PORTFOLIO - UCL APPLICATION 2022 - AMc by Austin McGrath

Austin McGrath Portfolio, Memories and Time.

Non-Architecture Competition 2020 Runner Up

2022

First-Class Honours, Oxford Brookes University

Part One RIBA Architect Ridge + Partners

Part One RIBA Architect Hudson Architecture

RIBA Bronze Medal 2020 Nominee

AJ Student Prize 2020 Nominee

Yr3 Oxford Brookes

SELLAFIELD AS A RUIN

R e s e a r c h

A Ta l e o f M u l t i p l e T i m e S c a l e s

With Sellafield being left without a ruin it is hard to imagine it will receive the romantic death that other parts of Cumbrian and European history have received. This Hostel w i l l a c t a s a r u i n o n b e h a l f o f S e l l a f i e l d P o w e r.

P r o j e c t s

W a l l

S c o p e

P h y s i c a l

M e m o r y

N a t u r a l

N u c l e a r

With Sellafield being decommissioned there was a physical time limit for this project, the building was designed to celebrate the ruins.

You only die when the last person forgets about you. This is the area in which I hope my architecture can extend the life of this dead British history.

On the coast of the Irish sea with climate change, an ever threat the tides of time are quickly claiming the land that it believes to be hers.

A inhuman timescale on the site, the waste b u r r e d b e n e a th the Cumbrian foothills a n d l a ke s w i l l “forever” be present.

~ 1 0 0 Ye a r s

~ 2 5 0 Ye a r s

~ 5 0 0 Ye a r s

~ 5 0 , 0 0 0 Ye a r s

C o n c e p t

E x t e n d i n g Memories & Climate The Hostel’s site sits high up on the cliffs at St. Bee’s Head. This image shows the last moments as the ruins have fallen from the cliff.

All Saints Church, Dunwich The Norman church of All Saints once sat proudly on the cliff top above the North Sea, the romantic ruins slowly got washed away and has been documented though photography, paintings and drawings. This is just one of many buildings that have experienced this process, however architects do not plan for their structures to be washed into the sea meaning that our modern buildings are very dangerous for the ocean, this new architecture wishes to use only materials suitable for the oceans of the world. Theses ruins are gone today but the stories and history are passed on though folk law of ghostly bells at sea.

C o l l a g e

Study are an Arcadian View / Landscape painting

Foreground, classical figures and famous stories.

Framed by trees making up about 1/3 of the view.

A wild landscape in the background to add drama.

The overal comperstion is a 1/3 , 1/3, 1/3 splt.

Ar c a d i a n V i e w

Claude Lorain Claude Gellée was born in the Duchy of Lorraine but left a r o u n d 1 6 1 2 f o r G e r m a n y, t h e n Rome, where he became a studio assistant to the landscapist A g o s t i n o Ta s s i . H e v i s i t e d N a p l e s and returned to Nancy before settling permanently in Rome around 1628. He sketched in the Roman countryside with Poussin.

Arcadian Questions 1. Are people in the Foreground? 2. Just behind the Foreground is there a tree or trees of signifcance? 3. Just behind the Foreground is there a classical structure? 4. Are hills presence in the scene? 5. Is there a temple? 6. Is the landscape in the distance wilder than the foreground? ie. sea or mountains 7. Is there a bridge? 8. Is there water in the foreground or midground that disappears off the sides or into the background? 9. Is there a town or settlement in the painting?

Sellaf ield as a Ruin

N o n d o g m e t i c S u s t a i n a b i l i t y With the building to soon be by the sea, it was important

claimed to only

construct the ruin out of materials found on site. This gave us stone and sand as our pallet. Fortunately only a mile away was the local quarry that could provide this amazing red stone and small amounts of this mustard yellow saint ’s bee sandstone. These two stones would work for the structure. However stone is not ideal for windows so sand can be turned into bottles to be used for the windows. These bottles when in the office would work as messages in the bottles to h e lp s p r e a d t h e l i fe s p a n o f t h e h i s t o r y.

Monumental

Design

Costal Retreat and Romanticisation

This drawing shows the building in section (long) as well as a timeline, model and news reports showing the issues.

E r o s i o n M o d e l

Hostel Timeline 2 0 2 0 t o 2 2 2 0

Long Section

2060-2120

2120-2150

2150-2220

Scale 1:500 Structural Sollbruchstellen Model

This drawing shows the ground floor in plan as well as information relating to studies, design and precedence.

Diagram Axonometric Cumbria is famous for it is dry-stone walls dividing its landscape and controlling its sheep. The field in which the build is situated is surrounded on 4 sides by dry stone walls and fences. The building wishes to expand on the tradition of this masonry and question the purpose of a wall in this iconic context to suit the needs of a hiker. The structure itself will be punctured surface to allow for the building to collapse safely and romantically meaning that sheep and ramblers will still have access though the building.

Acess to Bunk The dorms can be in three stages: stage one is the room in tack and functioning; stage two involves External Acess the room being closed before a storm waiting for to Lower Floor its death as the cliff below it collapses and the third stage is when the structure has collapsed Self-Supporting and detached itself from the rest of the structure. Stone Arc Floor In this state the rocks act as a pile of rubble.

Alison and Peter Smithson designed and built this pavilion atop of a large walled yard and around a large stone chimney that was present on site. This structure became a large inspiration for this project as it too was designed to ruin: it’s facades and structure are designed to weather and age to become one with the wall in which it sits as well as part of the landscape it inhabits. The function of the architecture is like that of a hotel dorm. The Smithson couple used this structure to explore the “art of living” a theme that may not at first seem to directly impact the philosophy of the St. Bees Hostel however this thinking can be expanded to explore the “art of exploration” and the “art of ruination” ideas explored in 18th century Britain and 1930’s Germany under the name “Ruinenwert” or Ruin Value in English.

The restaurant and bar area of the building is designed to survive the initial 100 years of punishment from sea and storm. Its purpose in this time is to serve the hikers and guests who use the building, however its primary purpose is to serve as the venue for the staff of Sellafield on the day following the ending of the decommissioning of Sellafield. This idea mirrors philosophy in Douglas Adams Sci-Fi, Comedy: “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – The restaurant at the End of The Universe”, a place to go to witness the universe ending, or in our case the livelihood and main income of the Cambrian Nuclear Coastline. The space provides the opportunity to see beauty in death and remember and reflect on the past. The goal of this thought process is to put your life in perspective to the universe as a whole.

D u n w h i c h Church, Suffolk

Each dorm when design was treated to act like External Acess a keystone in a larger arched wall structure. to Upper Floor This system allows for the a very predictable like a square in a chocolate bar and doesn’t not Stepped Ladder destroy any additional rooms upon collapsing.

e g i

St. Bees Stone Stucture Glass Bottle Light Source

t o n i n s y e

Hostel at the End of the Universe

Skara Bae sits upon the coast of the Orkney Isles North of Scotland, its stones have stayed in place for thousands of years and still today acts as a romantic monument to the people who constructed it. A monument that Sellafield is unlikely to ever officially receive leaving Britain’s nuclear age at an anticlimactic and unromantic end.

K L

S k a r a B r a e O r k n e y I s l e s

Dorm Room

The Restau rant at the End of the Universe

Ground Floor Plan

Modular

Design

Each keystone in the design is a habitable hostel room. To allow for easier construction and design a modular system was constructed. The image on this page explores what a single module could look like with the geology diagram on the right showing the material pallet available for this design.

Ridge + Partners

British African Embassies

Djibouti

Niger

Chad

Series Leone

P r o j e c t

S u b - S a h a r a n E m b a s s i e s

Project Breif Sub-Saharan Africa geographically is the area of the continent of Africa that lies south of the Sahara. The British government is setting up a belt of embassies running from Freetown, West Africa, to Djibouti in the East. Whilst at Ridge and Partners Limited I worked on all four projects however will be focusing on the Freetown project in Sierra-leone for this portfolio as this is not only the biggest but has the widest variety of challenges involved when compared to the projects in Niger, Chad and Djibouti.

L o c a t i o n s

C o n c e p t

C o l l a g e

Roof Justification The heavy monsoons experienced in Sierra Leone led to us having to create a roof that would be able to move a lot of water fast and far away from the building and the slope that it sits on. This led to the shape and size of the roof and gutters on this design. The hot summer sun also meant that the roof was required to provide a lot of shading for the project as well meaning that to design the building we must first design its roof.

Roof Justification Diagram / Study

A diagram that explores how we came to the conclusion for the roof and its shape.

British Embassy in Perspective Section

Within the bounds of the site, located towards the north is the main embassy building itself, as seen in the image above.

S e c t i o n a l

P e r s p e c t i v e

Other Intentions on Site The compound itself contains a large variety of buildings that service a wide range of purposes: ranging from office spaces to family homes. Our interventions involve the embassy itself, services and power station, two office demolishments, two carparks, 1 gatehouse and 3 guard towers. Each building othered a different challenge in its own unique wary allowing for a great range of experiences that I have learnt from all within the space of 1 project.

G u t t e r

D e t a i l i n g F o r T r o p i c a l R a i n

In Sierra Leone, the climate is tropical, hot all year round, with a dry season in winter and a rainy season due to the African monsoon.

K e y

D e t a i l

Rockwool Insulation at

06. Drip Angle Fixed

6.5x40mm LG.

01. Kingspan kingzip

80Kg/M3 Density Foil

to Kingzip with 2 Nos.

11. 205mm HT. Halter

Linea 400 Top Sheet

Faced

Bulbtite Rivets / Sheets

with Thermal Pad

07. Pan Folded Down

12. S/S Fixing -

1.2mm THK. Aluminium, 04. 2mm THK. Vapour PVDF Coated

Barrier Cold Self

08. Eave Filler

6.5x40mm LG.

02. 160mm THK.

Adhesive Bitumen

09. 205mm HT. Halter

13. Concrete Shell

Rockwool Insulation

05. Eave Closure

with Thermal Pad

14. Insulated Gutter

03. 50mm THK.

Flashing

10. S/S Fixing -

15. Gutter Bracket

Yr2 Oxford Brookes

Spice Heritage Program

F a c a d e

o f

S p i c e s

Coffee 5%

Coffee 10%

Coffee 15%

Coffee 20%

Coffee 25%

Cumin 5%

Cumin 10%

Cumin 15%

Cumin 20%

Cumin 25%

Tea 5%

Tea 10%

Tea 15%

Tea 20%

Tea 25%

Mustard 5%

Mustard 10%

Mustard 15%

Mustard 20%

Mustard 25%

Turmeric 5%

Turmeric 10%

Turmeric 15%

Turmeric 20%

Turmeric 25%

B u r r i e d S p i ce Tra d e This project was built on the old site of the East India trade company’s docks. This historic site once saw the importation of spices entering the United Kingdom and Europe. Spices where used in combination with fiber concrete to produce tiles for the face of the building.

Plaster Control Test

Te s t i n g Ne w M a t e r i a l s

F r e e z e / T h a w

Construction

Exposure

Testing

Rain

Brittleness

Process

Building with Spice This project really enjoyed exploring the limits in which I could experiment with spices and common building techniques. Almost every element that could be made

of spice was allowing for a colourful design that smelt amazing in the summer and stained the streets below in the spring showers. Not only did I make samples of the material I tested them and developed them leading to my final model being constructed on the new materials giving it a r e a l d e e p r i c h c o l o u r, texture and even taste.

S p i c e

C o n c r e t e