Tutors: Aditya Aachi, Diego Grisalena, Ting-Ting Ruotsalainen
Guests: Nathan Breeze, Andrew Tam, David Probert, Jin Kuo, Michelle Wang
Students: Saleem Chaudry, Alfie Gurtler, Arad Haghgoo,, Amelia Heath, Faizah Jahir, Karolina Kazubska, Mahbod Khoshnoud, Jessica Lewis, Kacper Mazur, Alexander Nakonecznyj, Parnian Piltan, Maximilian Silver, Lucy Stevenson, Tsz Wai Zachary Au, Siti Umairah Binti Mohd Shariff, Finn Burbanks, Otto Copping, Olivia Ferrero, Theodore Gammie, Sophie Hoeg, Arkady Petrov, Varun Sinha,
Tutors: Aditya Aachi, Diego Grisalena, Ting-Ting Ruotsalainen Guests: Nathan Breeze, Andrew Tam, David Probert, Jin Kuo, Michelle Wang Students: Saleem Chaudry, Alfie Gurtler, Arad Haghgoo,, Amelia Heath, Faizah Jahir, Karolina Kazubska, Mahbod Khoshnoud, Jessica Lewis, Kacper Mazur, Alexander Nakonecznyj, Parnian Piltan, Maximilian Silver, Lucy Stevenson, Tsz Wai Zachary Au, Siti Umairah Binti Mohd Shariff, Finn Burbanks, Otto Copping, Olivia Ferrero, Theodore Gammie, Sophie Hoeg, Arkady Petrov, Varun Sinha,
Unit B / Influx
Agenda
This year unit B has asked students to reimagine cities for a more compact, sustainable, and human-centric vision of the future! Students were asked to engage with and challenge existing value accounting systems to answer the question: What would cities look like if they allowed people to live and work in a way that improved their wellbeing and allowed the planet to thrive, rather than being focussed on facilitating economic growth?
Site
The sites for the year are located in the Old Oak Common and Park Royal redevelopment area (OPDC). Before it almost accidentally became a location of huge strategic importance, it was no doubt the forgotten corner of West London. Historically accommodating light industrial uses which meet the logistical needs of the city, the area maintained low land values despite its proximity to central London. Students explored the power dynamics shaping the area before formulating their responses.
Alex Nakonecznyj - The Park Royal Sensory Refinement Centre – A Phenomenological Building: The issue of mental health has become more prevalent in our urbanised world. This building is designed to help people come to terms with the chaos of sensory stimuli around them by enabling them to take a journey through a curated experience that stimulates one sense at a time.
Alex Nakonecznyj - The Park Royal Sensory Refinement Centre – A Phenomenological Building: The issue of mental health has become more prevalent in our urbanised world. This building is designed to help people come to terms with the chaos of sensory stimuli around them by enabling them to take a journey through a curated experience that stimulates one sense at a time.
Alfie Gurtler - Torpedo People’s Parliament: The scheme aims to amplify the right of the public to voice concerning or raise opposition to local and global political issues. Societal change is aided by spaces for organisation, rehearsal and education in the medium of peaceful protest.
Amelia Heath - Social Glue: My project aims to connect people across the city by providing spaces for social events: sports stadium, cinema, restaurant, nightclub, concert and spa. Elements of the building move, unfold and slide to transform the site into a festival venue accommodating up to 2000 people.
Arad Haghgoo - The cultural walkway culinary school: The cultural walkway aims to reduce food waste while also providing an educational experience for future chefs and cooks by bringing in expertise from local food related businesses. After the programme, students will be able to experience serving and cooking in real-world circumstances by setting up a stall in the central market space.
Arkady Petrov - Healing House: For this project, I investigated the healing properties of visual sightlines of nature, and the remedial effects it has on users of a sensitive psychological disposition. The openings were designed by utilising sightlines of surrounding flora to curate a dwelling space of mental healing on the end of terrace site.
Faizah Jahir - The Doll House: The project is a response to societal pressure to conform, where the aim is for the idea of normalcy to be eliminated through the activity of doll making. Here inclusive dolls get made, archived, and given voice. A platform to share and learn about identities is what makes up the doll house. It reinvents the idea of collective wellbeing by celebrating diversity and challenging prejudices.
Faizah Jahir - The Doll House: The project is a response to societal pressure to conform, where the aim is for the idea of normalcy to be eliminated through the activity of doll making. Here inclusive dolls get made, archived, and given voice. A platform to share and learn about identities is what makes up the doll house. It reinvents the idea of collective wellbeing by celebrating diversity and challenging prejudices.
Finn Burbanks - Escape Cabin Factory: This project explored the concept of expanding an existing business centre to include a hotel and train factory/workshop. The train factory animates both the hotel and business centre, with the railway cabins moving throughout the interior and exterior spaces to create unique interfaces between programmes.
Jess Lewis - Creativity for Wellbeing: Creative spaces are of paramount importance within contemporary society; the impact physical crafting can have on a therapeutic level is often overlooked. My project aims to provide creative freedom, with the canvas extending past paper, both on a personal and public level.
Karolina Kazubska - The Playground Project: My project challenges visitors by pushing them beyond their comfort zones to discover ways of avoiding boredom. Visitor experiences differ based on personality types, allowing each visitor to have a highly personalised experience.
Karolina Kazubska - The Playground Project: My project challenges visitors by pushing them beyond their comfort zones to discover ways of avoiding boredom. Visitor experiences differ based on personality types, allowing each visitor to have a highly personalised experience.
Lucy stevenson - Lung of the city: The Lung of the City introduced new elements to Park Royal warehouses to increase biodiversity in the area, showing how flora and fauna can coexist with the workers in the largely industrial business park. People and creatures visiting the building are used as pollination vectors to spread greenery as far and wide as possible. The factory itself manufactures elements which can be used to green the surrounding area and the roof provides a new public green space, which reuses the controversial Marble Arch Mound.
Max Silver: I tackle sedentary lifestyles through introducing new ways office spaces and homes could operate. I challenged the original way of working in an office or home environment and offered solutions to making everyday tasks more active as well as offering a plethora of physical activities within the space.
Max Silver: I tackle sedentary lifestyles through introducing new ways office spaces and homes could operate. I challenged the original way of working in an office or home environment and offered solutions to making everyday tasks more active as well as offering a plethora of physical activities within the space.
Olivia Ferrero - Habitat Co-housing: I wanted to try and tackle the impact of the housing crisis within London. I created a multi-use building that was both affordable, communal living built through the Habitat for Humanity scheme. As well as, a diverse, open space that could be used for a variety of events that bring together the existing community of Park Royal with the residents of my building. The living spaces are also designed to change and grow with the inhabitants, shifting with their lifestyles and giving each person a balance of private and communal space to live in.
Olivia Ferrero - Habitat Co-housing: I wanted to try and tackle the impact of the housing crisis within London. I created a multi-use building that was both affordable, communal living built through the Habitat for Humanity scheme. As well as, a diverse, open space that could be used for a variety of events that bring together the existing community of Park Royal with the residents of my building. The living spaces are also designed to change and grow with the inhabitants, shifting with their lifestyles and giving each person a balance of private and communal space to live in.
Otto Copping - The Human Hydro Park Royal: The scheme is a reaction to the current cost of living crisis created by rising energy prices and insecurity in the energy sector. It is a vision for how otherwise wasted movement of users can be harnessed to create energy to run the building. The occupants of the building create air pressure which forces water to be released over a water wheel, in turn creating energy, taking the building off-grid.
Otto Copping - The Human Hydro Park Royal: The scheme is a reaction to the current cost of living crisis created by rising energy prices and insecurity in the energy sector. It is a vision for how otherwise wasted movement of users can be harnessed to create energy to run the building. The occupants of the building create air pressure which forces water to be released over a water wheel, in turn creating energy, taking the building off-grid.
Parnian Piltan - Mushroom Wonderland: In this day and age many people suffer from depression, my project is an alternative way of tackling depression. Instead of the typical antidepressant drugs, the building provides clients a safe space to take part in consuming magic mushrooms to target mental health conditions.
Sophie Hoeg - The Pandemic Ark: The Pandemic Ark provides a place for coping with and responding to current and future pandemics, by creating a space where people with a multitude of contrasting views expressed across society can come together. The scheme includes isolation accommodation for the clinically-vulnerable, while also acting as a ceremonial space for those in the anti-vax community to catch COVID and boost herd immunity.
Sophie Hoeg - The Pandemic Ark: The Pandemic Ark provides a place for coping with and responding to current and future pandemics, by creating a space where people with a multitude of contrasting views expressed across society can come together. The scheme includes isolation accommodation for the clinically-vulnerable, while also acting as a ceremonial space for those in the anti-vax community to catch COVID and boost herd immunity.
Theo Gammie: The desired transition to a net zero future requires existing industries to adapt to sustainable methods of operation. This project seeks to create a space for the analysing and re-engineering of unsustainable light industrial processes, so that they can successfully transition into this future.
Theo Gammie: The desired transition to a net zero future requires existing industries to adapt to sustainable methods of operation. This project seeks to create a space for the analysing and re-engineering of unsustainable light industrial processes, so that they can successfully transition into this future.