Design portfolio
Jack livingstone
Education
Jack Livingstone
University of Manchester Urban Design and International Planning (Msc) (2016-2018). Predicted grade: Distinction.
Profile My passion for urbanism and design have led me to be a driven individual with a strong desire to succeed. My thorough approach has helped consistently produce high quality work and obtain excellent results. I excel at collaboration with others and have experience of working with people from many different cultures. I enjoy testing my creativity through new challenges and working within different constraints. I am eager to contribute to the design and planning of beautiful places while continuing to grow my skill set. Seeking an entry level position in urban design and urban planning roles.
Urban Design Studio
An introduction to urban design analysis and skills through assessing townscape.
Urban Design Project
Analysing a corner site and providing an appropriate design intervention.
International Urban Design
Understanding urban design’s theory, history and concepts through critically understanding examples of best practice.
International Design Fieldtrip
Critically exploring the policies and projects which make Vienna’s urban form so highly regarded.
Urban Design Masterplanning
Performing a baseline analysis of a site up to 20ha before carrying through a masterplan.
Urban Regeneration
Understanding the history and relevant policies which have influenced design led regeneration.
Design Dissertation
Building on Poppleton’s Greenbelt: Changing Green Infrastructural Strategies and Incorporating Cohousing.
University of Leicester BA Human Geography (2010-2013) 2:1
Skills
Contact
Urban Analysis Contextual Analysis Character Studies Small Scale Interventions
0752683661
jrblivingstone1@gmail.com
Software skills
50 Beech House, The Beeches, West Didsbury, Manchester. M20 2AH
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ jack-livingstone-59098a17b/
Professional affiliations Royal Town Planning Institute
Photography 3d Modelling Masterplanning Sketching
Contents
1. Swinton Urban design analyses and character area study.
1-4
2. Holt Town Corner site development informed by urban design analyses.
5-8
3. Handforth Masterplan informed by urban design analyses.
9-14
4. Poppleton Design dissertation.
15-20
Swinton
Building Use Residential Retail
This project was completed as part of urban design studio 1. It served as an introduction to urban design analyses. Starting at around a one mile radius of Swinton train station, the focus narrows in to the integral character areas and finally culminates in a proposed site intervention. Swinton
Mixed use
Industrial Civic
Legibility Edge Landmark Path Node
Area
Public Open Space
Salford
Manchester
Accessible green space
Amenity green space
Inaccessible green space
Car park Plaza
Age of Area 1920s and older 1930s -1950s
1960s1980s 1990s onwards
Character Area St. Augustine
Clifton Newtown
Pendlebury
St. Ambrose
Victoria
Wardley
Swinton Park Moorside Hazelhurst N
1
0
300m
St. Peters
Key Character Areas
Newtown • • • •
Primarily residential, some mixed use. Victorian core with some accretions from each decade. Fine grain. Generally a grid, with some curvilinearity.
St Augustine • • • • •
Industrial. Almost entirely postwar A superblock street structure leading to poor permeability. Coarse grain. Very little open space or green infrastructure.
Victoria • • • • •
Largely Victorian with some later additions. Very fine grain, the highest density out of each area. Mixed use main street with residential hinterland. Often in gridiron shapes. Little GI within residential areas, but provision of large public green areas.
Moorside • • • • •
Almost entirely residential. Largely built after 1930. An organic, adaptive grid Lowest density out of each area. Large amounts of both open space and green infrastructure.
2
Defining Characteristics of St. Peters
5 1.b 1.a
3
2.b
4
2.a
N
0
100m
1:5000 at A4
lanc house
town hall
1. Primarily retail (1.a) and civic buildings (1.b). 2. A coarse grain, rupturing Swinton’s urban fabric caused by: an overabundance of car parking (2.a) and an overabundance of unused amenity green space (2.b). 3. A feeling of centrality through possessing almost all of Swinton’s visually dominant buildings. 4. Poor permeability throughout especially focussed in Swinton’s town centre. 5. A diverse mix of building types from big box style shops, to minimal classicism and brutalism. 3
Site Intervention
N
0
50m
1:2500 at A4
Building
Building to remove
Improved frontage
Road
Building to add
Remove parking area
Green space
New pedestrian route
Key routes
image of stairs, sketch
• • • •
Increase permeability through removing strategic buildings. Increasing visibility and attractiveness to pedestrians on key routes. Re-stablish direct connections with the houses to the south east. Reduce reliance on poorly fronted stair cases with low accessibility, by replacing with slopes. Tighten the urban fabric by removing two sections of surface car parking, but retaining the underground parking. 4
Holt Town
Contextual appraisal Large building
This project in Holt Town involved choosing a 1.7 ha adjacent to the Ashton canal. A baseline analysis of the area was completed and considered with relevant literature, such as the Bradford Ward , Holt Town Regeneration Framework,2008-2018 East Manchester Regeneration Framework and Manchester Core Strategy. New Islington
Derelict Holt Town area Exposed concrete Site Key route Node Poorly defined residential
Holt Town Site
N
Piccadilly Train Station
Key road routes
Tramline
0
100m
1:5000 at A4
Etihad Campus
Since 2006 Cibitas have been working on this site and they currently have a masterplan. However I have planned this site to be the vanguard to an alternative development. One which retains more of the areas heritage and which activates a neglected area of the Ashton Canal.
Opportunities and constraints Potential bridge Key route Heritage buildings Heavily polluted land Site Potential bad neighbours
Inactive frontage
N
Offering jobs Building Key view in creative currently industries providing employment on site
5
0
50m
1:5000 at A4
Holt Town redevelopment
Design principles: 1. Continue the axis of large buildings down the Ashton Canal by linking together the East Manchester redevelopment areas. 2. Create a visual interplay of new and old, allowing Wellington Mill to retain visual dominance, without having timid newer buildings. 3. Activate both the canal side and the potential connection with Brunswick Mill. 4. Provision the extant creative activities in Wellington and Brunswick Mill with bars and cafés in a mixed use area. 5. Create strong frontages for a safer area. 6. Increase residential densities above what is expected in the Manchester Core Strategy.
N
0
100m
1:5000 at 58 x 102 cm
Achievements • • • • • •
Car parking exists within the buildings and in the car park building in the north east of the site This means that the only area which requires direct vehicular servicing is that around the central bar area, allowing the rest of the site to be traffic free. Changing geometries and levels of enclosure make for a more interesting townscape, with shifting, terminating vistas. The bridge across the canal both activates the opposite footpath, as well as giving the illusion that the Brunswick mills heading the central space. Large numbers of balconies create strong frontages. The central stepped platform creates visual interest and increases places to sit.
6
Serial Vision
Approach from the south west. Old and new forms contrast and complement each other.
Inviting configurations of open space create a desire to move through the public realm.
View onto the central bar area.
7
0
50m
New Bar/cafe Area
• • • •
120 residential units created equalling 71 dwellings per hectare 6 bars/ cafés created 11132 m² of office/ workshop space preserved and created 110 total car parking spaces.
Cross section • •
The existing Wellington Mills building is made more distinct and highlighted further through very different building types existing around it. The trend of buildings with large footprints down the Ashton canal is continued, however an undesirable coarse urban grain is avoided.
8
Handforth Situated on the extreme north west of the future Handforth Garden Village site this 16ha site was designed to act as its first phase.
Railway
Manchester
Manchester Handforth Site Airport
Key Stockport roads
Handforth Garden Village
Design principles: 1. Create a primarily residential area, where possible incorporating mixed use areas. 2. Due to its location next to key roads and as the first phase of the Handforth Garden Village site add later buildings to: increase legibility, create a sense of arrival and to provide the rest of the site with community facilities. 3. As a garden village contain large amounts of private and public green space. 4. Furthermore as a garden village uphold strong ecological values by, where possible preserving existing trees, ponds and helping priority species on site such as the great crested newt. 5. Whilst accepting the area has to have large amounts of car use the site cars cannot be allowed to dominate the site. 6. Capitalise on the traffic flow on the north western corner by constructing larger office buildings and creating a connection to Handforth Dean. 9
From concept to option
Masterplan
• • • •
• • • N
0
1:2000 100m at 27 x 45 cm
The main road view terminates with this large building, which contains apartments, some retail and a community centre. Tree cover is enhanced from before. Where possible existing treed areas have been retained Car parks have been set inside the blocks to minimise the need for on street parking The pattern of the road network has been inspired by the antecedents of the garden city movement, such as Bath and Edinburgh’s New Town. The central roads 15m width helps establish legibility and a road hierarchy. Trees next to the main roads have been retained to dampen noise The smaller local access roads have been made with porous paving to reduce flood risk 10
Axonometric diagram
Building Use Office
•
Car park
• •
•
Residential
Mixed use, retail and residential 11
N
0
1:2000 at A4
100m
The site is largely residential. Creating 429 new dwellings, with 180 in apartments, 70 in semi detached houses, 118 in terraced houses and 61 in detached houses. 20439m² of office space has been created The presence of the nearby Handforth Dean retail and industrial park reduces the possibility of including more mixed use areas meaning there are 8 retail units on the site. The retail units are primarily focussed around the two key open spaces, in the north and south of the site respectively. This has been done to try and activate those spaces.
• • •
Larger buildings have been placed at the entrances to the site, to help create a sense of arrival Further taller buildings exist at the peripheries so the site is visible from the road The many buildings heights crates legibility and visual interest
Phasing Phase 2
•
Phase 1
Phase 4
•
•
Phase one prioritises the main road, from which all other roads on site are dependent. It also includes the road under the A34 and a connection to the rest of the Handforth Garden Village site. Phase two sees the construction of the new employment infrastructure for the area, as well as the larger ‘landmark’ buildings. Phases three and four see the construction of the more peripheral buildings on the site
Phase 3
N
0
1:2000 at A4
100m
12
Northern green space at night
main street in the day
13
14
Poppleton
The site as it is now
My dissertation project was a scheme to build on greenbelt land in a way which brought social and environmental benefits to the site. The area I chose was Poppleton, an exurb just outside of York. This was an experimental design which utilised a form of developer led cohousing, partly for its social and environmental and partly for its open urban form. This open urban form allows green infrastructural strategies to be changed from a reactive defensive (in this case greenbelt designation) one to a more positive opportunistic approach. This was done concurrently with adopting an adaptable approach which allows the scheme to be ‘safe to fail’, through utilising built in modularity, redundancy and adaptive design. The added assurance through the ‘safe to fail’ approach allows this experimental design to be attempted with significantly reduced risks of failure.
Lower Poppleton
Site Poppleton
Harrogate
York
Leeds Key Road
15
Railway
N
0
100m
1:1000 at 99 x 45 cm
Poppleton context Bus stop Train station Area covered by bus accessibility Area covered by train accessibility Village centre Buildings to be removed Edges Greenbelt Hedge and tree
N
0
100m
1:2500 at A4
Design Goals Adaptability • •
Create semi independent modular residential areas. Encourage self organisation in the built form.
Cohousing aspects •
•
Keep the number of dwellings per module at numbers amenable to permitting interaction. Create communal infrastructure in each module
Green Infrastructure •
•
Capitalise on the open form conducive to successful cohousing to run connective GI through it. Support local biodiversity.
Connectivity • • •
Build for pedestrians, cyclists and public transport users without alienating drivers. Integrate with Poppleton. Ensure streets are fronted, avoid over insularity.
Vernacular concerns • •
Synthesise existing vernacular streetscapes: the village green and the cul-de-sac. Increase housing density whilst retaining a village aesthetic.
16
Accessibility Within 400m of a bus stop Within 800m of the train station
New bus stop
Area provisioned by new bus line
New pedestrian bridge and route across the railway
New bus route
N
• • •
0
100m
1:1000 at 99 x 45 cm
Area within 800m of a train station
Increasing the permeability of the site, especially through the new bridge has significantly increased public transport coverage. Specialised pedestrian/ cycle paths allow for safer transportation. Widened roads mean that buses can now pass into the site, further increasing accessibility.
Green Infrastructure External GI route Green roof
Existing GI routes on site
Use of permeable surfaces
Tree rich area
New connective elements
Bioretention pond
Allotment Unimproved grassland
SuDs network
N 0 1:1000 at 99 x 45 cm
• • • • • • • 17
100m
Previous landscape elements such as hedges and the brook have been integrated into connective corridors. The brook is now the focal point of a multifunctional SuDS system. These landscape elements connect with stronger areas of external landscaping. Porous paving has been used in concert with the drainage channels. Extensive tree planting connects each module on the site together. A 10m strip at the south of the site has been preserved for corn bunting to nest in. Allotments have been created to cater for existing demand and for their ecological benefits. Each building by default has an extensive green roof, in order to offset any loss of grassland.
Flight path for corn buntings
Building Use
Residential Bike shed Common House Flexible use
N
• •
0
100m
Mixed use: residential/ retail
1:1000 at 99 x 45 cm
All pre-existing buildings on the site have been removed Each module consists of 20-30 residential dwellings, with one communal house and one bike shed. Residential numbers over this are less conducive towards cohousing. The centre of the site contains a large building with many wings, it is designed to be able to be used flexibly based on the needs of the citizens of the site and the village. Facing this building are 3 mixed residential/ retail units, placed to create a small centre.
•
Connectivity Main route into the site Key connective area Key view
4 storey building
Front of building direction
N
0
100m
1:1000 at 99 x 45 cm
Flexible use • • • • •
Pains have been taken to ensure that the site would not become too insular, so it would connect with the rest of Poppleton. Furthermore a large effort has been made to make sure every road is well fronted, to ensure safety and connectivity from the scale of the module, to the site to the village. The main entrance points cover enough green-space to retain some of the vernacular feeling of the site, but without severing it from the village. From each entrance point a view of a four storey building exists, to ensure good legibility. The use of the flexible building would be partly determined by the existing villagers in Poppleton in order to foster better integration. 18
Lansdscape diagrams
Central area with a mix of uses, to help foster social cohesion.
19
Drainage through permeable surfaces.
Water taken to a drainage channel.
Allotments to keep the site provisioning food and to assist in raising biodiversity.
20