Fifth year studio project, CASS London Metropolitan University, 2015
Site: Ebbsfleet Valley, Kent
This proposal celebrates the scale of ambition and aesthetic qualities seen in North Kent’s industrial history of quarrying, and more recently, in its infrastructural and commercial developments. A high rise urban edge allows 96% of the site to be given over to a recreational landscape, whilst achieving the same housing density as the current masterplan. The scheme is embedded in the chalk geology of the site, which gives rise to a holistic approach to the architectural, material, landscape and environmental strategies. The ground evolves from primitive rugged cliffs at the site periphery up into a cultivated cast limestone facade. Locally discovered Palaeolithic fossils are imprinted into this heavy south-facing facade to create a ‘pre-historic vernacular’ and construct an origin myth for the new town. The strong architecture of the south facade is balanced against freedom of design for each plot’s internal layout and north facade, creating space for individual expression.
Fourth year studio project, CASS London Metropolitan University, 2013
Site: São Paulo, Brazil
República in Sao Paulo is the product many different, often incongruous, visions. This project dignifies the resulting physical pluralism, celebrating qualities that are currently disregarded or bemoaned because they do not fit a traditional idea of a 'historic centre'.
The central project in this scheme focuses on the convergence point of a number of routes into the city centre. It draws on this dynamic context to inspire the architecture of the proposal whilst making full use of the ease of access and movement it provides.
The loose and haphazard qualities of República that this project engages with are valuable because they allow a remarkable amount and variety of space to remain accessible to the public with openness about how it can be used or interpreted. This quality is becoming rarer in the condominiums and contrived 'public spaces' of a spatially and socio-economically divided city.
Third year studio project, University of Cambridge, 2011
East Tilbury, UK
The Modernist architecture of East Tilbury, which was initially enlivened by human activity at ground level, is now punctuated by a feeling of loss of purpose present in so many post-industrial settlements. In response, this project proposes an intensive strip of development with a multilayered commercial programme that is focused around two large event halls. By redefining the existing architecture from Modernist to Mat, the physical relationship at ground level is redefined to suggest the intensity of activity necessary to reactivate these buildings and spark wider investment.
This is considered within a wider strategy to strengthen the town centre through knock on economic and social investment whilst situating itself on the towns periphery to better define the relationship between town and the expansive agricultural landscape beyond.
By acknowledging the need for significant investment in East Tilbury, this project seeks to present a viable proposition for the town, but one that does not take the approach of so many business developments and fail to engage with its context. The two large event halls that are core to this scheme are not only designed to accommodate commercial events, but are also appropriate for sports and community activities, linking into existing networks of activity in surrounding Thurrock and Essex. The development is supported by offices, ensuring a relatively permanent population as well as the more transient one provided by the event space.
