REFLECTIVE SUMMARY

During the undergraduate degree at Newcastle University, I learnt how important it is during projects to be passionate about the ideas and proposals you might have, especially when you are given the opportunity to adapt an existing brief or produce a brief from scratch. Using topics that provide you with the greatest amount of interest is a good tool to use, as is playing to your strengths in both university and in practice.

The dissertation I wrote in the undergraduate degree for Architecture was titled ‘Art and Architecture: is there a contemporary example of a bridge between the two?’ and focused on my interest in art, sculpture and in particular architecture, although I wasn’t introduced to the subject of architecture until I was a lot older. I always saw many similarities between sculpture and architecture when producing design proposals which used a more theoretical language; the buildings that blurred the boundary between art and architecture. The buildings in particular which interested me were ones which showed a space within the building can have meaning, spaces which can have symbolic meaning and which can attempt to represent what the designer or architect hoped a person would feel or experience within a space.

Throughout the two years in practice, I was able to gather a wide variety of experience as well as work on projects which I enjoyed, found interesting and learnt a large amount from such as schools and in particular school extensions. Working on design proposals for spaces within school, you are able to design in a such a way to ensure you enrich the space for the children and help to improve their daily school life. Working in practice also created my deep interest in planning and how the planning system work at both a local level and at a governmental level.

Returning back to Newcastle University to study the MArch I was looking forward to a deeper learning experience as well as discovering new ideas and topics. I was particularly looking forward to being given the option to choose the Town Planning modules to study throughout Stage 5 and 6 and gain more knowledge on this subject, which could aid my learning in the future in practice. I found the ‘Town Planning’ lectures extremely insightful and relevant due to studying topics such as the economics for development. The assessments for these modules also allowed me to use the information and knowledge built up during the lectures to explain and resolve scenarios using equations, producing data and in others, using planning documents as a reference point just as a qualified planning would do.

In semester 2 of Stage 5 I undertook the modules ‘Economics for Developments’ and ‘Planning, Power and People’ within ‘Town Planning’. These two modules were the complete polar opposites but that worked very well as I was able to gain a large amount of practical knowledge in the ‘Economics of Development’ module whereas the ‘Planning, Power and People’ module was based on theoretical understanding on the history of the planning system and what power means to different planning theorists and brought up a lot of interesting questions. In semester 1 of Stage 6 I undertook the modules ‘Planning Frameworks’ and the ‘Reflective Practitioner’ which were again very different with Planning Frameworks teaching the history and current condition of the planning system within the UK and the ‘Reflective Practitioner’ focusing on the values and a more ethical dimension of planning. I especially enjoyed this module as it discussed the idea of a profession and what it involves calling yourself a professional. I found this relevant not only in planning for a professional planner but also for a person who has the title of the architect within a practice and the standards they must uphold, which is something I will take forward into practice with me.

The first studio choice in Stage 5 I was able to choose was a more theoretical studio titled ‘Memory against history: Return of the repressed’ which was based in Vienna. It allowed us to dive deep into the history of Vienna as well as focus on key events in history and from this produce a unique symposium titled ‘Dark Vienna’ in which we showcased our work to date in a room full of sound and images relating the subject. The studio allowed me to explore representation in a way that suited me which was through art. I was given the opportunity to start the project and produce representations using various styles of media such as painting, ink and wax drawings as well as edited photographs to produce what almost seemed like works on art on the wall during the symposium for the whole studio.

My self-titled project in this studio of ‘Thinking Them Away’ was also the inspiration for my ‘Tools for Thinking’ essay and allowed me to explore my concept of my initial project in much more detail. It allowed me to research Freud and his key ideas of psychoanalysis. I focused on the concept of repression and the repressed memories from a time Vienna would rather forget. The Flak towers, the concrete giants in Vienna, not allowing Vienna to forget and so I discussed the idea they were thinking them away, as on the visit it seemed as though people were walking past them as if they were invisible. I found this fascinating and explored this further throughout this first project and the essay. A key quote that stayed with me during reading for this essay discusses the importance of historical buildings and structures and the relationship they have with a city’s past and it was written by Colin Davies who, within the chapter ‘History’, in ‘Thinking about Architecture’, states,

‘The relationship between architecture and history is complex. Buildings endure. They are visible, unignorable survivals from past ages. They are like time travellers, visitors from the past, and we interrogate them to find out how things used to be. But we build too, and our buildings represent us, to ourselves and to the future (which may be the same thing). When we build, we decide who we are, what is important to us and how we wish to be remembered.’

During the second semester of Stage 5 I chose the studio ‘antiSpaces’ which focused on various sized, unused spaces within a small neighboured in the 16th District in Vienna. The studio allowed me to focus on a group of people in need and so as my protagonist I chose a topic I was passionate about which was to focus on dementia care patients and providing a facility to better their every day living. By choosing dementia care patients as the protagonist of the project, I was able to learn a great deal about space requirements and the general needs of elderly patients and especially those who require this extra level of care. I also researched the idea of intergenerational care and so became my self-titled ‘Centre for Intergenerational Care’ which involved the inclusion of children mixing with the elderly patients, proving both groups with many benefits. The topic of intergenerational care is a recent topic and with it being current I found there were many documentaries and tv clips from new articles on the subject. Having such a wide variety of media surrounding this topic really helped me progress with what the user of the building required and allowed me to focus on other key design issues. Using such a wide variety of media on a recent topic that has been in the new quite a large amount is something I brought forward into my thesis project in Stage 6 as it ensured I had an up to date and thorough understanding of the chosen subject matter.

In my final year of the March course, Stage 6, for my thesis project I chose the Assemblages studio and within this I opted for a subject I was passionate about as would be continuing the topic until the end of the course. This topic was plastics and the negative effect they have on the marine environment and the creatures that live within it. I was given the opportunity to research for quite some time on the subject of plastics and how they affect the rivers and coastlines of the UK. I wanted to see if I could find a way to use architecture and design to create a physical solution to this plastic pollution problem. After thorough research and mapping, the result was an intervention on a specific site, a site I knew well, on the mouth of the River Nene, close to where I was brought up, in the Fens. Due to being so passionate about the plastics topic and the site, my interest in the project remained consistent.

The topic of plastics and how we in architecture and buildings can help the plastic problem is one which I look forward to looking into further in the future and I will be interested to see solutions the industry produces. I have always been interested in nature and the natural world and how we as humans destroy so much of it, and so as a designer I am always interested in the ways the industry does come up with solutions to help wildlife, not only in terms of the topic of plastics, but also more generally, such as how a housing development allows for wildlife to continue to flourish. Overall, I enjoy designing positive spaces for people to work/live/play/learn but also one which impacts and improves the current way people live their day to day lives, as well as respecting the environment and the wildlife any development or design could impact.

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