ARCH352
BA3 – Studio 1 [Rashid Ali]
HOUSING: Courtyards for Assisted Living
The Project: Mass and Void
In this Semester’s project, Studio 1 will explore and develop spatial ideas generated by and through the theme of Mass and Void. We will use the conditions of Mass and Void (or positive and negative) as the principle tool of transformation, to generate, organise and distribute spaces and functions, as well as to define the building’s relationship – its placement and connectivity within its context. We will aim to generate spaces that look inwards to the voids and with glimpses of the sky above, rather than aspiring to create a lasting formal impression on the street. These spatial ideas will be developed through housing for Assisted Living that will form a closed organism evoking pre-modern houses, seemingly detached formally from the street and the city.
Typological studies
Working in groups of five, students will be assigned a building that loosely or directly addresses or manifests the theme(s) of Mass and Void at varying scales. You are expected to decipher and grasp a thorough understanding of the spatial and material composition of the building with a 1:100 or 1:50 (depending on the building) model and diagrammatic plans, a key section and an axonometric drawing. Drawings and photographs of models for each building will collated into a booklet that will be made available to each student, and will form key references for the duration of the project.
Site observations
We will aim to explore the site’s fundamental components of movement and exchange in relationship to its context. In particular, we will identify the immediate spatial and social forces that inform the local patterns of movement and exchange and the ways in which people interact with the spaces within this system. This will be done with a series of 1:200 site diagrams indicating the hierarchy of significant built form and systems of connections and uses.
Spatial Concept
Utilising the spatial ideas leant from the typological studies each student will now develop a spatial concept model that will be the generator of their proposal. Through a series of models and drawings the concept should address mass and void, light and dark, heavyweight and lightweight, communal and private, inside and outside, ground and volume, materiality and variation in scale.
Building Project
The ideas leant from the typological studies and developed through the concept model/spatial idea will now be developed into courtyard homes for Assisted Living of one to two floors. The project ought to clearly express a pattern of spaces that are organised with courtyards of different scales and materials – from the private to the communal, and which are explicitly informed by the theme of Mass and Void. The extent to which the project succeeds will be defined by the extent to which the spatial idea(s) inherent in your concept model is carried through. The composition of the project is as follows:
30% 1 bedroom units
30% 2 bedroom units
40% courtyards, circulation, community garden (communal courtyard) and shop, cafe and gym.
Space Standards
There are no statutory space standards for the country as a whole. However, the Greater London Authority have recently introduced new minimum space standards based upon daily activities and the space needed for them. These should be followed for this project. The standards are shown below, where p indicates the number of persons and b indicates the number of bedrooms. Whereas it is standard for the size of houses in England to be described in terms of the number of bedrooms, the allocation of bedrooms as indicated by this table is nota requirement of your brief: however the restriction in terms of minimum floor area (m2) is.
Site
After our research on courtyard typologies, we will begin working on a site that is currently occupied by rows of mostly derelict terraced houses. The site is defined by Grandby Street to the west, Kingsley Road to the east, Jermyn Street to the north and Ducie Street to the south.
BA3 – Studio 1 [Rashid Ali]
HOUSING: Courtyards for Assisted Living
The Project: Mass and Void
In this Semester’s project, Studio 1 will explore and develop spatial ideas generated by and through the theme of Mass and Void. We will use the conditions of Mass and Void (or positive and negative) as the principle tool of transformation, to generate, organise and distribute spaces and functions, as well as to define the building’s relationship – its placement and connectivity within its context. We will aim to generate spaces that look inwards to the voids and with glimpses of the sky above, rather than aspiring to create a lasting formal impression on the street. These spatial ideas will be developed through housing for Assisted Living that will form a closed organism evoking pre-modern houses, seemingly detached formally from the street and the city.
Typological studies
Working in groups of five, students will be assigned a building that loosely or directly addresses or manifests the theme(s) of Mass and Void at varying scales. You are expected to decipher and grasp a thorough understanding of the spatial and material composition of the building with a 1:100 or 1:50 (depending on the building) model and diagrammatic plans, a key section and an axonometric drawing. Drawings and photographs of models for each building will collated into a booklet that will be made available to each student, and will form key references for the duration of the project.
Site observations
We will aim to explore the site’s fundamental components of movement and exchange in relationship to its context. In particular, we will identify the immediate spatial and social forces that inform the local patterns of movement and exchange and the ways in which people interact with the spaces within this system. This will be done with a series of 1:200 site diagrams indicating the hierarchy of significant built form and systems of connections and uses.
Spatial Concept
Utilising the spatial ideas leant from the typological studies each student will now develop a spatial concept model that will be the generator of their proposal. Through a series of models and drawings the concept should address mass and void, light and dark, heavyweight and lightweight, communal and private, inside and outside, ground and volume, materiality and variation in scale.
Building Project
The ideas leant from the typological studies and developed through the concept model/spatial idea will now be developed into courtyard homes for Assisted Living of one to two floors. The project ought to clearly express a pattern of spaces that are organised with courtyards of different scales and materials – from the private to the communal, and which are explicitly informed by the theme of Mass and Void. The extent to which the project succeeds will be defined by the extent to which the spatial idea(s) inherent in your concept model is carried through. The composition of the project is as follows:
30% 1 bedroom units
30% 2 bedroom units
40% courtyards, circulation, community garden (communal courtyard) and shop, cafe and gym.
Space Standards
There are no statutory space standards for the country as a whole. However, the Greater London Authority have recently introduced new minimum space standards based upon daily activities and the space needed for them. These should be followed for this project. The standards are shown below, where p indicates the number of persons and b indicates the number of bedrooms. Whereas it is standard for the size of houses in England to be described in terms of the number of bedrooms, the allocation of bedrooms as indicated by this table is nota requirement of your brief: however the restriction in terms of minimum floor area (m2) is.
Site
After our research on courtyard typologies, we will begin working on a site that is currently occupied by rows of mostly derelict terraced houses. The site is defined by Grandby Street to the west, Kingsley Road to the east, Jermyn Street to the north and Ducie Street to the south.
