George PICKERING MAA Architect
50 13 05 13 København DK
georgewilliampickering@gmail.com georgepickering.com Architecture Portfolio
October 2019
MA Thesis Project Homeless Hyperborea A series of idiosyncratic and experimental explorations into alternative and varied forms of shelter aimed at providing supportive housing for people experiencing homelessness in Fairbanks, Alaska, USA. The sensitive, social framework within which this project is based necessitated a rigorous analysis and understanding of the societal character, environmental conditions and, essentially, personal experiences and circumstances. Chats with service providers, city planners, policy makers in government and local Fairbanksans, both housed and experiencing homelessness, alongside voluntary work at the local soup kitchen, served as the backbone for the research, conducted on-site, November 2018. This research is manifest graphically as a series of maps, analysing flows and key points in the city. 1/15
Fairbanks, Alaska 2018 - 19
#illustration #mapping
MA Thesis Project Homeless Hyperborea Situated on the banks of the Chena River, the proposal occupies a disused area of Birch and Aspen woodland on the edge of downtown Fairbanks. Here, it employs the mercurial natural landscape and proximity to the city centre to provide a counterpoint to the sterile and institutionalised environments prevalent in the current provision of rooflessness services in the city. Set within this forest, the proposal takes the form of a village in a park - a diverse collection of housetypes offering varying levels of support, responsibility and economy, dependent on the specific and unique needs of the individuals. A set proportion of these units are allocated as affordable, providing essential inexpensive housing in a city with the highest costburdened housing in the state, whilst simultaneously introducing a necessary diversity with the aim of generating public empathy through interaction and engagement. 2/15
Fairbanks, Alaska 2019
#planning
MA Thesis Project Homeless Hyperborea Nestled within the housing, public-facing enterprises - a restaurant, a workshop, a kayak rental - intended to be run by the residents, act as a draw for the general public and contribute to breaking down false stereotypes associated with homelessness. The light, timber frame dwellings, heavily insulated and airtight, can be delivered on the back of a truck. They formally and aesthetically celebrate the idiosyncrasies of the residents and the place, providing a heterogeneous backdrop to the multifarious lives of the individuals that experience the spaces. The project can be read as an inquiry; an investigation seeking to contribute to an existing discourse around homelessness aiming to provoke informed questioning regarding the role architecture can play in addressing these issues. Model in collaboration with Jack Cripps and Tom Joseph. 3/15
Fairbanks, Alaska 2019
#making #photography
MA Alaskan Shower Prototype Hyperborean Steam Initial investigations into my MA thesis began with a performative piece testing the physiological and phenomenological effects of autonomous bathing “al-fresco” in the subarctic winter - the intention being a recognition of the importance of a basic comfort and convenience afforded by a ‘home’ and the difficulties of replicating that without a permanent shelter. I designed and built three downgas biomass gasifier stoves to act as ‘snow melters’ that, through tapping and an external copper coil waste heat recovery and water pressurizing system, provided the potential for an outdoor shower/ steam. Custom demountable X-frame tripods provide the mounting for a mylar heat reflector and privacy screen whilst local rocks act as a counterbalance. A film of the full performance is available at: https://youtu.be/dPSMVInmkiA 4/15
Fairbanks, Alaska 2018
#making #performance
MA First Year Twende! Innovation Centre Motivated by an abundance of entrepreneurship, local innovation, technology and development, Twende! (Let’s Go! in Swahili) investigates the potentials of the nascent East African makerspace movement as a means of generating economic growth, employment and innovation in the context of Arusha, Tanzania. Located on a communal fairground increasingly given over to private ownership and partition, Twende! seeks to reverse this trend, proposing a re-democratisation of this once-public space. Regarding climate and comfort, grasshopper, ladybug, butterfly and honeybee simulated site analysis provided an accessible and parametric understanding of the site: air flow, UTCI, daylighting, rainfall etc. These tools were brought through during design development - each informing aspects of the resultant design. 5/15
Arusha, Tanzania 2018
#site analysis #illustration
MA First Year Twende! Innovation Centre Specifically, It considers how the expansion of a successful community workshop and educational outreach currently existing on-site may be facilitated through links created with local waste collection agencies and the dominant national telecommunications industry. Referencing the UN SDGs it explores the benefits and hindrances of business partnerships as well as the social and spatial possibilities of using community makerspaces as a means of generating an adaptive, circumstantial architecture. Twende!, then, is a search for an architecture that identifies, reinforces and heightens mutually supportive characteristics in three disparate programmatic elements. Through opening up this section of the city, it seeks to provide access to tools and places - generating a series of spaces that could be beneficial to the people of Arusha. 6/15
GATEWAY BUILDING
existing single storey building demol to provide additional access to NaneN Visitors are enticed in with a cafe and
CO-WOR
sharing is ca
NEW-BUILD
adjacent to site forseen this build conglomerated a
Arusha, Tanzania 2018 COMMS BALLOON
innovation in mobile infrastructure
TELECOMS TOWER
a visual and digital connectivity across the site
lished Nane. d shop.
SERVICE RAMP
ease and safety of logistics
OLD TIMBER STORE
existing timber store demolished for access and relocated to subterranea
WATER STORE
WIND CATCHERS
coupled during the night to pass cool air through the gabion subterranea rock store. cool air then drawn up during the day.
INCUBATION HUBS
at the centre of the action
TWENDE 1,0
MATERIAL SWAPSHOP
old workshop appropriated as a test bed for architectural devices designed and constructed in the new workspaces
subterranean waste material store and informal market.
EXHIBITION HALL
pop-ups and parties
RKING STUDIOS
aring
POTTERY BARN
the most raw and humble of materials
D OFFICES
- over time it is ding may be as part of Twende
NANE NANE WATER STORAGE
KARAKANA NA WOOD
supplying water to the agricultural plots of NaneNane
wood workshop
NANE NANE 98% VACANT BUILDINGS
festival show-lots and associated buildings appropriated for residency programme for 51 weeks of the year.
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EXTERNAL AUDITORIUM
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multi-purpose outdoor performance space
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WASTE WATER USE
during the heavy april rains the water on site drains to the gabion structure at Twende, cooling the rocks before being filtered and stored to be pumped out for irrigation in drier times.
#illustration #formalisation
MA First Year Living in a Plastic Bag In 2017 the Tanzanian government moved to ban single-use plastic bags; a commodity seen by some as a necessity to transport essentials, to others an expendable product contributing to environmental degradation and devastating flooding. Framed as a critique of a quixotic (and ultimately impotent) ban, a shelter was designed and built to test the potentials of viewing this discarded material as a valuable resource. Waste plastic bags were fused together to create a fabric that was then hung under an aluminium exoskeleton. A pulley system for on-site formal modifications also allowed the shelter to act as bellows, drawing cool air up through. Qualitative and quantitative tests for comfort were then conducted during nights in four different climatic environments in Tanzania. The film is available at: https://youtu.be/j4sFx3MRBD4 7/15
Northern Tanzania 2017
#making #analysis
Work at Matheson Whiteley Naked House An invited competition rethinking affordable housing in London. Run by Naked House, a not-for-profit housing developer, the scheme is for eight homes, built to completion in a truly minimalist sense electricity, heating and plumbing installed but otherwise bare, ready to be modified, adapted and inhabited. Despite the vast range of housing types invented in the 20th Century, small-scale terraced buildings with shared party walls have proved most adaptable to changes in use and lifestyle. Taking precedent from the mews typology, the tight site still allows for three genuine communal and shared spaces: an entrance amenity, a sunny southfacing courtyard space and a smaller vegetable garden. Large glazed openings, particularly at ground floor, help foster sense of openness and promote the use and activation of these interstitial public spaces. 8/15
London, UK 2017
#rendering #competition
Work at Matheson Whiteley Boilerhouse A comprehensive and fully specified tender package I had the sole responsibility of drawing up for a tricky house extension in East London. The project involved infill and modification to an existing ‘00s 3-storey brick building and the addition of a profiled aluminium clad volume to the roof, affording space for an artist’s studios. A fundamental weakness in the original foundations alongside aggressive development adjacent necessitated considerable and consistent collaboration and coordination with the structural engineers, building control, scaffolders and party wall surveyor to develop an independent secondary structural system, working separately to the existing load-bearing brick and blockwork. The complexity around this structural proposal also meant clear communication and liaison with the bidding contractors was essential. 9/15
London, UK 2017
#detailing #tender
Work at Studio Propolis A Glimpse of Kibera Kibera is reportedly the largest urban informal settlement in Africa, home to approximately 250,000 people, located just off the Southern Bypass of Nairobi. As such, it is the focus of many international agencies and NGOs; working to ameliorate living conditions, provide secure electricity and street lighting, clean water and sewage, road infrastructure, places for education, sport, employment, religion as well as tackling issues of housing and land ownership. Of course, amidst these formalised efforts, the residents of Kibera continue with their day-to-day - welding a large security gate on a busy street, sitting on the narrow upper terrace of a Changaa bar, playing football on the excavated clay slopes on the western fringe... Effective action must be underpinned by a tangible understanding, hence this project - to get a glimpse into the multifaceted reality of Kibera. 10/15
Nairobi, Kenya 2015
#sketching #analysis
Work at Herzog + De Meuron Office Space A series of room types to be slotted into the existing rigid grid of an tower in Basel, offering a choice of spaces for people to enjoy in reaction to the unremarkable environment of the existing offices. Spaces to relax, meet, focus, present, sleep, socialise or work in various ways were developed. 1:10 models of each room type were used in order to better convey the intended atmosphere. Models in collaboration with Raneen Nosh + Jessica Roder.
11/15
Basel, Switzerland 2015
#making #process
Work at Herzog + De Meuron AstraZeneca HQ Part of a large team working on a new-build R+D laboratory campus, I helped develop the design and programme of the auditorium, cafe, restaurant and conference spaces. The amenities spaces occupy two glazed boxes on the ground floor, opening out to the courtyard and are the public-facing elements of the complex. Parametrics, through grasshopper, were essential in working out the external fluting to the oval auditorium volume. The form was rationalised and comprised of just four arc types, each made up of a whole number of oak slats and performing a different function - cafe seating, a door, a shelf, a bench. Alongside computer models, drawings and quick renderings, a major driver of the atmospherics of the design was a working sectional model investigating form, materiality and detail. 12/15
Cambridge, UK 2014 - 2015
#making #process
Work at Herzog + De Meuron Astra Zeneca HQ To understand the acoustics and aesthetics of the auditorium space, a 1:1 mock-up of the internal facade was developed. The oak cladding was studied in terms of its form and finish and rationalised to be machined from a standard section with minimal waste whilst still achieving a curved moulded profile and a soft, tactile finish. The zig-zag form was driven by acoustic requirements - essential for the space to perform well in a lecture, film screening, performance or plenum situation. The closed timber screen acts as a reflector whilst the hit-and-miss slats provide a more nuanced surface off which the sound can bounce. A cavity behind allows a curtain to be drawn, providing more, or less, acoustic absorption on the hit-and-miss side depending on the intended activity. The black sub-structure is simply designed to disappear into the dark cavity behind. 13/15
Cambridge, UK 2014 - 15
#mock-ups #process
BSc Thesis Yan Tan Tethera Yan Tan Tethera, a traditional shepherding song used as a method of counting sheep, aims to reconcile the schism between Town, Nature and Industry through reacquainting Stroud with its primal domesticated animal, the Cotswold Sheep. The project addresses the disconnect between modern society and the primitive industries upon which many towns were built. In reaction to the decline in the UK wool industry and the current international nature of the modern wool trade, the project proposes a paradigm shift, moving away from a fragmented mass-production approach towards a more localised, bespoke process. Inspired by Stroud’s rich wool heritage, the scheme combines an artisanal wool mill and tailoring guild with a sheep field situated near the town centre. Seeking to expose the entire process, from fleece to fabric, the building uses visibility and tectonics to reinforce this holistic approach. 14/15
Stroud, UK 2014
#detailing
‘Basil Spence’ Project Bristol Food Market An integrated architectural and engineering response to challenge our unsustainable food culture. Having observed the misalignment of society with food, the project aspires to reconnect people with the growing landscape and provide a model for urban food production, exchange and celebration. It achieves this by rediscovering and rekindling a deep connection to food. The proposal sits as an island, surrounded by various spaces for nature and growing food including an orchard and allotments as well as an existing 1960s concrete frame building converted into a centre for hydroponics and restaurant tower as a celebration of food. The project was an opportunity to work cohesively as a multidisciplinary team. Personally, I was in charge of the 3D model, presentation drawings and developing conceptual details 15/15
Bristol, UK 2013
#process #illustration