Category: Sketchbook

Norbord OSB Housing

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OSB Low Rise High Density
Location : Byker, Newcastle
Sectors: Residential, Affordable, Competition, Sketchbook

This housing prototype was developed for a RIBA Journal competition looking into the potential for Norbord OSB as a product for creating affordable housing.

Working with the material our proposal pushed the material in terms of providing shelter, structure and form within a 4.8×4.8m module that allowed for interlocking units. The way the units tessellate presents a private space available to each unit proving a density of 115 units per hectare. CNC techniques are utilised to give minimal waste and allow construction on site by relatively unskilled labour. We chose a brown field site in Byker to show how the units could be planned forming a new community complex on unused plots of land.

Our design went on to win the competition with discussions ongoing to develop the prototype for affordable housing.

Forgotten Spaces North East

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Forgotten Spaces North East
Location: Dunston Staithes
Sectors: Leisure, Sustainability

The Staithes at Dunston, a listed structure, is considered to be the largest timber structure in Europe. This relic of the industrial era currently collects flotsam and is slowly decomposing in the silt of the Tyne.

Our light touch proposal is to bring this back to life as an ecological gold driving range where you can “hit some balls and feed the fish”. This is part of the Forgotten Spaces North East competition where surreal and wild ideas are pitched in a public arena discussing areas requiring regeneration.

There is a more serious debate behind the light-hearted solution; the loss of this iconic structure. We are putting our whole-hearted support behind this industrial monument and will be generating other ideas in the coming months.

Pylon

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Pylon Redesign
Location: Various
Sectors: Infrastructure, Sustainability

We collaborated with structural engineers and infrastructure specialists to redesign the electric pylon, a design unaltered in over 80 years.

Our competition entry is an updating of the popular iconic form utilising modern structural techniques influenced by nature and more efficient in material use. We employed isolating technologies to further reduce raw material in the construction.

Sessay Community Hub

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Sessay Community Hub
Location : Sessay, North Yorkshire
Sectors: Leisure, Community, Competition

Ran as an international design competition by the RIBA, Sessay Parish Council requested designs for a new village hall providing a new focus for the village and the thriving sporting groups.

Our design consolidated the programme of facilities into three main volumes with strong vernacular resonances and connected with a lightweight canopy providing shelter from the nearby carpark to the circulation hub.

The building is home to a library, community hall, venue space, changing to accommodate two cricket matches simultaneously and the bowling club facilities among other requirements. We felt it was important that each part of the programme functioned without compromise with volume and orientation to reflect this whilst also taking into account the impressive views of the nearby Kilburn White Horse.

Our resultant design was long listed in the RIBA competition.

The Great Fen Visitor Centre

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Location: Great Fen

Sectors: Cultural, Sustainability, Competition

In collaboration with landscape architects OOBE we created this vision of the Great Fen Visitor Centre which was long listed as part of an RIBA competition.

Working with the existing ecological heritage, the historical grain of field drains and hedgerows was reinforced to form a network of pathways and interventions forming the masterplan in which the centre is sited. Drawing inspiration from the vernacular of historical pump houses and chimneys, the living tower gives the visitor an observation deck, a focal point and an understanding of the macro and micro biodiversity.

Visitors are encouraged to follow their senses as they experience the Fen habitats through a network of waterways, paths and boardwalks branching out from the Visitors Centre into the extraordinary landscape.

Salford Meadows Bridge

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Salford Meadows RIBA Bridge Competition
Location: Salford
Sectors: Infrastructure, Competition

Required to span from the busy A6 to historic Peel Park in Salford our entry to the RIBA Salford Meadows Bridge Competition draws on the rich history of the Cotton Mills in the surrounding area.

Designed in collaboration with structural engineers Shed, the Bridge has two pylons formed in corten steel creating a focal element with the deck hanging via a dynamic cable weave reminiscent of the large industrial looms.

Ullswater

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Ullswater Yacht Club
Location: Ullswater, Cumbria
Sectors: Leisure, Sustainability

In the tranquil surroundings of the Lake District the design of a new yacht club required a considered response. Our design is a series on simple connected forms based on the boathouse found elsewhere around the lakes.

The materials and techniques used the local surroundings which give sustainable benefits and contextual connection.

Lluanda

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Luanda Affordable Housing
Location: Luanda, Angola
Sectors: Residential, Sustainable

This project looked at the abject poverty in the outskirt of the Angolan capital where many thousands of families arrive to seeking a living. The project looked at construction techniques and the way in which the home works in this part of the world.

Constructed from adobe bricks with lightweight roof, the curved form is derived from the vernacular round houses found throughout western Africa. A prefabricated kitchen and bathroom pod provides ease of construction and the voids between the neighbouring buildings create personal garden and entrance spaces.

Durham and Darlington Fire Service Artwork

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Durham and Darlington Fire and Rescue Service Headquarters Artwork
Location : Belmont, County Durham
Sectors: Office, Artwork

To complete the refurbishment of the headquarters at Belmont the Fire and Rescue Service commissioned a series of artworks for the principle staircases to celebrate the iconic buildings of the region.

Abstracting elements of Darlington Station, Durham Cathedral, Darlington Market Hall and Bowes Museum we created this series of images which were transformed into five metre images and installed on feature walls within the facility.