PORTFOLIO
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Francesca Guarnieri
BA(Hons) Part 1 Architecture & Planning
PORTFOLIO
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Francesca Guarnieri BA(Hons) Part 1 Architecture & Planning
POSITION
During my four years of university I worked on a breadth of projects in the housing, health, workplace and education fields. My final year project comprised an Upcycle Art Centre with annexed Sculpture Park and Square, in the challenging context of the 30000m² Saxonvale former industrial area within the town of Frome, Somerset. This was an opportunity to demonstrate my passion for the reuse of construction materials in new buildings. Moreover, I have demonstrated strong team working skills during the design of Frome’s urban redevelopment project within a group of four students. My ambition to be an architect is driven by passion for making and love of creating spaces that reflect the specific needs of the building user, placing community requirements at the heart of each project in order to generate a strong concept. I believe in the importance of generating beautifully crafted drawings and renders in order to successfully convey context, atmosphere, uses and technical resolution of a project. I have developed a sophisticated method of model making as I consider models the most immediate mean to convey the basic idea of a project, especially to the non-professional like possible customers. Living abroad has given me confidence in communicating my ideas in multiple languages interacting with cultures other than mine. I am a quick learner and I am resourceful in adapting to situations that push me out of my comfort zone. I enjoyed taking part in the stimulating Lombardia Design Hub and I was thrilled to undertake my internship at a multi award winning architectural practice like AHMM, where I could test my efficiency necessary to keep up with the office high pace. Moreover, I have proved my ability to partner with colleagues and endure long hours of hard physical work during my apprenticeship at the architectural festival ‘La Ville des Terres’ and during my volunteering experience with BVDA in Nepal. I am delighted with the positive feedback from the Nepali community we worked closely with building community facilities. It was an incredibly rewarding experience. Thanks to my commitment to participating in several extracurricular activities during the four years of my degree, I achieved the UWE Future Award and an ILM Level 3 qualification for leadership and mentoring, demonstrating effective time-management skills and authentic passion to thrive. You will find that I am extremely determined, outgoing and constantly looking for new ways to challenge myself.
CONTENTS
SELECTED WORKS
P1 Upcycle Art Centre, Frome
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PII 44 Council Flats, Paris
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PIII Reflecto
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Urban Phtography
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a materials factory for the cradle to cradle generation
Upcycle Art Centre
apprehend new skills and develop personal interests and hang out with peers in a safe environment created expressly for them. When local artists or entrepreneurs walk in, they can see how a product is designed and produced. The finished pieces will be exposed in the surroundings to make the teenagers proud and feel like their work matters in the community, while enriching the landscape and creating opportunity for future job opportunity in the near Silk Mill and new workspaces proposed in the masterplan. The wider goals is to offer a ‘skills bridge’ to harness the potential of Frome teenagers whose talent is boosted thourgh training and tutoring from local artists then promoted
to local enterprises. The development of individual and group projects based on the skills and knowledge of both teenagers and the community means to work in partnership for the benefit of all. Such skills development hub is founded on the concept of upcycling, which has been a growing trend over the past 20 years. Its success is due to its ecological value as it allows conserving our resources and reducing their carbon footprint through reuse by converting discarded materials into beautiful and useful results with added artistic value. ‘(...)it leverages all of the energy and materials that were needed to make the original product. (...) Everything can be recycled if it’s
deconstructed into its raw materials.’ Pivotal to the project brief is also the concept of circular economy, which reveals itself in three different aspects: • The passing down of knowledge: local artists share their knowledge and skills with teenagers who, in part, will then train other locals. • The production process for which materials are collected, selected, stored, given a new life, exposed and sold all on the same site. • The reuse of existing industrial heritage: existing industrial buildings are partially retained and repurposed to host a semi-industrial process while demolition waste can be partially saved and sold at ‘Frome reclamation Limited’.
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The Upcycle Art and Craft Training Centre proposes a succession of adaptable spaces that express the semi-industrial process of giving new life to used materials after collecting, sorting and storing them. Either on-site in the new hub for teenager vocational training, either individually by locals after buying the materials from the annex Scrapstore. It is a teenagers training premise aiming at drawing the pubic into the recycling process, such fundamental concepts are integral to the facilities design and resulted in designing workshops at first floor looking out onto the exposition space and opening up to the surroundings to draw locals’ attention to the re-purposing process. The creative hub is the heart of the project, a place where teenagers
Masterplan
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UAC - Upcycle Art Centre
Urban Design
Building Design
Upcycle Art Centre - UAC
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CONCEPT
EXISTING ‘A building can retain a remembrance of the former function and value; it has a memory of its previous purpose ingrained within its very structure. The inherent qualities of the place and its surroundings, combined with the anticipation of future us, produce a multi-layered complexity impossible to replicate in a new building. (…) buildings (….) are objects that are to be analysed and then reworked according to their latent characteristics. (…) Today (….) damaging is the remodeling of a building in such a way as to be a copy or pastiche of the existing in order to fit in or blend in with the context. Another process of doubtful value is the practice of retaining just the façade of a building and constructing behind it a sometimes huge and frequently sympathetic structure. This gives no dignity to the retained façade and comprises the new building.’ Rethinking Architecture
Material qualities currently found on and around Sqxonvqle, the project site
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UAC - Upcycle Art Centre
PROPOSED ‘ The form of the original building influenced the form of the new interior.The direction pursued by the new designers was to accentuate the length of the space, then to break it up a series of long thin installed elements.’ Alexander McQueen, London by Azman Owens Architects
‘… to accept the physical power … and even enhance it … This is a kind of Aikido strategy, where you use your energy strategy for your own purposes. Instead of fighting it, you take all the energy and shape it in an unexpected and new way.’ Herzog and Demeuron about Battersea Power Station
Materiality and atmosphere initially proposed
Upcycle Art Centre - UAC
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DESIGN PROCESS The urban and buildings design was defined through a model making process. The history of the site and the semi-industrial process of giving new life to used materials have informed the architectural design of the proposed building. Key design moves were: • Creating see-troughs • Locating a storage building • Rehabilitating the industrial legacy by repurposing the primary structure of the L-shaped building The organization of the different spaces of the buildings aspire to mimic the cycles of the semi-industrial manufacturing process of upcycling waste materials – dump, select, repurpose, new life, while celebrating the historic industrial character of the site. Moreover, recycled materials are employed for the design of interiors and exteriors linking architectural form with the fundamental concept of the program.
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UAC - Upcycle Art Centre
Existing
New
Upcycle Art Centre
Process model expressing the idea of reinterpreting the industrial look drawn from the repurposed Nott’s Industries
Technical detail model of the main entrance facade system
Upcycle Art Centre - UAC
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MASTERPLAN 9
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MASTERPLAN NEW USES 9 The redevelopment of Saxonvale area is key to densifyig Frome urban pattern so reconnecting the hart of the town center to the east area of Frome. 1
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New Civic centre including: new building for the Town Council; information and job centre; health centre with a small crèche day centre for people affected by disabilities
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Market hall
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Incubator and growth space for small and medium sized businesses including artisan workshops and creative studio space
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Training centre for teenagers
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Shared space on High Street
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Retail in new active fronts
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Hotel
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Leisure facilities- ex.: bowling alley
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Promenade alongside the River including new bridges and leading to sculpture urban park
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New energy efficient homes of mixed price and tenure
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Model of low impact and low carbon living
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Primary school
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UAC - Upcycle Art Centre
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URBAN DESIGN West Elevation
River Promenade
SITE DESIGN The main idea is to reconnect the area with the industrial history of Saxonvale while conducting minimum reworking of green land. The site is already developed and thus ground is covered in concrete, which, however, is in poor conditions and will need improvement. The west and east sides of the building face the two ‘public corridors’ which will not require major re-landscaping. The principal landscaping work will be carried out north and south to the building, dominated by brown-field and poor green land, to promote social use. The space south to the building will be developed as a public square connecting the new building, the L-shaped industrial skeleton and the Silk Mill.The square design includes two lines of trees of considerable dimension defining its perimeter, enclosing a set of vapor and jet fountains, flat on the ground, providing play space for children. Square design provides for resting and monitoring children, while enjoying view to the surroundings. The space north to the building includes the green bank and parkland redesigned to allocate sculptures and planters with sitting spaces, through which pedestrian and cycling routes penetrate creating a safe and accessible natural environment linked to other parts of the town center.
Sculpture Park
Fountains Square
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Upcycle Art Centre - UAC
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ARCHITECTURAL RESOLUTION
Ground Floor
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a. Cafe terrace 10
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Workshops side 1. Corridor 2. Workshops 2b. Double height sculpture workshop 3. Relax area 4. Control and printing station 5. Storage 6b. Secondary entrance
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Public side 6. Main entrance 7. Reception and tools shop 8. Cafe with back kitchen 9. Cafe terrace
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10. Fire escape 11. Toilets 0
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UAC - Upcycle Art Centre
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b. Open corridor linking Art Centre to Storage
First Floor 9
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Workshops side 1. Corridor 2. Workshops 4. Tea and lunch facilities 5. Relax balcony 6. Control & printing station 8. Void Public side 3. Research and project space 7. Cozy study area 8. Void 9. Fire escape 10. Toilets
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c.Workshops looking towards river Roof Floor
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Timber louvers Flat glass roof over corridor North light Solar panel
5. Square facing the Silk Mill 6. Sculpture park leading to riverside 0
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d. Double height workshop atrium
Upcycle Art Centre - UAC
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STRUCTURAL STRATEGY
The structures revisit and celebrate the industrial history of the site. While cladding materials employ consistently recycled materials to diminish construction footprint, using reclaimed structural materials would be expensive and would delay construction times. Accordingly, the primary structure is made recyclable instead of being made of recycled materials.
TERTIARY STRUCTURE
The project does not extend over green space minimizing its impact on the natural environment. SECONDARY STRUCTURE
EXISTING BUILDING
The primary steel-frame structure of the L-shaped industrial building is maintained and re-purposed so to reduce construction waste and to increase its lifespan. The storage space is a ‘box’ with timber panels exposed in the inside and cladded in recycled timber to enhance visibility of the preserved structure. Both buildings are about two-stories high, one stands at 5m and the other and 8.5m, the new one develops on a structural grid that halves the number of bays while creating smaller, more defined spaces within it. This is to create workshops and other spaces that can accommodate big machinery while creating a comfortable environment designed to human scale. The cafe and the larger creative space are double height.
NEW BUILDING
The new building is composed by three main elements: PRIMARY STRUCTURE - following that of the
existing steel-frame characterized by pitched roofs, the new building’s black-coated steel frame doubles bays’ size and rise two meters higher than the existing building, and is internally exposed. Its standard-size elements and junctions are made whenever possible through bolting rather than foundry to increase post-dismantling recyclability.
PRIMARY STRUCTURE
SECONDARY STRUCTURE - Internally exposed OSB and Plywood panels made of recycled timber will be used where it is appropriate to provide a more calm environment such as the cafe. In the sandwich flooring construction, recycled cellulose insulation is used in-between the two layers of exposed OSB (down) panels and Plywood slabs (up). Externally, OSB is cladded in white mortar. Internally, exposed recycled brick partition walls and unrefined upcycled materials convey a quircky environment in the workshops area. FOUNDATIONS
TERTIARY - recycled timber louvers constitute the south and north-facing facades to provide interior shading and a characteristic look for people approaching the building.
STRUCTURAL EXPLODED AXONOMETRIC
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UAC - Upcycle Art Centre
Structural System
TECHNICAL RESOLUTION 1ENTRANCE
The main entrance is clearely articulated introducing a ‘standard’ for the rest of the building aiming at facilitating the users reading of the building. It is designed to welcome people with its glazed facade and the timber louvers extend-
B. Doorway glazing system at 1.10
ing outwards to draw passers-by into the building. The flooring is leveled with the surrounding public ground to ease access for people affected by disabilities.
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9 Primary structure: Secondary structure: Tertiary structure:
Perspective section of floor system at 1:10
245 mm steel U.C.O. .1 Double glazing curtain wall .2 Aluminum frame .3 Timber frame supporting louvers .4 vertical element (stud) horizontal element (plate) Timber louvers different sized .5
Upcycle Art Centre - UAC
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2FOUNDATION
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STRIP FOUNDATION DETAIL
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The site ground is composed predominantly of clay, meaning that foundations must allow space for adaptation to seasonal weathering of the ground. As a matter of fact, clay shrinks in winter and expands in summer, this is enhanced by the presence of trees in proximity to the proposed building, as trees absorb water in summer. Accordingly, a grid of suspended strip foundations has been developed with a double void of 500mm between concrete strip and flooring system, allowing the building to allow structural adaptation movement. Foundation 1. Concrete footing 2. Concrete strip 3. Steel reinforcement 4. Concrete block column 5. 500mm void 6. Aggregate leveling and 7. Steel column sale-plate 8. Level anchor bolt nut 9. 254mm steel column (UCO) Ground Floor 10. Hardcore 11. DPM 12. Concrete slab 13. VCL 14. Rigid insulation 15. Wood floor finish 16. Exterior paving Faรงade 17. Aluminum casement hinged door with double glazing 18. Timber frame supporting louvers 19. Timber louver 18
UAC - Upcycle Art Centre
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Section of steel column footing detail at 1:10
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3ROOF
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PITCHED ROOF DETAIL
The ‘five and a half’ pitched roofs revisit the strategy of exposing the primary structure of the building by implementing exposed steel structure with exposed timber rafters and faced birch plywood panels to convey a warmer touch to an otherwise strongly industrial environment. Both rafters and plywood panels are sourced from discarded construction materials. The roof is ventilated to provide natural comfort in the workshops area.
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Primary structure 1. 254mm steel beam (UB) 2. 254mm steel column (UCO) 3. Steel purlin 4. Steel ridge beam 5. Bolted steel plate 6. Birch timber rafters at 600mm span 7. Birch faced plywood panel with VCL 8. Wool insulation nailed to birch panel 9. Reinforced basecoat
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Roof 10. Ventilation void 11. Timber joist 12. Plywood board with DPC 13. Shingle roof finish from recycled plastic 14. Joist gutter support 21. Ridge vent 15. Clips
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Exterior wall 16. Plywood panel 17. Plaster board with DPC 18. Louver system 19. Recycled cellulose insulation nailed to birch panel
Section of pitched roof structure at 1:20
Section of pitched roof showing gutter at 1:5
Upcycle Art Centre - UAC
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44 Council Flats
Urban densification program of a 1ha plot in architectural decay in the parisian suburb of Montreuil to address strong population growth in the Île-de-France. The masterplan for a mixed development comprises: • 44 council apartments - semi-collective dwellings that include12 T2 (2 rooms), 14 T3 (3 rooms) and 14 T4 or T5 (4 to 5 rooms); • municipal equipment - one library with annexed square, repurposing of existing containerdwellings into one nursery, refurbishment and expansion of the existing theater with annexed cretive hub; • public allotments with annexed greenshouse from repurposed derelict buildings; • five shops - active fronts delimit the main neighbourhood accessible from Rue de Paris; • one hotel. Masterplan showing spatial distribution
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Green space Culture Shops
Area designated for future development
Library
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Square
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Theatre & creative hub existing
Allotments with annexed greenhouses existing Housing
Housing Nursery existing
Housing with active front Shops Square
Housing
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44CF - Forty-four Council Flats
Hotel existing
Ground Floor with context
a. Housing over active front on main square
West Elevation
West-facing Cross Section
Detail section of access to south-facing terrace
Technical & Electric Analysis of T3 70m² + t. 15m² Apartment
Forty-four Council Flats - 44CF
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Reflecto piii
One-day Hackathon competition in a group of six at Lombardia Design Hub responding to a design brief proposed by Lombardy Region for the renovation of the main exhibition space of Palazzo Lombardia. The aim is to create a new identity for the square and the exhibition space independent from the original project but respectful of its aesthetics, while making the exterior and interior spaces more involving for the public. The mirror becomes the fundamental symbol of the project: a new formal identity that creates a new visual multiplicity and a new dilatation of the narrow spaces. Architecturally, this translates into a focus on making the exhibition space more eye-catching for passers-by by means of an aluminum kinetic faรงade system facing the main square and L.E.D. integrated paving leading to new seating inviting to stop by. The interiors are dark gray coated, L.E.D. panels provide interactive lighting and mirrors divide the exhibition room while creating an optic effect that amplifies the narrow spaces.
Staircase leading to main exhibition space
Concept: revitalisation through aluminum reflective kinetic faรงade + L.E.D. integrated paving 22
R - Reflecto
Dark Room: exhibition space arriving from staircase
Exterior view of the new faรงade system overlooking Palazzo Lombardi Squarenew
Reflecto - R
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Urban Photography 24
Urban Photography
Urban Photography
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Thank You Francesca Guarnieri BA(Hons) Part 1 Architecture & Planning RIBA, RTPI & ARB Accredited