A hard wearing steel shell with a variety of pitched roofs completes the lane elevation of worn and wrinkled industrial buildings which characterise Rutland place. The building reveals nothing of the life within and mimics the shadowed culture of boxing which is continually growing in the peripheries of society.
Section
Internal perspective
Ground floor plan
Axonametric
Site Model
Glasnevin Centenary Chapel This is a competition proposal for a centenary chapel, organised by the RIAI in 2013. The concept for this project was a reinterpretation of a traditional church focusing on a zenithal quality of space and how this could celebrate the spiritual nature of such a space. The event of the Easter Rising is represented through architecture by utilising the movement of light across the martyr wall. The memorial chapel will have a presence in St. Paul’s Cemetery, its siting relates directly to the existing monument and mass grave, the shifted axis pulls back from the monument creating a new piazza which respects and embraces the existing structures and allows adequate space for mourners to congregate. The limestone paving of this piazza seeps into the lobby of the chapel directing the mourners into the space blurring the boundary between external and internal meeting spaces. A faceted roof encases the programme below, the spaces grow as the form soars above, creating a chapel and ancillary spaces that are dignified and solemn as well as simple and appropriate to their purpose. The blue limestone form rises up to a re-imagined steeple, cumulating in a large aperture which pours east light into the chapel, illuminating the altar wall. 232 mirrored emblems embedded in this focal wall denote the names of the people who are buried in the mass grave, these emblems glisten as the morning light moves across the wall. A glazed wall allows users to look out from the main chapel to the centenary garden, which is flooded with evening light, offering an external private place of peace and contemplation, the soft landscaping of the garden will mature gradually, grounding the memorial chapel.
Site Plan
Martyr wall
Ceremonial function
Basel Culture pavilion This aim of this competition was to design a tourist office specifically for the arts, in a small public square in the center of Basel. The pavilion was to direct tourists to the various destinations Basel has to offer and allow them to plan their trip accordingly. The concept driving this project was to lift the building from the ground so that the small square could be maintained and redesigned with a new mosaic map of the city and its cultural destinations. A large window mounted in the floor above allows visitors in the pavilion to view this map as a directory while planning their visit. Creating a visual connection between the new landscape and structure above was an important aspect in this project.
1. Existing site condition. Mixed growth and poor landscaping. Park sits in isolation of surrounding context.
2. Redesigned landscape with dropped section, removing a portion of the raised plaza and linking the lower theatre passage to the proposed pavilion.
3. New public toilets and lecture space link into the lower theatre passage. A mosaic map of Basel city and its cultural points of interest is proposed to take center stage on the upper plaza.
4. Vertical stair core and bridge link pavilion to the above ground theatre entrance above ground theatre entrance.
Viewing diagram
mosaic map
5. Pavilion of culture sits separate from the new landscape below, presenting the exhibitions inside to the street beneath.
6. Soft landscaping and trees are reintroduced for the redesigned the public space, orientating seating around the living landscape.
Axonametric
Tullamore Secondary school Tullamore school was a project about rejuvenating a midland Irish town with the introduction of new school facility into the area. The ambition driving this project was to address the context by creating links with existing underutilized routes around the proposed area. The site was open ended with much potential to take advantage of the smaller scale infrastructure beyond the main st. Three monolithic volumes were placed on the edges of the site to mark out the grounds of the school. Each monolith was orientated differently offering a variety of entrances with in the locality and making use of the existing road and path networks of the town. The monoliths act as impenetrable gate houses, connected by a lightweight timber structure. The plan and organisation works with the idea of a monastic cloister, with standard classrooms positioned around a central courtyard, and specialist programme being placed into the larger volumes around the perimeter. The Granite stone gives a sense of scale to the project while maintaining a monolithic appearance. Timber was used in areas where students interact with mechanisms such as doors, windows and roof deck, to visually distinguish entrances and interactive parts of the school.
Site model
Plan
Stepaside Primary school This project was located on a standalone site in a rural commuter town, on the out skirts of Dublin. The site was gratuitous in scale with little context to reference other than the green field site itself ,which sloped gradually down proposed classroom towards the base of the site. The strategy for this project was to build a low impact building with a variety of sustainable strategies, an architecture that would visually interact with its shifting topography. Conceptually the school would become an extension of the ground, projecting out horizontally, creating a new clean regular platform to juxtapose the irregularity of the surroundings. The tectonic strategy was to create concrete footings in which a timber structure would span between. Aided by timber piles, the building appears to float above the ground, extending out from the crest of the hill. The organisation of the building extends from the centrally placed courtyard which contains the main entrance into the school. Break out spaces are placed off the corridors to allow for a less regimented circulation and the opportunities for socialising.
Axonametric
Glue Laminated timber frame structure
Linear volume - infants junior school administration
Glue Laminated timber frame structure
box shape volume - middle school specialist rooms GP space
concrete plinth - upper school library
exploded axonametric
axonametric
Francis St Workshops The Francis St Workshops was a project aimed at taking advantage of the arts and crafts culture which has evolved out of the Thomas st domain in Dublin city center. This project takes an undeveloped brownfield site located behind the historic Iveagh markets and proposes a workspace facility for entrepreneurial craft orientated pursuits. The facility offers machine workshops on ground floor with a variety of different scale studios above. The facility is designed to allow anyone interested in the work to meander through the building by a means of open air courtyards and connecting terraces. Artists can showcase their work in a central gallery or through their own studio apertures. The tectonic expression began with the zoning of areas, courtyards and workshops on ground floor within thick concrete walls. An exo-skeletal steel frame spans in a variety of directions above, separated to allow light to penetrate the plan and create visual connections between the terraces and courtyards. The misalignments and projections of the steel frames further separates the different levels and role materials play in the project Polycarbonate is used as an internal lining for the studio spaces to allow an even distribution of light throughout the internal spaces. Panels can be damaged and replaced at a low cost which allows the spaces to be more robust and user friendly.
Perspectives
Site section
Internal perspective
Site model
Detail section
Furniture Design