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SHORT PORTFOLIO 2020
LYDIA WHITEHOUSE 1
LYDIA WHITEHOUSE lydwhitehouse@gmail.com References available upon request.
PROFILE Part 2 Architectural Assistant, recently graduated from the University of Sheffield. My former Part 1 experiences have given me a thorough grounding in a wide range of projects nationally, and specific experience in delivering both large and small residential and mixed-use projects across London. I have also worked closely with design teams to deliver work from feasibility stages to the submission of planning applications, and have been responsible for producing visuals, digital and physical models, creating and issuing documents and working drawings. Seeking full-time work in a socially-engaged and collaborative office as part of my continued architectural education. I am eager to maintain a varied workload across multiple sectors, and increase my responsibilities in preparation for Part 3. I am particularly interested in urban design and hope to better understand how offices engaged in research allow this to influence their design practice.
EDUCATION MArch ARCHITECTURE (RIBA PART 2)
with Distinction RIBA Dissertation Medal Nominee
SHEFFIELD SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, 2018 - 2020
BSc (HONS) ARCHITECTURE (RIBA PART I) Upper Second (2:1) Class
UNIVERSITY OF BATH, 2013 - 2017
PREVIOUS QUALIFICATIONS
BRITISH SCHOOL OF PARIS, 1999 - 2013 • • • •
SOFTWARE
EXPERIENCE LEVITATE
Proficient in both Windows and MacOS.
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Adobe Creative Suite CC [Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, After Effects, Premiere Pro] SketchUp AutoCAD (2D) Vectorworks (2D and 3D) Microsoft Office Suite
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V-Ray for SketchUp Maxwell for SketchUp Renderworks (Vectorworks)
A LEVELS: Physics (A*), D+T: Product Design (A*), Maths (A), History (B) AS LEVEL: French (A) EPQ: 11,000 word Dissertation entitled ‘Should We Rebuild Paris?’ (A*) GCSEs: 4A*s, 5As, including Art
SKILLS + ACHIEVEMENTS Fluent in English and French, written and spoken. (Recently acquired dual-nationality) Full UK Driving License, 2019 Inclusions Officer for SUAS, 2019-2020 (Sheffield University Architecture Society) My primary role was to co-ordinate and manage the school-wide Mentoring Scheme, which allowed over 150 students across different architecture courses and year groups to be matched. I also mentored a Year 3 Dual Architecture and Structural Engineering Student.
Part I Architectural Assistant, London AUGUST 2017 - AUGUST 2018 Involved in a broad range of projects nationally, including 7 homes in the South Downs, a custom home canal-side scheme in Nottingham, a cricket club pavilion in Surrey and the partial conversion and new build project for a health centre in Yorkshire. I was given higher autonomy to communicate with clients and consultants, attended site, and produced visuals, physical and virtual models, working drawing packages and documents both in teams and independently.
POLLARD THOMAS EDWARDS Second 6-Month Professional Placement, London FEBRUARY 2016 - AUGUST 2016 Involved in several large residential projects across London, primarily the planning application of a mixed-use project in Hounslow consisting of nearly 300 homes. In addition to continued learning through building site visits and CPDs, responsibilities included SketchUp modelling, producing diagrams and working drawings for PreApp and D&A documents and developing designs for the scheme’s mews houses.
TRANTER MCMANUS ARCHITECTS First 6-Month Professional Placement, London MARCH 2015 - AUGUST 2015 Worked on medium scale housing and mixed-use projects including the planning application for 80 houses in Thurrock and early designs for a mixed-use canalside scheme in Camden. Was given a high level of responsibility and attended meetings, site visits and resident consultations. Produced SketchUp models and visuals independently, and developed designs for accessible homes and flat types.
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CONTENTS PART 2 (MASTERS) PROJECTS ................................................................ 1 YEAR 6: THE EMPIRE REPARATIONS COMMISSION ..................... 1 YEAR 5: WICKER ISLAND COMMUNITY SCHOOL.......................... 4 LIVE PROJECTS ................................................................................... 6 DISSERTATION ................................................................................... 7 EXPERIENCE ................................................................................................ 8 PART 1 (UNDERGRADUATE) PROJECT ................................................ 10
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PART 2 PROJECTS YEAR 6: THESIS PROJECT
THE EMPIRE REPARATIONS COMMISSION, BIRMINGHAM STUDIO: INVISIBLE CITIES, THEME: CARE TUTOR: CATHERINE SKELCHER
139.3m
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30m2 KITCHEN
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42m2
LOBBY
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CAFE
Over the past decade, institutions in the West have been increasingly expected to recognise their past and present links to colonialism, as an act of care to the multicultural societies they serve. However, the UK Government have remained largely silent in these conversations. The Empire Reparations Commission (ERC) looks to change this, providing a platform to tackle divisive topics surrounding the UK’s empirical legacy. This fictitious government agency would be responsible for advising government on how to decolonise, from how Empire is taught in schools to whether the UK should be paying reparations to former colonies. ERICK
The ERC therefore rejects traditional government typologies, as they are often shrouded in empirical imagery and built on exclusionary practices. Instead a participatory and de-institutional design agenda is followed, combining government spaces with community, research and learning facilities and so allowing the building to become a different kind of political space – one more about empowering us all to tackle this national conversation both inside the building and out. 139.9m STRE
ENTRANCE FOYER
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EXHIBITION SPACE
DEBATE BER CHAM
MAIN ION RECEPT
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5m 10m
20m
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(Above) Ground Floor Plan, with walkway above in red (Below) Axo Drawing of the Scheme in context (Left) The De-institutional Design Agenda: concept sketches
THE COMMISSION - AN INSTITUTIONAL TYPOLOGY -
CHAMBERLAIN CLOCK
CREATING A SAFE SPACE TO DISCUSS DIVISIVE TOPICS
AUDITORIUM OFFICES LIBRARY
EXHIBITION ROOMS OFFICES
LEARNING, THEATRE AND COMMUNITY SUPPORT - SPACES CRITIQUING THE NORM -
MEMBERSHIP WORKSPACES
A HYBRID TYPOLOGY - EMPOWERING EVERYONE TO TAKE PART IN THE CONVERSATION -
COMMUNITY SPACES
DEBATE CHAMBER
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(Top) Existing Elevation: Frederick Street (Right) Detailed View exploring Debate Chamber’s materiality (Far Right) Third Floor Gallery Views, looking to key locations in the Quarter (Below) Courtyard View (Bottom, Right) View: The Debate Chamber (Bottom, Left) Diagrams - The existing frame Retrofit
The project stems from our studio’s feminist methodology and a shared ethos of inclusive design. I became particularly interested in the built environment’s ability to maintain ‘normal’ social hierarchies of gender and race, which developed into exploring modern movements to decolonise architecture and ‘selective narratives’ in our heritage sectors. The project’s location – Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter – is emblematic of this problem, where a romanticised impression of Jewellery making is erasing awareness of the area’s empirical links, while increasing gentrification is further curating the Quarter’s heritage. As such, the project disrupts this through adopting a different language; retaining the existing 1960s concrete frame which opposes the material language and geometry of its surroundings, breaking the design into multiple forms and materials around an open public courtyard, and framing key views out to the surrounding environment.
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CLOSED
SEMI-OPEN
OPEN
This disruptive de-institutional relationship is carried into the building’s accommodation and spatial organisation. Different people and functions are encouraged instead to overlap and negotiate with one another, and areas traditionally for the private use of the commission are made public. Entrance sequences and routes are also designed to further empower visitors, flipping the existing hierarchy. The Debate Chamber highlights this, where the traditionally exclusive space it is brought to ground level and opened to the community. Additionally to its placement around community and public learning facilities, it is imagined as open to both active and passive audiences, and reclaimable by other user groups outside debate times. (Top) Proposed Elevation: Frederick Street (Above) Detailed Axo Diagrams of the Debate Chamber (Far Left) Detailed Elevation Studies (Left) Gallery Space, looking to Chamberlain Clock (Below) View - The entrances onto Frederick Street
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PART 2 PROJECTS YEAR 5: DESIGN PROJECT
WICKER ISLAND COMMUNITY SCHOOL, SHEFFIELD STUDIO: IN RESIDENCE, THEME: PLAY TUTOR: CAROLYN BUTTERWORTH Wicker Community School proposes an open-access primary school to regenerate Sheffield’s Wicker District; responding to the area’s high flood risk while strengthening its identity as a gateway to the city centre. The project explores the studio’s theme of play in design and drawing by re-imagining the whole neighbourhood as the child-friendly playable space of Wicker Island. A masterplan strengthening existing connections and prioritising people and nature is proposed. School facilities are then spread across a semi-public route and opened to the ‘real world’, encouraging students to use the urban environment rather than be limited to the school site. These further champion freedom within the classroom through inquiry-based learning, emphasising shared spaces between year groups. They also provide public amenities, allowing them to operate outside of school and term times. The school buildings themselves form a series of flood basins across the Wicker, and embrace this through a ‘Bathtub and Pirate Ship’ concept. The lowest level is constructed of poured resin and bevelled, with wall mounted taps providing a post-flooding cleaning strategy. Higher levels are made of a timber frame structure clad in copper, with services and storage lifted above the flood line.
(Top, Right) View - Sharing space in the School Workshop (Right) Courtyard View - The flooded playground (Bottom, Left) Manifesto Drawing of Wicker Island (Bottom, Right) Exploded Plan Drawing (Opposite) Detailed View - Classroom Cleaning Strategy
DRY CLASSROOMS AND SHARED WORKSPACE
SKYLIGHTS AND RAINWATER COLLECTION
ROOF [acts as second escape route in flood]
SPECIALISED ART CLASSROOMS
SMALLER PODS PLAY MEZZANINE MAIN ART ROOM
SHARED IT FACILITIES
WORKSHOP MEZZANINE
WORKSHOP AND SCRAPSHOP
OFFICES
SCHOOL RECEPTION
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PART 2 PROJECTS LIVE PROJECTS:
Live Projects are undertaken by groups of roughly 12 Masters students at the start of each year. These have unique challenges of developing briefs alongside real clients, responding to time and budget constraints, developing participatory practice methods, and coordinating large project teams to deliver useful solutions. Over these I have developed a range of skills beyond traditional design projects including brief writing, branding, video making and event organisation. I have also been responsible for managing design teams and liaising with clients and the wider public about design. This has provided a unique insight into the realities of running projects and the wider social opportunities and responsibilities of architects.
(Top) Team Photo, working in the Arts Tower, Making Meersbrook (Below) Events Toolkit: with posters, postcards, booklets and App QR code (Bottom) Team Photo in front of Meersbrook Hall Ruskin Makeover
YEAR 6: LIVE PROJECT
TOMORROW’S HIGH STREET Working alongside Sheffield Civic Trust, we designed an exciting vision for Sheffield’s city centre through a ‘series of pearls’ along its historic linear high street. Our brief proposed 11 social projects to draw people back to the centre, and ‘bookends’ to open connections back to isolated neighbourhoods. These were purposefully provocative to start a conversation, but also phased with smaller interventions, allowing the Trust to both inspire and gain support from the public while negotiating with the Council to implement more realistic changes.
Our team created an Events Kit for the Trust. This included a 2 minute Vision video, posters, postcards and an App (to help the vision reach a wider audience). We also created three booklets: first explaining our Project and the Trust for future communication with the Council, then collating our broader research on high streets in an accessible format, and lastly highlighting our specific analysis and manifesto for Sheffield’s High Street.
YEAR 5: LIVE PROJECT
MAKING MEERSBROOK Meersbrook Hall is a multi-era Grade-II listed Manor House in southern Sheffield, which once housed the Ruskin Museum. Our role focused on developing a collaborative bottom-up vision for the Hall’s future with our clients; local charity ‘Heeley Trust’, community group ‘Friends of Meersbrook Hall’, and the ‘Guild of St George’. We identified three keys ideas for our project to have a lasting legacy; to ‘Raise Awareness’ – showcasing the existing activities offered at the Hall, ‘Demonstrate Demand’ – collecting evidence of the community’s needs and wants for the Hall’s future, and ‘Create a Vision’ – creating a phased building and sitewide programme supported by this evidence and in line with our clients’ need for a sustainable community asset which honours the building’s heritage. A large part of our project included running consultation and public events over the Guild’s ‘Makeover Week’, which allowed us to gather this evidence and receive feedback on our vision. We also produced a project journal, building proposal, models, engagement material and 9 minute film. Our clients are able to use these outputs to secure their lease and gain further funding for the Hall’s future.
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RIBA Dissertation Medal Nominee MASTERS DISSERTATION:
SEPARATION ARCHITECTURE: SPATIALISED ORIENTALISM IN MARRAKECH SUPERVISOR: DR EMMA CHEATLE This dissertation explored ongoing links between the French colonial urbanism of ‘dual-cities’ and social structures in Marrakech, through situated fieldwork alongside extensive archival research in both French and English. Particular attention was paid to the impact of heritage and modern tourism, questioning the extent to which the built environment continues to promote colonial thinking by simplifying space in regards to race.
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GUÉLIZ
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MEDINA 1
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VILLE NOUVELLE
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MELLAH
L’HIVERNAGE
KASBAH
In 1912, France became joint Protectorate of Morocco, and, over 44 years, used urban planning and architecture as a tool of domination and control. Unlike in Algeria or Tunisia, traditional medinas across nine major towns were preserved, with exclusive western-style neighbourhoods built beyond the boundary walls. This became known as the ‘dual-city’ where local services were doubledup, creating two distinct centres. Now, 100 years since France’s building project began, the motivations for dual-city planning are examined in relation to the philosophical ‘Other’ - discussing ideas of ‘Orientalism’, authenticity, and physical and social separation through architectural language.
(Right) Diagram by Author: Marrakech Today, marking Sites of Interest (Below) Jacques Majorelle, Kasbah de Tazouda, 1949 (Available from: https://www.gros-delettrez.com/lot/4105/1020896)
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EXPERIENCE
YEAR OUT: 2017-2018
LEVITATE Across my year with Levitate, I was involved in a wide Sheet scale check 100mm @ A3 range of smaller projects across the country including a custom-home scheme in Nottingham, a new National Trust café in Dorset, the partial conversion and new build scheme for a health centre in Yorkshire, and the wider urban analysis for a development in Wokingham Town Centre. I was given a high level of responsibility and autonomy to communicate with clients and consultants, in addition to learning Vectorworks (2D and 3D), producing visuals and physical models.
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(Top, Left) Southernhay House Extension, 3D Vectorworks Model, (Top, Right) Trent Basin Custom Homes, Canal View (Right) Swanbourne House School Sports Hall, Internal View (Below) Alfriston, Short Sectional Drawing (Bottom, Left) Alfriston, 1:200 Physical Model (Bottom, Right) Alfriston, Lower Ground Plan Drawing
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Key Plan 1:1250@A3
red brick chimney metal roofing timber cladding brick and flint walling
existing building outline
47.44
47.71
45.81 43.36
new boundary hedging
43.63
mixed native boundary hedging
43.16
41.26
40.74
40.30 Datum: 40.00m.
38.40 House D House C1 (House C2 beyond)
(House E beyond)
House F
House B
3 King's Ride Cottages)
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Proposed Section 1:200 @ A3
1. Scaling from a print of this drawing will only give approximate dimensions due to inherent inaccuracies in printed media. Where accurate dimensions are required please refer to the Architect. 2. Proposed works are based upon survey information provided by others. The Architect is not responsible for discrepancies in survey information.
CLIENT:
3. All dimensions to be checked on site prior to commencement of any works, and/or preparation of any shop drawings.
Mr S Carr, S & F Carr and Daughters
4. All co-ordinates, levels, dimensions and discrepencies are to be reported to the architect.
SCALE:
5. All temporary works to be responsibility of the contractor. 6. This drawing to be read in conjunction with all relevant Architect's drawings, specifications and other Consultant's information.
1:200@A3 -: 22.12.17: for Pre-Application
DRAWING ISSUE AND REVISION:
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This project was for 7 new-build homes in the South Downs National Park, in Alfriston, East Sussex. I was responsible for creating, amending and modifying the working drawing package in Vectorworks, building the virtual model, creating 3D comparison Views and DRAWING TITLE: PROJECT: the diagrams for the Pre-App Sketchbook document. 26 LLOYD BAKER STREET LONDON WC1X 9AW UK Proposed Short Section King's Ride, Alfriston TEL: +44 (0)20different 7833 4455 I also madeSussex 1:500 physical models comparing DRAWING NUMBER: options, and a 1:200 model by hand. 1712_GA200_-
LEVITATE ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN STUDIO LIMITED, Registered in England: company number 3985247, Registered office: No. 3 Acorn Business Park, Keighley Road, Skipton, North Yorkshire, BD23 2UE ISO 9001:2000 CERTIFIED
2016 PLACEMENT (six months)
POLLARD THOMAS EDWARDS PTE is a large practice of about 150 people, specialising in large mixed-use housing projects, and more recently Education and Third-Age sectors. Over this placement, I was primarily involved in the Planning Application submission of Former Hounslow House, consisting of 293 residential units and a large commercial space. I was also involved in a residential project on Green Lanes and a combined school retrofit and new residential scheme in Hounslow. My responsibilities included producing diagrams and drawings for PreApp and D&A documents, creating and amending working drawings over the project and producing virtual models in SketchUp.
2015 PLACEMENT (six months)
TM ARCHITECTS
TM Architects are a small practice specialising small and medium-size mixed-use and multi-tenure housing schemes. I was given a high level of responsibility in the practice and worked on a range of projects, including an 80-house scheme in Grays, Essex with significant ecological and landscaping requirements, the design of Wheelchair Adaptable flats for the elderly in Barnet, London, and the preparation, concept and developed design of 48 flats and residential space next to the canal in Camden, London.
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PART 1 PROJECTS
YEAR 4: FINAL PROJECT
BIBLIO-TECH PRINTING COLLECTIVE, DORCHESTER TUTOR: NIGEL BEDFORD BIBLIO-TECH is an industrial park centred around making and reading books in Dorchester, responding to the city’s rich literary heritage from Thomas Hardy and the book industry’s uncertain future. Different groups along the production line (publisher, book shop, printing arts and press) are brought together to create a more resilient community. The scheme carefully responds to the industrial heritage on the former Gas Works site, generating a masterplan based on its historic pattern of industrial yards and proposing a series of new and retrofitted warehouses alongside mews-style workshops. These new additions embrace the site’s existing rough material palette through their choice of brickwork, and use temporary and renewable solutions such as reclaimed cardboard tubing structure and containers to allow for further flexibility.
(Top) Entrance View to Mews Street and Bookshop (Below) View from ‘Artist’s Yard’ (Bottom) Model Photos - 1:50 connection detail, 1:20 cladding exploration (Bottom, Left) Axonometric drawing: describing the Printing Press
DELIVERIES
FINISHED BOOKS LEAVING SITE
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VIEWS INTO PRESS FROM INDUSTRIAL YARD
OPEN TO ARTIST’S YARD
1. Park Civic Park Urban Parkland Platforms Community Garden Playground 2. Entrance Square 3. Bridge Link Station 4. Business Area
(Top) Basil Spence Project: Masterplan Model (Right) Aldwych Immersive Theatre: Short Section (Right, Below) Individual Project: Sketches exploring cardboard frame connection details (Right, Bottom) Basil Spence Project: Detailed Sectional Perspective, the Truss (Left, Bottom) Detailed Sectional Model - Year 5 Design Project
OTHER PART 1 PROJECTS: Over the course of my Part 1, I have undertaken multiple collaborative and cross-disciplinary group projects with other architecture and civil engineering students, including the design of a new open-air railway station in Oxford, to the retrofit of Aldwych Underground Station as an immersive theatre. I was also expected to integrate and celebrate the structural, material, and detailed design in my individual theoretical projects. This has made me passionate about developing inventive solutions to real constraints at all scales, and working with others to achieve the best design outcome.
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THANK YOU
FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION lydwhitehouse@gmail.com
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