Jamie Forde - Portfolio - Architectural Intern

Thesis Website: https://www.2021.graduateshow.eca.ed.ac.uk/portfolio/jamie-forde

This project is recognised as the top project to come out the MArch programme with my working methods and output being singled out to represent the architecture school.

Ahmedabad

Reaching its conclusion this thesis project was my focus for two years in the Master of Architecture programme The urban proposal is a counter speculation to the 11km Riverfront Project (2012) in Ahmedabad, India, which in controlling the flow of the Sabarmati river has removed the city’s connection to this space of dwellings, markets, industry, agriculture and religious ceremony. This urban strategy is tested architecturally through Sabarmati Pol, a housing community with production and commerce space. At the core of this proposal is the texturing of the monolithic river front with an architecture of Satyagraha (non violent resistance) to re-establish the city’s connection to the temporalities of wetness.

SATYAGRAHA AND THE SABARMATI

Elevation proposal texturing the riverfront wall

SPECULATIVE AND GROUNDED

The duration of this project afforded me the freedom to both test architectural design enquiry methods and it has also given me the time to test technological and environmental concerns. In doing so I have been able to synthesise a design proposal that is both speculative in academic theorisations and grounded in material realities.

View to proposal across the Sabarmati

Ahmedabad

Ahmedabad

ENVIRONMENT AND CULTURE

In India the relationship to water is sacred as a result of the seasonal intensities of the monsoon bringing with it an abundance of lushness. This is a key consideration where channels, tanks and plant life are designed to connect the inhabitants to wetness in a contemporary design proposal.

Coloured Axonometric

Paper Section showing embodied ecology of proposal

ARTICULATION

I’m a strong believer in orthographic line drawings being one of the best tools architect’s have to represent and test design concepts.

Ground Floor Plan

Drawn at 1:200

Ahmedabad

Object Lesson Grenfell

The initial investigation of this project subsequent to completion was then exhibited in the 2019 Architecture Fringe

TECTONICS OF THICKNESS

The concluding project of my undergraduate degree was the design of a Monolithic Mass Timber High-Rise. Using material properties and regulatory parameters such as the performance of fire, thermal, acoustic and structure was a means to test and understand the use of mass timber in the city.

Fire, Thermal and Acoustic CLT Tower studies with consideration for structure.

TIMBER

This project concieves of wood becoming the main material of not just the built environment but also of the domestic domain. Using similar methods of wood modification as the structure of the building these items can be reimagined. This provides cultural, economical and technological connections between the urban dwellers in their timber high rise and rural communities which manage the forest recourse.

Cross Laminated Timber

Macro and Plano Layer Wood Wool Acoustic Panel

Wood Fibre Insulation Boards

Interior Finish Wood Fibre Boards

MASS

Projected Floor Plan

London

Townhouse,MurphyHouseandContainer(MuseumProposal)

Edinburgh

THE NEW TOWN IN THE TABLE

The authorship of museum curation jars with the essence of domestic items. This project attempts to regain the informality of the institution through curating, then re-creating, domestic objects chosen from the National Museum of Scotland.

A sectional relationship between the Town Houses, The Murphy House and the Container (garage) is pivotal in linking the context and contained. The imposing of the collection in the existing garage, forces the prospect of an exploratory symbiosis with all three buildings.

Sectional relation between New Town dwellings

This project which was commended by The Royal Incorporation of Architects Scotland for Best 3rd Year Student award for exploring the ritualistic relationship of architecture and the domestic.

Concept

Located in a challenging brown-field site, this old railway platform has sat empty due to the tight constraints of the area.

Past Archive image showing railway platform Present Brownfield site ready for development

HAYMARKET YARDS

tramtracksoversiteentrance

CONSTRAINTS AND OPPORTUNITIES

The primary constraint being are the subterranean public utilities, access over tram tracks and the narrow site. The series of massing diagrams explore the logic behind the articulation. With the entrance necessitating a double height (6m) clearance zone for way-leave access. The massing is then stepped down to respond to the surrounding buildings transitioning from the adjacent commercial 6 stories to the residential 4 at the rear. The articulation and rhythm then maximises the opportunities of the facade with views out to the city.

entrance through adjacent properties car park

large city utilities requiring access at junctions on site

long elevation showing transition of massing

PLANNING OUTCOME

The planning proposal synthesises the constraints and opportunities of the challenging site. This required a holistic approach when coordinating with the other design consultants to maximise number of studios while remaining within the site limitations.

front elevation

rear elevation

With the previous building not meeting the environmental standards for offices this provided the opportunity to increase the area and improve the energy performance. Key to this was the retention of the existing structure and relocating the cores to open up the facade.

proposed elevation with additional levels and opened facade

STONE-FIN FACADE

A major part of the redevelopment was the detailing of the stone-fin facade. The natural stone articulation is held off the expansive curtain walling on the main elevation. This required coordination and consideration to create the desired effect and fix to the existing structure.

sectional detail at existing slab edge

axonometric of cruciform detail

JOINERY SCREEN

A key consideration for the redevelopment was the new centralised entrance lobby. Including a timber, tile and fabric material palette. My involvement in this was the design of the joinery screens which continued as a motif throughout the building.

base and head detail of joinery screen exploded axonometric screen detail ground floor plan

visualisation of joinery screens in entrance lobby

Model

CRAFTING AND

Modelling is a key process to my exploration in architecture. Comfortable with traditional model crafting such as card, plaster and timber I am also adept with digital fabrication such as 3D printing, laser cutting and engraving.

3D print

Laser Cutting and 3D Print

FABRICATION

3D Print, Parametric Tower Study

Analytical Section, multi-media

COMMUNITY PLANNING WORKSHOP Communicate

I am a strong believer that architecture is about people, not buildings. Following on from my dissertation investigating public alienation in the built environment I organised and led an architecture focused Community Planning Workshop. This gave the opportunity for Leith Walk residents to voice their architectural vision. Alongside the local campaign this workshop gained the support of the City of Edinburgh Council and was a valuable experience in understanding the importance of public consulation.

master plan conceived using the design ambition of the community drafted by Pierre Forissier of biomorphosis

Calculate

EMBODIED CARBON CALCULATIONS

Measuring the embodied carbon associated with recently completed projects to establish a benchmarking system for MLA. This importantly setup the oppertunity to compare the environmental impact of the practices projects with industry targets (LETI, RIBA, ect).

Selected project: new build office. Stirling, Scotland

embodied carbon benchmark of selected project

whole life carbon assessment - cradle to practical completion

Embodied carbon by material of selected project

Embodied carbon by classification of selected project

HISTORIC SURVEY RESEARCH

Walls and Gates is part of an ongoing series of books investigating and recording the architectural fabric of cities. This 140 page book documents the remains of the historic perimeter of Ahmedabad. This involved the coordination of a 12km elevation drawn at 1:500 by over 50 international contributes with essays, photographs and an array of plans, sections and renders.

Section through existing gate

Section through remaining wall encrusted in workshops

[RE]TRACING PATRICK GEDDES

The Walls and Gates Book documents a civic survey of the Old City Wall of Ahmedabad. Just as

Patrick Geddes had walked a century earlier, this survey begins at Khanpur Gate and follows the wall anti-clockwise until it culminates at Shahpur Gate. Thus, the layout of Walls and Gates represents Geddes original findings as an underpinning logic to navigating our measured drawings, recorded in January 2020.

Though this survey follows Geddes’ Notes on Ahmedabad it also expands from the study to include three additional gates and subsequent segments of wall which we located during our fieldwork in Ahmedabad. Part of the city wall incorporates the walls, gates and bastions of the citadel Bhadra Fort which Geddes did not include in his notes. This segment additionally includes Bhadra Gate, Ram Gate and Raikhad Gate which are respectively found in the first three chapters. Hence, Walls and Gates is comprised of fourteen Chapters. Each chapter corresponds to one of the fourteen segments of wall, defined by their position between gates. We have chosen to include Geddes’ notes alongside each of the fourteen Chapters. Thus, eleven of the chapters include Geddes’ concise reflections on specifics of the site. In Chapters one, two and three we found it of value to continue Geddes’ chronological, broader findings of Ahmedabad beside our additional recordings.

Walls and Gates presents a continuous elevation which weaves throughout the book and traverses the 12km perimeter wall. The elevation drawing is presented at the scale of 1:500 and ties together the chapters of the book as the wall ties the old city. As result of difficulties in accessing areas, the wall was surveyed from both inside and outside. To accommodate the continuous reading without interruption the graphic solution was to flip the elevation, requiring the reader to navigate from a different perspective. We felt this to be the most logical way to present the elevation for the clarity of readership. The flip occurring could be understood as stepping through the walled threshold and turning to look in the opposite direction. This signals the different view of the elevation, allows for true representation and sequential reading of the walls and gates.

During our collective studio research into Walls and Gates, we quickly found there to be variations of gate names. While the Gujarati name for gate, Darwaja is translatable, the names used to distinguish the gates are less clear. It has since become apparent that a wide variety of factors influence the names of Ahmedabad’s Gates themselves, though most often religious and political dispositions dictate how residents, visitors, maps and books choose to call them. Examples of these differences include: Bhadar Gate, which has also been listed as Bhadra Gate; Khanjah Gate which has also been listed as Khan Jahan’s Gate; Shahpur Gate which was also referred to by Geddes as Shalpur Gate. Just as we have learnt Ahmedabad to take on many names including Amdavad, Karnavati and Ashaval due to political and periodic dictations, we have found Ahmedabad’s Gate names to be complex to define. There are further name varieties to the Gates than those which have been listed. We hope the limitations of Walls and Gates opens the opportunity for further learning of The Old Walls of Ahmedabad’s complex relation, just as we found scope to be additive to the survey of Geddes.

Julia Brookfield and Jamie Forde

Thanks for spending the time to look through a selection of my work