Pocket Book 01

pocket book 01

diversify be social celebrate the user

amplify activity

create atmosphere playful, fun, personal

add more challenge perceptions make the world bigger be ginger

Sign a contract with yourself

I, the undersigned declare that having received this little book full of ideas, design, intelligence, describing places you want to spend time; have no excuse , not to explore a projects potential with Group Ginger and find out why clients like them so much. .............................................

introduction Group Ginger is a practice of Architects. Our name derives from the political term, a ginger group. Ginger groups work to identify alternative ideas for the benefit of their host. As such Group Ginger works with clients to identify opportunities which amplify development potential and celebrate the user and their activity in place. We offer clients a full range of architectural services related to regeneration, refurbishment and development. We are an agile studio focussed on our client’s specific needs.

We work to develop partnerships, focussed on creating a bespoke product; designing places and spaces which balance the goals of our clients with the responsibility of the environment and context. We make decisions through conversation. We explore options and stimulate debate to ensure that the results reflect the complexity and opportunity available to every project. We are interested and involved in our practices outside of the office engaging with artistic interventions in order to see things differently. Our process is transparent and we include the client and stakeholders in the process of design for their project. We advocate strongly for a collaborative approach to develop strong relationships with all project stakeholders. We know that collaboration will produce a more successful project.

culture + community

Amplify Activity & Add More

The Tetley

the tetley An exciting mix of old and new with heritage preserved yet reinterpreted. Modern insertions mix with conservation in a collage which creates an arts space that significantly adds to Leeds contemporary cultural landscape. Spaces are dramatically re�appropriated to make them relevant to the new user.

10/11

Leeds College of Music An inspiring welcome to all visitors and customers of one of the city’s most important concert venues will be achieved by enhancing the visitor experience; extending the foyer facilities, providing a roof top lounge and flexible space with views over the city.

12/13

tophill low Bird Hide

The Bird hide, is the centre piece of the nature reserve at Driffield.

Classroom facilities, over-look dipping ponds, an elevated public viewing gallery and picture window provide a vantage point to view the reservoir and a twenty-four hour twitcher’s hide is provided for the dedicated bird watchers wanting to catch migratory birds on their last stop in the country.

whitby convenience The Convenience will provide all the necessities including toilets, showers and laundry, but the over large extended roof permits multiple additional activities. This free room can be a stage, a training space, a community room, whatever the local community need it to be.

retail + leisure

City Centre Regeneration ‘Sticky Places’

Friarsgate

18/19

Lovers’ lane

Strategically reviewing the existing highways infrastructure, to amalgamate land parcels and consolidate the development opportunity. The proposals focus on establishing a distinct quarter for the town, capitalising on existing natural assets such as the river and brook. A series of linked public spaces create a clear hierarchy of space, providing legibility and strong links to the existing.

Scarborough Market The market supports independent retail businesses by creating an element of theatre in the retail and leisure experience. Markets are ready-made ‘retail theatres’. Adapting the and reconfigure the spaces, to make them relevant for the future; our design puts traders and customers centre-stage, to help foster that sense of community that people love about market halls.

20/21

Friarsgate A significant mixed use proposal for the centre of Lichfield, a medieval Cathedral City; creating a natural extension to Lichfield town centre, connecting the council offices, town centre and Three Spires Shopping Centre to encourage shoppers to spend more time in this historic town. The mix of shops, restaurants and homes will increase retail activity, footfall and dwell time in the city centre.

retail + leisure

Bespoke and Personal

Brunswick

out of the woods Handmade and made in Yorkshire; everything is personalised including bespoke designed tables and stools. As regular and frequent customers we understood the ethos and made an interior to reflect the client’s values. The cafÊ is popular, providing a comfortable atmosphere with a hint of eccentricity to re-inforce its independent nature.

26/27

Grand arcade Messed about, cut up and not respected over its 100 year life; we wanted to restore some dignity, re-establish grandeur and scale. Left exposed, scarred and flawed to give the building back its identity, its history and for visitors to glimpse the many faces that the structure has endured over the years. We have woven this integrity into a new brand to create a quirky slightly eccentric interior where the building is the main character.

brunswick A place that becomes home and feels like it has been there long enough that it is part of the city. A town house, providing select beers, food, live music and exhibition space; each floor has a distinct use and character establishing a welcoming, domestic scale bar that feels warm and comfortable. Bespoke furniture and lighting designed by Group Ginger ensure that this place looks and feels like no other in Leeds.

workplace

Happy and Social

Marshall’s Mill

marshall’s mill, Listed Occupant well-being was a key consideration; ‘humanising the approach’ with the adoption of, ‘the five ways to wellbeing’ focussed design on inhabitants providing enhanced communal areas and external spaces, areas where inhabitants could mix and network changed the perception of the building, making it desirable. New insertions established flexible studio office suites.

32/33

The Listed Post Office, Hartlepool The building is extended, providing a fourth wing which encloses the central area to create a common social space; linking new and old buildings, unifying the space into a single facility providing studio spaces for start-ups and small businesses.

Interventions and alterations create a conversation between new and old, where the original building is the dominant feature.

endeavour wharf Waterfronts have historically presented the most valuable frontage; wharf buildings traditionally have narrow gables fronting the river and extend back from the front to maximise value and efficiency. Varied gables and heights articulate the design to reflect the incremental growth of Whitby. Yorkshire’s premier offshore, renewable centre establishes a headquarters and combined centre for Operations and Maintenance, Marine Control, Training and Public Exhibition.

34/35

Kirkstall Brewery A contemporary envelope, transforms the mid-century office building with a single building expression which permits views into the building to expose the new brewing area and to overtly express the new building use. Timber horizontal louvres, vertical metal fins and expressed transoms establish a single overriding hierarchy of elements that build up the faรงade; different internal uses are expressed without diluting the overall impact of the building.

residential

Celebrate the User

Park Hill

park hill phase II Create a cohesive community, permit activity and to allow the expression of the individual to humanise the buildings. We want to encourage greater expression; nurturing life and making manifest inhabitation in such a way that it makes sense at differing scales. Our approach is to re-evaluate the relationships that exist at four different scales; City, Neighbourhood, Street and Home and to celebrate this as the theatre of the everyday.

40/41

st johns Small clusters of apartments arranged around stair cores drive efficiency and nurture neighbourly interaction. The apartments are articulated as terraces and large houses to respect the listed context and conservation area setting. Raised ground floor flats have dual entrances to maintain an active street life whilst common semi-private areas are protected from the busy street.

Frog Lane Modern townhouses with concealed integral parking accessed from the rear, preserve the social animation of the street frontage with individual front doors and vestibules. Flexible and multiple type variations establish a variated terrace dictated by occupier preference. Homes are led by personal preference, needs and lifestyle choices.

temporary

‘Something vital and alive, a moment of action’

Illuminating York

illuminating york A parallel narrative was overlaid onto the city; where York’s Museum Gardens was discovered to be the original Wonderland from Lewis Carrol’s classic novel.

Interpreted through a series of light installations, York would be transformed into wonderland for the festival. Residents’ relationship with heritage was transformed opening up the city after dark and establishing new routes and connections across the city.

46/47

living wild A listed transport viaduct adjacent to Leeds rail station, forgotten, reclaimed by nature, becomes a sanctuary for a family of deer. The installation acknowledges the renewed importance of green spaces and seasonal changes in our cities to nurture wellbeing. The highly visible artwork explores narratives of the city, past, present and future.

48/49

cinema under the stars

The installation explores how cultural resources might be mobilised as a means of, ‘place– shaping’ through which heritage becomes, ‘something vital and alive…. a moment of action’ The event focuses the city of Leeds attention to the number of stalled developments and vacant plots of land and their potential to be re-interpreted, used in a temporary and creative way.

The Tetley

52/53

studio Studio culture is an essential aspect of Group Ginger.

Located within the Tetley Art Gallery, the office is part of an active and growing creative community. As exhibitions continually change, so does the surrounding of our work environment. This adds to the dynamic of creativity, exploration and healthy debate.

Group Ginger is a culmination of its member’s passions and interests, the studio space is defined by its inhabitants. It’s no surprise that Group Ginger has a personal relationship with projects, when it’s simply an extension of the personality of the studio itself.

The Life we Share made personal

a new reality

The Theatre of Everyday Activity

Tetley’s - from Static narrative Escape to Accessible Collage

BIM as a social communicator

cinema under the stars

What possibilities exist within communication protocol?

Heritage from Below

The Ginger Group

Legacy and Place Making Through Temporal Use

evolution not revolution

Small steps to Deliver a Grand Vision

54/55

Writing Through our work we address multiple issues affecting the built environment and the culture of places. We try to capture the relevance of our work by preparing written studies which explore this debate, placing it in context and making it available. We have prepared conference papers and been published.

We are intent on producing a scholarly output to establish a design research folio which directly relates to practice based activity.

Sheffield School of Architecture Group Ginger has an ongoing involvement with Sheffield School of Architecture, running a diploma design studio, coordinating the Management Practice and Law Module and contributing to the research in practice portfolio. The office is keen to develop the link between research and practice, exploring consistent themes through the studio and integrating external professionals with teaching.

56/57

[Re]Activist architecture ‘The City must be formed from the culture of its residents; otherwise the city will begin to form its residents and become a tool that works against them.’ The Diploma studio targets Cities in Flux, seeking opportunities of un-solicited, reactivist architectural intervention with the ambition to change the perception of an area’s potential by responding to the needs and wellbeing of future occupants to establish new community relevance through architectural intervention.

Design Council Simon Baker was selected to be one of 250 Built Environment Experts (BEEs) who support DC CABE’s work delivering high-quality designed places throughout England. Simon is one of the experts that work with DC CABE to ensure that design plays a crucial part in the development of UK’s built environment. BEE’s provide support to communities, local authorities and developers involved in built environment projects.

58/59

RIBA Group Ginger is a Chartered Royal Institute of British Architects Practice. Simon Baker has supported the RIBA over a number of years. He is the current Vice Yorkshire Council Chair, having previously been chair for three years. Through his role as chair he has promoted a number of local initiatives to further the qualitative design debate and has been instrumental in developing the RIBA’s strategy regarding UK City of Culture.

sketches

60/61

62/63

notes

64/65

Group Ginger The Tetley Hunslet Road Leeds LS10 1JQ T +44 (0)113 320 8401 hello@groupginger.com

Get in touch, come and see us; We’ll put the coffee on….

Group Ginger

diversify be social celebrate the user

amplify activity

create atmosphere playful, fun, personal

add more challenge perceptions make the world bigger be ginger