Moth House at Night

Night time render of my design for a moth house in the woodland area of my site. The moth house is covered with wooden tiles that mimic the scales on a moths abdomen. In the warmer seasons, at night, the moth house opens up like a fir cone to allow moths to inhabit the space within. In winter time the tiles close up providing a hibernation shelter for these creatures, allowing eggs to grow and, from caterpillars, chrysilis to develop, becoming butterflies and moths in the spring.

Section to follow.

House for a Lepidopterologist

A House for Europe. the mirror and the portrait. Pedro Santos

>client research: Alvaro Siza
>working method
>diagrammatic approach and bullet points

>house elements / plans


>elevations and 3d model



> all boards are A2 size.
> more information coming soon(sections and text)

A House For Europe - Draft 1 - Adam Freestone

A House for Europe

Souterrain Maison.

This underground house is for couple in their sixties. They had dreamed of an early retirement to the south of France, however work commitments and an expanding family means they do not want to leave England. They do not want to be part of 'Broken Britain' and the view from there windows forces the notion the 'grass is greener'.... This fear and unexceptance of their homeland has forced them underground.

Visiting Friends and family or holiday makers occupy marine House while the couple inhabit the chalk below. The cliff face facade materially and architectural alters from a ship-lap, post-war prefab facade complete with window boxes, then to salvaged brick from Langdon Hole Battery and then one passes though the greenhouse. The conservatory had to be larger than 'Bay View' house a few doors away.

Sense of arrival is important to the positioning of the house's entrances. There is no main entrance. The front entrance in the cliff face while the rear entrance is found off the casemate or air shaft.

The couple enjoy travelling to Calais three times a year on the ferry to buy alchohol. The wine casemate off of the kitchen and bedroom provides ample storage for one years supply. Despite their frequent trips from Dover they have yet to venture further than Carrefour.

JW

Terminal + Agenda

Terminal + Site

A House For Europe

Draft Plans, Sections and Elevations

Draft Site Plan

Ferry Terminal +

A Guinea Pig named Dover

The recently published Localism Bill claims to “deliver the most comprehensive overhaul of the planning system since 1947”. Dover can be seen at the forefront of the adoption of Localism through its very recent strives in Community ownership of the port. Dover is in need of change and through a macro testing of Localism I aim to suggest the future possibilities to be adopted. It is within a full understanding of beaurocracy that these opportunities can be realised

The Community Right to Buy is a clause within the Bill that has lead to the contested ownership of the Port of Dover. The privatisation of the Port offends the community and lead by MP Charlie Elphicke they have formed a trust to attempt to buy the Port. Ownership would be shared between shareholders, ideally planned as £10 per person in Dover. It is the playing out of this scenario that I take interest in; the changing programme and hybridised land claiming of a community and a seemingly streamlined system of the port. The possible introduction of Civic functions into the port; questioning the planning system; highlighting the interesting dichotomies of non-planning of the port and community opinion based planning of localism. The changing condition of the port will be used as the majority of the design thesis; the Ferry Terminal + will be explored in the terms of programmatic hybrid; the additional civic functions sited within the port to provide shared spaces and ever changing landscapes which relate back to the town.

The changing faces of private company to community; the seemingly un-conservatist social power increase and moments of exchange between contrasting systems are all strands of interest and through the understanding of this real world scenario and playing upon it I aim to provide a useful undertaking which is relevant to Dover and the UK in this time of change.

Inital Thematic Studies

Chris Simmons

A House for Europe

A Holiday home for Leaders of the EU

UK Prime Minister David Cameron and his wife Samantha use the house to host various leaders of EU countries on talks with the UK. It is through the duality of the house and contested living conditions the talks are resolved.

The building’s programme is mirrored across centre creating seemingly equal halves to be occupied by the two leaders. The linear positioning of each element of home life leads to confrontation and negotiation within its use, the leaders having to share all aspects Within the technique a non visual line is created, defining the territories of each party; it is the crossing of this divide, challenging the given territories which interests me.

The façade appears as a modern reinterpretation of the English 30’s Semi Detached House; the apparent domestic frontage of supreme power. The Rammed chalk construction is a mirror of the white cliffs the house sits upon; creating an elevation of contrasting ideas of false visual representation. Behind the façade sits a slim building, clad in vertical Planted walls with reflective glass mirroring the trees and landscape around.

Draft Ground Floor Plan

Draft First / Roof Floor Plan and Elevation

Draft Section

Chris Simmons

House DWG

The DWG for the house is the same as the Dover plan as I have posted before;

this is the link incase you dont have it Dover Town DWG.

new identity

'This is England' visit NORD's Shingle House

Some photo studies of NORD's 'Shingle House' in Dungeness which we were fortunate enough to be shown around today

Photos: Adam Hiles

The Spirit of Britain

It was announced by P+O ferries that the Pride of Dover would stand down from Dover-Calais service on the 15th December 2010. Her last commercial crossing will be at 23:55. She is due to depart for Dunkerque on the 16th December where she will lay up pending a decision on her future.

The replacement is 'The Spirit of Britain' and will operate on the Dover to Calais route from January 2011 and has space for up to 1,750 passengers. It weighs 49000 tonnes and is the largest ship to ferry ever to sail the dover to calais service.

I would like to know what Winston Churchill would say about one of worlds largest floating duty free shopping complexes carrying the name 'Spirit of Britain'!!

Terminal Plus Skating Rink?!?!

If anyone is struggling to think of the auxiary facility to their terminal proposal. How about an Ice rink. I'm sure you could use a car park this time of year. There once stood a skating rink on Townwall street/ East Cliff. opposite the port.

Dover Cable Car

Dover's proposal of a cable car system is not a new idea. There used to be a colliery along Shakespeare cliff leading round to the Admiralty pier. Cable cars(or trucks) were used to transport coal between the top and base of the cliffs.

These photos show a much longer aerial cable stem than what we have been presented with. This ran all the way from East langdon all the way through the cliffs down to the port to load coal onto ships. Thats over a mile by estimation!!view of the ropeway that transported coal from Tilmanstone to Dover Harbour - here you can see the twin tunnels in the cliff face through which the ropeway was threaded.

(thanks to J Vaughan)

Dover Trip

Ive uploaded my photos from todays Dover Port trip download here I guess they will all be very similar but it would be good to share them if everyone else could upload theirs

shingle house

This Friday the studio will visit Dungeness and the latest house commissioned by Alain De Botton's Living Architecture company, the shingle house designed by Nord.  Nord's director Alan Pert will show us around and will also be giving a lecture on the practice's work at the college the night before as part of the multi-story series.

More pictures of the newly completed house can be found at dezeen, and you can read more about Living Architecture here.