SHONA ELIZABETH COMMON PART 2 ARCHITECTURE CV & SAMPLE PORTFOLIO | SEPTEMBER 2015
Master of Architecture | University of Edinburgh
SHONA ELIZABETH COMMON
e : shona.common@gmail.com t : 07598 774568 a : The Shiel, Highlaw, Lockerbie, DG11 1BS
PROFILE
PROFESSIONAL EXPRERIENCE
I have recently completed my Masters of Architecture with ESALA and am now seeking a Part 2 graduate position within practice, to further my skills, grow as a designer and contribute to and be part of the making of incredible places and spaces.
BEHNISCH ARCHITEKTEN
The very foundations of architecture are social, and yet the built environment can all too often overlook its social responsibilities. I am interested in helping to create high quality architecure which is embedded with social aspirations to create better places, responds to peoples needs, encourages and forges new relationships from the beginning of its creation and design through to its end use, brings people together, and is inspiring to those who use it.
Dorotheen Quartier, Stuttgart / Preliminary Design A project accomodating retail, ministerial and general office, and residential use. Responsibilities: model making (hand and lasercut), which required also the use of Rhino, and developing floor plans, expanding on existing skills in AutoCAD and Photoshop.
EDUCATION
CRICHTON WILLIS & GALLOWAY
UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH
Edinburgh Master of Architecture [MArch] | Distinction 2013 - 2015 Master of Arts [MA Hons.] in Architecture | First Class 2009 - 2013
LOCKERBIE ACADEMY
SKILLS Adobe Photoshop & Indesign AutoCAD Revit [Basic Use] Google SketchUp Pro Rhinocerus [Basic Use] Microsoft Office Hand Drawing & Sketching Model Making & Woodwork
Stuttgart
Advanced Higher: Art & Design, Graphic Communications A Higher: English, Mathematics, Art & Design, Graphic Communications, Physics, German, History | A 2003 - 2009
Architectural Intern Jun - Dec 2012
Part 1 Architectural Assistant Mar - Jun 2012
Various projects at various stages of work as a very small practice. Projects ranged from residential, ecclesiastical, conservation to educational work. Responsibilities: Assisting with site surveys, drawing detailed proposals for house extensions and alterations to exisitng properties to RIBA Work Stage D, completion of planning and listed building consent applications.
EDINBURGH COLONIES PROJECT University of Edinburgh
Research Assistant Jan - Mar 2012
Voluntary collaborative project (with Architecture History) with University of Edinburgh assessing the groups of philanphropic housing distinctive to Edinburgh. Responsibilities: producing plans, sections, elevations and sectional models for the use by the city council to extend recognition of conservation status across all sites.
ADDITIONAL EXPRERIENCE EUSAS Committee (Edinburgh University Student Architecture Society)
Organised and hosted a dissensus on ‘Architecture & Participation’ November 2014 with Iain Scott (ESALA lecturer), Marc Cairns (Pidgin Perfect), Amica Dall (Assemble Studio) and Robert Kennedy (Baltic Street Playground).
CIVIC FABRICATIONS
MA (Hons) FINAL PROJECT | 2013 | A Courtyard for Change
GP SURGERY | CITIZEN’S ADVICE | COMMUNITY HALL | CAFE | RETAIL
Healthy Living Centre, Dalmarnock This project sought to envisage what could be done to nurture the existing community of Dalmarnock, seemingly neglected by the legacy plans for the Commonwealth Games (project carried out in 2013), through the creation of a new civic centre, as a place of pride and belonging. Protected from the main road, within the embrace of a GP surgery, Citizen’s Advice Bureau and activity hall is the heart to the centre and to the community in the landscaped courtyard. This serves as both retreat and point of connectivity to the public café, open market square, narrow lane of community run shops and elevated walking and cycle path. The architectural speaks with a intended language to which people can relate, with simple, classical and easily read architecture, enhanced with brick construction, a common material in the industial area.
Plan of retail street HLC enveloping courtyard
Detailed 1:50 sectional model of entrance hallway
View to market square (left) and courtyard beyond with landscaping in front of consulation rooms for increased privacy
Detailed section of entrance hallway, internally brick clad, exposed concrete columns, and frameless glazing system
Water drainage across site collected in pools in front of GP surgery for maintaining bedding and for reflective qualities into the building
A HOUSE FOR PINK FLOYD
ICARCH COMPETITION ENTRY | JUL - AUG 2013 | HUB [Home for the Unsettled of Britain]
RESIDENTIAL | WELFARE & SOCIAL ASSITANCE | THEATRE | RETAIL
Home for the Unsettled, Edinburgh Competition entry carried out in 2013 with colleague Sara Calem, which encouraged proposals for an open brief inspired by the music of Pink Floyd, to celebrate a liberaating, revolutionary architecture. The submitted proposal sought to explore this through housing for the homeless of Edinburgh, a centre of refuge, care, belonging, and acceptance within the city centre. Situated on a large vacant site which bridges between the lower level of Cowgate and upper level South Bridge, the concept behind the HUB was to tear down the wall separating the homeless from society, through architectural and programmatic connections.
Height and site restrictions
Divide public and private and push back entrance level
Unite public and private blocks on first floor
Tearing down the walls to society of Cowgate and South bridge
Long Section along Blair Street connecting the HUB to the Royal Mile
Third Floor Plan with retail making connection to South Bridge
Cowgate facade design
Cowgate facade passing under South Bridge
Internal courtyard view
BALTIC EDGE
MArch 1 | 2013-2014 | A Voyage of Man and Craft
RESEARCH: EDGE CONDITIONS | VERNACULAR FORMS Refshaleøen was once the site of Denmark’s largest employer, Burnmeister & Wain shipbuilders though is now largely derelict with some occupation by the creative industries. Without the shifting presence of boats along the hard industrial edge the eastern side of Copenhagen is cold and unwelcoming.
Section AA 1:500
Research in this semester considered how reinstating the idea of craft, making and displaying boats could nurture change and growth without losing sight of the land’s beginnings in manufacture. With reference to the vernaular forms of the clinker boat, made for waging in rough Baltic waters, and the common pitched roof typology of building construction, the project began to explore the attraction of these simple, yet trustworthy forms.
Overlayed plans of 1945, 1954 and present
Elevation study along Copenhagen waterfront
Sketch explorations to ‘fray the edge’
Flip book studies into the approach of boats to the land’s edge
Proposed section looking across harbour to cultural edge, embracing the vernacular pitched roof typology
Section BB 1:500
The Nordic Folkboat | Construction drawings & Baltic influence
BALTIC EDGE
MArch 1 | 2013-2014 | A Voyage of Man and Craft
BOAT MUSUEM & WORKSHOP | RESIDENTIAL | MATERIAL STORE & DOCK
Baltic Clinker Boat Museum and Academy Embedded in the urban proposition was the notion of the process of craft. Materials arrive first in the east from Baltic waters, channelled along a canal across the island, where they are transformed in the academy into clinker boats. The notion of workshop as a gathering place, to share skills, and enjoyment of a keeping a craft and tradition alive is important. The boats are then launched into the harbour, or in case of reconstructions, are carried over land to the individual ‘cabinet’ that awaits it within the museum. With time, more of these cabinets may appear on pontoons, reaching out to the cultural edge of Copenhagen centre.
Urban stategy across island of Refshaleøen
Plan illustrating academy and museum edge conditions
The village of museum ‘cabinets’
Perspective cross section through museum ‘cabinets’
Perspective cross section through Boat Making Academy Workshop
Detailed section through simple form of museum cabinet
Wax and linen thread 1:500 form model on frosted acrylic base
MOBILITY MOOD PLACE
MArch 2 | 2014-2015 | An Age Friendly Ecology of Movement
RESEARCH: CO-DESIGN | AGE FRIENDLY PLACES Final MArch project carried out with colleague Rohana Mackenzie. Initial research in the first semester investigated the issues surrounding the growing phenomenon of the ageing population and the increased difficulties encountered as a result of inadequacies in the urban realm. The project began with a co-design exercise with older participants in Hackney Wick, in which we discussed with them their concerns but also hopes for changes that may take place. On our return, we began to develop a proposal which sought to provide Hackney Wick with a sense of centre, a place of belonging for the disparate communities, and a green pathway to connect across between Victoria Park and the Olympic Park, offering opportunity and incentive to remain active in older age.
Section on axis between iconic building of heritage and newly proposed tower marking the station, with new Civic Square bewteeen
Proposal for ‘Civic Stage’ with sawtooth canopy mimicking old Isometric illustrating new green path across Hackney Wick
Urban proposition, with new bridge over A12 channelling to new centre
A view from the new bridge across to Hackney Wick town centre
MOBILITY MOOD PLACE
MArch 2 | 2014-2015 | An Age Friendly Ecology of Movement
CIVIC ARTS CENTRE | WELLNESS CENTRE | STATION REDEVELOPMENT Developing this urban proposal into the second semester, we then revisited Hackney Wick with material to gain feedback from the older residents on our plans. The participants were very enthusiastic about the green path which occupied the land of the railway embankment to the south side. As our principal age-friendly move, this was covered by a framed structure which then served as a trellis for plants to climb, which would in turn act as a natural climactic buffer to the sun and wind. Central to the proposal is the office tower, for start-up businesses: the wayfinding element to the station. To the north of the station is the ‘Civic Stage’ a new square, and with stepped seating to it’s rear climbing up to the platform, this is a spill out space for activities and performances from the theatre within the Civic Arts Centre. This centre, as the principal building in the urban proposition caters for passive enjoyment within the community through the library space which has a calmer relationship to the canal beyond. Balancing the urban proposition to the south of the square, is the Wellness Centre, with health facilities; together the two buildings, with green path and urban square between are designed to cater for Body and Mind, and the varying needs of active and passive engagement, prospect and retreat.
Section through Centre for Civic Arts
Sketch Isometic of urban proposition
Ground floor plan of Wellness Centre, station, square and Centre for Civic Arts
Detailed section of Affordance
1:500 Model of urban proposition
Looking to rear (Canal side) of Centre for Civic Arts (Courtesy, Two Point Photography)
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH | JAN - MAR 2012 | Edinburgh Colonies Project
RESIDENTIAL ‘EDINBURGH COLONY’ TYPOLOGY RESEARCH My placement year began with a voluntary project with the University of Edinburgh helping to record the Edinburgh Colony housing. The project was instigated by Edinburgh City Council who recognise the value of the colony housing to Edinburgh and are seeking to apply even conservation status across all sites. Working as ressearch assistart as part of a team, the students operated the project as a small office, and compiled a large body of work documenting the colony housing through drawings and models.
Abbeyhill & Slateford Sectional Models
Slateford Gable Elevation
Slateford Section
Slateford Ground Floor Plan
Slateford Gable Front Elevation
Slateford Rear Elevation
Slateford First Floor Plan
North Fort Street Urban Section
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
CRICHTON LANG, WILLIS & GALLOWAY | MAR - JUN 2012 | Various projects
CONSERVATION/ECCLESIASTICAL | RESIDENTIAL EXTENSIONS/ ALTERATIONS | UNIVERSITY RENOVATIONS This three month placement involved a variety of projects and tasks as the office required. Much of the work was small scale domestic, with associated planning applications for residential extensions, though there were also a number of conservation and ecclesiastical projects on which I worked with minor works/alterations required. This experience gave me greater insight into the workings of a small office, for there were only two other architects asides from myself. Projects: - Priestfield Parish Church | Alterations - Potterrow Student Union | Refurbishment [Observer to on site meetings] - Fountainhall | House Extension - Project X | Expert Report Commision - Featherhall | Attic Conversion - St. Mary’s Cathedral |External Ramp Collection Box Preliminary Design - Kingsknowe Road North | House Alterations
St Mary’s Cathedral Ramp | 1:5 detail
Fountainhall domestic extension | Door Lintel 1:10
Fountainhall domestic extension | Detailed Section for planning 1:50
Fountainhall domestic extension | Sketch perspective
Fountainhall domestic extension | Electric and Drainage Layout 1:50
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
BEHNISCH ARCHITEKTEN | JUN - DEC 2012 | Dorotheen Quartier
RETAIL | MINISTRY OFFICES | RENTABLE OFFICE SPACE | RESIDENTIAL This six month placement saw me working on work project for the entirety of the period which allowed me to become well acquainted with all aspects of the project. The project was possibly the largest and most important within the office, as it was situated in Stuttgart city centre and therefore a hot public topic. The project was larger than anything I had experienced before: 38 000m2 of commercial, office, ministry and residential use. Won in competition in 2009, when I arrived it had finally been given consent to progress preliminary designs, for the third time; this stage of work continued until December when I left the office. Whilst there I was responsible for model making and working on floor plans for all areas, including the ministry offices, though I was largely responsible for the high-end residential appartments occupying the top three floors of just one block. Sketch section illustrating the concept for “terraced� apartmertments, affording all a winter garden or roof terrace with view of city layout as Index B_August
Floor 06 Plan illustrating the various apartment configurations
Top: Single Storey Residential Flats 70m2 - 250m2 | Index F_November | Centre: Volumetric studies 1:500 Styrofoam, lasercut polystyrol | Below: Working model presented for preliminary design 1:200 Lasercut polystyrol, finnpappe and perspex