I see architecture as my future. I do not, however, imagine I will ever fully comprehend what architecture is. My approach towards it will never be set in stone and my experience of it will constantly develop. If there is one thing my year of working in a practice has taught me, it’s that to work in architecture is to constantly learn, adapt and absorb. This would be less true if society and technology were to remain unchanged, but as it stands they are evolving at a never-ending rate and in line with this, so too is architecture.

My interest in architecture naturally developed through a combination of enjoying art, finding a thrill in solving problems and a strong fascination with the diversity in the world around me. Through my time at Newcastle I fostered a belief that architecture is about people; how they inform, create and react to space. My graduation project ‘The Finnish Institute for art’ focussed on creating a new place for British and Finnish artists to collaborate and generate inno-vative ideas. The tangible approach investigated how different materials can interact to establish a stimulating but effective structural system.

Whilst at Robin Partington and Partners I have learnt that the realisation of a built entity is achieved through collaboration; not only within my own team but also with the wider design and en-gineer consultants. This was particularly crucial for one of the projects I worked on; a 42 storey residential tower in Westminster where the curved structural columns are an engineering challenge but equally the back bone of the design concept. Working in conjunction with consultants has been

one of the most enjoyable parts of my placement.

This year I intend to widen my perspective on the way that people inhabit space through immersing myself in different cultures. From Oct - Dec I went to Mzuzu, a city in the North of Malawi with the International Citizen Service; a government organi-sation that brings young people together to address the root causes of poverty. Next I intended to travel to Asia at the beginning of 2015. I am keen to see more of this diverse world and involve myself within it.

I believe the balance between design and technology along with the presence of the centre for development and emergency practice at Oxford Brookes University makes it the ideal choice for me to increase my understanding of architecture. The on-going tensions and advancements within the built environment fascinate me, and I look forward to

expanding my study of architecture to explore this.

16A Bridge Street, HalesworthSuffolk, IP198AQ

Work Experience placement for 4 Work Experience placement for 4 weeks working on residential developments in Suffolk. drawing plans and colouring master planing options.

Great Yarmouth,NR31 9HA

Waitress position where Waitress position where good communication was essential. Responsibilities also included operating the reception desk.

Castlewood, 85 New Oxford Street, London, WC1A 1DG

13 months as a part 1 architectural assistant. Working mainly on 1 Merchant Square in Westminster; a 42 storey resdiential tower.

I produced this 1:50 presentation model to illustrate the concept of the sky bar design for 1 Merchant Square; a 42 storey tower in Westminster with a hotel at the base of the building. The Mezzanine rhythmically pulses towards and away from the facade allowing views to be experienced by guests. The balustrade wraps the floorplate before peeling off in the form of the staircase to connect the two levels.

A diagrammatic 1:200 model (left) was used to illustrate the quality of different views available in each direction of the tower. A 1:50 model (below) was used to demonstrate the characteristic of the foot of the building and the nature with which it

touches the ground. touches the ground.

The London based Finnish Institute acts as a catalyst to encourage collaboration between Finnish and British artists. The brief was to design a new Institute in Newcastle with a better public interface than that of the current centre. My project began by collaborating with a local textile artist and designing for her a small ex-hibition space. From this evolved the ideas of manipulation of light and shadows and secondly how two separate materials can be dependent on each other to create a structural system.

The site was situated in a deep urban block. This was challenging and my strategy was to propose strong concrete cores which internally accommodate services, storage and circulation, whilst externally they worked as devices to divide the site into the main public spaces with strong laminated timber effectively extending from them.

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The focus of this project was to take into account the affect a design can have on other species other than humans. The task was to design a small research shelter for the 2013 British Science Festival

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The structure is inspired by tessellations and patterns found in natural forms and the concept is that the form is seamingly growing from the site and expanding sporadically.

The species that the proposal focussed on was The species that the proposal focussed on was insects and care has been taken to encourage insect movement beneath the structure towards the built ‘insect hotel’.

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The focus of this project was to work primarily in section and to choose one of Newcastle’s historic ‘chares’ to situate a musical perfamnce platform.Jazz was the chosen music genre and in response to the rustic and response to the rustic and raw nature of jazz music the focus of the design was on using recycled material. Recycled pallets make up the performance stages and are flexible in height to accomodate level changes. accomodate level changes.

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A local developer in the Norfolk/Suffolk area was interested in a piece of land called North Quay, which looks out to the river Yare as it departs Yarmouth. From speaking to the developer I learned that he wanted to introduce residential units to the site but in a form that represented the local brewing industry; to this effect he wanted them to be inspired by the form of barrels. I decided to put pen to paper to investigate how I would answer this brief. This was purely an exer-

cise I did for my own experimental learning.

Personal Project11

A local developer in the Norfolk/Suffolk area was interested in a piece of land called North Quay, which looks out to the river Yare as it departs Yarmouth. From speaking to the developer I learned that he wanted to introduce residential units to the site but in a form that represented the local brewing industry; to this effect he wanted them to be inspired by the form of barrels. I decided to put pen to paper to investigate how I would answer this brief. This was purely an exer-

cise I did for my own experimental learning.

Personal Project