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PORTFOLIO 2019/2020

REMEDIAL HOUSING FOR

ARCHITECTS ARC3001 - ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN

ALEX THOMPSON 170236766

CONT ENTS Primer

Staging

Realisation /Synthesis 2

06 36 64

Design Projects

CONT ENTS Charette

110

Case Study

Bibliography

Thinking Through Making

124

Other Projects

116

Cultural

Bibliography

126

Appendix

INTRODUCTION

...

REMEDIAL HOUSING FOR ARCHITECTS

The modern-day world thrusts fresh architectural challenges that must be overcome in any new building project undertaken. As the Earth is predicted to hit the ‘tipping point’ for climate change in 2020, it is now more crucial than ever to find newer, more sustainable ways of living. As architects, we have a great responsibility to use our creative thinking skills to design buildings and schemes that promote environmentally low-impact living. As a housing studio, another issue that faces us is the national housing crisis. Shortages in housing have led to inflated house prices, homelessness, and poor overall housing qualities. The biggest victims of such a crisis are lower-income citizens, who often reside in social housing. The impacts of this on these residents can lead to poor mental wellbeing. In general, “the annual cost of poor housing to the National Health Service (NHS) is at least £1.4bn” (RIBA, 2017). My design studio – aptly named ‘remedial housing…’ focuses on addressing, and correcting the issues associated with housing in the present-day. During the primer project, we looked at a newly built suburb of Newcastle, and collectively as a studio analysed the issues with the neighbourhood, to inspire us for key points to bring into our main projects. This project alerted me to some design issues that could also be seen later on in the main project, showing me that the problems facing modern-day housing in the UK span far wider than just outdated social housing. In a project centred around the renovation of an existing neighbourhood, I took the term ‘remedial’ literally in my designs, as

identifying, and solving the problems of this specific site became the primary factor influencing all aspects of my design throughout the year. The site in question is Cruddas Park House and Shopping Centre in Elswick, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. The existing massing is a 75-metre tall social housing tower block sitting on a ‘podium’ structure that homes the ‘shopping centre’. This site itself has many issues, both architecturally and socially many of which attribute to modern attitudes towards social housing in society. Our studio field trip to Vienna further alerted me to the problems and stigmas surrounding social housing across the whole nation in the UK, in comparison to different attitudes of other nations, as is seen in Austria, where 2/3rd of the Viennese population lives in social housing. The main difference in social attitudes between the two nations is that in Vienna, “there is no ‘housing for the poor’, (houses are built) of a quality in which everybody could live” (Gluns, 2019), making living in these houses a choice, as opposed to residents of Cruddas Park, who “don’t have a choice” (Graham, 2020). This influenced my design process, as I wanted to transform not only Cruddas Park as a building, but to change the attitudes surrounding it, by making it a place people choose to live. Over the course of stage three, I have radically changed the emphasis of my approach to the project, in regard to pressing social, and environmental issues aforementioned. Throughout the staging and some of the realisation parts of the project, I attempted to use my expressive creativity to change the stigma around this particular site. This can be seen in my staging work, which was formed mainly by

research of the site and its issues, leading to an overall neighbourhood massing concept. This led to issues for me as the existing structure had been changed radically, which became noticeable later on in the project, when working at smaller scales, and prompted a change in design direction post-realisation. As the year progressed, I adapted my thinking towards creative problem solving, searching for methods and technologies that can transform the lives of all residents and users of the neighbourhood surrounding Cruddas Park without harming the environment, while keeping financial costs modest. ‘Thinking Through Making week’ was one of my first attempts at resolving the site issues at a more detailed scale, as it inspired me to shift my thinking towards design technologies and strategies, to improve the existing structure.

Another shift in my design mentality was prompted by the technology report. In the early stages of the project, the design focus on addressing existing problems led me to notice how the existing structure had been integrated so poorly into the site context, socially and especially environmentally. The technology project allowed me to design to use the characteristics of the site to my advantage, such as to generate renewable solar, and wind power from the uninterrupted daylight, and strong crosswinds, feeding into my design aim of sustainability. I feel that this was a key skill that I have learned this year, as many architectural projects can be accompanied with complex sites, using the opportunities these present to solve problems that arise is a method of designing that will help on future projects.

Working with such strategies, I found the most efficient way of explaining these was through the use of reductive diagrams. This linked well into my ‘Theory into Practice’ essay, in which I studied these, most notably in the work of ‘Bjarke Ingels Group’. These diagrams helped me throughout my iterative design process, but have been useful to explain quite complex thought processes…. in a few simple lines” (Farrelly, 2007). The design policies, technologies and strategies themselves can be replicated outside of Cruddas Park itself, and the incorporation of these in widespread social housing tower blocks across the nation could improve the livelihoods and wellbeing of residents living in them. Not only does this impact residents, but it can also provide an economically cheaper, and more sustainable way of regenerating 1960s-style tower blocks to fit a 21st century climate, instead of failing to address outstanding issues, or simply demolishing and designing new social housing.

PRIMER

NEWCASTLE GREAT PARK STREET FURNITURE

ewcastle Great Park (NGP) is a new suburb located “three miles North West of Newcastle City Centre” (Newcastle Council). The development first started in 2001, and is still ongoing. Planned to be a full community, this has failed to materialise for a number of reasons that are identified within the primer project. As a studio group, we investigated these fundamental issues in the strategy planning of NGP, focusing our studio primer show on exhibiting our strong opinions of the site. This inspired us to gain an understanding of potential problems and solutions within community planning, as well as giving us the opportunity to learn from the mistakes of NGP, and for us to develop a better strategy in our individual design projects. Individually, I was allocated ‘street furniture’ as a focus area. Street furniture involves all things intended for making outdoor spaces in the neighbourhood more habitable, and for decorative purposes. These can range from basic street lighting, to benches, plants, courtyards etc. Focusing my investigation in street furniture taught me the importance of carefully planning social spaces. Furthermore, by everyone within the studio group having a different focus area, it highlighted the importance of considering all aspects of a neighbourhood design, regardless of their scale in relevance to the whole neighbourhood.

01 OUTDOOR SPACE ANALYSIS A photographic study of front â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;gardensâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; throughout Newcastle Great Park

Image showing size of front garden spaces in relation to houses and streets

OUTDOOR/SOCIAL SPACE When I visited Newcastle Great Park, one of the first things I noticed was the lack of front garden spaces, with most houses having only about a 1 metre deep, fenced off patch of grass out the front of their houses. The lack of private outdoor space makes communal social spaces even more essential, to create a neighbourhood/community atmosphere, and give residents vital outdoor living spaces. This increases demand for street furniture in communal areas, to make them more habitable for residents. However, both street furniture and social spaces themselves were hardly present in the area.

01 STREET FURNITURE

SITE OF STUDY

The purpose of street furniture in neighbourhoods is to make their outdoor spaces more habitable, often coming in the forms of benches, tables etc..

Throughout ‘Newcastle Great Park’, the only area where traditional street furniture is present is the ‘town centre’ - an area supposed to be inhabited with shops, services, and people. The street furniture consisted of a strip of benches, lampposts, and bins among empty soil patches. Clearly, any attempts to create an outdoor space for residents to use have so far been unsuccessful, as have attempts to create a ‘town centre’ itself.

In Newcastle Great Park, this is rarely seen. Instead, the majority of ‘street furniture’ comes in the form of essentials, such as street lights, sign posts, and ‘garden‘ fences.

Area of Study

Key:

Social ‘Public Space’ =

Semi-Social ‘Public Space’ =

Non-Social ‘Public Space’ =

Diagram showing ‘social’ spaces in Newcastle Great Park, and location of my chosen area of study for street furniture

01 MODEL CONSTRUCTION

The model centered around the pathway among the green space, leading f rom the main road, to the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;town centreâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;.

EXTENDED MODEL I extended the model to add further context to the surroundings of the street furniture.

I hand-cut rectangles of white, gray, and black card; colours which correlate to the stones in the footpath.

EXTENDED MODEL The extended model shows an uninterrupted patch of grass - a space that can be widely used by dog walkers, children etc...

MODEL PHOTOGRAPHS

I stuck these to the base of the model, randomly dispersing them to reflect the stone layout.

I added the soil texture seen, as well as the STREET FURNITURE models.

EXTENDED MODEL In context with the street furniture on the smaller model.

EXTENDED MODEL I added extra textures to the grass - to show the row of soil, and gravel path that is seen at the actual location.

Detailing the street furniture

Detailing the public walkway

Demonstrating the existing space

Demonstrating a more inhabitable space

THE EXISTING, ‘FAILED’ TOWN CENTRE The existing space was intended to be an entrance to the ‘town centre’ of Newcastle Great Park. The centre itself has been a faliure - at the time of writing. Borders and shutters seen at the ground level of buildings were supposed to be inhabited with shops and services. An entrance to a successful town centre should be welcoming. Instead, it feels ISOLATING and LIFELESS. The strips of soil running throughout the space divide it into smaller, impractical spaces, rather than leaving a larger, multi-use space. The soil strips themselves, without any plants or flowers, become DULL, and COLOURLESS - certainly not decorative, as street furniture should be.

It feels like the potential of such a space has been WASTED. The pathway running diagonally through the grass makes it feel like an ANTI-SOCIAL space, that is merely a ROUTE FROM A TO B. The proximity of the overlooking buildings and windows next to the land feels IMPOSING due to a lack of greenery, so a resident would find it UNCOMFORTABLE to relax on the street furniture provided. The use of street furniture seems only to DECOORATE A RARELYUSED PATHWAY, rather than realising the potential of a crucial open space for residents to inhabit.

REALISING THE POTENTIAL A successful town centre for Newcastle Great Park would be inhabited with shops, drawing people to the area. The green space would be BUSY, and VIBRANT, forming the HEART OF THE COMMUNITY. Removing some of the barren plots of soil dividing the grass allows it to be much more WIDELY USED, by dog walkers, children, families, and groups of people relaxing etc. Street furniture would become more USABLE, as well as being decorative.

Better use of trees could offer visual protection from onlooking dwellings, enhancing both privacy into the dwellings, and making the green space feel less imposing, and more WELCOMING. The space should be used as a communal outdoor social space that the neighbourhood is currently lacking. It would transform into being a SOCIAL HUB, making the whole neighbourhood feel more HOMELY, rather than just houses, to ENHANCE THE TOWN CENTRE.

Better landscape planning of plants and flowers would further decorate the area, makaing it more COLOURFUL and VIBRANT.

01 GROUP PRIMER MANIFESTO As a studio, we devised a manifesto for the successful design of housing neighbourhoods. This manifesto will be used to influence our individual design projects later in the year. The manifesto covers 11 points including the 9 posters seen here, as well as two other points:

CREATE to INTEGRATE

LOCALISATION: for ACCESSIBILITY, for SUSTAINABILITY, for COMMUNITY

H O U S I N G STANDARDS SHOULD NOT BE STANDARD DESTROYING G E N D E R STEREOTYPES STARTS AT HOME

PROTEST:

‘NOT SO GREAT PARK’

‘CLIMATE CRISIS’? ACT LIKE IT

GREEN MEANS MORE THAN GRASS

PEOPLE BEFORE PROFIT

FLEXIBILITY leads to LONGEVITY leads to SUSTAINABILITY

ACTIVE DESIGN, PASSIVHAUS

PEOPLE BEFORE PROFIT

We decided as a studio that our ‘Primer Show’ exhibition would demonstrate a ‘protest’ against poor neighbourhood planning as seen at Newcastle Great Park, using plaquards that correlate to our ‘manifesto’ points.

NO MORE NO MANS LAND

01 PRIMER SHOW EXHIBITION Our studio primer exhibition showcased a collective of all individual element studies, along with a ‘protest’ format. This included our manifesto points as plaquards and posters, centered around a video as the focal point of our exhibition. The video demonstrated Newcastle Great Park as a neighbourhood, with footage of the ‘protest’ by studio members.

CASE STUDY

B GASOMETER COOP HIMMELB(L)AU

asometer B is one of four ‘Gasometer’ buildings located in Simmering, Vienna, Austria. The four unused ‘Gasometers’ were each redesigned by four different architecture firms as housing schemes. Gasometer B was redesigned by Coop Himmelb(l)au, whose design included the construction of a ‘shield’ to the north of the Gasometer. This interested me, showing how classic architecture can be intertwined with modern architecture. The Gasometers provide regular, and student accommodations, as well as a shopping centre. The development is a good example of a renovation scheme to prevent the demolition of unused structures, and shows how these structures can be redesigned for completely different land uses. It is a large-scale form of upcycling. The inclusion of communal spaces, and services, such as the shopping centre, and atrium spaces provided me with inspiration to create a busy ‘centre’ of a community, to increase business and social interaction in an area, whilst offering communal spaces to residents of high-rise accommodations.

02 INDIVIDUAL WORK PROJECT TIMELINE

Coop Himmelb(l)au is architecture firm founded in Vienna in 1968, by three founding members: Wolf D.Prix, Helmut Swiczinsky, and Michael Holzer. Of the three founding members, only Wolf D.Prix remains at the company, after Holzer left the business in 1971, and Swiczinsky retired from daily operations in 2001, and completely retired in 2006 (This was after the Gasometers Project – so Swiczinsky did work on this project), leaving D.Prix as the current CEO. D.Prix himself was born in Vienna and studied at the Vienna University of Technology, forming strong personal bonds between himself and Viennese architecture.

Company Logo

After initial success, the company expanded, adding offices in Los Angeles, Frankfurt, and Paris to its initial Vienna Office. The company has won numerous awards in different countries, which have been listed on their website – the first of which winning in 1982 – around the time they started to become better-known. Aside from being architects and urban planners, Coop Himmelb(l)au also work in art, with some of their work being displayed in globally-famous exhibition centres, such as the Pompidou Centre in Paris, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

CEO & Leading Designer Wolf D.Prix

The Cloud (Exhibition)

The Long Thin Yellow Legs Gasometer B of Architecture (Exhibition)

Apartment & Office Building Martin Luther Church Schlachthausgasse

1968

1988

2001 - 2005

1981 - 1987

1993 - 1998

Rooftop Remodeling, Falkestrasse

UFA Cinema Center

1995 - 2001

2001 - 2007

Akron Art Museum

2008 - 2011

2008 - 2012

2014 - 2017

Dalian Int’l. Conf. Cente

PANEUM Wunderkammer des Brote

When translated into English, the word ‘Himmelblau’ means ‘blue sky’. The images of other projects shown are the cover photos of the projects from the company website; they are carefully selected images to represent the reflection of blue skies on the projects - a key design theme of the company I investigate later. The timeline of a selection of projects, was chosen to represent the directions of outputs of the company. In early years, the focus was much more on art projects and conceptual exhibitions, with much less focus on actual architectural building projects. Whilst exhibition projects are still seen in more modern years, there has been a clear shift towards building projects, with art-based exhibition projects taking much more of a back seat.

02 ARCHITECTS & DESIGNERS DESIGN OBJECTIVES

ELEMENTS OF DECONSTRUCTIVISM

REFLECTION The main theme of Coop Himmelb(l)au is reflection - with Wolf D.Prix himself saying:

Whilst largely unable to amend the ‘shell’ of the main Gasometer, Coop Himmelb(l)au implemented their style on the connected ‘shield’ with an angular, deconstructivism-style design, distributing structural weight of strongly-geometric overhangs on concrete pillars.

“We think of our architecture as part of the 21st century; as art which reflects and gives a mirror image of the variety and vivacity, tension and complexity of our cities.” In the works (both realised and unrealised) of Coop Himmelb(l)au, a trend is seen to largely silver - or glass facades and roofs. They have been designed to reflect light, meaning all different angles of cladding in their buildings all give off different reflections, casting light back in different ways, along with elements like glass reflecting the colour of the skies.

ELEMENTS OF REFLECTION - LIGHT Light reflections have been worked into the design, using the common grey/silver cladding and glass combination on the ‘shield’ that the company is so well associated with. With strict limitations on the shell of the gasometer, they have used glass on the roof of the gasometer, which will reflect light from above. The north-facing shield despite the grey/silver/glass facade doesn’t reflect sunlight, however, coincidentally, it is facing another building - the adjacent ‘entertainment center Gasometer’ - which also had a reflective facade; so, perhaps unintentionally, the ‘shield’ reflects onto that.

DECONSTRUCTIVISM Another design trend we see in the works of Coop Himmelb(l)au is deconstructivism, which is defined by ArchDaily as “the unleashing of infinite possibilities of playing around with forms and volumes.” It is a postmodern style of architecture, used by a variety of well known architects, such as Daniel Libeskind, Frank Gehry, Rem Koolhaas and Zaha Hadid among others.

Deconstructivist building by Coop Himmelb(l)au containing their offices

02 ENVIRONMENTAL STRATEGY

CHANGES MADE TO ‘GASOMETER B’

PUBLIC TRANSPORT AVAILABILITY

Before being used as a residency, the Gasometers were used for lighting Vienna’s gas street lamps, until they were retired, and for gas lighting in Vienna’s residences. However, with the introduction and rising prominence of electricity, the Gasometers fell out of use. Instead of rebuilding them, it was considered, both an economically, environmentally, and historically-preserving, better way, to instead Vertical slits were cut into the shell f the gasometers to let light into the inside - leading recycle the shells of them. to the removal of 1400m3 of bricks.

Being a large residential complex, the Gasometer site includes plenty of adequate public transport services; a bus stop, and U-Bahn Station are are both located next to Gasometer A.

Gasometer U-Bahn Station

The continuous shopping centre provides a walkway for residents of all four Gasometers to walk indoor across each Gasometer to their final destinations.

B Gasometer

With the efficiency and speed of the Vienna U-Bahn network, this significantly reduces the need for cars in the city centre, and for residents of all Gasometers. Car Parking

Route from Gasometer U-Bahn & Bus Station, through Gasometer A, towards Gasometer B & the ‘Shield’

Metal girders were tested in a wind tunnel, and ensures to be smooth, to prevent any whistling sounds or noise pollution from high winds for residents.

An image showing holes in walls, and glass ceilings, allowing light to enter the gasometers

Gasometer U-Bahn Station

Vienna U-Bahn Map

There is also car parking spaces underneath the Gasometers, as shown in this diagram.

02 ENVIRONMENTAL STRATEGY LIGHTING

LIGHTING

The added ‘shield’, and all its residences, are placed to the north of the gasometer, with most of the residences facing north - meaning they get no direct sunlight. Even the south-facing residences in the ‘shield’ will be mainly blocked especially in non-summer months - by the gasometer itself.

The glass roof allows light to come streaming into the building, coming further down the atrium in the summer months although sunlight from the south - directing to the north - will hit the northernmost part of the gasometer in the strongest light - this is the part of the floor plan without residences.

Winter Sun Path Diagram & Angles

Summer Sun Path Diagram

The corridors between residences are in the middle of the structure - meaning that no natural light runs through them - creating a lifeless feel; all lighting in the corridors are artificial; the lack of ventilation will leave air circulating over throughout the corridor, creating a stuffy feeling especially in warmer months.

Winter Sun Angles

Summer Sun Angles

02 OTHER GROUP PRESENTATION WORK

STAGING

CRUDDAS PARK

ELSWICK, NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE

hen introduced to our project site at the start of staging, I was instantly taken aback by the conditions surrounding the 75-metre tall, 1960s tower block and adjoining shopping centre. These became the forefront of my investigation in staging, setting myself a ‘remedial’ brief to bellow based on issues identified – with links back to the group primer manifesto. In retrospect, focusing my time so heavily on analysing issues limits the time spent on my massing concept, which was devised at a masterplan scale. However, it gave me a clear direction to progress forward to, heading into the realisation stage. Working at a masterplan scale allowed me to address the whole site with a wider neighbourhood strategy, which expanded away from just the issues identified surrounding Cruddas Park itself. This allowed me to deviate away from the limitations of working with an existing structure, allowing me to express my creativity and design aims.

03 44m

Newcastle Ctrl

20 minutes

Northumberland St

33 minutes

SITE LOCATION

75m

83m

The site is located on the south side of Westmorland Road, in Elswick, Newcastle.

SITE

RIVERSIDE DENE

The site is on a steep slope, offering great views overlooking the Tyne Valley to the south. Located in a social housing community, the site is surrounded by terraces of housing to the north and east, and by the 5 tower blocks of ‘Riverside Dene’ to the south-east. Directly south of Cruddas Park lies large, open green land – which provides an opportunity to create an outdoor social space.

Existing Site Parti Section

SITE INFORMATION The focus of the site is on the existing ‘Cruddas Park House’ – a 20-storey, 75-metre tall social housing tower block, sitting on a ‘podium’ structure called ‘Cruddas Park Shopping Centre’.

116m

16m 62m

44m

RIVER TYNE 0

100

200

300

400m

Site Focus - Existing Parti Plan

03 SITE PHOTOGRAPHS

Underground car park entrance

Closed stores on the exterior Southern lift shaft/stairwell of the shopping centre

Riverside Dene tower block

Bag caught in a tree

Open wires

Empty room with bare walls and fallen ceiling tiles

Nappy left in the bushes

LACK OF MAINTENENCE The site felt uncared for by the local council due to the condition in and around the shopping centre. Lots of litter was present around the site, and elements of the building itself had fallen into disrepair, such as open wires, fallen ceiling tiles etc..

Height change: shopping centre to car park

Inside the main corridor of Views overlooking the Tyne Valley the shopping centre

Bin bag left in a walkway

Rusty and peeling sign

Whilst a sign on a wall stated that maintenence issues should be reported to the site caretaker, it seems that none of these concerns have been rectified.

03 CLOSED SERVICES

C U R R E N T RESIDENTS: CRUDDAS PARK

Within the existing ‘shopping centre’, only a shop (Boots), the library, and Newcastle College remained open. All other shops and services had closed down. These included a community centre, showing the attitude from the council to generate a community for residents. Also shut down was a cafe, a vital service for social interaction between residents. Resident gender balance

Closed community centre sign

Closed cafe sign

Other closed services

Closed laundrette

Furthermore, the local laundrette had also closed down. As a social housing community, this will have been an important service for residents who will struggle to afford to own a washing machine.

15-29

30-44 75+

45-59 60-75

DISTANT RELATIONS BETWEEN COUNCIL & RESIDENTS The relationship between council and the tennants seemed distant; it appeared that the council did not care for the residents, shown by a public eviction notice stuck to the outside of the tower block. This removes privacy for those evicted.

“Please dispose of cigarettes in the bins provided otherwise you Poster warning may be liable to a £75 fine from the council” “deliberate fires”

against Restrictions allowed

against

dogs Eviction notice publicly stuck to the Plaque from the renovation of the shopping centre in 1997 outside of the tower block

Residents have been restrictedby regulations - such as smoking restrictions, and no dogs allowed. This would affect the mental wellbeing of residents, and remove their ‘freedom’ in their own home.

Resident age range

3 2

The main demographic of residents in Cruddas Park currently are single, middle-aged men, most of whom live on their own. Astoundingly, none of the residents living within the existing tower block are under 20 years old (from 2011). Therefore, there are no families living in the tower block, despite having 140 individual dwellings within it. I was shocked at the lack of diversity within the tower block, and therefore wanted to design to encourage a more diverse range of residents, both within the tower block itself, and across the wider site in general. Furthermore, the number of residents living on their own becomes even more significant due to the lack of social interaction spots within the site. This lead me to design to increase opportunities for social interaction, to reduce loneliness of residents.

Residents per flat

03 LOCAL OPINIONS Newspaper Article

'I've had tears running down my cheeks': Newcastle high-rise residents speak of lockdown struggles

Positive Opinions

“There are some fantastic views and (a) park across the road to walk around too which help”

Negative Opinions

“It's hard not having any areas to sit outside in. I wish we had a communal garden because we can't do anything we are just stuck in these four walls” “It feels like we’ve been totally forgotten about and during this worrying time” “Living here during lockdown is terrible, there’s not a lot that you can do” “It’s not very good living here at the moment. We only have only one lift working and people are having to wait a lot of time for it. It’s been like that for over a month”

How this impacts my design

This article highlights the importance of outdoor communal space, displaying a need to maintain the green space to the south of Cruddas Park in my design, as well as adding more communal spaces. The article also raises further issues regarding a lack of maintenence.

Reference

Nichol, R., 2020. I've had tears running down my cheeks': Newcastle high-rise residents speak of lockdown struggles. Chronicle, [online] Available at: <https:// www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/ coronavirus-newcastle-north-east-elswick-18131493> [Accessed 8 May 2020].

*NOTE: This article was written post-staging reviews

Woman reveals ‘appalling’ state of her Newcastle council flat after leak was ‘ignored for two months’

Newcastle’s Cruddas Park lit up with tower block safety message ahead of Grenfell anniversary

It’s an accident waiting to happen’ Tower block residents left fearful after arsonists strike twice

A resident “begged for repairs for two months”, and is “completely fed up” at the state of her flat, in Cruddas Park House, Elswick, as damage from a leak she reported (two months before) still hasn’t been fixed”, “making her bathroom unusable”.

“After the fire we were promised that blocks would be made safe. It’s been two years since Grenfell and people are still going to bed at night worried that a fire like Grenfell could happen to them.”

“It’s been going on for ages. It started last year – it’s got to be at least three or four times a week.”

“furious about how long it has taken and the damage that has been caused”

“Cruddas Park House don’t have seals on the fire doors and gaps under the doors. It’s not acceptable”

“It’s appalling, the conditions we have to live in. We live like this and nobody does anything. I’ve lived here for three years and it’s worse than any private landlord I’ve ever been with.” “The people are great here, but we’re all so down and depressed. It’s just not good to live here, but we don’t have a choice.”

This article raises further maintenence issues. As seen on page 39, residents are instructed to report issues to the site caretaker, but nothing is acted upon these. The tennant-council relationship is summed up by being “worse than any private landlord”, and it is shown that the residents are indeed “depressed”, which becomes a key design theme that I address in my project. Graham, H., 2020. Woman reveals 'appalling' state of her Newcastle council flat after leak was 'ignored for two months'. Chronicle, [online] Available at: <https://www.chroniclelive. co.uk/news/north-east-news/woman-reveals-appalling-statecouncil-17214881> [Accessed 16 November 2019].

“The safety of customers is our number one priority and we are committed to continuing our programme of planned investment to improve the safety of all our homes across the city including Cruddas Park House” - Newcastle City Council

This article links strongly to the poor relationship between the council and residents. Feeling unsafe within their own homes will have serious negative effects on residents’ mental well being. Whilst the council states that safety is “number one priority”, facts surrounding fire doors suggests otherwise, and showing the lack of care from the council, to the residents.

Hutchinson, L, 2020. Newcastle’s Cruddas Park lit up with tower block safety message ahead of Grenfell anniversary. Chronicle, [online] Available at: <https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/ north-east-news/newcastles-cruddas-park-litup-16426031> [Accessed 16 November 2019].

"It blows out from the chute and makes its way into corridors and under doors. You can see it lying in the air and taste it in your mouth it's that bad.” “It's an accident waiting to happen and there's nothing being done.” "Every time my two kids hear the sirens, they run to the windows and go white with fear.”

This article raises further fire safety concerns worrying residents. Furthermore, these issues had not been sorted by the council, with the only response being “fire safety is a high priority” “and we have lots of measures in place to protect them”, whilst not actually acting to catch the arsonist, again making residents feel uncared for. Knight, C., 2019. ‘It’s an accident waiting to happen’ - Tower block residents left fearful after arsonists strike twice. Chronicle, [online] Available at: <https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/northeast-news/cruddas-park-house-newcastlefire-16282155> [Accessed 16 November 2019].

03 SITE LAND USE 1 2

= Housing 1

Cruddas Park Shopping Centre

St Michaels RC Church

St Michaels RC Primary School

Cruddas Park Nursery School

Audi Car Dealership

Brunel Court nursiung Home

Eagles Community Arena (Basketball)

3 Analysing the existing services of the wider site context around Cruddas Park, it becomes clear that the area has the facilities to sustain a more diverse community of residents. Services such as a nursery, and a primary school provide easy access for families who could live in Cruddas Park in future, whereas the care home offers a place for the elderly to live once they can no longer support themselves. This care home is also in close proximity of both Cruddas Park and Riverside Dene, so families living on the site can easily visit any relatives who may reside in the care home.

7 5

03 ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS

Site sun path - Summer

Cruddas Park sun path - Summer

Summer site shadows - 08:00

Summer site shadows - Noon

Summer site shadows - 16:00

Site sun path - Winter

Cruddas Park sun path - Winter

Winter site shadows - 09:00

Winter site shadows - Noon

Winter site shadows - 15:00

Southern facade of â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Cruddas Park Houseâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;

SUNLIGHT DIAGRAMS

SHADOW DIAGRAMS

SOUTHERN FACADE

WIND ANALYSIS

An issue I found with the orientation of the existing massing of Cruddas Park was the orientation of the tower block, with large east/ west facades, and a small southern facade, that was inhabited with a stairwell and a lift shaft. This limited the amounts of direct sunlight, and natural thermal gain entering the dewllings, whilst also reducing opportunites of views overlooking the Tyne Valley to the south.

As the tallest building within its surroundings, located higher up on the sloped site, Cruddas Park is largely unaffected by shadows cast from the Riverside Dene tower blocks. This means that it almost constantly receives unblocked daylight, especially the tower block itself.

The southern facade if the tower block is consumed primarily by a lift shaft and stairwell. Clad in corrugate dconcrete slabs, there are few windows, which could be used to maximise solar gain. Furthermore, the uninterrupted sunlight in daytime hours, due to a lack of shadows, provides an opportunity for solar panels to generate renewable energy.

The site has string crosswinds coming from a west-south-west direction. These winds mainly come at an angle that hit the large wetern facade of the tower block.

03 UNDERGROUND CAR PARK Underneath Cruddas Park Shopping Centre is an underground car park, that is built into the slope of the site. Under current operation, the car park is used as parking for Newcastle College, rather than as parking for residents.

PUBLIC TRANSPORT LINKS With no designated car parking spaces for residents of Cruddas Park House, the public transport links are important. These are more than adequate, with the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Stagecoach number 1 busâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; stopping outside Cruddas Park, on Westmorland Road. This takes residents directly into Newcastle City Centre. Other forms of public transport are also available, such as by rail - due to the close proximity of Newcastle Central Station, at only a 20 minute walk from the site (according to apple maps). Residents can also opt to walk to the city centre, which itself is only a 33 minute walk away (apple maps). These are all environmentally friendly transport options, reducing the number of car emissions, and congestion around Elswick. It may also be a more economically viable option, for lower-income residents, instead of costs to run a car.

Stagecoach bus number 1 timetable (Cruddas Park - Newcastle City Centre)

Bus Stop

Newcastle City Centre

Newcastle Central Station

Site

Site Bus stop location in relation to Cruddas Park

Stagecoach bus number 1 route map

03 READINGS & EXTRACTS

DESIGN AIMS

RESIDENT AUTONOMY

Source:

COMUNITY

Control shadows

‘Permanent Homes’

Encourage diversity

Larger living spaces

Healthy resident/council relationship

Build a community

Indoor & outdoor social & communal spaces

Encourage public transport use Quote:

“True is that the house cannot solve the problems of the occupants, however architecture is capable to influence in their happiness, markedly.” “Our homes do not have to offer us permanent occupancy.” “What will we experience in a house with prison-like windows, stained carpet tiles, and plastic curtains?”

Relation to my project:

Reference:

“A dwelling that enables people to live in a home where they can reside for life” ...... “which can answer their changing dwelling needs and wishes, seems indispensable”. 46

Improved planning and better housing have long been identified as essential for improving the health of communities, reducing health inequalities and cutting costs for the taxpayer. The Building Research Establishment (BRE) has calculated that the annual cost of poor housing “setting goals, that allow individuals to the National Health Service (NHS) is at least to achieve high levels of happiness £1.4bn. and wellbeing – adaptable to each person’s preferences” “high-quality parks and gardens improves could “improve individuals’ and mental health and levels of physical activity” ultimately society’s happiness and wellbeing.” 124

The home, to its resident is a place of relaxation, of freedom, of expression. With such strict restrictions and regulations inplemented by the council upon residents, how can the resident express themself? How can they experience the ‘freedom’ of their own home? How will this impact the resident’s mental health?

Homes should be designed to be This fact shows the financial impacts of poor adaptable to each resident’s needs, housing planning on a wider society, as well as individuals. at different points in their lives.

The benefits of improved individual wellbeing in social housing can also benefit society, by leading to a ‘happier’ workforce, which will boost business and economy.

This also shows links between outdoor green spaces, and mental and physical health of residents, in addition to environmental benefits. This becomes especially important in housing blocks, which dont possess gardens for residents.

De Botton, A., 2006. The Architecture Of Happiness. London: Penguin.

Petermans, A. and Cain, R., 2019. Design For Wellbeing. 1st ed. London: Routledge, pp.46, 124

Henderson, K., Lock, K. and Ellis, H., 2017. The Art Of Building A Garden City: Designing New Communities For The 21St Century. Newcastle upon Tyne: RIBA, pp.73-75.

This justifies financial costs of renovating and Setting out a list of design aims is improving poor housing, such as Cruddas Park, to a convenient mathod to ensure my improve mental well being. This leads to reduced cost on the taxpayer, and reduced pressure on the strategy is effective as possible. NHS in the long-term.

Control ventilation Control natural light Outdoor ‘green’ spaces

Reduce waste concrete Generate renewable energy Physically ‘greener’

SUSTAINABILITY

Existing buildings on the site

Existing & new roads on site

Green spaces on site

Proposed renovations/new buildings on the site

Location of Westmorland Road in relation to the site

Location of existing trees on site

03 STAGING CELEBRATION IMAGE 1

SUSTAINABILITY

NEW-BUILD HOUSES

Double-Storey Houses

‘Affordable’ Housing - for first-time buyers

Increases the diversity of wealth in the community

Views overlooking the Tyne Valley

PRESERVE green spaces

PROTECT natural habitats

REPLANT new and rehomed trees

ENCOURAGE outdoor interaction

3 2

SITE FOCUS

2 NEW ROADS CREATED

Connects Riverside Dene to the west of the site

Connects the site to ‘Cruddas Park Early Years Centre’ - encourages families towards the site

Improves access to the site and site surroundings

Regenerate the shopping centre encourage a COMMUNITY

New outdoor ‘social space’ cut from the shopping centre

Larger, more spacious flats

Encourage more natural light into dwellings

THINKING THROUGH MAKING

04 ‘T

hinking through Making week’ helped my design process by pushing me into greater detail than I had previously explored in staging. My project was inspired from the bamboo material workshop that I attended earlier in the semester. This acted only as a starting point for a scheme development that would be undertaken at a later stage, but the workshops allowed me to gain a concept for materiality. As much a materiality study as a model study, the project drew me to investigate light, ventilation, and shadows inside dwellings, This linked to the studio wide theme of modularity in flat units, as well as linking to my staging design aims of ‘Resident Autonomy. This week was very helpful in my design process, as it inspired me to explore features of my proposal that would potentially have otherwise been standardised.

04 CONCEPT - PRECEDENT BAMBOO VEIL HOUSE, SINGAPORE The bamboo workshop was especially inspirational for me because I had wanted to look at using sustainable materials within my project, of which the strength, and appearance of bamboo intrigued me. I researched the use of bamboo in buildings, and found a precedent with a fascinating concept. The Bamboo Veil House in Singapore, is designed with a â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;movable facadeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; of strips of bamboo, that can be angled to be open or closed at any point in time.

BAMBOO WORKSHOP The bamboo workshop started with an introduction to bamboo, and its material properties. Bamboo is very strong in tension, and is used in widespread construction in South-East Asia especially, as a sustainable construction material. We used thin wooden poles, to replicate the rols of bamboo, to display how bamboo chutes can be bound together to create complex structures, such as the model that we made above.

Not only does this concept create an everchanging exterior facade of the building, but it constantly transofrms the atmospheres INSIDE the building as well, and can regulate natural light, shadows, and air ventilation within the building. This means the resident can CONTROL the atmospheres within their own home. In addition to this, and benefits of using a sustainable material, this concept also allows air to flow naturally through the building, reducing the need for artificial ventilation and cooling systems.

04 THINKING THROUGH MAKING WEEK MODEL PROCESS My model concept derived from a similar system seen in in the Bamboo Veil House. My design would support this in within the shopping centre level of my proposal, as well as within dwellings.

Investigating The Facade.....

At this stage of my design process, this involved balcony doors, that could be used for shadow, light, and ventilation purposes, as well as being a doorway.

Initial concept in the form of a sketchup massing model.

I used 8mm thick wooden poles for this, in the place of bamboo. I stuck this together next to each other, and added a copper tube as a centre of rotation.

Investigating Shadows.....

Investigating 02 62

Sticking the wooden poles together.

Adding a copper pole to be the centre of rotation, and flattening out the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;slabsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; of wood.

Light.....

05 06

REALISATION/

SYNTHESIS

SCALE

SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITY, AFFORDABLE LIVING, ELSWICK

y project title is derived to summarise the key aims that should be considered in the design of all future housing districts in the 21st century world.

s the project progressed into the realisation stage, I focused my design on Cruddas Park itself, as this was to be the ‘focal point’ of my scheme. This initially focused on massing iterations for the tower block, but later led to the first design technologies/strategies at a more detailed scale, most of which had been imspired from precedents studied, and in one case, from ‘Thinking Through Making week’. However, feedback from the realisation review led me to reflect on the feasibility of my design proposal, to which I made radical changes post-review. This taught me the importance of respecting existing structures when designing renovation projects, and therefore not designing details until I have a more complete understanding of technological aspects of the structure. Whilst the redesign set me back a number of weeks in the design process, it was a necessary redesign, and helped me learn to reflect on both positive, and negative aspects of future schemes.

uring the project synthesis, I redesigned my massing concept for Cruddas Park, with a new focus of maintaining as much of the existing structure as possible, and finding new ways in the form of technologies and strategies to find remedies to the problems identified in staging. This was helped by working at more focused details, so I could understand how to realise my staging design aims within my proposal. At this point, I had been helped by the technology project, which modified my outset to look for the opportunities the site presented, rather than focusing on the issues, whilst also encouraging me to explore all technological aspects of my design – linking back to problems I had learned from during realisation The most important aspect of synthesis for me was explaining these strategies through diagrams. These explain the aspects of my design, however focusing too much on these drew me away from detailing the atmospheres in the spaces I have created, which I addressed post-synthesis review.

re ack a s at b

o too L

REALISATION MASSING PROCESS

arrow g&N

Flat

(Type B)

Light

Little/No Natural Light The orientation of the existing massing lets little natural light in.

rn Fa orthe

Light

Little/No Natural Light Extending the western face to add a curve for a larger southern solar gain. Light

Little/No Natural Light

Light

Little/No Natural Light

This process is repeated to the eastern facade aswell.

Back

cade

flats

(Type A)

w ig no

oo b are t

New Space Created

Back flats get more light than front flats

The northern facade is narrowed, to prevent long, narrow flats, and to minimise heat loss to the North.

(Type A)

The curve is split, to evenly allocate natural light into every dwelling.

N ower Narr

(Type B)

The massing process from my realisation project focused on expanding the structure of the tower block to incorporate some of my design aims such as: larger flats, dual-aspect flats, and communal ‘social’ spaces. My massing involved larger, open plan dwellings, that would feel more spacious and comfortable for the residents. This also allowed me to expand the variety of flats within the tower, with the addition of 3-bed flats. This would encourage a wider diversity of residents into the tower, becoming appealing to families. I utilised the interion ‘atrium’ to create dualaspect flats, which would reduce the cluster of ‘important’ rooms to a singular side of each dwelling. This allowed the layouts of the dwellings to feel less forced. The atrium itself would become an indoor garden, offering a year-round social space for residents to use and interact with.

Front flats gain light from Southfacing windows

Utilising the southern facade allows more solar gain into flats on this facade.

The ‘curve’ of the building is squared off, so that rooms in dwellings can have 90-degree corners

Analysing the volume of new space added shows how large the flats at the back have now become.

Adding a garden atrium inside the structure, to prevent oversized flats, to create a social space, and to create dual-aspect flats, with windows overlooking the atrium.

05 REALISATION FLAT PLANS & SITE SECTION FLAT PLANS The layouts of my individual dwellings became focused on open-plan living spaces, which make the dwellings feel larger and more spacious. Utilising dual-aspect flats helped me in the design of larger flats (3-Bed) as they allowed me to include windows on both sides of the dwelling, rather than having to â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;fit inâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; all bedrooms, and the living spaces onto one side of the dwellings, to include window space.

REALISATION FEEDBACK Upon receiving my feedback from the realisation review, I decided that such large changes to the structure of the building would not be structurally, or economically viable. This is because of the large extensions to the eastern and western facades, and the demolition of much of the existing modular structure to create the inner atrium. Aside from the structural problems this demolition would create for the tower block, it would also generate a lot of waste concrete within the inner atrium. Wasting so much concrete - a material that contributes to 8% of global carbon dioxide emissions, would therefore have made the project environmantally unsustainable. Consequently, at the start of the synthesis project, I turned back on this design proposal, and started again with a new proposal for the tower block.

1-Bed flat layout

2-Bed flat layout

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3-Bed flat layout (type A)

3-Bed flat layout (type B)

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“the annual cost of poor housing to the National Health Service (NHS) is at least £1.4bn” - RIBA, 2017

“we’re all so down and depressed. It’s just not good to live here, but we don’t have a choice.” - Graham, 2020

06 FINAL MASSING - SITE FOCUS My overall massing for the site focus reverted back to the original size and shape of the tower block. Working and renovating the existing structure makes the project immediately more sustainable, and financially cheaper to undertake. This caused me to use creative thinking in problem solving more, to encourage ideas and strategies that would form more effective ways of solving current issues surrounding Cruddas Park.

‘Boots’ shop

Cruddas Park Library - this service is still Newcastle College - Cruddas Park Campus in use, despite the closed shutters as our site visit was outside of opening hours

Social housing Supermarket Newcastle College Library

MASSING TYPOLOGY ‘SHOPPING CENTRE’

When analysing the list of shops and services within Cruddas Park Shopping Centre, only three are still in use: a shop, a library, and part of Newcastle College. In my proposal for this level of my massing, I have retained these services, with the expection of ‘upgrading’ the ‘boots’ shop to become a supermarket. My massing removed all of the other closed services, to replace them with an open social space for residents to use and interact in. This becomes an important space, due to the demographics of tower block housing, which doesn’t offer individual gardens to residents. This open space is intented to serve as the exterior ‘town centre’ for Elswick, serving as a social point not only for residents of Cruddas Park and Riverside Dene, but the whole neighbouring community. The sesrvices provided will bring people into the site year-round, encouraging the open space to be perenially-used.

NEW SOCIAL SPACE CREATED ACCESS ROUTES ADDED The existing Cruddas Park Shopping Part of the existing ‘podium’ is Further demolitions to the existing Centre ‘podium’ massing demolished, opening up a new ‘podium’ to open up access routes to exterior social space. the individual services, and the new social space. This splits up the existing singular building, into three smaller buildings.

A PERENNIALY-USED SPACE As an entrance to the services, and residencies of Cruddas Park, the new open space will be a key area in the community. Newcastle College

The services in the ‘centre’ are involve year-round use, which will bring a constant stream of people to the site. Furthermore, the nature of the services will attract a larger DIVERSITY of clientele to the area, such as Newcastle College bringing a younger population, and the supermarket which will attract all local residents. The location of the ‘main entrances’ of these buildings has been planned to open onto the new open ‘centre’, to encourage the different groups of users to INTERACT with each other, and create a more diverse community.

Library

Supermarket

Street furniture at Newcastle Great Park: bare flowerbeds, and unsociable benches.

How the plaza would be accessed - showing it would be frequently used

STREET FURNITURE Back in the primer project I investigated the impact that street furniture has on communities. Similar to NGP, my new open ‘plaza’ serves as a communal ‘centre’ of its neighbourhood, so it was vital to design the landscape of such an area. Using the massing surrounding the plaza, there was an opportunity to make the space a perennially used one, drawing in people from all the services - especially those from Newcastle College. Furnished with ‘social benches’, plants, and trees, it is designed to be a place where users can relax, and SOCIALISE, as well as being a route between the services and residencies nearby.

GROUND FLOOR PLAN Changes made to the ground floor involved the demolition of parts of the shopping centre, to retain only the currently-used services.

Newcastle College - IT depertment Newcastle College

With such a strong focus on creating a community, the new spaces encourage social interaction between residents - not just from Cruddas Park, but the whole neighburhood. This has also been encouraged through the layout of the services in the massing, such as a cafe within Newcastle College leading out onto the new ‘plaza’ of open land to the south. Also linking services together is the IT department of the college, overlooking the library.

Cafe

Tower entrance Supermarket drop-off point

Library

A key design strategy for me was sustainability, so my design focuses on retaining the existing trees and natural habitats of the site. Additionally, the ‘plaza’ space involves numerous plant/ flower beds, offering new habitats for wildlife.

Supermarket

Tower entrance

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UNDERGROUND CAR PARK The existing underground car park strategy aims it towards users of Newcastle College, instead of residences. I have used a similar strategy in my propoasal, as the car park is used as parking for the supermarket. The primary benefit this will have is increased business within the supermarket, as people living outside Elswick itself will travel to shop there. This will in turn, attract more people to the site in general, utilising once empty spaces. Not only does this serve the purpose that the initial shopping centre has failed to do in the presentday, but it also will circulate a whole neighbourhood around Cruddas Park, making it the centre of the COMMUNITY. I opted against including resident car parking spaces, as this does not seem to be a pressing issue with the existing site. With good walking and public transport links in and around Newcastle from the site, and the income of most Cruddas Park residents, a residential car park would have been underused. Sloped escalalators to the supermarket

The underground car park also includes a maintenence section, that is bordered off to the public. This will be used for upkeep and electricity/energy plant rooms and storage.

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01 RETAINING STRUCTURE A key design theme of mine was to retain as much of the existing structure as possible, to increase project affordability and to PREVENT the WASTE of CONCRETE where possible. My massing for the ‘shopping centre is designed to run along the existing structural walls of the building, using these columns for the structure of my new massing. This is why the walkways and exterior walls of my massing are located where they are.

The existing massing

Demolition of the existing ‘podium’ structure, leaving behind the columns and walls that will be re-used as structure within the new buildings

Removal of the existing facades of the tower block, and renovation of modular layout inside the tower block

CONSTRUCTION SEQUENCE The diagrams to the right explain the construction sequence of my project, designed to minimise disturbance to residents and other users of the site. Construction delivery and sites can be located in the ‘drop-off’ point in the existing structure, which will later be used as a delivery point for the supermarket.

04 80

Renovation works are completed to the tower block, and the new facades are added. Residents can move back into the tower block to minimise disturbance

Works are completed to the supermarket

Works are fully completed

How two seperate dwellings intertwine with the modular structure, forming a ‘dual-layered cluster

THE DUAL-LAYERED, DUALASPECT CLUSTER The existing single-aspect flats create a clustering of rooms towards the window side of each dwelling. Furthermore, air in these flat types circulates, with no escape route. This makes the flats feel stale. By adding dual-aspect flats, this allows the spread of room typologies, as well as allowing air to circulate and ventilate freely through the dwellings.

Air circulation in single-aspect flats

MOVING FACADE Adapted from my ‘Thinking Through Making week’ model, the moving facade is a reflective/opaque glass pane outside of the windows, that the resident can control, to determine the light, shadows, and air that enters their dwellings, giving them the opportunity to transform their dwellings as they choose. This system is also used in the ‘shopping centre’, to ventilate these services automatically

Changing shadows in the flats from the moving facade

Changing light in the flats from the moving facade

Air circulation in dual-aspect flats

06 ENTRANCE PRECEDENT - LUBETKIN, HIGH POINT To make the entrance to my services stand out amongst the proposal, I included a canopy, based from Lubetkin’s High Point. This allowed me to form a connection between services in my proposal - supermarket, and college cafe, whilst also allowing me to decorate this with a miniature ‘green’ roof, to add further habitats to the site.

A T R I U PRECEDENT GASOMETER (FAILED)

M B

From the case study project, I felt that it was important to provide the residents with indoor social spaces, such as atriums. The atrium within Gasometer B had failed, because when I visited, it had not been inhabited by anyone. It felt like an empty shell due to the lack of decoration.

ATRIUM PRECEDENT - LONGWOOD GARDENS This atrium space is different, because it is decorated with plants. This makes the space desirable to visit, to relax in. This would be especially important in Cruddas Park, where the residents feel they are lacking in social space. This inspired me to open up numerous atrium ‘void spaces in my proposal, to be filled with indoor gardens, to provide the residents with social spaces.

How this influenced my ground floor design, with entrance canopies.

VOID ATRIUM PERSPECTIVE

VOID VENTILATION & WIND ENERGY With the strong prevailing winds across the site, this provided an opportunity to use this to generate wind power. These winds will be especially strong higher up in the tower block. For this, I have opened up atrium ‘void spaces’ in the corridors. These are intended to: LIGHT the corridors VENTILATE the corridors Provide SOCIAL SPACE for residents Generate RENEWABLE ENERGY These spaces have been created by partly demolishing one of the existing modular structural walls on each floor. Over each ‘dual-layered cluster’, the location of this ‘void’ space changes, to avoid localising a ‘weak point’ in the structure.

06 OTHER SPACE TYPOLOGIES:

VARYING LAYOUT FLAT TYPOLOGY To prevent localised clustered weak points in structural changes, and to decrease facade repetitiveness, the plan layout of the ‘dual layered clusters’ varies from floor to floor. This means that different ‘clusters’ have different flat typologies within them, as seen below. Each cluster is arranged by flat typology

Void Spaces.................... Communal Spaces....

1-bed clusters

3-bed clusters

2-bed clusters

4 & 1-bed clusters

PERSPECTIVE FLAT SECTION - KEY THRESHOLDS I chose this location as my key threshold section, because it shows two thresholds within the space. One of these is the threshold between the private dwelling, and the semi-private corridor. The more important threshold is between the downstairs and upstairs, as this represents a change in atmosphere within the flat between levels. It also demonstrated the advantages of dual-aspect units, by allowing the living, and bedroom spaces to be individual. NOTE: This is a 1:50 section (not to scale in this drawing), full scaled drawing in appendix Cluster Layout Variation 1

Cluster Layout Variation 2

Cluster Layout Variation 3

Cluster Layout Variation 4

Cluster Layout Variation 5

Cluster Layout Variation 6

10m

06 LIVING SPACES................ BEDROOM SPACES......

The massing layout of the flats was devised to encourage morning light into bedroom spaces, and evening light into living spaces. This keeps bedrooms cool on summer evenings, whilst allowing residents working in 9-5 jobs to experience daylight in their living spaces in the evenings.

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06 SOLAR STRATEGY The location and characteristics os the site mean that there is lots of uninterrupted daylight. I have designed my massing to take full advantage of this, by designing a curved roof on the ‘shopping centre’ level, to allow more daylight to reach further back in the individual buildings. Furthermore, my massing heights for the library and college have been influenced by this, as I designed the height of the library to ensure no light is blocked from entering the college building.

RENEWABLE ENERGY The layout of the tower block meant that the southern facade is primarily used for a lift shaft/stairwell. As areas such as these need little natural light, I saw this as an opportunity to take advantage of the uninterrupted daylight by cladding the shaft in photovoltaic solar panels, to generate renewable solar energy.

“CLIMATE CRISIS”? ACT LIKE IT

3D sun path diagram over my massing proposal

Summer sun angle - library & college

Winter sun angle - library & college

Summer sun angle - supermarket

Winter sun angle - supermarket

06 EXISTING MODULAR STRUCTURE The existing tower block has a modular concrete structure, that repeats on each of the 20-storeys of housing. This is an internal structure, running between each seperate dwelling, and along the interior corridor. The structure also runs along the southern lift shaft and stairwell of the building. Consequently, the dwelling facades themselves (eastern and western) are not load-bearing, so can be removed and replaced without impacting the main structure of the tower.

ALTERING THE TOWER STRUCTURE Working with an existing concrete structure, I limited any alterations to as few as possible. Where alterations were made, I conciously replaced them with other structural walls to bear the loads. Because my flat layouts are in ‘dual-layered’ clusters, the structure follows a pattern on alternating floors. On the lower, entry levels of each ‘cluster’, changes to the structure are not seen, apart from in ‘void spaces’. In these spaces, one wall on each level is partially

demolished, leaving columns to continue supporting loads from above. These walls have been replaced by secondary loadbearing walls either side. On the upper floors of the ‘clusters’, alterations were made to the corridor walls, to allow sufficient headroom over staircases within dweillings. These walls were also replaced by new load-bearing walls.

06 CHANGING EMOTIONS 50m2 1 Bed, 2 Person

61m2

LONDON MINIMUM HOUSING STANDARDS

EXISTING DWELLING SIZES

Whilst I acknowledge that my site is in Newcastle, not London, I still used the minimum housing standards as an indicator for a target of the absolute minumum sizes of my dwellings. I used these standards, because Newcastle does not have its own minimum size standards.

The existing dwelling sizes are on the small side of the London standards, with the 1-bed flats even being smaller than the figure stated by these regulations.

2 Bed, 3 Person

Additionally, the layout of rooms in the existing flats makes spaces feel small and compact.

PROPOSED DWELLING SIZES 2-Bed 70m2

2-Bed

83m2

70m2

74m2 2-Bed

2 Bed, 4 Person

3 Bed, 5 Person

The 2-bed, 3-bed, and 4-bed dwellings all meet the London minimum housing standards, as the dual-layered flats allowed me to calculate the sizes of the flats in my designs.

43m2/ 44m2

2-Bed

73m2

3-Bed

96m2

83m2

3 Bed, 4 Person

86m2

Because I am working with an existing structure, which I have tried to maintain as much as possible, some of the dwelling sizes (1-bed) still cannot meet the London housing standards. However, I have dealt with this issue by designing open-plan living spaces. This makes these rooms feel more spacious, without the confinement of walls separating rooms.

1-Bed

95m2

1-Bed 44m2

4-Bed

125m2

3 Bed, 6 Person

06 TWO-BEDROOM UNITS

The 2-bed units in my proposal are the first major change in layout to the existing tower. Whereas in the existing building, these apartments were single-floor and single-aspect, I have altered the design to span the dwellings across multiple floors, allowing them to become dual-aspect flats. This prevents â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;clusteringâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; around the window side of singleaspect flats, and allows a definitive threshold between living space, and bedroom space.

Window Facade

NOTE: Bedrooms are longer, and narrower. All bedrooms are large enough to fit double beds. Bedrooms have been designed to fit in with the existing modular structure of the tower. The partition wall between bedrooms is removable, should the resident choose to use one large bedroom, rather than two smaller ones. Lower floor plan Existing layout of 1-bed units in Cruddas Park

Proposed 1-bed floor plan

ONE-BEDROOM UNITS Working in accordance with the existing modular structure of the tower block, there were few changes I could make to the layout of the 1-bedroom dewllings, such as enlarging them.

Window Facade

Because the existing layout for these flats fall below the London minimum housing standard sizes, I felt it was even more important to change the layout to be an open-plan studio flat. This dramatically enlarges the kitchen/living space, and makes the whole flat feel more spacious.

Existing layout of 2-bed units in Cruddas Park

Upper floor plan

(NOT TO SAME SCALE AS PROPOSED 2-BED PLANS)

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06 THREE-BEDROOM UNITS 3-bedroom units do not currently exist in Cruddas Park House. In SCALE, I have added them to the list of dwellings to increase diversity of flat typology. This will consequently increase diversity of residents, attracting more family, and shared-flat residences, building a stronger community.

FOUR-BEDROOM UNITS The most infrequent flat typology in my proposal are 4-bed flats. These are aimed primarily towards larger families, as they provide one large ‘master bedroom’, and three smaller bedrooms.

Similar to my 2-bedroom flat proposals, these contain longer, narrower bedrooms - although again, all can fit double beds inside, by meeting the minumum bedroom width guides of 2.1m. Also recurring is the removable partition wall, incorporated to accommodate the changing needs of the resident over time, linking back to the primer objective: ‘HOUSING STANDARDS SHOULD NOT BE STANDARD’.

Lower floor plan

As with the 2, and 3-bed flats, these units provide unpermanent partition walls between the smaller bedrooms. In this flat type, the walls are on a roller system, so rooms can either be expanded, narrowed, or combined as time passes and the resident family grows older.

Lower floor plan

Upper floor plan Removable partition wall between bedrooms (NOT TO SCALE) 0m

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Partition walls on a roller system

Upper floor plan

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06 FACADE PRECEDENT - VANKE YUN CITY WOHA ARCHITECTS

FACADE PRECEDENT - VERTICAL LIVING GALLERY

This precedent explores the use of vertical green space in a highrise tower block, planting trees on outdoor spaces. Aside from the environmental benefits this has, it also creates an ambient communal space inside the tower.

This precedent shows a clearer use of inhabiting the walls with plants and greenery, alongside other facade materials. This inspired me for my designs, by encouracing me to similarly have growing plants hanging vertically from the walls. This created a new element of ‘RESIDENT AUTONOMY’ in my dwellings, as each separate unit has control over the plants overhanging their homes.

How my facade design has been influenced by ‘Vertical Living Gallery’

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06 PART ELEVATION My part elevation shows the materiality of my facedes especially the integration of the rainscreen cladding with the green living facade. The elevation also shows the modularity of flats, with a layout that changes every two floors. It also shows some of the strategies that have influenced my design process, such as the ‘movable facade’ system to aid lighting and ventilation, both in dwellings, and in public services. The other strategy shown is the use of void spaces - in this drawing as a inside garden atrium. The living facade was designed to create new vertical wildlife haitats, relating back to the primer strategy of ‘GREEN MEANS MORE THAN GRASS.

GREEN MEANS MORE THAN GRASS

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DETAILED SECTION 1 – Timber finish rainscreen cladding 2 – Vapour-proof layer 3 – 200mm exterior insulation 4 – Breather membrane 5 – 100mm interior insulation 6 – 50mm plaster board 7 – Wooden flooring 8 – Timber batten 9 – 160mm screed 10 – 50mm heating pipes 11 – 160mm rigid insulation 12 – Steel cladding fixing bracket (Cladding joint) 13 – Cavity barrier 14 – 90mm rigid insulation to fix to both pre-existing concrete structure and cladding 15 – Pre-existing concrete structure 16 – Cavity drip edge 17 – Timber batten 18 – Steel outer frame 19 – Hanger rod 20 – Widget 21 – Suspended ceiling 22 – 30mm insulation 23 – Vinyl door frame 24 – Timber blocks to attach to window frame 25 – Triple glazing 26 – Vinyl window frame 27 – Balcony door 28 – Timber balcony fencing 29 – Balcony drain 30 – Hopper 31 – Suspended (slanting) balcony decking 32 - Perimeter edging – Galvanized steel 33 – Drip irrigation water storage 34 – Drip irrigation system 35 – Plant troughs 36 – Sedum plants 37 – Waterproof layer to protect perimeter edging from rust 38 – Perimeter edging drain 39 – Reflective ‘moving facade’ structure 40 – Reflective panel

41 – Triple glazing 42 – Sealant 43 – Timber battens 44 – Roof shingles 45 – 300mm rigid insulation 46 – Second (overlapping) vapour proof barrier 47 – Breather membrane 48 – Timber frame slanted roof 49 – Pre-existing brickwork covering concrete column 50 – Pre-existing concrete column 51 – Acoustic barrier 52 – 200mm rigid insulation to support suspended ceiling 53 – Hanger rod 54 – Widget 55 – Suspended ceiling tiles 56 – Terrazzo floor tiles 57 – Mortar 58 – Waterproof layer to protect from supermarket spillages 59 – 300mm Rigid insulation 60 – Pre-existing concrete car park structure 61 – Pre-existing concrete ground beam 62 – Pre-existing friction pile 63 – Steel infilled rod

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Viewpoint

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CHARETTE

AN EMOTIONAL HIGH STREET

y charette group looked at the emotions within shops/brands we see on the high street. We looked at how these shops made us feel when we were both inside the shop, along with the image the brand attemts to convey of itself, through the use of social media, and in-store. I also looked into the opinions we have on others when we see them wearing clothes from this shop, and how I personally would feel wearing clothes from this shop. The shop my group studied was URBAN OUTFTTERS.

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07 KEY WORD: REFLECTIVE The feeling that the brand Urban Outfitters conveys onto me is reflective. This is in multiple senses of the word; Clothes from here are often nice and trendy, but also overpriced. Whenever I buy anything from here, I walk out the shop happy with my purchase, but later on I often find myself reflecting on this and whether or not they were worth the money I parted ways withfor them. Nevertheless, whenever I see others in the street wearing brands or clothes either from or affiliated with Urban Outfitters, I reflect on them as a person, and an opinion quickly forms in my head of them. I often find myself quite jealous of what they are wearing, knowing how much it must have cost them, and knowing that I would want to wear these clothes, but would find it difficult parting with money for them.

SHOP - URBAN OUTFITTERS Urban Outfitters is seen as a stylish shop, and its stripped-back, bare brick interior design, and â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;naturalâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; social media profiles reflect the aims of the brand.

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Thirdly, when looking upon their social media profiles, a key theme emerges: they tend to reflect nature, and a natural look in there images, with their model photoshoots tending to happen in picturesque, outdoor environments. The theme emerged to me of reflectiveness, both of how I felt, and the company directed itself at, therefore becoming the word I sutdied further.

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07 MODEL CONSTRUCTION

Sketchup model of our conceptual model

I cut out the templates to form a box from a metallic cardboard

I assembled the cardboard pieces togather, into a ‘box-base’ shape, with the metallic side on the interior.

FINAL MODEL - REFLECTIVE (CONCEPTUAL) The concept of our model was to represent reflection, with a specific focus on social perception. The concept is that the brown triangles/prisms represent a plain version of yourself upon entering the shop, and the colourful triangles reflected off them show a ‘better’ (or perceived as so) version of yourself, looking more colourful/stylish, and standing out from the plain crowd more, as you initially would have done before the brand really ‘took off’.

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I cut out triangles in plain card, making them into trapezoids

The trapezoids were then stuck to the reflective box

Finished Model

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CULTURAL BIBLIOGRAPHY

DISSERTATION RESEARCH - HOUSING COMMUNITIES NEIGHBOURING SPORTS STADIA

Group work (problem solving)

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08 SOCIAL HOUSING IN VIENNA, AUSTRIA

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08 ALT-ERLAA, VIENNA

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CITU, LEEDS

LILAC, LEEDS

We visited the CITU warehouse in Leeds on a field trip. CITU is a construction company focusing on a fast-scale construction process of houses.

LILAC (Low Impact Living Affordable Living) is a housing community we visited in Leeds on a field trip. It is a small, close community of residents living in a self-sustained, affordable housing neighbourhood.

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WOOD BENDING WORKSHOP The wood bending workshop taught me how wood an be manipulated into curved shapes, by stripping it down into thin sheets. With the grain of wood running one way, the wood can bend, but becomes very weak. Therefore, the wood strips have to be cross hatched on top of each other, to create a balance between flexibility, and strength.

CLAY WORKSHOP The task in this workshop was to write a sentence, that would be translated into symbols. We would then make this â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;sentenceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; of symbols out of clay. This provided a completely different method of searching for inspiration for me, causing me to think and see patterns from symbols that could translate into design ideas.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY Coop Himmelblau, 1990. Darmstadt: Jürgen Häuser. De Botton, A., 2006. The Architecture Of Happiness. London: Penguin.

Farrelly, L Crowson, N., 2011. Representational Techniques for Architecture. 2nd edn Bloomsbury, p.79 Gluns, D., n.d. From Plans To Policies. Wiesbaden: Springer VS, p.240. Graham, H., 2020. Woman reveals 'appalling' state of her Newcastle council flat after leak was 'ignored for two months'. Chronicle, [online] Available at: <https://www.chroniclelive. co.uk/news/north-east-news/woman-reveals-appalling-state-council-17214881> [Accessed 16 November 2019]. Henderson, K., Lock, K. and Ellis, H., 2017. The Art Of Building A Garden City: Designing New Communities For The 21St Century. Newcastle upon Tyne: RIBA, pp.73-75. Hutchinson, L, 2020. Newcastle’s Cruddas Park lit up with tower block safety message ahead of Grenfell anniversary. Chronicle, [online] Available at: <https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/ news/north-east-news/newcastles-cruddas-park-lit-up-16426031> [Accessed 16 November 2019]. Ingels, B., 2010. Yes Is More. Köln: Evergreen, p.14. Knight, C., 2019. 'It's an accident waiting to happen' - Tower block residents left fearful after arsonists strike twice. Chronicle, [online] Available at: <https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/ news/north-east-news/cruddas-park-house-newcastle-fire-16282155> [Accessed 16 November 2019]. Nichol, R., 2020. I've had tears running down my cheeks': Newcastle high-rise residents speak of lockdown struggles. Chronicle, [online] Available at: <https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/ news/north-east-news/coronavirus-newcastle-north-east-elswick-18131493> [Accessed 8 May 2020]. Pause, M. and Clark, R., 2013. Precedents In Architecture. 3rd ed. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley. Petermans, A. and Cain, R., 2019. Design For Wellbeing. 1st ed. London: Routledge, pp.46, 124 Prix, W., 2020. Wolf D. Prix. [online] Coop Himmelb(l)au. Available at: <http://www.coop-himmelblau.at/studio/wolf-d-prix/> [Accessed December 2020].

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1:200 KEY SITE SECTION

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1:50 FLAT PLANS

LOWER FLOOR

UPPER FLOOR

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1-BED

2-BED

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3-BED

UPPER FLOOR

4-BED

UPPER FLOOR

1:50 KEY THRESHOLD SECTION

1:20 DETAILED SECTION & PART ELEVATION

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