Here’s the latest image from our project in Stourbridge. This shot shows the way each of the properties has a slightly different relationship with the street, depending on the paving and the door position.
Construction should be completed soon. We’ve also submitted the project for a Building For Life award – we hope to get a gold standard result…
(more details on Rob’s blog: no2self.net)
Architecture Week 2007 is a good time to announce one of our latest commissions to develop an environmentally sound refurbishment proposal for terrace properties in Stoke-on-Trent. Continuing our explorations into solar passive architecture, the design delivers robust, replicable solutions to both the improvement of the fabric, the quality of the living space and the thermal performance.
Here’s a copy of our winning presentation and a fly-by model of the exterior showing the 2 storey spaces proposed as replacements to the standard usually outrigger found on Victorian terrace housing. The submission was completed in collaboration with Staffordshire Housing Association and Brown & Clowes for Renew North Staffordshire and Newcastle-Under-Lyme Borough Council.
One of our latest projects has just been granted planning approval by Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council. The design responds to tight site constraints and a brief calling for an exemplar, environmentally friendly scheme.
Carefully orientated to make the most of the south-east and south-west sun, the saw-tooth layout and innovative roof plan create an animated, interesting street scene.
A full set of images* can be seen here: Queens Road, Stourbridge
* the images shown are taken from the initial 3D modelling work – the wind turbines shown were subsequently removed due to concern about cost and their likely poor performance in an urban area
A full copy of the design and access statement is available as a PDF: Saw-tooth housing
Street elevations are also available: Street elevations 1
Click on the following image to see ‘fly-by’ animation:
This project was developed in collaboration with Kier Homes and Black Country Housing Association.
Here’s our entry to the Euroclad drawing competition, which asked entrants to ‘sketch a fresh look for Brighton’s West Pier’.
Chambers for a Brighton Memory Palace
Concept: “The first pier at Brighton was known as The Chain Pier, and there was a silhouettist working on it throughout most of it’s history. The slhouettists moved to the West Pier when it opened in 1866, and continued more or less continuously until shortly before it’s closure in the 1970’s.”1
The profile of a sea front pier is a well understood, easily recognisable form that stirs recollections. The history of the silhouette cutters on West Pier is captured within the full scale profile and becomes a surface to incite and then receive the memories of the people of Brighton.
Repeated, rotated and woven together to form a field of chambers housing exhibitions, events and installations; the grid becomes a set of co-ordinates that control the curating of time and topics.
Construction: The spaces are created by intersecting, perforated metal clad walls with an opening in each side connecting to the adjacent chamber. Exposed spaces drain towards the edges and covered areas shed rainwater into the cavity between the walls. Colour controlled lighting in the cavity seeps through the perforations and assists themed curation of exhibitions by directing visitors across the grid. Lightweight tent structures stretch over the volumes that trace a wandering path across the grid providing alternative environments for different events/objects.
Curate: The grid of silhouettes conveys the passing of time in one direction and cultural topic in the other. The profiles heading away from the beach out onto the sea carry the topic through the intersecting date lines parallel with the shore. We begin at the shore in 18652 and travel towards the horizon to the present day, crossing decades as we move from chamber to chamber. As time passes the structure continues to grow into the sea and new topics are added along the beach. Non-linear journeys through history are suggested within the volumes traced across the grid by the silhouettes of the original pier buildings.
The co-ordinates provide public meeting places with a nostalgic subtext.
“Should we meet at 1964/Mods or 1975/Pier ?”
With apologies to Charles Moore and Donlyn Lyndon for the Chambers for a Memory Palace rip off. The drawing is also available as a PDF.
notes:
1. from ‘The Silhouette Tradition of Brighton Pier’ by Edo Barn.
2. the year the West Pier was constructed
Part of the goal of Open Practice day this Friday is to talk about how architects work. One of the projects available for viewing on Friday will be some recent design work for a single domestic residence on a challenging suburban site.
The challenges of difficult access, overlooking from nearby houses and substantial level changes were developed into opportunities through a series of sketches and diagrams. The diagram is an important device in architecture and the hand drawn sketch continues (in an industry ruled mostly by computer aided design) to be the best way to explore them.
Come and visit on Friday and we can talk about the way the design developed…
Kings Heath, Birmingham 2001—present
A 1950’s estate of some 250 Smiths houses being redeveloped in association with Waterloo Housing Association, Birmingham City Council and the local resident’s Estate Development Group.
The new homes are being built in phases and the brief is quite simply to recreate the Arts & Crafts residential and environmental qualities of Bournville Village within modern social housing regulations.
Blurton, Stoke on Trent, 2005—present
Axis Design were appointed by Aspire Housing to provide consultation and masterplanning services for an estate of approximately 3500 households.
Alongside the standard methods of enquiry we provided a custom built web site to enhance the reach of the consultation process.
Upton, Northampton, Site B – 2004
The brief for this second phase of the new urban village at Upton Northamptonshire called for a high density mixed use urban quarter combining flats and townhouses within a clear hierarchy of urban spaces.
Strasbourg Drive, Beaumont Leys, Leicester, 2004—Present
Axis successfully bid for the redevelopment of this housing estate in Leicester which incorporated selective demolition and the construction of 134 new mixed tenure properties comprising bungalows, flats and houses, along with extensive landscaping and reconfiguring of the existing road network.
Stoke Road, Bletchley, Milton Keynes 2004 — present
Axis Design Collective won an invited competition for the development of 94 canal side apartments, townhouses and bungalows in the Bletchley area of Milton Keynes. The development was derived from a very detailed set of development design codes that stipulated building heights, frontage treatments and materials to be used.
