First Year 1.1 Habitat 04 1.2 Assembly 07 Second Year 2.1 Outdoor Room 14 2.2 Cantilever Design 20 2.3 Levenshulme Cinema 24 2.4 DJ Booth 35 Third Year 3.1 LAKA Competition 36 3.2 Pavilion 38
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1.1 HABITAT Site: Tutor:
Manchester (Oxford Road) Matt Pilling
Brief The homing pigeon has been used for centuries to relay messages across countries: the ancient Greeks used them to proclaim the winners of the Olympics, in 1167 AD there had been a regular service between Baghdad and Syria established, and in 1896 a pigeon mail service was founded in New Zealand ferrying messages between Great Barrier Island and Auckland. The goal of this project was to create a contemporary dovecoat within Manchester to house a small population of homing and carrier pigeons.
5th and 6th Floor Plans
Site Analysis
-05Development Homing pigeons use local landmarks, both natural and man-made, to help navigate their environment. A suitable site will need to be derived from local tall buildings, major roads, railway lines and waterways. As the study shown above indicates, a particularly dense cluster of various landmarks is located towards the north end of Oxford Road. The chosen site is therefore chosen to be at the intersection of the road, the railway and the river. Since the relationship between these three elements are so strong, the angles at which they intersect each other shall be heavily expressed in the form of the final design.
Section
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A material study of the site’s surrounding buildings reveal a heavy use of brick, masonry and tiles in the construction and façade details. This is due to the historic ties with Victorian industry, where huge brick warehouses, workshops and offices were constructed from locally sourced materials. To make the dovecoat a landmark that stands out from the local urban fabric and thus easy for carrier pigeons to home in on, a stark use of smooth concrete shall contrast with the surrounding pallet of ornate, reddish-brown masonry.
Perspective
1.2 ASSEMBLY Site: Tutor:
Manchester (Oxford Road) Richard Morton
Brief High volume data transfer is becoming a major problem in todays world, especially in more rural areas where broadband speeds are far below the national average. There have been a number of cases where pigeons loaded with ever smaller and higher capacity memory cards have delivered data files faster than by transferring it via the internet. This new found use of the carrier pigeon, not having been used practically since World War II, will form the basis of this project. -07-
Site Analysis - The site is considerably longer than it is wide. This implies an axial layout of internal spaces. - Made up of two ‘islands’, the site has a public cycle path weaving through. Bridging over will be required. - The southern island is populated with trees. Retain as many of these as possible, requires the building to morph itself around them. - There is an excellent view of the Holy Name Church visible looking north up Oxford Road. - Access to the site is possible by vehicle via a road that crosses between the islands, and by pedestrians from the sides of the islands opposite the cycle way. - Banks and other small businesses can be found next to the eastern elevation of the site. -As this site is not in line with the street facade, more creative means of responding to the surrounding buildings is encouraged.
Site Analysis
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Evolution of Agency Diagram Form Development Roughly placing the spaces onto the site plan, the agency diagram is skewed and resized to appropriately match the topography of the site. This provides the catalyst for the arrangement of rooms and circulation spaces, and the driver of the final form of the building. The public entrance threshhold on the south island should play witht the trees, envoking a sense of flight as it raises up to the the reception on the first floor.
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Sectional Axonometric
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Ground Floor
First Floor
Third Floor
East Elevation
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West Elevation
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Perspective
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Presentation Model
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Proposal Site Plan
2.1 OUTDOOR ROOM Site: Tutors:
Church of St. Mary, Levenshulme George Epolito , Michelle Tomlinson
Brief This project is an exercise in translation and reappropriation of a given geometry onto a suitable site. Three randomly chosen architectural floor plans were given, and one chosen plan shall form the basis of an outdoor space. Stripped of their original identity, scale and program, these anonymous floor plans will each need to be analysed against a set of criteria and translated onto the chosen site
However, to maintain spiritual calmness, each dead-end leads to a small sanctuary or shrine and thereby symbolising God and the church as being there to save those who are lost. These hidden niches also provide private meditation and prayer spaces.
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Proposed Intervention The main purpose of this scheme is to create a new processional space, connecting the spiritual heart of Levenshulme with the main transport artery of southern Manchester: Stockport Road. The labyrinthine quality of the space invokes a sense of being lost, the path to the church is often hidden from view. In effect the space actively engages visitors to make decisions that may or may not lead to a desirable outcome, and can therefore be considered a metaphor for life itself.
Exploded Isometric
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Long Section
Since the controlled blocking of views is an important aspect of this design, vertical elements are used to create this dialogue. The walls progressively get higher as you approach the church: they start at around hip-height, and end three or four meters tall. This builds up the visitors anticipation of arriving and a sense of relief is felt upon exiting the space.
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Sightlines
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Processional Vignettes
As one passes through the processional space, views of the church are revealed and quickly taken away again, employing the denial-andreward technique to enhance the visitors experience of arriving at their destination.
These vignettes represent the many different spacial qualities found in this design: from wide and open to tight and oppressive, from public to intimate. While there is only one “solution� to finding your way through the labyrinth, there are many experiences and situations that can discovered along the way.
2.2 CANTILEVER DESIGN
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Site: Tutors:
None George Epolito , Michelle Tomlinson
Brief Extracting a physical structural system from a concept as abstract as a film narrative is possible. Looking at the narrative structure of a film (beginning, middle, end) with a non-linear story and plotting the result on a graph can result in unusual geometric forms. In the case of the 2000 Christopher Nolan film Memento, the graph produces a triangle with parallel elements connecting two sides. This can be interpreted as a frame that supports itself, a tangible physical manifestation of the plot lines supporting the weight of each other. The plot follows the protagonist seeking revenge for the murder of his wife, whilst battling the deterioration of his memory. Thus, as the character cannot make any new memories, the director decides that we see the story unfold in reverse. Between each flashback, a second time line is spliced in, a time line that connects with the main story at the end of the film. To differentiate between the two, one is shown in colour whilst the other is in black and white. The diagrams to the right attempt to describe this unusual plot order. The structure of the film shall inform the structure of the cantilever.
Parallel cables support the lower element, suspending it from the upper primary element. These cables represent the threading of the two story arcs, flipping between the two elements in the same way the film flips between the two time lines.
Exploded Isometric
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Development There are two time lines, two fundamental elements, in the movie Memento. As such, the cantilever is comprised of two different elements that start separated but come together at the end point. In the film, one time line is shown in colour and the other in black and white to aid the viewers understanding of the narrative. As such, this can be represented as the two elements of the cantilever being made from different coloured materials.
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Complete Structural System Plan
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Model
2.3 LEVENSHULME CINEMA Site: Tutors:
Levenshulme Train Station Carrie Lawrence, Ash Hunt
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Brief Levenshulme is a transient place. People rarely stop to visit the area and many of the residents leave to work and play in Manchester city centre. A lack of things to do produces very little draw for outside visitors and a lot of the shops, services and amenities cater for local residents. Levenshulme needs something to boost visitor numbers and create growth for the many locally owned shops and services. Historically there have been a number of cinemas in the region, though with the exponential rise of TV, they had all closed their doors by 1960. Narrative Architecture ‘Narrative’ plays a very important role in the development in architectural experiences: from Le Corbusier’s promenade architecture that leads users through a sequence that tells a story, to Libeskind’s radical use of dramatic forms that deliberately makes visitors feel uncomfortable. 2.1 OUTDOOR ROOM experimented with how the passage through a space can have a deliberate planned narrative and for 2.2 CANTILEVER DESIGN the abstract narrative structure graph for a specific movie informed the design of a physical cantilever structure. For a cinema that will show many films across every genre, a more holistic movie narrative structure should be employed as the driver of an experiential architectural route.
‘Save The Cat!’ is a formula coined by the screen writer Blake Snyder and is used in countless Hollywood scripts. This formula will provide the template for the narrative of going to see a film: from buying the tickets to sitting in the auditorium. The ebb and flow, ups and downs of a generic 110 minute movie will be compressed to just 110 seconds.
Agency Diagram
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Experiential Map
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Ground Floor
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First Floor
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Third Floor
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Short Section
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Elevation
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Long Section
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Exploded Axonometric
2.4 DJ BOOTH (GROUP WORK) Site: Group: Support:
Pangaea Festival (Spring 2014) James Nutt, Claire Greenland Arjun Mistry, Maimie Attwell Thomas Tom Bodger, Nadina Narain Pete Lee, Diana Muresan Sam Hall, Lina Keturkaite
(Photo’s Courtesy of Pete Lee)
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Brief Commissioned by the organisers of Manchester’s Pangaea Festival, a DJ Booth was needed for the silent disco arena. Ergonomics, structure, buildability, weatherproofing and overall design narrative all needed to be delivered within the given budget and to a strict deadline. The design needed to be both easy to construct and deconstruct for storage when not in use.
Exploded Axonometric
3.1 LAKA COMPETITION (GROUP WORK)
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Group: Dimitar Stoynev, Kirsten Wah-Finn Elena Šležaitė Tutors: Shiobhan Barry, Matt Pilling Nick Dunn, Colin Pugh Brief As the world faces ever-increasing challenges associated with climate change, a more pragmatic and intelligent approach to architectural design must be undertaken. A solid understanding
of these challenges is inherent to tacking the problem. Architecture has to intelligently respond to its environment with respect to the users and inhabitants within, all whilst maximising energy efficiency and reducing carbon emissions. One way to approach this problem is with the aid of a reactive facade system. The action of the facade reacts to the external agent of the environment in order to have a beneficial and positive effect for the users within.
Assembly Instructions for Mechanical Model
Two key aspects of environmental design were tackled for this project: water consumption and energy production. By looking at reactive smart materials, an overall design strategy was developed. The kinetic facade would provide solar shading and energy production on clear days, and rainwater harvesting during times of precipitation. This reactive facade will be able to be retroactively attached to existing buildings to radically improve environmental performance.
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Final Presentation Sheet (Group Work)
2. Brick Massing
3. Stress Analysis
4. Final Structure
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1. Initial Surface
a. Brick Massing
b. Frame
c. Primary Structure
d. Secondary Structure
e. Edge Trim
3.2 PAVILION Site: Tutors:
Manchester Airport Shiobhan Barry, Matt Pilling
Brief Manchester is the Northern Powerhouse of the United Kingdom. During the 18th and 19th centuries it was the heart of the Industrial Revolution where manufacturing, engineering and scientific progress was rampant. As such the city is littered with the remnants of it’s
heyday: towering warehouses, chimney stacks, railway viaducts and rows upon rows of terrace houses. One thing is clear to the observer of the city: the importance of the humble clay brick. Manchester lost its industry at the turn of the 20th century, as American and then Asian political and economic powers took over. It is said that Henry Ford’s production line and mass production techniques was the Second Industrial Revolution, and computer controlled
assembly lines is the Third Industrial Revolution. However, with the advent of digital fabrication techniques, such as 3D printing, that are open to anyone, many claim that we are heading into a Fourth Industrial Revolution. Now anyone can design and manufacture products in their own home, and a whole generation of makers share open source designs across a global community. ‘Mass customisation’ over ‘mass production’ and ‘mass consumption’.
Robotic Assembly
Development “Even a brick wants to be something� -Lois Kahn
The Data Brick can take the form of any modular shape. For this pavilion, the bricks are 600mm3 cubes, which is the largest build volumn available in consumer 3D printers.
Stress Analysis
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Data Brick seeks to showcase Manchester as a hub of innovation and technology and to bring the Industrial Revolution back to its birth place. The brick is a technology as old as civilisation itself and it is the foundation upon which Manchester is built. Data Brick is an attempt to bring this modest, modular building material into the 21st century. The brick knows exactly where it is in relation to the surface it is part of, and responds by reinforcing itself exactly where it needs to. Each component is unique, made from 3D printed recyclable plastic that is precisely customised to take the specific nonlinear forces at that very point.
Initial Surface
Brick Massing
Internal Surface
3D Printed Test Model
Zone 2 : Recession By the turn of the 20th century, Manchester started to lose its position on the world stage. The Great Depression saw the cotton industry sharply decline and foreign competition became more fierce. The city received heavy bombardment during the Blitz and many factories closed down. By the 70s the docks in Salford closed leading to mass unemployment throughout the city.
This turbulent time for Manchester is conveyed in the pavilion by means of an undulating, twisting structure that appears to be breaking apart. The opening above closes in as the visitor processes through Zone 2.
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Zone 1 : RISE The entrance to the pavilion, this represents the rise of the Industrial North. Composed of a hexagonal corridor to represent the Mancunian symbol of the worker bee, the diameter expands as one walks through. The growth of Manchester as an economic powerhouse and the turning of the wheels of scientific progress are here defined by the twisting of the corridor.
Elevation
Zone 3 : Rebirth Manchester has made a major comeback in recent years. Heavy investment in regeneration across the city has lead to a greater quality of life for its citizens. The University of Manchester the biggest in the UK and is a world leader for research in medicine, physics, computer sciences and engineering. The hexagonal perforations continues the theme of the worker bee, but with the contemporary connotations of the super-material Graphene.
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Plan