Sketchup & Revit Lumion AutoCAD Photoshop
YEAR: 2022
USE: Library & Genealogy Centre
SITE: Meadow Lane Lock, Nottingham
SUPERVISION: Guillermo Garma & Angel Moreno
The Lineage Library is designed as a social-cultural hub where people meet, learn, share knowledge and interconnect with each other. Three distinct yet interconnected components/pillars of the library complex have an impact on virtually everyone’s lineage (Language, Tradition and Religion).
The essential goal of the design is to create a library/ social centre, specifically concentrating on the above three matters. Included is a partner genealogy/DNA
An increasing percentage of modern society has developed biological and societal links to people from different ethnicities and cultures. It is increasingly important that folk learn of their own and others' traditions, religions, heritages, and
It is felt that the massing, articulation, and orientation of the library complex along with the materials chosen and the interplay of its component features, make a
YEAR: 2021
USE: Housing, Retail, Artisan, Theatre & Masterplan
SITE: Bath St., Nottingham
SUPERVISION: Taghi Amirhosseini
In recent centuries, this part of Nottingham has become a 'run-down area'. It has experienced many changes and has transitioned from use to use as society itself has altered with new requirements. The site location currently fails to effectively coalesce into an individually recognisable and defined quarter of the city.
The desired use is a principally pedestrian environment providing mixed accommodation. Housing, retail, and various artisan uses integrate with destinct open spaces to afford street theatre, exhibitions, and performances. ARK will clearly demarcate transitional routes to and through it. It is intended to readily affords future flexibility in use as needs arise and the area develops.
This project also includes roof allotments for use by residents and a mixed-use theatre, cinema, and covered venvue, with associated theatre provisions.
Future change is to be accommodated, while maintaining the core of the design. Transition of the area is to be reflected in the physical transition through the design.
The project uses modular homes built with cross-laminated timber (CLT). They are designed to be disassembled enabling flexibility and customisation.
The multi-use building offers sustainable housing that adapts to changing family structures and spatial requirements over time (such as student, family or disabled units).
An adaptable living model promotes the availability of different spaces whilst the traditional model promotes more limited shapes and functions. To achieve this, my project uses a grided modular system of units that can adapt to offer a range of flat types.
As residents' personal circumstances change and families develop, the model will be able to transition to accommodate them.
The site location fails to effectively coalesce into an individually recognisable and defined quarter of Nottingham. South-facing, rented out allotments are available to the residents allowing them to grow food and interact with the soil, which is very rewarding. Allotments often form small communities.
The ARK project is intended accommodate a full theatre down to a street busker.
My family founded the Lyric Theatre in Belfast. The area was legendarily a dangerous place to live, and Mary O'Malley (great-aunt and founder) started a theatre focussing on Yeats/ local playwrights. It collated the area with no religious bias. I imagine ARK being a similar concept with all parts of society being openly welcomed.
*The project also meets all current Building Regulations.
Procreate Sketchup AutoCAD SolidWorks
YEAR: 2021
USE: Experiential Pavilion & Viewing Platform
SITE: River Trent, Nottingham
SUPERVISION: Angel Moreno & Insa Ba
This pavilion was designed for public use, inviting people to come and spend time at the structure. We were tasked with finding an existing artist’s work to use as a design catalyst for our pavilion.
Initially, I analysed colour, composition, tactility, and materiality. I further studied the use of light and interaction with site context. From this analysis, I created this winding viewing platform pavilion. My design endeavoured to achieve part structure, part art installation and part communal experience.
Based on the works of Alison Crowther, a Sculptor and Furniture maker from West Yorkshire, I selected the following themes:
+ Tactility
+ Tension/Release
+ Flowing lines
Through iterative design decisions, I developed models and hand drawings to engender a reflective connection between my ideas and the pavilion.
5000 WORDS
YEAR: 2022
RESEARCH QUESTION: Do spatial practices in libraries promote social interactions, if so, how do they contribute to the wider placemaking agenda?
SUPERVISION: Manish Mandhar
This is an extract and the conclusion from my 3rd year final dissertation. It is based on the value of social interactions amongst library users through architectural features.
I focused upon the importance of placemaking in society. This research was utilised to reflect upon and improve my design projects. The idea being to encourage the creation of 'a clearly defined place' and strongly promoting the development of an interactive community hub.
By deliberate design and circulation routes I endeavoured to maximise chance and planned social interaction (see Lineage Library).
The post-war modern library has generally been more extroverted. Opening interior spaces in libraries to the outside encourages interaction with the community. This further contributes to the broader placemaking agenda by reducing crime and promoting economic growth. Studies have indicated thus – Medellin, Colombia, for example.
Placemaking is a set of approaches such as planning, designing and management to give communities a say in the places where they live. The intention is to invite greater interaction between people and foster good mental health, more social, and economically viable communities.
Interaction is defined as “communication or direct involvement with someone or something.” (Bloomberg, Myers, Braverman, 1994). Through certain design consideration and features, interactions can contribute to placemaking.
Humans are social beings and our links with others are critical to individual health and community health. Subsequently a lack of social activities can lead to health threats (CDC 2021). In recent years, “Social isolation has reached an all-time high” (Cigna, 2018). Cigna undertook a national survey in America 2017 asking how often they felt lonely and ‘Often/always’ lonely rose 7% up from 6% in 2017-2021. The recent lockdown has also exacerbated this problem. Despite our digital networks, social interaction with people at a neighbourhood level are dwindling, this problem is a health threat. The design of buildings can support social connections.
A possibility for an interaction occurs when people cross paths as in corridors, on streets or attend organised events. Strong and connected neighbourhoods build on day-to-day interactions that make life healthier.
Today, modern public libraries like Calgary Public Library, Calgary, Canada and Boots Library, Nottingham, England are centrally located in the community they serve. Outside, openness and transparency reveal activities and resources of the library inside such as meeting spaces for social gatherings/performances, lectures, and exhibitions. In my design project I hope to incorporate large, glazed areas making the library spaces visible from outside as well as in, in return attracting people.
There are essentially two types of interactions. Planned interactions such as cafés or specifically designed meeting spaces. Chance interactions occurs in casual settings such as corridors, spillovers, or breakout spaces.
Some key examples of literature that have influenced my dissertation are Urban Renewal: Theory and Practice by Chris Couch, The New Public Library: Design Innovation for the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Hille, Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design by Charles Montgomery, Designing the City of Reason by Ali Madanipour and Building Globalization: Transnational Architecture Production in Urban China by Xuefei Ren. These books have shaped my thinking in terms of interaction and placemaking.
Planned interactions, usually organised in advance, such as cafes, meeting spaces, or organised events such as ping pong shown on the diagram.
Chance interactions occur ‘by chance’ in spaces such as corridors, streets or open space.
Figure 1.2. Diagram showing examples of planned and chance interactions (O’Malley, 2022)
... Figure 5.5. shows a time-lapse animation of layers, taking personalised 2D drawings and spatially composing them. Hybridisation allows users to show personality in the project whilst keeping it paperless. In SketchUp models, there are no personalities at the early stage, users must wait until someone renders it, and by then, it is too late because the design is set in stone. This allows users to explore the environment without heavy investment in the final design. Decisions can be made much earlier in the process and through an infinite canvas.
On the other hand, an infinite canvas may lead to creative blocks. “It’s kind of amusing — instead of just sitting down and drawing for an hour, they spend eight hours making it look like a hand drawing” (Brillhart, cited in Jones, 2018). With unlimited possibilities, it could be hard to decipher the correct medium or style.
with different tooling and media priorities. On one hand, the newer generations mostly favour digital processing, in which the render is regarded as the final output. On the other hand, is the oldschool culture of natural, direct creativity through analogue means. The solution is the hybridisation of both; the future role of architectural design and workflow can be improved, seeking to benefit from the advantages.
Historically our tools created simple handdrawings and slowly changed with gradual improvements. This stable and hands-on environment changed in the last few 30-40 years by introducing computers and digital media. Digital media offers architects an expanded palette for representation with possibilities for interaction, customisation, and precision.
Projects that were once thought to be too complex to be manually represented are more achievable. Currently, computers cannot design structures automatically without human, creative input. Digital representation is about communicating the idea, not embellishing a bad design. Computer software is only one of the tools that architects should use to represent their project.
Feelings on hand-drawn vs digital representation are directly related to the reader’s age. The younger generation will be the designers of tomorrow. Students of new generations are being brought up with computer technology from a very young age leading to greater understanding and comfort within the field. However, today, architecture is caught between two competing subcultures of imaging, each
There is value in each method, hand-drawing allows for the free flow of ideas from brain to paper, but computers allow for infinite variations to the drawn elements at a much higher level. Sketching should generate ideas until technology catches up through real-time modification or machine learning, and computers should be used to give detail for further development. If we cling too strongly to the ways of the past, architects will soon be outdated. While hand-drawing is a valuable skill today, it may not remain so. Therefore, it is essential to push students to learn methodologies applicable in the near future.
3000 WORDS YEAR: 2021
RESEARCH QUESTION: Hand-drawn or digital in Architecture?
SUPERVISION: Taghi Amirhosseini
In this dissertation, I investigated the topic of architectural analogue vs. digital techniques. I compared both systems and concluded why there are diminishing percentages of architects using handdrawing.
I also analysed the advantages and disadvantages of both techniques and concluded that computeraided drawings are becoming more required in modern architectural design (particularly production drawings).
I was pleased with the outcome after exploring numerous topics to create a well-rounded and heavily researched essay.
YEAR: 2018-2022
A selection of my hand-drawn and computer-aided artwork from recent years.
These drawings relate to my Experiential Pavilion and Lineage Library Project. They represent conceptual progression through texture, light, shade, and the interplay of planes/lines.
The combination of the various elements is intended to create an identifiable character and atmosphere. A journey through the structure is both visually stimulating and has strong, tactile elements. The journey has a destination, the viewing platform.