ARCHITECTURE PORTFOLIO
VANISHING POINT
art gallery
“An art gallery designed to preserve and celebrate the city’s vanishing industrial heritage. This dynamic space deepens the visitor’s experience with art by blending exhibition with performance and immerses the artist in the vibrant urban community of Bristol.”
LIVING IN HARMONY
work - live house
“A retreat cabin on an imaginary island off England’s coast, designed for a family of violin-makers. This modest space harmonizes personal and professional life, addressing the challenges of shared workspaces during the pandemic.”
ART-SPACE
art studio
“A new art studio for the Holburne Museum in Bath, enhancing community creativity and well-being by expanding space for workshops and art activities.”
COLORS OF THE CITY
“A versatile, multi-purpose space celebrating Bristol’s artistic spirit to welcome passengers and newcomers at Bristol Temple Meads. Designed to address the site’s history of flooding, the pavilion integrates resilient solutions for high water levels.”
MEDICAL CENTER
public realm design clinic
“A comprehensive medical facility at the University of Bath that provides medical services for students and local residents. It accommodates three permanent general practitioners and their supporting staff while offering rooms to specialized medical practitioners.”
Vanishing Point
Purpose: Art Gallery with Artist Residential
Location: Bristol, United Kingdom
Vanishing Point is an art gallery with an in-house artist accommodation, designed to preserve and celebrate the vanishing industrial heritage of Spike Island, Bristol. The exhibition centers around the artist’s live performances and ensures clear lines of sight of the stage.
Location - Spike Island
Surrounded by the Floating Harbour and the Avon River, the island was formerly an industrial hub for a variety of industrial activites. Now only remnants of that era remain.
Chosen Site
A residential area featuring several industrial relics. The site was chosen for its unique industiral identity.
Balancing Massing
The diagrams above illustrate a series of development exploring the relationship of the design to harbourside and the mixed-use buildings. The final form bears a strong connection with the harbourside while avoiding imposing upon the neighbourhood and resolves the awkwardness of the vehicular route, using it as a natural separation between the artist’s quarters and the gallery.
Skylight - Honey comb structure
Angling the artist’s studio and workshop towards the water created an avenue to the gallery, emphasizing the entrance.
Establishing Site Boundary
A series of diagrams illustrating how the site boundaries were established. Existing pedestrian pathways and the adjacent historic buildings dictated the site’s footprint and orientation.
Identify Major Pedestrian Paths
Staying within Existing Axes
Final Site Boundary
Contextual Integrations
Responding to Retail Podiums
Cladding Inspired by Site
Ground floors respond to the retail podiums of the public urban environment while the quieter upper floors are reserved for the exhibition space and artist accommodation. The building’s cladding takes inspiration from the Red Corrugated Cladding of the two historic buildings.
1:50 Physical Model - Handmade
LIVING IN HARMONY
Purpose: Work-Live House
Location: Imaginary Island, Northern UK
Living in Harmony is a modestly sized retreat cabin on an imaginary island off the coast of England that accommodates a family’s personal and professional life, harmonizing those two aspects of their lifestyle by cleverly arranging the spaces. It is tailored for a pair of violin-makers and their children and addresses one of the difficulties faced during the pandemic: “What happens when our personal space also needs to support our professional space?”.
Design Constraint
The existing site features a 20m × 12m enclosed wall that defines the design’s boundary. The brief requires this wall to be preserved, with limitations on the size and number of openings.
Spatial Layout
A series of parti diagrams exploring potential layouts of space. Each iteration carves out courtyards of different spatial qualities and emphasis of space.
A courtyard formation allows the working and living rooms to occupy within their own well defined boundaries yet still maintain visual connection with one another.
ISO - SketchUp / Illustrator
ART SPACE art studio
The concept envisions the rejuvenation of the Holburne Museum in Bath, fostering creativity and well-being for the community, by providing a dedicated space for art activities. To allow the museum to increase its capacity for hosting its regular art workshops, a devoted art studio adjacent to the Holburne building is conceptualized.
Voids and Solids
A series of development diagram describing the spatial organization and hierarchical relationships of programmatic elements.
Studio Placement Strategy
A series of diagrams describing the techniques to define the boundaries in which the studio will reside.
studio and glazing face north towards the courtyard
back of house rooms placed along the back facing south
Programmatic Layout
Back of house rooms are lined along the south while the studio faces to the courtyard and north. Windows are strategically placed to limit direct sunlight thus preventing glare.
ventilated cavity + timber batten
service cavity
steel plate to connect stud to steel frame
stainless steel sheets on plywood
Site Plan Diagram
COLORS OF THE CITY
Public Realm Design
This scheme presents a versatile, multi-purpose communal space that celebrates the distinct artistic identity of Bristol while offering a vibrant welcome to newcomers arriving at Bristol Temple Meads, a primary transport hub in Southwestern England. Designed with the site’s history of flooding in mind, the proposal integrates strategies to address anticipated high water levels effectively.
ISO View - SketchUp / Lumion / Photoshop
Market Stalls Art Installation Podiums w/ permeable floors to drain flood water
Painted Ground by Bristol’s Graffiti Artists
Rain Gardenscontrols runoff water
The design presents a comprehensive medical facility at the University of Bath, that will provide medical services for students and local residents. It accommodates three permanent general practitioners and their supporting staff while offering rooms to specialized medical practitioners.
Preserving existing trees and intergrating them to the design was crucial to creating serene place of healing.
The waiting room is placed in the inner circle of the plan to relate it to the courtyard while the doctor’s rooms are placed along the outer edge for privacy. Ground floor features room for general practitioners while first floor has rooms for specialized services.
Hei Wick Helveg Lam THANKS FOR READING
hl2429@bath.ac.uk +1 778 996 2537