Component 2 - Drilon

Component 2 Drilon

Design Brief

Newham itself is notorious for its scarily high levels of crime, ranking in the top 10 most dangerous boroughs of London, and the 27th most dangerous city in all of Great Britain as of 2022.

In sight of this, I have chosen to renovate and transform an abandoned pub in Newham, The Angel, into a safe library for students in the area. Shut down in 2003, and later brought back in 2010 but shut down once again due to the license being revoked. In 2014, an application was sent through to transform it into a Church, but it was withdrawn in 2015. There are not a large amount of libraries, as most are a far distance from the site.

I’ve decided on creating a library for people in that area to support students who could be influenced by the large crime rates in the area. Many students with potential fall into the trap of crime, and I believe this is because there aren’t any safe spaces for people, and their home might not provide them with enough support/comfort for them to stay away from crime. This library will prioritise students, with the site being able to hold study events, meetings, and tutoring.

Although it is a small site, I plan on utilizing the entire site to create a library with a café within. To combat the small site, I plan on continuing with the theme of Simple or Complex, and developing the site vertically to create more space.

Specifications

The Library must include:

• Toilets for Males, Females, and People with Disabilities.

• Café selling food and drinks.

• Multi-storey library to utilise the lack of space.

• Seating.

• Computer rooms.

• Conference rooms.

Main Site

Small abandoned pub near Stratford, and West Ham Park, and the All Saints West Ham Church. Also near West Ham Church School.

Main Site

Used to be a gay bar before it was closed in 2010 due to its license being revoked. Notorious for “weird” behaviour as regular occurrences, one review states that “a man with a face like a dropped pie and a bottle of poppers came in, got down on his knees and started licking the carpet.”

In the month of January 2023, there were 109 crimes in the area of West Ham, where the pub is based. That’s roughly 3.5 crimes a day. Alongside this, 40 of these crimes were acts of sexual and physical violence. That’s about 1.3 acts of sexual and physical violence a day.

Libraries Near The Site

All the libraries in this area are a fair distance away, with the closest being Plaistow Library and Stratford Library. However, as the area is dangerous, having close access to libraries will be beneficial for students and may make parents feel more at ease with their child going out as they wont have to travel far. As seen below, Newham has a notorious reputation for being unsafe.

Simple or Complex

Viking/Celtic Knotwork

Plants

Simple or Complex Drawings

Viking/Celtic Knotwork

Plants

Simple or Complex

Cathedrals

Nests

Simple Or Complex Drawings

Cathedrals

Nests

Idea: Feathers

This stacked iron style design showed similarities to bird feathers, could be used as a texture on future models like pavilions.

The stacked feathers could be used to create a layer over this style of structure, to create a opaque covering of a site, potentially as a pavilion. But could also be used to create a roof seating area with shelter.