Design Yearbook 2017

2017 

School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape 

Newcastle University

Contents 

Welcome 

Charrette 

BA (Hons) Architecture 

Stage 1 

Stage 2 

Stage 3 

Fieldwork and Site Visits 

BA Architecture & Urban Planning (AUP) 

Stage 1 

Stage 2 

Stage 3 

Thinking-Through-Making Week 

MArch 

Stage 5 

Stage 6 

Fieldwork and Site Visits 

Research in Architecture 

BA Dissertation 

MArch Dissertation 

Linked Research 

Taught Masters Programmes 

PhD / PhD by Creative Practice 

Creative Practice Symposium 

Architecture Research Collaborative 

Scaling the Heights Exhibition 

Awards 

Contributors 

NUAS 

Sponsors 

3 

4 

7 

67 

84 

87 

158 

200 

201 

202 

203

Welcome 

Prue Chiles – Director of Architecture 

This book celebrates the achievements of students and staff whose hard work is a 

testament to the innovative culture and inclusive atmosphere of this School. It has 

been an exciting year which has been wonderful to both observe and be a part of. 

The creative and intellectual rigour of our approach was again formally recognised as 

excellent by the RIBA in the accreditation visit that took place this academic year. 

It has been a year of both change and continuity; change, with the addition of a 

number of teaching, academic and support staff, their arrival has already been warmly 

received and widely appreciated. Our School has always promoted a broad range of 

interdisciplinary practices and specialisms within the study of architecture and this 

increasing diversity has fostered a wide variety of design and research studios in both 

the Bachelor and Master’s degree programmes. For the first time, this has also included 

vertical studios which have encouraged collaboration between undergraduate and 

postgraduate students. 

Change has also come with the first major redevelopment of our School’s 

accommodation since 1966: the addition of an extension to the Building Science 

building which has doubled our workshop capacity, added new studios, review spaces 

and digital fabrication facilities. The latter include a new digital workshop space which 

has already been fully exploited by this year’s cohort through a wide range of models 

and representational studies. Moreover, investments in new technologies such as virtual 

reality equipment have allowed students to explore a wider range of media and further 

expand the limits of their architectural imaginations. 

Continuity has come in the form of continued success of the live build ‘linked research’ 

programme, the latest iteration of which was highly commended in the rural initiatives 

category of the RIBA MacEwen Award. This programme has worked for a number 

of years in collaboration with local residents to design and build small structures in 

Northumberland aimed at sustaining rural communities. They have also provided 

an opportunity for students to experience the difficulties and delights of seeing a 

live architectural project from concept through to completion. This programme 

is an example of the close connections between our teaching and the work of the 

Architecture Research Collaborative (ARC), the School’s established research group. 

Collaborations between researchers and students fill the pages of this yearbook from 

the Newcastle After Dark studies, a study of the intricacies of night-time economies in 

Newcastle, through to Zanzibar Futures, a journal considering Zanzibar as a microcosm 

of geopolitical issues, along with continuing experimental architecture research into 

living architectural fabric. 

NUAS, the Newcastle University Architecture Society, has been recognised by the 

students’ union for the second year running as Best Departmental Society. Students 

have also established a student charter of Article 25, an NGO whose name is derived 

from the United Nations declaration of human rights, stating that everyone has the 

right to adequate and dignified shelter. Work like this continues the School’s tradition 

of offering programmes which engage students in a diverse range of social, political and 

cultural projects, instilling a strong sense of human values and societal responsibility. 

Our research-led teaching is intended to equip graduates not just with the skills they 

need to enter the profession but also with skills to help them to stay ahead of a changing 

professional landscape during a long career. The work presented in this book illustrates 

its diversity, originality, significance and rigour. 

3

Charrette 

Charrette Week is a whole School, one week, high energy, high productivity series of workshops culminating in a show on the Friday. Students 

from all years are mixed into Charrette studios for the week, to encourage cross-year learning and to break down social barriers within the 

School. Each Charrette ‘studio’ will typically involve 50 people with students from the upper years expected to exercise team and time 

management skills learnt in practice to ensure the projects are delivered on time and on budget! In keeping with the relatively new Charrette 

tradition Charrette leaders (typically alumni, architects, engineers and artists) were given three thematic words to respond to, this year’s being: 

Charrette 1: Haptic Shadows 

Holly Hendry 

Charrette 2: Junk Puppets 

Hannah Pierce 

Charrette 3: Instrumental 

Matt Charlton 

Tom Randle 

Charrette 4: Silence Of The Senses 

Hazel McGregor 

Charrette 5: Place in Progress 

Kate Percival 

Lowri Bond 

Sara Cooper 

Charrette 6: Incubation Station 

Matt Rowe 

Charrette 7: Touch Me! Let’s Change The School 

Amara Roca Inglesias 

Charrette 8: Navigating Indeterminacy 

Andrew Walker 

Charrette 9: Print Shift Repeat 

Ruth Sidley 

Thomas Henderson Schwartz 

Charrette 10: You Spin Me Right Round Baby Right Round 

Archie Bell 

Charrette 11: A Tale Of Two Cities 

Gareth Hudson 

Charrette 12: Tantrum City 

Yatwan Hui 

Charrette 13: Charrette Narratives 

Student Run 

Charrette 14: Arts Cafe For Chilli Studio 

Holly Hendry 

Charrette 15: Enchanted Architecture 

Sara Nabil Ahmed 

Charrette 16: Stu Brew 

Red Kellie 

Charrette 17: Curating the School 

Kieran Connolly 

4


Samuel Austin and Simon Hacker – Degree Programme Directors 

Newcastle’s RIBA Part I accredited BA programme fosters an inclusive, research-led approach 

to architecture. Alongside a thorough grounding in all the skills required to become an 

imaginative, culturally informed, socially aware and technically competent design professional, 

it offers opportunities to engage in developments at the forefront of current research, 

from computation and material science to architectural history and theory. Emphasising 

collaboration as well as independent critical enquiry, we encourage students to draw on diverse 

methods and fields of knowledge, to follow their own interests and to develop their own design 

approach. 

We believe that to produce good architecture requires more than rounded abilities and 

knowledge; it requires judgements about what we value in the buildings and cities we 

inhabit, what to prioritise in the spaces and structures we propose and what contribution 

architecture can make. The course doesn’t claim to offer simple – or correct – responses to 

these challenges. Our diverse community of researchers and practitioners, each with their 

own interests and expertise, introduce students to a range of issues, ideas, traditions and 

techniques in architectural design and scholarship. We help students develop fine grained 

skills in interpreting spaces and texts, critical thinking to understand the implications of design 

decisions, and spatial and material imagination to stretch the boundaries of what architecture 

can achieve. Rather than teach a single way of working, we give students the tools to discover 

what kind of architect they want to be. 

A lively design studio is central to this learning process and to the life of the School. Design 

projects, taught by a mix of in-house tutors and practitioners from across the UK, account 

for half of all module credits. We promote design as thinking-through-making, an integrated 

process of researching and testing ideas in sketchbook, computer, workshop and on site, 

of responding to diverse issues and requirements all at once – spatial, material, functional, 

social, economic etc. This approach is reinforced by collaborative projects involving artists and 

engineers, and at the beginning of each year by week-long design charrettes where students 

from all stages of all design programmes work together to respond to diverse design challenges, 

through installations around the School and beyond. Lectures, seminars and assignments 

in other modules examine the theoretical, historical, cultural, practical and professional 

dimensions of architecture, and support students to embed these concerns in studio work. 

Stages 1 and 2 are structured to guide students through increasingly challenging scales, 

types and contexts of design projects, alongside a breadth of related constructional and 

environmental principles and varied themes in architectural history and theory. Briefs invite 

experimentation with different architectural ideas and representational skills, first through 

projects set in Newcastle, then incorporating study trips to regional towns and cities. As work 

increases in depth and complexity – from room to house, community to city, simple enclosure 

to multi-storey building – students have more opportunities to develop and focus their own 

interests. A dissertation – an in-depth original study into any architecturally related topic – sets 

the scene for a year-long Stage 3 final design project. With a choice of diverse thematic studios, 

each with its own expert contributors and international study trip, students acquire specialist 

skills and knowledge, allowing them to craft their own distinctive portfolio. 

7

Stage 1 

Some aspects of first year architectural education are reasonably constant and unchanging. The 

design module this year has continued to introduce students to the fascinating richness and diversity 

of existing architectural discourse and culture; to encourage them to pick up and try out the 

eternal tools and instruments of architecture, including scale, context, observation, human form, 

inhabitation, structure, manufacture and representation; as well as offering them opportunities to 

design and test-out solutions to a range of particular problems and needs. 

But this year has also seen some radical changes within Stage 1. All the studio projects were written 

and run for the first time, and various new connections have been fostered between the design 

and non-design modules, with an intention to build further on these in subsequent years. From a 

School context, perhaps the most obvious change has been the hand over from Martin Beattie as 

Stage 1 Coordinator this year – after many years of managing, teaching and nurturing first year, 

Martin has finally moved on to new pastures within the School and this is an opportunity on behalf 

of all staff, tutors and students to thank him for his input and dedication. 

Year Coordinator 

Martin Beattie 

Simon Hacker 

Project Leaders 

Elizabeth Baldwin Gray 

James Longfield 

Laura Harty 

Simon Hacker 

Students 

Aaron Cheng 

Abigail Elisabeth Hawkins 

Afiqah Binti Sulaiman 

Akihisa Tomita 

Aleksabdria Bolyarova 

Alexandra Ellen Duxbury 

Alice Katherine Du Fresne 

Amna Ahmad I M Fakhro 

Ana Paula Godoy 

Anastasia Ciorici 

Anna Moncarzewska 

Anya Beth Donnelly 

Anna Volkova 

Assem Saparbekova 

Atthaphan Sespattanachai 

Chi Shen 

Chloe May Dalby 

Christopher David Anderson 

Christopher Liam Carty 

Cristina Alicia Gonzales Mitcalf 

Danielle Marie Quirke 

Demi-Jo Crawford 

Edward Benedict Yaoxiang Yan 

Elizaveta Streltsova 

Emily Jane Morrell 

Emily May Simpon 

Emily Rachael Pendleton Birch 

Emma Fernandez Ruiz 

Erin Noelle Dent 

Erya Zhu 

Esthefpany Mishell Carrillo Monge 

Ewan Mark Smith 

Faith Mary Hamilton 

Flora Rose Sallis-Chandler 

George William Cooper 

Grant Martin Donaldson 

Harry Charlesworth Groom 

Harry James Hurst 

Hassan Mehboob Sharif 

Ho Hang Ryan Fung 

Holly Kate Rich 

Huyen Anh Do 

Iram Kamal 

Irene Dumitrascu-Podogrocki 

Isabel Lois Fox 

Jacob Timothy Weetman Grantham 

James Edward David Hall 

James Michael Stokoe 

Jianing Lyu 

Jingyi Zhou 

Jody-Ann Goodfellow 

Joseph George Allen 

Josephine Anne May Coffey 

Junwen Luo 

Ka Ching Leung 

Kareemah Muhammad 

Karishma Dayalji 

Kate Asolo Woolley 

Katie Lara Cottle 

Kristin Olivia Read 

Leah Charlotte Harrison 

Leeza Anna Potanah 

Lucy Kay Atwood 

Luk Chong Leung 

Luke Tim Jonathan Shiner 

Lynsey Holt 

Madalein Carroll 

Maegan Rui Qi Lim 

Maharram Mammadzada 

Martina Dorothy Hansah 

Matthew Chi Ming Warrenberg 

Megan Frances Nightingale 

Michelle Sie Ee Lim 

Milo Carroll 

Miruna Ilas 

Mohini Devi Tahalooa 

Natalie Beata Piorecka 

Nathan Alan Cooke-Duffy 

Oliver Charles Harrington 

Pak Siu Au 

Peter Thomas Staniforth 

Philomena Chen 

Pok Ho Cheung 

Qian Yi Choi 

Rachel Emmeline Clark 

Rachel Sophie Keany 

Rebecca Sinead Crowley 

Rodrigo Miguel Pereira Domingos 

Rosa Sophia Kenny 

Ruth Niamh Angele Vidal-Hall 

Sabrina May Lauder 

Sally Emir Clapp 

Samuel Fraquelli 

Samuel Mackenzie Bell 

Sarah Alexandra Johnsone 

Sarah May Bradshaw 

Sean Ryan Bartlem 

Shaunee Lyn Tan 

Shivani Umed Patel 

Sienna Poppy Sprong 

Sofia Kovalenko 

Sofia Grace Turner 

Solomon Olufemi Adeyinka Ofoaiye 

Sophie Tilley 

Thomas James Grantham 

Thomas Robert Porritt 

Tobias Evan Himawan 

Tongyu Chen 

Victoria Louise Haslam 

Vito Benjamin Sugianto 

Wen Hua Huang 

Will Peter Tankard 

William Harry Taylor 

Xin Guo 

Xingyu Zhou 

Xueqing Zhang 

Yeekwan Lam 

Yi May Emily Chan 

Yingyeung Mo 

Zhana Hristova Kokeva 

Zhong Zheng 

Contributors 

See pg.201 

8 Text by Simon Hacker Opposite - Tobias Himawan

Process Page 1 of 3 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Come On In 

Laura Harty 

This project asks students to remake and refashion the interiors of particular canonical houses and small buildings of the 20th and 21st 

centuries in order to identify what it is about them that makes them individual. It asks them to engage with various architectural tools and to 

absorb and claim the new-found spaces for themselves. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

proach Process page 1 of 3 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

10 

Top - Erya Zhu Middle - Erya Zhu Bottom - Ho Hang Ryan Fung

Final Page 1 of 3 

 

Final Pag 

Final Page 1 of 3Final Page 2 of 3 

 

Final Pag 

 

 

 

 

 

Come On In 

Come on In 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Top left to Bottom right - Erya Zhu(5), Ho Hang Ryan Fung 

11

esign. 

design 

 

 

 

Intervention! 


This project invites students to design a small inhabited intervention within a particular surveyed site. Using measured survey drawings, 

photographic studies and observational drawings in order to inform ideas for a new small scale ‘micro architecture’, students design an 

intervention that houses a particular function and occupies territory between the scale of furniture and architecture. 

Linked with AUP Stage 1 (see pg.68) 

this is 

- 

12 

Top - Katie Cottle 

Bottom - Ho Hang Ryan Fung

ORIGINAL WORK PAGE (1 of 1) 

PRESENTATION PAGE 

30 

27 


“what’s inside? i can only silhouettes” 

process s 51 

“that guy accross the room is talented” 

process 53 

39 

41 

Top left to Bottom right - Zhong Zheng, Megan Nightingale, Tobias Himawan(2), Matthew Warenburg (2), Peter Staniforth (2) 13

The Chair and the Figure 


In this project, students examine and draw a particular chair, relating it to the proportions of the human body. The project combines 

observational drawing of a static design element, with the study of human proportion in movement, looking in particular at the module of 

the human form and how it serves as a basis for architectural design. 

Linked with AUP Stage 1 (see pg.68) 

14 Top left to Bottom right - Anna Volkova, Karishma Dayalji, Qian Yi Choi, Cameron Reid (AUP), Anya Donnelly, Group: Kate Asolo Woolley, Maegan Rui 

Qi Lim, Michelle Sie Ee Lim, Anastasia Ciorici, Maisie Jenkins (AUP), Julian Baxter (AUP), Karolina Smok (AUP), Group: Isabel Lois Fox, Jacob Timothy 

Weetman Grantham, Jianing Lyu; Leeza Potanah

Top left to Bottom right - Group: Abigail Elisabeth Hawkins, Christopher David Anderson, Luk Chong Leung; Group (AUP): Kirin Gallop, Fabian Kamran, 

Natalie Si Wing Lau, Thomas McFall; Alexandra Duxbury, Martina Hansah, Tobias Evan Himawan, Ruth Vidal-Hall, Group (AUP): Ellis Salthouse, Nur 

Salymbekov, Ella Sophia Spencer, Thanuyini Suseetharan; Xin Guo, Shivani Patel 

15

Market Placed 

Simon Hacker 

In this final project of the year, students design a small market and enterprise building for the University Campus. The project commences 

with the design of individual stalls, booths and small workshops that explore various architectural languages. Working within a group students 

then design a collective aggregation or cluster of these small structures on a specific site – a market place. Finally, they individually design a 

larger in-door hall in conjunction with a structure and skin that provides shelter for the wider market complex. 

 

Technical drawings and picture 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

16 

Top - Pok Ho Cheung Middle - Megan Nightingale Bottom, left to right - Qian Yi Choi, Natalia Piorecka(2)

PRESENTATION PAGE 1 OF 14 

FINAL STORE MODEL 

 

 

student forum site. It 

is going to be selling 

frozent younghurt 

which people can buy 

it and walking around 

the market like holding 

ice cream or they 

can sit on the top 

 

younghurt. 

9 

BRUTALISM x FREI OTTO | An investigation of the site revealed a assortment of different architectural elements across the site. Claremont 

tower is brutalistic, the glass and steel staircase at the old library building reflects the open frame language, and the trees behave like 

 

Frei Otto’s tensile structures. 

From left to right: 

Fig 22a: Investigation to minimize roof’s elevational 

profile 

Fig 22b: Reinterpreation of architectural elements 

on Site B 

Fig 22c: Development of roof’s structural strategy 

16 

 

Technical drawings and picture 

 

 

PROCESS PAGE 3 OF 10 

22 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

18 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

For the materiality, 

glass and timber as 

Steel and glass will b 

porting material for 

 

the clusters. The ma 

ported by the black 

those black wire is se 

tension cable to resis 

roof. I also added tw 

 

outdoor spaces for t 

ORIGINAL WORK PAGE 2 OF 6 

Top left to Bottom right - Qian Yi Choi, Edward Benedict Yaoxiang Yan, Anastasia Ciorici, Atthaphan Sespattanachai, Pok Ho Cheung, Ho Hang Ryan Fung, 

Qian Yi Choi, Katie Lara Cottle, Atthaphan Sespattanachai, Matthew Chi Ming Warrenberg 

25 

17

Stage 2 

Economy forms the basis of our architectural investigations and design explorations in Stage 2 this 

year. How architecture is produced by, and productive of, the economies within which we live has 

been explored through analysis of urban environments and the imagination of their futures; the design 

of collective housing and communal spaces; projects crossing the boundaries between art, architecture 

and engineering; and the design of spatial experience. 

With projects set in Edinburgh’s historic port, Leith and the Northumberland border town of 

Berwick-upon-Tweed, and in the fictional realms of film, projects have moved between the scale of the 

dwelling to the scale of space; from the digital to the material and practices of making: always asking 

the question of architectures’ role and relation to the economies it is embedded in. 

A year of transition, Stage 2 seeks to encourage a growing sense of criticality towards design decisions, 

a developing autonomy of thought and action, and an understanding of architectures’ position in 

times of social, cultural and economic flux. 

Year Coordinators 

Andy Campbell 

Ed Wainwright 

Christos Kakalis 

Claire Harper 

Project Tutors 

Amara Roca Inglesias 

Amy Linford 

Carolina Ramirez Figuroa 


Claire Harper 

Dan Kerr 

Gillian Peskett 


James Perry 

Jennie Webb 

Jess Davidson 

Luke Rigg 

Nita Kidd 

Stella Migdali 

Fine Art Tutors 

Adam Goodwin 

Archie Bell 

Gareth Hudson 

Harriet Sutcliffe 

Peter Sharpe 

Julia Heslop 

Rosie Morris 

Students 

Aaron Swaffer 

Abigail May Smart 

Alesia Berahavaya 

Alysia Lara Arnold 

Arran James Noble 

Bahram Yaradanguliyev 

Benedict Douglas Wigmore 

Boris Larico Villagomez 

Brandon Athol Few 

Callum James Luke 

Callum Robert Campbell 

Charlie William Donaldson 

Cheng Wan Mak 

Chi Lam Cheng 

Ching Nam Yue 

Ching Wah Hong 

Chou Ee Ng 

Chun Yin Ng 

Ciara Catherine McClelland 

Cooper Taylor 

Danielle Helena Berg 

Darcy Eleanor Arnold-Jones 

David Michael Gray 

David Richard Osorno 

Dianne Kwene Aku Odede 

Dora Mary Frances Farrelly 

Eleanor Waugh 

Elliot James Crowe 

Elliot Matthew Dolphin 

Eloise Aliza Coleman 

Emily Catherine Child 

Emily Reta Spencer 

Emma Elizabeth Kemp 

Emma Imogen Moxon 

Ethan John Archer 

Euan Emilio Alpin McGregor 

Eve Kindon 

Finlay William Lohoar Self 

Freya Jane Emerson 

Gemma Louise Duma 

Grace Charlotte Ward 

Hannah Emily McAvoy 

Harry Cameron Tindale 

Harry Robert Henderson 

Hazel Ruth Cozens 

Helenna Abigail Taylor 

Henry James Cahill 

Ho Sze Jose Cheng 

Huiyu Zhou 

Ibadullah Shigiwol 

Ioana Buzoianu 

Irvano Irvian 

Jack Oscar Sweet 

Jake Thomas Williams-Deoraj 

James Edward Bacon 

James Gillis 

Jamie Schwarz 

Jay Antony Hallsworth 

Jemima Alice Smith 

Jerome Sripetchvandee 

Jhon Sebastian Valencia Cortes 

Jia Lun Chang 

Jiewen Tan 

Joanne Lois May Cain 

Joel Pacini 

Jonathan Pilosof 

Jordan Paige Ince 

Jose Diogo Lajes Machado 

Marques Figueira 

Joseph Henry Noah Elbourn 

Joshua Willem Jago Knight 

Jun Tao Gerald Ser 

Junyi Chen 

Ka Chun Rico Chow 

Ka Hei Chan 

Kai Lok Cheng 

Katie Ann Elizabeth Campbell 

Katy Rose Barnes 

Kieran Harrison 

King Chi Leung 

Kiran Kaur Basi 

Konstantins Briskins 

Kotryna Navickaite 

Levente Mate Borenich 

Liam Kieran Rogers 

Liam Michael Marcel Davi 

Lilian Winifred Davies 

Luc James Askew-Vajra 

Malgorzata Nicoll Szarnecka 

Man Cheong Gabriel Leung 

Matilda Louise Durkin 

Matilda Marie Barratt 

Matthew Edward Harrison 

Matthew Oliver Ward 

Meina Zhang 

Mengxian He 

Monica Said 

Myeongjin Suh 

Nadia Beatriss Young 

Nancy Marshall Marrs 

Natasha Diyamanthi Trayner 

Nicholas Juan Tatang 

Nikshith Nagaraja Reddy 

Nitichot Setachanadana 

Nophill Mohmmd Damaniya 

Olga Barkova 

Pablo Larrea Wheldon 

Phoebe Elizabeth A Shepherd 

Polina Morova 

Quian Wang 

Qian Zhao 

Rachael Jeanette Burleigh 

Rachen Marie Cummings 

Rachel Spencer 

Rebecca Charlotte Glancey 

Rebecca Jean Maw 

Reece Jay Oliver 

Rowena Saffron Covarr 

Robert Walker Ashworth 

Rufus Giles Wilkinson 

Samuel George Brooke 

Samuel James Hawkins 

Seo Ruong Kang 

Seyoung Han 

Shihao Quan 

Simour Elise Button 

Siriwardhanalage De Saram 

Sophie Ogilvie-Graham 

Steven Gary Lennox 

Susanna Emily Jane Smith 

Tanya Naresh Haldipur 

Tashanraj Selvanayagam 

Tian Hong Kevin Wong 

Tian Yee Lim 

Toghrul Mammadov 

Weihao Wang 

Wing Yung Janet Tam 

Xi Lin 

Xuanzhi Huang 

Yi-En Ling 

Yuan Xu 

Yuan Xue 

Yuehua Wang 

Yuze Tian 

Zehua Wei 

Zhidong Liu 

Contributors 

See pg.201 

18 Text by Christos Kakalis Opposite - Arran Noble

Top left - Name Name Project Title Top right - Nameless Nameless Project Title Bottom - Name Name Project Title 

19

At Home in the City 

Amara Roca Inglesias & Dan Kerr; Jennie Webb & Luke Rigg; Gillian Peskett & Christos Kakalis; Amy Linford & Stella Migdali; Nita 

Kidd & James Perry; Carolina Ramirez Figuroa & James Longfield; Jess Davidson & Claire Harper 

How housing is produced, where it is built and who it is for are essential questions, not only for architectural practitioners, but for society at 

large. Semester one’s main project, set in Leith, Edinburgh, explored the changing conditions of housing and collective living within a set of 

specific economic and social constraints. 

20 Top - Henry Cahill Bottom - Samuel Brooke

Top - Brandon Few Middle, left to right - Toghrul Mammadov, Hazel Cozens, Jose Lajes Machando Marques Figueira Bottom - Brandon Few 

21

Engineering Experience 



Through a collaborative project involving students, staff and practitioners from architecture, fine art and engineering, filmic environments 

were reimagined as a set of physical artworks to be moved into, through, over, under – experienced through human motion and the camera, 

and re-filmed to re-tell a specific experience from each film. 

22 

Top and Middle - Charlie William Donaldson 

Bottom, left to right - Irvano Irvian, Alesia Berahavaya

Left - Alesia Berahavaya 

Right, top to bottom - Ethan John Archer, Irvano Irvian 

23

Exploring Experience 



Can we think of architecture through an experiential understanding of materiality? Producing, treating and working with materials suggest 

practices and processes that can inform design to unpack diverse architectural events taking place in different levels: from drawing to 

construction and inhabitation. The project, set in Berwick-upon-Tweed, explores the ways materiality is embodied in architecture seeking, to 

unravel its complex and dynamic character. 

24 Top - Benedict Wigmore Middle, left to right - Levente Borenich, Bahram Yaradanguliyev, Gemma Duma Bottom - Liam Davi

Top - Katie Campbell Middle - MatthewWard Bottom - CharlieDonaldson 

25

Stage 3 

Following RIBA Bronze Medal success last year, this year’s Stage 3 were given the choice of nine yearlong 

studios covering a wide range of themes and issues. Three of the studios were also taught vertically, 

split between the graduating Stages 3 and 6, providing a platform for peer learning and increased crosspollination 

between the BA and MArch. 

Studios covered subjects ranging from the re-use of the Bank of England site, through unconscious 

rituals and contemporary monastic practice to a revisit of Cedric Price’s ‘Potteries Think Belt’. Field 

trips ranged from a stay in Barcelona, an Italian ‘Grand Tour’, visits to Ronchamp and La Tourette and 

a road trip to Nottingham, Leicester and Walsall. The studios followed the pattern established last year 

of a six week primer, followed by ‘Staging’ (including a field trip), Realization and Refinement stages. 

The ‘Primer’ exercise is designed to develop and define the studio’s unique thematic framework. Students 

then developed their own projects, from a complex range of issues into a structured and synthetic 

whole. New innovations this year included ‘Theory into Practice’ and ‘Architectural Technology’ 

symposium days, an increased focus on technical integration through focused technical reviews and 

expanded academic portfolios. 

Year Coordinator 

Matthew Margetts 

Cara Lund 


Aldric Rodriguez Iborra 

Amy Linford 

Andy Campbell 

Armelle Tardiveau 

Cara Lund 

Carolina Figueroa 


Colin Ross 

Daniel Mallo 

David McKenna 

Hugh Miller 

Ivan Marquez 

Josep Maria Garcia Fuentes 

James Londfield 

Kati Blom 

Martyn Dade Robertson 


Michael Simpson 

Students 

Agatha Mary MacEwan Savage 

Aishath Mohaned Rasheed 

Alena Pavlenko 

Alexander Willaim 

Alexander William Mackay 

Alexander James McCulloch 

Alice Elizabeth Reeves 

Alice Elizabeth Simpkins-Wood 

Amber Natasha Farrow 

Ameeta Praful Ladwa 

Andreas Lukita Haliman 

Angus James Campbell Brown 

Anna Vershinina 

April Glasby 

Arthur Anuma Bayele 

Assem Nurymbayeva 

Benjamin James Taylor 

Boram Kwon 

Charlotte Goodfellow 

Charlotte Laura Victoria Lorgues 

Chao Shen 

Chi-Yao Lin 

Ciaran Horscraft 

Claudia Kim Bannatyne 

Daniel Barrett 

Daniel Francis Hill 

David Stuart Jones 

Douglas Gardner 

Ekren Sungur 

Elizabeth Rose Ridland 

Eliza Hague 

Elle-May Simmonds 

Emily Yasmin Georgina O’Hara 

Emma Kate Burles 

Esme Hallam 

Farrah Noelle Colilles 

Gabrielle Faith Beaumont 

George Windsor Oliver 

Grace de Rome 

Groffrey Nicholls 

Hao Zhuang 

Harrison Jack Avery 

Hector Adam Laird 

Henry William Orlando Valori 

Hoi Yuet Chau 

Ho Yin Chung 

Huey Ee Yong 

Isabel Mills Lyle 

Jack David Ranby 

Jacob Alexander Smith 

James Alexander Kennedy 

Jennifer Louise Betts 

Ji Chuen Ng 

John Kenneth Knight 

John Joesph O’Brien 

Jonathon McDonald 

Joseph William Firth Smith 

Juan Felipe Lopez Arbelaez 

Ka Chun Tsang 

Kate Francis Byrne 

Kate Hannah Longmore 

Kate Helena Stephenson 

Katherina Weiwei Bruh 

Katherine Isabel Rhodes 

Katherine Marguerite Mitchell 

Laura Jane Cushine 

Lawrance Loc Man Wong 

Liam Costain 

Lilly Francis Street 

Lilly Rebekah Travers 

Lucy Emily Heal 

Marina Ryzhkova 

Marisa Rachel Bamberg 

Mark Andrew Laverty 

Mattew Davies Smith 

Matthew Donald Lovat Hearn 

Matthew Layford 

Matthew Patrick Rooney 

Melitni Athanasiou 

Men Hin Choi 

Muhammad Ahmed Asfand 

Natalie Mok Suet Yin 

Nial Simran Parkash 

Nicholas William Gilchrist Honey 

Nita Harieth Semgalawe 

Nurul ‘Aqilah Binti Ali 

Octorino Tjandra 

Oliver James Crossley 

Pannawat Sermsuk 

Paul Mathew Johnson 

Philippa Grace McLeod-Brown 

Pitaruthai Longyan 

Prajwal Limbu 

Pui Wing Clarins Chan 

Quynh Dang Le Tu 

Rebecca Rowland 

Regen James Gregg 

Rhiannon Jade Graham 

Robert John Thackeray 

Robert Thurtell 

Richard Harry Mayhew 

Rufaro Natalie Matanda 

Ryan Daniel Bemrose 

Ryoga Adityo Dipowikoro 

Sam McDonough 

Samuel Richard 

Sam Welbourne 

Sean Martyn Hoisington 

Shuyi Chen 

Sirawat Thepcharoen 

Thasnia Haque 

Timothy Seymour Lucas 

Trung Hieu Tran 

Tung Son Cao 

Tristan Patrick Chammey Searight 

Vincent Zeno MacDonald 

Wai Yip Tsang 

William Mansell 

Wing Kei So 

Xueyang Bai 

Yanjie Song 

Yee Yuen Ku 

Yi Shu 

Zhuoran Li 

Ziyun Wang 

Contributors 

See pg.201 

26 

Text by Matthew Margetts 

Opposite - George Oliver

Studio 1 - Acting Town 

Daniel Mallo & Armelle Tardiveau 

Based in the Georgian market town of Richmond (North Yorkshire), the Acting Town studio focused on the creation of spaces for performativity 

bringing to the fore interaction, events and processes. The studio placed a strong emphasis on urban and material research with a view to 

interweave experimental spaces for performing arts within the urban fabric. The year started exploring the themes of variation, seriality and 

repetition within the dense amalgamation of Richmond town centre; it culminated with the design of a Laboratory for Performing Arts 

unfolding the approach of building as a ‘village’, a series of sequentially interconnected rooms, outdoor plazas and alleys. 

28 

Left - Nick Honey 

Right, top to bottom - Liam Costain, Nick Honey, Ekrem Sungar

Left, top to bottom - Aui Longyan, Mark Laverty, Nita Semgalawe Right, top to bottom - Liam Costain(2), George Oliver 29

30 Top left to Bottom right - April Glasby, Gloria Chen, Quynh Dang Le Tu, Pan Sermsuk

Top left to Bottom right - James Kennedy, Pui Wing Chan, Anna Vershinina, Grace de Rome(2), Shuyi Chen 31

Studio 2 - Enclosed Order 

Ivan Marquez Munoz & Christos Kakalis 

The Enclosed Order studio proposed an investigation of monastic architecture, divided into two main stages: 

In the first stage, students were asked to define the individual character and the community that will inhabit the suggested complex, 

being required to imagine, formally explore and design the unit/monastic cell that this character is going to inhabit, emphasising on its 

atmosphere,and intangible qualities. 

In the second stage,students were asked to design a monastic/retreat complex based upon the line of enquiry developed in the first stage, 

refining their own briefs and narratives. 

32 

Andreas Hliman

Top left to Bottom right - Ciaran Horscraft, Andreas Hliman, Matthew Hearn, Sean Hosington, Marisa Bamberg, Ryoga Dipowikoro, Laura Cushnie 33

34 

Top, left to right - Melitini Athanasiou, Ka Chun Tsang Middle - Yi Shu Bottom - Chi-Yao Lin

Top - Timothy Lucas Middle, left to right - Wing Kei So, Nurul Ali Bottom - Laura Cushnie 35

Studio 3 - Experimental Architecture 

Martyn Dade-Robertson & Carolina Figueroa 

This year the Experimental Architecture studio anticipated the implications of a new generation of ‘Living Technologies’ on the design of the 

built environment. The studio made use of the University’s world-class research in biology and biotechnology to anticipate a new building 

technology. We introduced students to the idea of experiment and experimental practices in architecture – combining scientific experiments 

with creative and open-ended design processes. The studio was sited in Dunston Staiths where the students were asked to “fill the gap” in a 

fire damaged portion of this industrial timber structure on the River Tyne. The students developed propositions based on a range of lab and 

studio combined facilities. 

36 Exhibition - Group work

Top - Kate Stephenson Middle - Kate Stephenson Bottom - Trung Hieu Tran 37

38 Top - Amber Farrow Middle - Pippa Mcleod-Brown Bottom - Vincent MacDonald

Left, top to bottom - Alexander McCulloch, Amber Forrow Right, top to bottom - Emma Burles, Kate Byrne, Hector Laird, Robert Thackery, Matthew Layford 39

Studio 4 - Getting Away From It All 

Colin Ross & Michael Simpson 

The studio is led by Colin Ross and Michael Simpson. Both practicing architects, they have a shared interest in cross disciplinary design which 

encourages students to develop an expanded creative practice beyond building focussed architectural outcomes. 

Studio ambitions were to a) explore design across scales and disciplines with ‘building’ as a centre of a layered design response, b) discover coast 

and community through a process of immersive, collaborative study with peers, c) create a tourist destination to boost local economy - a tool 

for regeneration with local, regional or national focus. 

40 

Top - Jon McDonald Middle, left to right - Joseph Smith, Claudia Bannatyne, Arthur Bayel Bottom - Jon McDonald

perspective section with airflow 

PERSPECTIVE SECTION 1:100 WITH AIRFLOW 

1:100 

Top - Esme Hallam Middle - Alice Simpkins Bottom - Will Mansell 41

42 

Top - Matthew Rooney Middle, left to right - Elizabeth Ridland, Agatha Savage, Katherine Mitchell Bottom - Katherine Mitchell

Left - Matthew Rooney Right, top to bottom - Matthew Rooney, Richard Mayhew, Gabrielle Beaumont(3) 43

Studio 5 - Material Poetics 

James Longfield & Amy Linford 

Material qualities are central to the production of architecture, both technically, in terms of the pragmatics of construction, and through the 

social meanings, rituals and memories they embody. Our studio encouraged students to engage with material as the ‘stuff’ of architecture, 

real, rather than rendered, the thickness, thinness, density, weight of building elements, and the effect these qualities have on the sensory 

experience of occupation. 

Through the studio each student has explored a specific material through hands-on investigations, and through a year-long engagement with 

Scarborough as a site of reflection and production. Students’ projects have addressed materiality as a way of thinking about building design 

and detailing as a thoughtful and critical process of material assembly which emerges out of the pragmatics and poetics of material contexts, 

cultures and politics. 

44 

Left - Ho Yin Chung 

Right, top to bottom - Lilly Street, Aishath Rasheed, Lilly Street

Top left to Bottom right - Angus Brown, Katherine Rodes, Ryan Bemrose, Ji Chuen Ng, Natalie Mok, Rhiannon Graham, Thasnia Haque 45

46 Top to Bottom - Lilly Travers(2), Aishath Rasheed, Natalie Matanda

Top - Ameeta Ladwa Middle - Natalie Matanda Bottom - Alive Reeves 47

Studio 6 - The Very Hungry Caterpillar 

Andy Campbell 

The Very Hungry Caterpillar studio focuses on helping something grow, evolve and flourish. Students were asked to support the seed of an 

idea to creatively re-use a vacant, under-used building in Glasgow. An architecture of preservation will allow this ordinary building to be 

inhabited by a creative, artistic community in the short-medium term while an architectural strategy for the longer term will help protect this 

community through an envisioned gentrification of the surrounding area. 

48 Top - Daniel Hill Bottom - Ziyun Wang

1:200 Exploded Axonometric 

Seeking a New Corporate Architecture 

Katie Longmore 

Main Entrance Elevation 

Left, top to bottom - Juan Lopez Arbelaez, Katie Longmore 

Right, top to bottom - Wai Yip Tsang, Ziyun Wang(2) 

49

50 Top left - Rebecca Rowland Top right - Wai Yip Tsang Middle - Rebecca Rowland Bottom - Sirawat Thepcharoen

Left, top to bottom - Juan Lopez Arbelaez, Katie Longmore, Daniel Hill 

Right, top to bottom - Regen James Gregg, Daniel Hill 

51

Studio 7 - Potteries Thinkbelt 

Matthew Margetts & Cara Lund 

Continuing an interest in Infrastructure as background processes and systems this year we have revisited Cedric Price’s ‘Potteries Think Belt’ 

- 50 years after its conception. We used the Potteries Think Belt plan as a ‘treasure map’ to navigate the delights of contemporary Stoke-on- 

Trent. 

The studio was one of three ‘vertical’ studios pioneered this year, taught jointly between Stages 3 and 6, and began with the group exercise of 

building a ‘Stoke-o-Matic’ dynamic mapping model. The model was used to explore systematic relationships between transport, education, 

environment and identity with enjoyably unpredictable results. 

Stage 3 students were then asked to develop their own hybrid briefs based on components of the Potteries Thinkbelt’s original brief – 

incubators, knowledge stores, accommodation units and interchange stations. Sites were selected along infrastructural routes past, present 

and future. 

Linked with Stage 6 (see pg.144) 

52 Symposium - Group work

Top, left to right - Chao Shen, Hao Zhuang Middle, left to right - Sam Wellbourne, Chao Shen Bottom - Chao Shen 

53

54 Top and Middle - Boram Kwon Bottom - Hao Zhuang

Left, top to bottom - Ben Taylor(3), Hao Zhuang 

Right - Elle Simmonds(2), Sam Wellbourne 

55

Studio 8 - Building Upon Building 

Josep-Maria García-Fuentes & Aldric Rodriguez Iborra 

This studio explored preservation as architecture, as it understands they are both placed within a cultural continuum and are the outcome of 

a complex cultural, social and political struggle. This idea was explored through the design of a major addition to/or the transformation of 

an existing heritage building. This required an understanding of the existing building in all of the ways its architecture and materials express 

the values it sought to represent and serve at the time, and in the ways that those meanings might or might not be extended, enriched or 

transformed and reshaped by the new addition. 


56 Lawrence Wong

Top - Yanjie Song 

Bottom - Octorino Tjandra 

57

58 Xueyang Bai

Sketch and Final Sections, 1:200 

at A1 

Top - Henry Valori Middle - Octorino Tjandra Bottom - Jack Ranby 

59

Studio 9 – Rituals and the Unconscious 

Kati Blom, David McKenna & Hugh Miller 

In Rituals (and the unconscious) students designed a small tea ceremony room in a site in Tynemouth. After developing spatial themes and 

landscape strategies from this intervention, they continued to design a craft or an architecture school using the same site. A Japanese joinery 

workshop helped with concept development. 


60 Top - Matthew Smith Bottom, left to right - Hue Yong, Matthew Smith, Daniel Barrett

Top left - Daniel Barrett Top right - Eliza Hague Bottom - Hue Yong 

61

62 Top - Eliza Hague Middle and Bottom - Daniel Barrett

Left, top to bottom - Yuen Ku(2), Paul Johnson 

Right, top to bottom - Harrison Avery, Eliza Hague 

63

Stage 3 - Fieldwork & Site Visits 


As part of Stage 3 the varied studios undertake a range of field trips in the first semester, travelling to a diverse locations around Europe. 

Studio 1: Acting Town 

Madrid 

Studio 2: Enclosed Order 

Basel 

La Tourette 

Lyon 

Ronchamp 

Vitra Foundation - London - Barcelona 

Studio 3: Experimental Architecture 

Barcelona 

London 

Studio 4: Getting Away From It All 

Edinburgh 

Studio 5: Material Poetics 

Barcelona 

Studio 6: The Very Hungry Caterpillar 

Glasgow 

Studio 7: Potteries Thinkbelt 

Birmingham 

Leicester 

Nottingham 

Walsall 

Studio 8: Building on Building 

London 

Rome 

Verona 

Venice 

Studio 9: Rituals and Unconscious 

Finland 

64

Barcelona Centre 

KATI DON’T WALK IN FRONT OF THE CAMERA

BA Architecture & Urban Planning (AUP) 

Andrew Law & Armelle Tardiveau – Degree Programme Directors 

The BA (Hons) Architecture and Urban Planning (AUP) is an evolving three-year 

programme that seeks to unite academic themes and approaches from the architecture 

and urban planning programmes across the School. The AUP degree carries its own 

intellectual and pedagogical themes that cannot be found on other programmes 

elsewhere in the School. There are four conceptual strands, which includes one major 

theme, ‘alternative practice’, and three minor themes: visual culture, urban design and 

spatial practice as well as social enterprise. 

The alternative practice strand responds to a critique of twentieth century architecture 

and planning as overly technocratic and individualised. Returning to these critiques, 

alternative practice bring to the fore social, cultural, political and environmental 

concerns in the design and construction of the built environment. Our course has 

drawn inspiration from a range of thinkers and practitioners concerned with the built 

environment (including philosophers, political activists, sociologists, geographers, 

architects and planners) that have sought to engage and include communities in design 

and building (sometimes self-build, sometimes co-production). 

The design work from Stages 1, 2 and 3 of the programme selectively showcases much of 

the intellectual and practical academic content of the degree while helping the students 

to develop visual and spatial skills; we aim to engage students in developing their own 

agenda and interests making clear the connections between social, environmental and 

design issues and the built environment as the driving spirit of their endeavors. 

67

AUP Stage 1 

The AUP programme is radically interdisciplinary and offers an integrated approach to both 

Architecture and Urban Planning. The first semester focuses on skill building with formative 

design projects allowing students to develop drawing abilities in free hand and orthographic 

representation, as well as engage them in materialising spatial ideas three dimensionally through 

modelling and sketching. 

Students begin the year with the study of an urban scene in Siena painted by Lorenzetti in 1339; 

they interrogate the socio-spatial relationships and model to scale their interpretation of the 

urban fabric. This first exercise is intended to set the tone of the programme and engage students 

in unpacking traditional questions in urban studies at all scales (city, building, people). This is 

supported in greater depth with non-design modules such as ‘Alternative Practice Histories’ 

and ‘Social Worlds’ allowing students to develop critical thinking of the power of the standard 

profession while broadening the spectrum of the myriad of other actors of the built environment. 

The design projects together with the ‘Introduction to Architectural History’ and ‘Architectural 

Technology’ are shared with Stage 1 BA Architecture ensuring that AUP students are familiar with 

existing architectural practice, discourse and culture. As such the artists and design contributors 

from Architecture provide an invaluable input and grounding into the first year programme. 

Linked with BA Stage 1 (see pg.12-15) 



David McKenna 

Elizabeth Baldwin Grey 


Kati Blom 

Sean Douglas 

Stage 1 

Abell Ene 

Aimee Akinola 

Amabelle Aranas 

Andrew Fong 

Andrew Webb 

Anqi Li 

Cameron Reid 

Chloe Cummings 

Chunyang Song 

Daniel Carr 

Dongjae Lee 

Dwayne De Vera 

Ella Spencer 

Ellis Salthouse 

Emma Van Der Welle 

Fabian Kamran 

Farah Binti Ashraf 

Haziqah Hafiz Howe 

Henry Oswald 

Julian Baxter 

Juliette Smith 

Karim Shaltout 

Karolina Smok 

Kelly Morris 

Kirin Gallop 

Luis Henriques Menezes Pataca 

Maisie Jenkins 

Matthew Li 

Mohammad Hassan 

Natalie Lau 

Nik Binti Azman 

Nur Salymbekov 

Oliver Timms 

Oyinkansola Omotola 

Ryan Hancock 

Salar Butt 

Samantha Chong 

Sara Fulton 

Sebestyen Laszlo Tali 

Shuli Wu 

Sophie Wakenshaw 

Stephen Teale 

Thanuyini Suseetharan 

Thomas McFall 

Thomas Sheridan 

Contributors 

See pg.201 

68 

Text by Armelle Tardiveau 

Opposite - Sophie Wakenshaw

Reading Into/Drawing From 


The project focuses on The Allegory of Good and Bad Government, an urban scene set in the city of Siena, Italy, painted by Ambrogio 

Lorenzetti between 1338-39. By observing, sketching and drawing the ensembles of buildings that can be read into Lorenzetti’s painting, 

students delve into a three-dimensional interpretation of the traditional urban fabric depicted. Working in groups, the outcome is the 

articulation of a plan and a model of the scene. 

70 

Group Work: Sophie Wakenshaw; Ryan Hancock; Luis Pataca, Shuli Wu; Juliette Smith; Karolina Smok; Oliver Timms, Amabelle Aranas; Julian Baxter; Dwayne 

De Vera; Sara Fulton, Karolina Smok, Oyinkansola Omotola, Haziqah Hafiz Howe, Daniel Carr; Sebestyen Laszlo Tali; Emma Van Der Welle

Measure 

David McKenna 

There are 14 boat houses belonging to various colleges, schools and amateur rowing clubs located along the Wear in Durham. The earliest dates 

from the early 1800s and coincide with the founding of the University. Measure required the design of a 15th boat house and cafe that would 

form a gateway from the city centre to the University playing fields with particular consideration of sunlight and floodwater. 

Top, left to right - Natalie Lau, Sophie Wakenshaw, Haziqah Hafiz Howe Middle - Ella Spencer Bottom - Kirin Gallop 

71

72 Top left to Bottom right - Haziqah Hafiz Howe, Natalie Lau, Shuli Wu(2), Karolina Smok, Chloe Cummings, Luis Henriques Menezes Pataca, Kirin Gallop

Top left to Bottom right - Ella Spencer, Anabelle Arana, Natalie Lau, Chloe Cummings, Andrew Webb 

73

AUP Stage 2 

Delving into greater depth in the alternative practice ethos, students develop further critical thinking 

by being exposed to theories pertaining to architecture and planning in the widest possible range of 

cultures and social groups. Positionality in both theory and design becomes a leading aspect of the 

AUP Stage 2. In addition, students are provided the opportunity to choose from a variety of options 

so that they can carve their own career path and further develop skills and imagination in design 

projects but also specialisms in planning, social enterprise, poverty and informal housing as well as 

sociology and the politics of urban space. The optional field trip to the Netherlands is a highlight 

of the second semester where students are exposed to alternative practice projects and governance 

methods as well as sustainable approaches to the built environment. 


Rutter Carroll 

Stage 2 

Abbey Forster 

Adil Zeynalov 

Ahmet Hayta 

Ben Johnson 

Beyza Celebi 

Bunkechukwu Obiagwu 

Dominica Bates 

Emily Whyman 

Flynn Linklater-Johnson 

Georgia Miles 

Hannah Hiscock 

Jeffrey Korworrakul 

Jieyang Zhou 

Jing Su 

Joshua Beattie 

Junqiang Chen 

Ka Hei Wong 

Michael Rosciszewski Dodgson 

Minsub Lee 

Racheal Osinuga 

Richard Gilliatt 

Ryan Thomas 

Sahir Thapar 

Sanghyeok Lee 

Shaoyun Wang 

Sonali Venkateswaran 

Sutong Yu 

Theodore VostBond 

Ting En Wu 

Van Abner Tabigue Consul 

Winnie Wong 

Zeynab Bozorg 

Contributors 

See pg.201 

74 

Text by Armelle Tardiveau 

Opposite - Group work

Theory and Form 


The module considered the development of architectural expression in response to the economic challenges and social optimism that 

characterises the North East region. 

Students considered a Theory + Form approach in the submission of an essay and design project pursuing a strategy for the re-use/conversion/ 

extension/adaptation of an existing post war building on Tyneside. 

The Salvation Army Men’s Hostel, by Ryder and Yates, a key building from the post war period in the region, was identified for study and 

analysis by allowing students to assess the design through a series of lectures, visits, seminars, design analysis tutorials and exercises. 

76 

Top - Salvation Army Men’s Hostel, by Ryder and Yates 1974 

Bottom - Group work: Junqiang Chen, Minsub Lee, Ka Hei Wong, Ting En Wu

Group Work: Jing Su, Shaoyun Wang, Sutong Yu, Jieyang Zhou, Ahmet Halil Hayta, Sanghyeok Lee, Reacheal Felicia Modupeayo Osinuga, Winnie Wing Yee 

Wong, Zeynab Bozorg, Van Abner Tabigue, Consul, Sahir Thaper, Ryan Patrick Thomas, Fatma Beyza Celebi, Bunkechukwu Chiagoziem Obiagwu, Sonali 

Venkateswaran, Dominica Ruby Bates, Joshua Edward Beattie, Theodore Christian Robert VostBond, Emily Whyman 

77

AUP Stage 3 

The major component of Stage 3 is the dissertation. In order to cater for the variety of strengths and 

abilities of the cohort, students may choose to write a Social Science dissertation or Creative Practice 

dissertation using design as a form of enquiry. The design modules offered, including housing for 

vulnerable populations and co-production of space, ensure an incremental experience of working 

in/for/with communities. Furthermore, the Erasmus exchange to Amsterdam and Stockholm in 

semester one reinforces the diversity of approaches around alternative practice. The year culminates 

with a series of talks by a variety of practitioners and activists of the built environment with a view 

to inspire students for their next academic or professional steps – these include Amy Lindford 

of MUF Architects,Kate Percival and Sara Cooper of 22 Sheds, Dr Emma Coffield curator of 

Newcastle City Futures, Michael Crilly of Studio Urban Area, Ryan Conlon a student from the 

MA Urban Design student (AUP 15/16 graduate), Sally Watson Architectural Curator and Dhruv 

Sookhoo, architect, planner and developer. 



Daniel Mallo 

Tim Townshend 

Stage 3 

Alex Robson 

Ali Alshirawi 

Andrew Blandford-Newson 

Anthony Choy 

Chia-Yuan Chang 

Christopher Hau 

Eleanor Chapman 

George Jeavons-Fellows 

Hannah Knott 

Henry Morgan 

Jieyu Xiong 

Jonas Grytnes 

Luke Leung 

Nadine Landes 

Natalie Sung 

Phuong Anh Pham 

Runyu Zhang 

Sheryl Lee 

Simona Penkauskaite 

Thomas Gibbons 

Yeqian Gao 

Yilan Zhang 

Yuxiang Wang 

Contributors 

See pg.201 

78 

Text be Armelle Tardiveau 

Opposite - Group work

Housing For Vulnerable Populations 

Tim Townshend 

During the 2020s a point will be reached where 25% of the UK’s population is 65 or over. However people are not simply living longer, 

but living more active lives into older age. There is a huge challenge to meet the needs and aspirations of these active ‘third agers’. Working 

with Armstrong House an independent charity providing ‘independent living with support‘, in the village of Bamburgh, Northumberland 

explored the complexities of providing a safe, stimulating and desirable home for older people in the existing setting of a listed building. 

80 Top - Luke Leung Middle - Jonas Grytne Bottom - Anthony Choy and Yuxiang Xang

S E N S O R Y G A R D E N S M E L L T O U C H S O U N D S I G H T 

S E N S O R Y G A R D E N S M E L L T O U C H S O U N D S I G H T 

HONEYSUCKLE 

HONEYSUCKLE 

HONEYSUCKLE 

LAMB’S EARS 

LAMB’S EARS 

LAMB’S EARS 

LAVENDER 

LAVENDER 

LAVENDER 

SUCCULENT 

SUCCULENT 

SUCCULENT 

ASHLAR 

ASHLAR 

ASHLAR 

GLASS 

GLASS 

GLASS 

TIMBER BEAM 

TIMBER BEAM 

TIMBER BEAM 

PEBBLE DASH 

PEBBLE DASH 

PEBBLE DASH 

STONE PATH 

STONE PATH 

STONE PATH 

FOUNTAIN GRASS 



CURRY PLANT 

CURRY PLANT 

CURRY PLANT 

SECTION 11 : : 200 

COURTYARD LOUNGE 

SECTION 1 : 200 

Top - Sheryl Lee Middle - Yequian Gao Bottom - Simona Penkauskaite 

81

Co-Production of Space: Probing the Future 

Daniel Mallo & Armelle Tardiveau 

Set in the West End of Newcastle upon Tyne, this project aimed to promote/expand on the initiatives of Edible Elswick. Students designed 

and built a prototype that would enhance the practices of planting, growing and cooking initiatives in an ethnically diverse neighbourhood. 

This informed the design of a master plan for Mill Lane using urban agriculture as the leading drive for an inclusive urban space that engages 

social groups from diverse age, social and religious backgrounds. 

82 

Group Work: Shelley Xiong, Runyu Zhang, Yilan Zhang, Andy Chang, Natalie Sung, Simona Penkauskaite, Yu / Jason Wang, Ali Alshirawi, Hannah Knott, 

Nadine Landes, Ellie Chapman, Andrew Blandford-Newson, Jonas Grytnes, Yeqian Gao, Sheryl Lee, Luke Leung

Group Work: Alex Robson, Chris Hau, Tom Gibbons, Henry Morgan, Jonas Grytnes, Yeqian Gao, Sheryl Lee, Luke Leung 

83

Thinking-Through-Making Week 

Thinking-Through-Making Week continues our theme of collaborations with artists, engineers, architects, musicians, thinkers and makers. 

The week is for final year BA and MArch students in the second semester of the year. With a focus on material and making, this week-long 

series of lectures and workshops asks students to approach architecture through the process of making and drawing at large-scale, bringing 

material back to the core of architecture’s exploration. 

Brick and Clay 

Matt Rowe 

Building Wth Round Poles: Joints and Meshes 

Amara Roca Iglesias 

Creative Concrete 

Leigh Cameron 

Film and Photography 

Matt Lawes 

Golden Journey 

with Matt Rowe 

Organic Casting 

Amy Linford 

Stone Carving 

with Russ Coleman 

84 

https://thinkingthroughmaking.org/workshops/

MArch 

Zeynep Kezer – Degree Programme Director 

‘What can architecture do? Where might architectural thinking take us?’ 

These are essential questions that drive Newcastle’s two-year MArch Programme. We 

offer a research-led approach to education, alternately challenging and encouraging 

students to stretch their architectural and critical imaginations, to think harder and 

more deeply about what architecture is and what it could be. As a result, the output 

every year is diverse, threaded by an interest in architecture as a collective, cultural 

endeavour. The projects interrogate architectural production in all its aspects, from 

material processes, to modes of design, representation and construction, to the ways 

that architecture shapes - and is shaped by - the society and culture in which it is 

situated. 

As an RIBA accredited Part II programme - the second of three steps towards 

qualification as a UK Architect - MArch is geared to develop advanced skills in 

analysis, representation, design, and technical resolution through projects of 

considerable scale and complexity. But it is also rooted in the belief that architectural 

training must go beyond professional competence. The MArch draws on the diverse 

expertise of Architectural Research Collaborative, our School’s multidisciplinary 

research collaborative, to push explorative ways of working and thinking 

architecturally. Students are given incentives to undertake original investigations 

into issues and techniques at the forefront of contemporary developments in 

architecture and beyond - from synthetic biology to the space of the psyche - while 

at the same time grounding their work in a specific material, social, cultural and 

intellectual context. Cross-studio reviews, exhibitions (in and out of our premises) 

and symposia support a lively exchange of ideas and challenge students to position 

their work in relation to trends in architectural production and discourse. 

Teaching in MArch cuts across common distinctions between design, technology, 

history and theory, promoting an integrated approach that treats all aspects of 

architecture as opportunities for critical creative enquiry. Studio modules play a 

central role, incorporating lectures, seminars, consultancies and workshops spanning 

the curriculum, as well as cross-year events such as ‘Charrettes’ and ‘Thinking- 

Through-Making’ Week. Projects are undertaken in small design-research studios, 

each exploring particular issues or themes that resonate with the research interests 

of tutors. Briefs invite an open process of investigation between staff and students, 

fostering the development of an independent approach and distinctive critical 

stance, all grounded in rigorous research. In Stage 5, two semester-long projects set 

in a major European city (currently based in Rotterdam) interrogate the complexities 

of architecture’s relation to context, from urban to detail-scale, allowing students to 

test new approaches, methods, and ideas. With most of the prescribed curriculum 

covered during Stage 5, Stage 6 is freed up to focus on a specific interest or question, 

pursued in depth through a year-long thesis project. 

With a rich range of opportunities for specialisation, the MArch programme at 

Newcastle allows students to develop their own fields of expertise and to showcase 

these in a distinctive portfolio. Alongside the design studio, students can choose to 

pursue independent research through a dissertation, to join a linked research design 

project in which they collaborate on a live research project led by a member of 

staff, or to take a tailored set of modules from one of our other specialist Masters 

programmes - such as Sustainable Buildings and Environments, Town Planning, 

or Urban Design - with the potential of accumulating credits towards a second 

postgraduate degree. Bridging between the two years of MArch, these activities 

spark ideas and develop skills that often feed into thesis projects. The School 

also has a series of exchange agreements with leading schools of architecture in 

Europe and around the world, including KTH Stockholm, National University of 

Singapore, and the University of Sydney. MArch students can study abroad for one 

or two semesters of Stage 5, and the programme benefits from the diverse skills and 

experiences of students who join our projects. 

87

Stage 5 

Stage 5 is a year for in-depth experimentation: for exploring architecture in all its cultural, social, 

political, material and historical contexts, for testing new approaches to design, representation and 

technology. Briefs emphasize critical thinking and require students to engage with current debates 

in architecture and society at large. The year’s work focuses on a particular international city – this 

year Rotterdam – beginning with an intensive week long study visit, including architectural tours, 

excursions, talks, group urban analysis and social events. Students undertake a critical reimagining 

of the city through two semester long projects which challenge them to work at two radically 

different scales – first urban, then detail. Framing design as a rigorous, as well as speculative process, 

they foster design-research skills and interests in preparation for Stage 6. 

In semester one, ‘Plan Rotterdam’ asked students to engage with the urban fabric of the city, its 

historical layers, cultural currents and social differences. The project was taught as five distinct 

studios that each took on a different urban area and issue. Common themes include the interplay 

of buildings, infrastructure, land and water in a city below sea level, architecture’s role in the 

production of images, experiences and lifestyles, and the politics of regeneration in a place 

renowned for visionary architectural and urban ideas. The project is paired with the ‘Tools for 

Thinking about Architecture’ module, which introduces a range of critical approaches through 

lectures, workshops and seminars. 

Semester two’s ‘Rematerializing Rotterdam’ switched focus to material and technical imagination, 

taking detail, construction and atmosphere as opportunities for creative and critical exploration. 

The brief asked students to interrogate a [g]host architecture – built or unbuilt, in Rotterdam 

or elsewhere – and to reimagine it in the contemporary city. A detail and environment lecture 

series, supported by expert consultancies, encouraged students to pursue a technical specialism that 

embodies the intentions of the project. 


James Craig 

Stephen Parnell 


Bethan Kay 

Ivan Marquez Munoz 

James Craig 

Laura Harty 

Ken MacLeod 

Nathaniel Coleman 


Students 

Abigail Murphy 

Adam Hill 

Adel Kamashki 

Alexander Blanchard 

Alice Ravenhill 

Alina Tamciuc 

Babatunde Ibrahim 

Clare Bond 

Cynthia Wong 

Daniel Sprawson 

Demetris Socratus 

Emma Gibson 

Emma Kingman 

Elizabeth Holroyd 

Henry Brook 

James Anderson 

James Hunt 

Jessica Goodwin 

Jessica Mulvey 

Karl Mok 

Laura McClorey 

Lorna Clements 

Luana Kwok 

Matthew Turnbull 

Oliver Wolf 

Preena Mistry 

Robert Douglas 

Robert Wills 

Sophie Baldwin 

Theodora Kyrtata 

Thomas Sharlot 

Thomas Cowman 

Erasmus Students 

Cyrillus Carpreau 

Elin Stensils 

Mirjam Konrad 

Contributors 

See pg.201 

88 

Text by James Craig 

Opposite - Sophie Baldwin

Dreamland 

James Craig 

In this studio, we interrogated Rotterdam’s ‘metropolitan’ attributes as a means to creating our own urban laboratory; a theme-park dedicated 

to metropolitan simulation. 

The site for this studio is the area in and around the Rijnhaven-Maashaven basins. This site has been marked as the first in a series of postindustrial 

harbour basins to be transformed in the next 20 years under the Stadshavens development plan. 

90 

Cynthia Wong

Top - Sophie Baldwin Middle, left to right - Preena Mistry, Becca Lewis Bottom, left to right - Mirjam Konrad, Jessica Goodwin 

91

The Early Days Of A Better Nation 

Stephen Parnell & Ken MacLeod 

The aim of this project was to envision a Rotterdam of 2086. This was achieved through working with Science Fiction novelist Ken MacLeod 

to first establish a post-human scenario with each student then designing a fragment of that scenario with their own brief, set in 2086, on a 

site in Heijplaat. 

92 

Matthew Turnbull

Top - Elin Stensils Bottom, left - James Anderson Bottom, right - Alice Ravenhill, Adan Hill 

93

This Could Be Rotterdam (Or Anywhere) 

Bethan Kay 

The magnificence of central Rotterdam’s architectural ambitions cloaks the fact that much of the city sprawls out in relative banality to the 

encircling infrastructures. It is these ‘non-places’, bearing no defining characteristics of history or identity, which this studio set out to explore 

through in-depth analysis and a critique of the ‘Image of the City’. Focusing on the dullness of Rotterdam’s Brainpark, a highly-planned but 

declining backwater (where 36% of the office space stands empty), students were challenged to question what could reactivate the site and 

put it back on the approved map. 

94 

Top - Robert Douglas 

Bottom - Lorna Clements

Top - Emma Kingman(2), Abigail Murphy Middle - Robert Douglas Bottom, left to right - Karl Mok, Clare Bond 

95

In Media Res 

Laura Harty 

This studio was interested in prising apart the clear binary of public and private within the urban realm, and seeked to extrapolate and 

interrogate the tensions and possibilities that lie between. 

The studio title ‘In Medias Res’, Latin for ‘in the middle of things’ suggests that sites exist within a nexus of multiple defining criteria. One of 

the students’ tasks was to distil these criteria into a typology of urban places which scale between public and private. 

96 

Robert Wills

Top and Middle - Luana Kwok 

Bottom, left to right - Thomas Sharlot, Adel Kameshki 

97

Lost Spaces 


The Lost Spaces studio proposed a design-based reflection about the value of lost spaces, in the process of decay in their lifecycle. The task was 

to create an intervention that provided living accommodation and associated common facilities for a particular protagonist in need of care, 

implementing a strategy of socially integrated and architecturally sustainable neighbourhood. 

98 

Left - Demetris Socratus 

Right, top to bottom - Abigail Murphy, Emma Gibson, Clare Bond

Top - Demetris Socratus Middle - Emma Gibson Bottom - Clare Bond 

99

Hybrid Objects 

James Craig 

Hybrid Objects asked students to create an architectural response to the complex space that exists between viewers and objects. This space, a 

foggy territory where myriad meanings can be made, is the zone where projected meanings collide to create a space of betweenness. The result 

is a hybrid object; constituted from entangled meanings that exist between observers and objects. Through the selection and unpacking of 

an object from the permanent collection of the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, each student developed their own art depository in the 

Museumpark area of Rotterdam. 

100 

Alice Ravenhill

Elin’s exploded axo here 

Section 

BB 

Section 

AA 

Section 

AA 

Section 

BB 

Painting Storage 

Basement Plan - 1:200 

Top - Elizabeth Holroyd Middle, left to right - Elizabeth Holroyd, Elin Stensils,Theodora Kyrtata Bottom - Thomas Cowman 

101

Tell-Tale Tectonics 

Bethan Kay 

Situated between Rotterdam’s spectacular Wilhelminapier and the declining port, the rapidly gentrifying peninsula of Katendrecht formed the 

site for this semester’s enquiry. Expanding on the themes explored in Marco Frascari’s ‘Tell-The-Tale Detail’, the studio embraced the value of 

details as the union of representation and function, and as generator of a scheme. Delving into the area’s rich history - from industry to jazz, 

immigration to art, tattooing to prostitution and everything in-between - each student adopted a ghost from the district’s past to act as the 

catalyst for a wide range of tectonic explorations rooted in the narrative of place – tectonics that tell-a-tale. 

102 

Preena Mistry

Top - Mirjam Konrad Middle - Cynthia Wong Bottom - Preena Mistry 

103

Spectres of Utopia and Modernism 


Students excavated indwelling ‘ghosts of modernism’ in surviving Rotterdam examples of heroic modernist architecture from the 1920s and 

1930s, and in orthodox post-war modernist buildings constructed between 1945-1960. In quarrying for ghosts of modernism, students also 

chased spectres of Utopia, harbouring the potential for tragedy and the promise of better ways of being at the same time. 

The modernity students resuscitated is one of near infinite possibilities, bound up with re-enchanting the world; not the spent modernity of 

technocratic excess. The Utopia pursued was as a method for shaping desires for better ways of being – not the catastrophic totalising Utopia 

of convention. 

104 

Top - Alex Blanchard 

Bottom, left to right - Adam Hill, Jessica Goodwin

Top - Adel Kamashki Middle - Sophie Baldwin Bottom - Robert Douglas 

105

Stage 5 & 6 Fieldwork & Site Visits 

MArch 

As part of Stage 5 and 6 varied field trips were taken across the year. Stage 5 visited Rotterdam as a group which gave the opportunity for 

students to experience the city and embark on site visits. Stage 6 visited places from Stoke-On-Trent to Zanzibar, as well as students taking 

individual trips related to their thesis projects. 

MArch Stage 5 

Rotterdam 

MArch Stage 6 

Studio 1: Caravanserai - Zanzibar 

Zanzibar 

Studio 2: Experimental Architecture 

Venice 

Studio 3: Intoxicated Space 

Berlin 

Studio 7: Potteries Thinkbelt 

Stoke-on-Trent 

Studio 8: Building Upon Building 

Rome 

Verona 

Venice 

Studio 9: Rituals and the Unconscious 

Finland 

106

Stage 6 

In Stage 6 students undertake a year-long thesis project with a self-generated brief, within a 

theoretical framework established by their chosen studio. This year an unprecedented nine studios 

were on offer, including three studios running in a vertical orientation with Stage 3 in which 

students responded to variants of the same thematic concerns. 

All nine studios offer a comparable level of complexity, but they cover a broad range of issues 

and geographies leading to a diverse variety of outcomes. They showcase the interactions between 

studio leaders’ research expertise and the evolving interests and competences of Stage 6 students. 

To achieve this, students’ individual thesis projects are developed within each studio’s thematic, 

balancing their individual learning objectives with the studio’s area of interest. Students build upon 

experience gained from previous years’ representational techniques and experimentation, as well as 

the technical and critical knowledge they gain in Stage 5. 

In the MArch, studios range from ‘The Architectural Biography’, in which students respond to the 

oeuvre of a chosen architect with their own projects, through to ‘Caravanserai Zanzibar’, continuing 

Professor Prue Chiles’ work with students on the island. The Matter Studio develops APL’s tradition 

of working with the properties of materials, which this year has been greatly enhanced by the 

opening of brand new and extensive workshop facilities. Similarly, the Experimental Architecture 

Studio builds on Professor Rachel Armstrong’s research into biological drivers for architecture. 

Each of the studios has a strong and burgeoning identity within the School, and this year’s excellent 

student work reflects the diverse and broad range of research-led teaching at the School. 


Matthew Ozga-Lawn 

Zeynep Kezer 



Andrew Ballantyne 

Cara Lund 

Claire Harper 

David McKenna 

Edward Wainwright 

Graham Farmer 

Hugh Miller 

James Craig 

Josep-Maria Garcia-Fuentes 

Kati Blom 




Paul Rigby 

Prue Chiles 

Rachel Armstrong 

Samuel Austin 

Students 

Adam Hampton-Matthews 

Alexandra Carausu 

Alexander Baldwin-Cole 

Angie Hei Man lau 

Carl Reid 

Cleo Kyriacou 

Daniel Duffield 

David Boyd 

Deryan Teh 

Gavin Wu 

Gregory Edward Murrell 

James Street 

Jessica Wilkie 

Joseph Dent 

Joseph Wilson 

Justin Moorton 

Kathleen Jenkins 

Katie Fisher 

Kayleigh Anne Creighton 

Kim Alicia Gault 

Laurence Ashley 

Malcolm Greer Pritchard 

Mariya Lapteva 

Martin Parsons 

Matthew Wilcox 

Matthew Sharman-Hayles 

Matthew Westgate 

Michael Southern 

Nedelina Atanasova 

Nicola Blincow 

Nikolas Ward 

Noor Jan-Mohamed 

Raphael Selby 

Rebecca Wise 

Richard John Spilsbury 

Robert Evans 

Rosie O’Halloran 

Ruochen Zhang 

Samuel Halliday 

Sophie Cobley 

Stavri Rousounidou 

Su Ann Lim 

Thomas Saxton 

Ulwin Beetham 

Vili-Valtteri Welroos 

Wallace Ho 

Contributors 

see pg.201 

108 Text by Matthew Ozga-Lawn Opposite - David Boyd The Draughtsman’s Quietus

Studio 1 – Caravanserai - Zanzibar 

Prue Chiles & Claire Harper 

This studio builds upon the body of work and progressive thinking of previous years in an ongoing research project, which seeks to understand 

and conceptualise new paradigms for architecture and spatial planning in Zanzibar: a semi-autonomous archipelago on the East-African 

‘Swahili Coast’. The projects all address tightly interwoven economic and socio-political issues but from different angles, and although the 

chosen sites are spread around Unguja: Zanzibar’s largest and most populated island, just as much attention and conversation has gone into 

the wider issues and connections. Collaboration began with a 2060 scenario-based mapping exercise, which through certain assumptions, 

precedents, strategies, and the mediation of carefully measured contingencies, proposed a sustainable spatial schematic for Unguja in just 

over 40 years time. In December 2016, the team travelled to Zanzibar to validate research to-date, and armed with individual mappings 

of key subjects to be explored, they began to enrich their lines of enquiry. The countless interactions, observations and discussions; from 

liaising with the Local Planning Department to designing and constructing a new public toilet block with a local NGO; were all invaluable 

to understanding some of Zanzibar’s most pertinent development issues, so that they could be addressed through responsive and responsible 

architectural proposals. 

110 

Angie Hei Man Lau Empowering Rural Zanzibar

Deryan Teh Mkokotoni a Town for Fish 

111

10. 

9. 

8. 

7. 

6. 

4. 

5. 

3. 

2. 

1. 

112 

Justin Moorton Zanzibar Academy of Culinary Arts

Kayleigh Creighton Shwahili Community Co-operative 

113

114 Malcolm Pritchard Caravanserai

Nicola Blincow From Home to Island 

115

Studio 2 – Experimental Architecture 

Rachel Armstrong & Andrew Ballantyne 

Experimental Architecture prepares students for changing architectural ideas and emerging new technologies, relevant to a globally connected, 

highly complex and constantly evolving world. By establishing a starting point from which established design tropes may be challenged, such 

as the use of inert building materials, new opportunities, like the use of ‘living’ fabrics and technologies, may be explored by developing 

prototypes that relate to an original building proposal. Students attending the course will therefore develop a set of architectural design 

tools, graphical notations, and experimental studio practices that can not only be applied during their final year but also throughout their 

professional development. 

116 

Top and Middle - Staithes Group Field Trip 

Bottom - Su Ann Lim

Su Ann Lim The Ephemeral Halophytic Saltscape 

117

118 Kim Gault Waste Palaces

Matthew Sharman-Hayles The Bio-Analogue City 

119

120 Michael Southern Gaudy Architecture

Fabric sculptures in the Lagoon Garden 

Nedelina Atanasova Lagoon Fabrics 

121 

LAGOON FABRICS 

35

122 Thomas Saxton The Sensory Cenobium

Wallace Ho Academy of Decay 

123

Studio 3 – Intoxicated Space 

Edward Wainwright, Kieran Connolly & Samuel Austin 

‘… the rapture of the Dionysian state with its annihilation of the ordinary bounds and limits of existence contains, while it lasts, a lethargic 

element in which all personal experience of the past became immersed. This chasm of oblivion separates the worlds of everyday reality and 

the Dionysian reality.’ 

- Friedrich Nietzsche, The Dionysian Worldview, pg.88 

Dionysius takes us to spaces outside our daily lives, breaks the chains of the known world and permits an insight into alternate experiences 

of being. These spaces are both mental and physical, created by a state of intoxication. This state can itself be induced by many stimuli – the 

effect of rhythm, touch, excess, desire, art, belief… 

These stimuli do not operate on the human in a vacuum. They take place always in, and through, space: the pub, club, bedroom, brothel, 

stadium, gallery, church. Ritual, sensory intensities and deprivations are key to their effect – experiences are played out over time, through 

space, on and with the body. 

Intoxicated Space situates itself as a studio focusing on design practice. Here, intoxication is understood as being produced through spatial, 

material and aesthetic intensities across a range of themes: desire, immersion, repetition, contact, touch, the body and crowds. The studio 

has sought not to define a product as its core output, but to explore the development of methods of architectural design. We have sought to 

critically interrogate each other’s pre-conceived design methods and practices coming into the final year of the MArch, with the aim to define, 

borrowing from Jane Rendell, modes of a critical spatial practice. 

124 

Cleo Kyriacou EROS desire

INTOXICATED SPACE 

INTOXICATED SPACE 

127 

129 

INTOXICATED INTOXICATED SPACE SPACE 

129 

127 

Daniel Duffield BECOMING 

125

fig 50 Stage 5 Material 

Explorations. Earth brick 

productions. 

fig 51 Stage 5 Material 

Explorations. Earth brick 

productions. 

fig 33 (top) Sarah. 

A first iteration for 

developing a technique 

of representing a 

41problematised body. 

fig 34 (bottom) Reappropriation 

of a Hannah 

Höch collage 

fig 35 Reappropriation of 

a Hannah Höch collage 

fig 36 Reappropriation of 

a Hannah Höch collage 

28 29 

Following on from looking at the 

work of Monica Bonvicini especially, 

I conducted a series of models and 

drawings, that studied the objects 

of disabled embodiments and there 

meanings. These provocations 

collided those elements in order to 

demonstrate tensions and propose 

new potentials. For example, the 

reconcieving of the safety cord 

handle in an accessible toilet as a 

black tassel! 

fig 60 Stage 6 

Provocation piece. 

fig 61 Stage 6 

Provocation piece. 

46 47 

126 Gregory Murrell Aesthetic Intoxication

Laurence Ashley Intoxication Intensities Trust in Capital 

127

128 Noor Jan-Mohamed A Dissolution of Boundaries

Stavri Rousounidou Durational Extentions of the Russian State Hermitage 

129

Studio 4 – Matter 

Graham Farmer & Paul Rigby 

The studio celebrates ‘Matter’ and encourages design processes that are founded on a dialogic and emergent understanding of materiality. 

The studio challenges the notion of buildings as static assemblies of neutral products and instead seeks concrete material practices in which 

technology is always both contextual and performative. 

Students start by selecting their own matter to ‘collaborate’ with and as a group have explored new understandings of conventional construction 

materials like timber and ceramics, along with experimental new materialities interrogating growth, form-making and formlessness. Themes of 

making, manufacture, entropy, flux, transformation and environmental renewal are all prominent in the student work. 

130 

Alexander Baldwin-Cole Bakethin Weir Facility

Adam Hampton-Matthews Restless Landscapes 

131

132 Martin Parsons Weaving Architecture

Vili Welroos Origin 

133

Studio 5 – The Architectural Biography 

James Craig & Matthew Ozga-Lawn 

This studio develops from the representation and exploration of the life and experiences of prominent individuals, as found in our previous 

studio ‘Landscapes of Human Endeavour.’ This time we refocus attention onto the figure of the architect. Students selected a range of 

architects and produced projects which mediated between their own imagined constructions, and a biographical reading of the architect 

they are engaged with. This year the lives and projects of Aldo Rossi, Peter Eisenman, Paulo Soleri, Raimund Abraham, Joseph Gandy and 

Alexander Brodsky were reimagined by students in the studio. 

134 

Gavin Wu The Scrimshaw Missiles

P1_5B 

& P1_5C 

P1_13Di-iii 

P1_13Fi-iii 

P1_5Fi 

P1_13Eii 

P1_13Eiii 

P1_13Ei 

P1_5A[L] 

P1_5Fiii 

P1_5Eiv 

P1_5A[R] 

P1_4A 

P1_5Ev 

P1_13Div-v 

P1_13Fiv-v 

P1_8Aiv 

P1_12D 

P1_12E 

P1_4C 

P3_4A 

P3_1C 

P1_5B 

P1_5D 

P1_11Aiii 

P1_5Ci-vii 

P1_1A[R] 

P2_1Aii 

Position: South Facing; Above Ground. 

Access: 

Public Landscape. Private self 

contained towers. 

Position: North Facing; Below Ground. 

Access: 

Private routes. Vault Access & 

maintenance. 

Position: East Facing; Top of Structure. 

Samuel Halliday Vaults of Origin 

Access: Semi Public/Private 

Landscape on roof. 

135

136 Mariya Lapteva The Venice

House - 1:50 

School - 1:500 

Checkpoint - 1:250 

Nautical Club - 1:250 

Stadium - 1:200 

Hotel - 1:100 

Nikolas Ward Houses of Tension 

137

RECYCLING HARBOR 

SLUDGE TREATMENT FACTORY 

CENTRAL PAVILION 

COMMUNITY CENTRE 

ALTERNATIVE URBANIZATION 

1:250 

PRODUCTION CENTRE 

FIRING CENTRE 

SLUDGE RECYCLING SYSTEM 

LIVING UNITS PRUDUCTION SYSTEM 

138 Ruochen Zhang Urban Laboratory: River of Waste

Joseph Dent Peter Eisenman, Midtown Manhattan and House 2 

139

Studio 6 – The Rhythmanalysis of Concrete Utopias 


The End of the City? 

Students in this studio were challenged to develop proposals for concrete utopias in the city. If the 20th century can be understood as a long 

period of unmaking cities that continues, despite their apparent resurgence, the aim of this studio is the production of projects for the reurbanization 

of city centres, in particular those that might be considered successful examples of regeneration but in achieving this sucsess have 

become so sanitised that the city is no longer ‘city-like.’ 

The projects produced in this studio have examined the possibilities revealed by using ‘Utopia as Method’ in the design process. 

140 

Alexandra Carausu A Digital Cemetery in a Transhumanist Future

2 

1 

3 

Alexandra Carausu A Digital Cemetery in a Transhumanist Future 

141

142 David Boyd The Draughtsman’s Quietus

Matthew Wilcox The City That Built Itself 

143

Studio 7 – Potteries Thinkbelt 


Continuing an interest in infrastructure as background processes and systems this year we have revisited Cedric Price’s ‘Potteries Think Belt’ 

– 50 years after its conception. We used the ‘Potteries Think Belt’ plan as a ‘treasure map’ to navigate the delights of contemporary Stokeon-Trent. 

The studio was one of three ‘vertical’ studios pioneered this year – taught jointly between Stages 3 and 6, and began with the group exercise 

of building a ‘Stoke-o-Matic’ dynamic mapping model. The model was used to explore systematic relationships between transport, education, 

environment and identity with enjoyably unpredictable results. 

Stage 6 students were given much more latitude and typically chose to focus on more societal infrastructures such as education, retail and 

third sector networks. 


144 

Jessica Wilkie The Learning Precinct

Joseph Wilson Touching Ground 

145

146 Robert Evans Stow-ke

Robert Evans Stow-ke 

147

Studio 8 – Building Upon Building 

Josep-Maria Garcia-Fuentes & Aldric Rodriguez Iborra 

This studio understands preservation as architecture, as it explores architecture, heritage, authenticity and preservation tied to ever-changing 

political and cultural processes, which inescapably mean that their constant changes cannot be avoided or stopped. Grounding on this 

approach the studio discusses the contemporary concern with heritage and the ever–expanding preservation movement. Ultimately the 

studio questions what it means to preserve and whether it is really possible to preserve. The projects in the studio explore new approaches to 

experimental preservation to better suit this profound and changing essence of heritage and respond appropriately to its current contemporary 

challenges. 


148 

Carl Reid British Museum and a Critique on Preservation of Artefacts

Raphael Selby Park of the People 

149

150 Matthew Westgate The 21st Century Pedestrian Reformation of Venice

Red Doors 

Katie Fisher Gresham Red Door Workshop 

Asylum Documents 

151

Studio 9 – Rituals and the Unconscious 

Kati Blom, David McKenna & Hugh Miller 

Rituals and the Unconscious is a vertical studio. The theoretical background, in both Stage 3 and Stage 6 studio, is similar, but structure and 

focus were different. Both groups took part in the trip to Finland. During the first part of the year, Stage 6 had theoretical seminars about 

phenomenology, perception psychology and psychoanalytical literature, on top of normal tutorials. The overall aim was to choose a ritual 

important to each student. The thesis question evolved from the premise to revitalise this ritual. During the primer phase, various approaches 

were developed concentrating on projection, processes of daily or creative rituals, or the ritual of death. Students then chose individual 

methods to test the limits of the revitalising of a ritual through design, in variety of places: New York financial centre, RIBA headquarters in 

London, Lindisfarne Island, London’s Islington and Newcastle. 


152 

Primer Group Work Freud Room

Kathleen Jenkins The Moonshot Factory at Portland Place 

153

154 James Street Translation

Rosie O’Halloran Islington Projection House 

155

156 Rebecca Wise Meditative Architecture

Ulwin Beetham La Danse Macabre 

157

Research in Architecture 

Multidisciplinary research in architecture is flourishing, and we are particularly pleased this year 

that our successes in winning major project funding, developing collaborations between colleagues 

and building a strong postgraduate research community which are also benefitting students in 

the BA and MArch through innovative research-led teaching. 2016-17 saw the launch of Prof 

Rachel Armstrong’s Horizon 2020-funded £3.2 million LIAR (Living Architecture) project 

and Dr Martyn Dade-Robertson’s Thinking Soils has just won ESPRC funding, enabling us to 

recruit a talented group of Research Associates and strengthen our unique focus on Experimental 

Architecture. The School is establishing itself as a UK leader in architectural design research; we 

had our first creative practice PhD completions from Dr James Longfield and Dr Luis Herna; fine 

artist Dr Polly Gould joined our Architecture Research Collaborative (ARC) as postdoctoral fellow 

in Design-led Research, and together with Prof Prue Chiles organised the inaugural Architecture: 

Creative Practice Symposium (25-26 th April 2017) where this year’s visiting professor Julieanna 

Preston (Massey, NZ) joined contributors from across the UK to mentor junior colleagues and 

present her participatory project Murmur about the Town Wall. 

ARC staged a number of public events which took research into the spaces it is about; Scaling the 

Heights, an ARC-organised collaboration held in the abandoned space of the Tyne Bridge’s North 

Tower (18-25 th Nov 2016) as part of the AHRC Being Human Festival of the Humanities, featured 

the urban explorer Lucinda Grange and had over 400 visitors including local MP Chi Onwurah. 

Dr Emma Cheatle recorded birth stories in Maternity Tales in the RVI and Laing (17-18 th Nov 

2016) and MArch students presented their Newcastle After Dark research in local night-club Tiger 

Tiger (12 th Feb 2017). They were one of eleven linked research groups which ran this year – an 

offer which is unique in the UK as far as we know where MArch students can elect to work in small 

groups on a research project led by one or two staff – on projects as diverse as studying international 

brutalism to building pavilions at Kielder Water. This year we also introduced a new research-led 

module in the BA – with 15 dissertation electives offered by staff across the disciplines, further 

enabling all students to benefit from the rich research culture in the School. 

Ecologies, 

Insfrastructures 

and Sustainable 

Environments 


Samuel Austin 

Carlos Calderon 

Graham Farmer 

Simone Ferracina 

Neveen Hamza 

John Kamara 

Zeynep Kezer 

Experimental 

Architecture 



Carlos Calderon 

James A Craig 

Martyn Dade-Robertson 

Graham Farmer 

Simone Ferracine 


Futures and 

Imaginaries 


James A Craig 





Ian Thompson 

History, Cultures and 

Landscape 

Samuel Austin 



Kati Blom 



Claire Harper 

Peter Kellett 

Zeynep Kezer 

Stephen Prnell 

Adam Sharr 


Industries of 

Archicture 

Prue Chiles 

Neveen Hamza 

John Kamara 

Katie Lloyd Thomas 

Daniel Mallo 

Adam Sharr 


Processes and Practices 

of Architecture 

Prue Chile 


Graham Farmer 

Claire Harper 

Peter Kellett 


Daniel Mallo 

Dhruv Sookhoo 



Mountains and 

Megastructures 




Prue Chiles 

James A Craig 

Graham Farmer 


Zeynep Kezer 

Adam Sharr 

Visiting Professors, 

PhD examiners and 

contributors 

Amy Butt 

Anna Holder 

Becky Shore 

Catrin Huber 

Chris Muller 

Chris Speed 

David Greenwood 

Ian Wiblin 

Jane Rendell 

Julia Heslop 

Juileanna Preston 

Katja Grillner 

Lucinda Grange 

M. Sohail 

Neil Barker 

Nikoletta Karasthani 

Penny McCarthy 


Simon Taylor 

Steve Sharples 

Ye Huang 

PhD students 


Ali Salih 

Ashley Mason 

Carolina Ramirez Figueroa 

Charles Makun 

Cheng Wang 

Dhruv Sookhoo 

Djuang Sodikin 

Hazel Cowie 


James Craig 


Javier Rodriguez Corral 

Javier Urquizo Calderon 

Khalid Setaih 


Luis Hernandez Hernandez 

Macarena Beltan Rodriguez 


Nergis Kalli 

Ohoud Kamal 

Oluwatoyin Akin 

Pierangelo Scravaglieri 

Ray Verrall 

Ruth Lang 

Sadanu Sukkasame 

Sam Clark 

Sana Al-Naimi 

Sarah Cahyadini 

Sinead Hennessy 

Tijana Stevanovic 

Usue Ruiz Arana 

Xi Chen 

Xi Ye 

Yasser Megahed 

Yomna Elghazi 

158 Text by Katie Lloyd Thomas Opposite - Scaling the Heights

BA Dissertations 

Vernacular Architecture of Nomads: Transmission of principles and knowledge from 

traditional Kazakh architecture to the architecture of 21st century 

Assem Nurymbayeva 

This dissertation set out to investigate and discuss Vernacular Nomadic Architecture and how 

its fundamental efficient engineering basics and other aspects have been applied and used in the 

contemporary construction field. Study on the historical background and structural principles 

of nomadic dwellings is important in order to get a better understanding of traditional Kazakh 

Architecture, to test and analyse the ancient structures and research the subject of cultural 

influence. In this dissertation the Case Study on the aspect of implementing the features of 

nomads’ dwellings in the time of 21st Century is reviewed and studied. Moreover, purpose of 

this research is to assess the extent to which information gathered from the Literature Review 

unravelled nomadic constructions - Yurts. Their examination and inspection with the aim 

of obtaining holistic critique will be implemented by collecting primary data of thermal 

performance and feedback from the occupants. The notion of combining technological 

innovations of today and extremely valuable traditional experience and knowledge accumulated 

by the human race for many centuries is the focus of this dissertation. 

Rebuilding Identity: Acknowledging the traumas of architectural destruction 

Daniel Barrett 

My dissertation aims to investigate the troubling state of identity within refugee camps, 

following the biggest migration crisis since World War II. I began by defining the routes to 

a positive sense of identity under the two classifications of accomplishment. This provided 

an architectural and spatial framework from which to view identity in refugee camps, which 

naturally led to an uncovering of the tensions at the heart of humanitarian design that constrict 

identity growth: Permanence – Temporary, Independence – Control. 

Considering the spatial clues for these categories, an analysis of the formal and informal 

refugee settlements seemed to reveal that the further towards the permanent and independent 

side of the spectrum, the more identity is able to flourish. 

The dissection of the Za’atari camp was important as it showed the development of identity 

over a wide time frame in a highly controlled environment (a refugee camp ‘sandbox’). The 

steady swing from temporary to permanent, and from control to independence, over the 

course of five years unveiled a gradual rebirth of Syrian Identity. I tell this story through the 

accomplishments of the refugees in Za’atari. 

Classifying Concrete: A study of existing irregularities in concrete’s characteristics and 

how this could affect its position in the current classification system of material properties 

Quynh Dang Le Tu 

This dissertation originated from my interest in finding out what could be regarded as ‘irregular’ 

in architecture. This is not the kind of striking unusualness that calls for attention like the 

extravagant cladding of Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Museum or Zaha Hadid’s extreme curved 

style in Heydar Aliyev Centre. I wanted to study something which exceeded the ‘normal’ in a 

subtle way but which also has a significant impact on the work of architecture. 

At the outset, concrete came to my research as fabric formwork, something contrasting to 

the density of the common concrete. What interested me was its plasticity, but moreover the 

appreciation of the material itself more than just about the constructional aspect. Concrete 

cannot be defined by one category and I wanted to find ways to express its ability ‘to be both’ 

of concrete. While determining concrete’s indeterminacy I have also realised that I might as 

well have created a new class for its properties. Because of being ‘in-between’, concrete has 

moments of irregularity and does not fit into the conventional property system. This led me to 

question whether it was the classification that could not cope with the properties of concrete 

and caused irregularities in it. And if that is the case, could there be another framework that 

accepts concrete’s properties as another standard category? 

160

At The Threshold: Investigating the work of Sou Fujimoto in relation to ideas of the ‘inbetween’ 

in Dutch structuralism and in the Japanese notion of ‘Ma’ 

Pannawat Sermsuk 

Every day we unconsciously cross a number of threshold spaces. Transitional spaces are key 

moments in architecture yet these spaces are much neglected. Aldo Van Eyck, a key figure 

in Dutch Structuralism, believed that threshold spaces promise a potential to create a 

continuous sense of place. Influenced by Einstein’s theory of relativity where space and time 

are interrelated, Van Eyck began to form the concept of the ‘in-between’. 

In parallel to Dutch structuralism, the idea of in-between has long embedded in Japanese 

architecture known as ‘Ma’. It is also an architectural inherent being reinterpreted into a 

contemporary context by architects like Sou Fujimoto. Also inspired by Einstein’s theory 

of relativity, the concept of homogenised continuity of interiority and exteriority becomes 

prominent in Fujimoto’s work. His architecture involves spaces which connect together in 

‘loose order’ – of which he called ‘weak architecture’. 

Acknowledging those differences, and without suggesting any direct influence of one architect 

on another, this dissertation sets out to explore certain parallels between Van Eyck’s notion of 

the in-between and the work of Sou Fujimoto. It will trace an approach to an in-between realm 

that will help in breaking down boundaries between public and private, inside and outside, 

and create a continuous sense of place where a person can feel ‘belong’ wherever they are. 

The International Flying Circus: Architects and branding within an evolving media 

landscape 

Katherine Marguerite Michell 

Architecture has always been understood as more than purely shelter. Primarily a tool for 

communication, architecture is read as a symbol of broader social order; carrying inherent 

economic and cultural significance. Conversely, architecture can also be the spatial 

manifestation of the individual ego and culturally-distinguished celebrity. 

This role of celebrity architect has powerful ramifications in the field of political strategy; 

ramifications that are explored through this writing which examines the media’s role in 

sponsorship of the architectural ego. 

As starchitects are increasingly fetishised as cultural icon and mainstream ‘celebrity’, the aura 

of architectural mystique that once preserved this high-cultural status is now being dispelled 

by selfies and socks. 

By examining different value systems that propagate architectural eminence, this writing 

explores how the platforms of social media are altering these established values. Whether 

aura is diminished, or starchitects are increasingly fetishised as celebrity, these changes will 

inevitably play out in the future global landscape. The International Flying Circus adopts a 

speculative look ahead at the political implications of a shift in architectural status. 

Architectural Soundscapes: The communication of the sonic experience within art 

galleries 

Jack Ranby 

The dominance of the visual appraisal of architecture means that the significance of auditory 

spatial awareness is generally overlooked. Whilst greatly influencing the way we navigate and 

perceive space and promoting a feeling of social cohesion, the ignorance towards the role of 

sound in architecture comes primarily from our perception of space and time. 

In this dissertation, the overall role of sound in architecture will be discussed, along with the 

development or ‘deterioration’ of the urban soundscape and its causes. This will ultimately 

lead to an investigation of the means of representing and communicating aural information in 

order to reinforce the use of sound for a rational design methodology. 

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BA Dissertations 

The Carpets of Venice: Was venetian façade ornamentation influenced by the carpet trade 

1300-1600? 

Angus Brown 

Art historians have drawn a link between Islamic carpets and Italian painting. This dissertation 

will attempt to establish a further link between oriental rugs and the ornamentation of 

Venetian architecture (1300-1600). This will be achieved by examining the relationship 

between Venice and the East centred around the carpet trade, followed by an exploration of its 

influence on Italian paintings, before attempting to discover whether such a link can be drawn 

to Venetian architecture. 

The first chapter will discuss the early depictions of Anatolian carpets in Venice. To help 

inform the discussion we will look at some of the common motifs and patterns displayed on 

oriental carpets. Inventories will also help us to establish the extent of the carpet trade. The 

second chapter will establish why vernacular architecture was receptive to Islamic influence 

with analysis of the tripartite plan and Gottfired Semper’s Stoff-Wechsel theory. The third 

chapter will address whether carpets have become part of the city’s permanent display, 

discerning whether there is a connection between the mihrab niche found on Moslem prayer 

mats and Venetian fenestration. To complete the discussion, we will analyse the surviving 

façade paintings of the city and discern whether these too were influenced by the patterns 

found on carpets. 

Terrestrial Ecopoiesis: The choreography of life within an encapsulated world 

Robert Thackeray 

Whether it’s to travel into the depths of space, or to sit out the apocalypse here on earth, closed 

system ecologies strive to provide a space that can sustain human life. By mixing together 

disciplines such as biology, ecology, anthropology, and a whole load of other ‘ologies’ to go 

with them, the closed systems created in the past present a very experimental architectural 

typology. 

Delving into these ideas, and how their ecologies will be inhabited by people, this essay 

tries to emulate their experimental approach. Combining scientific analysis with descriptive 

postulations and fiction, or using poetry, religion and myth to accentuate experimentations, 

the essay strives to cross disciplines, and therefore styles, to give a rounded understanding of 

such a multifaceted typology. 

HygroSpores: A report into early experiments on the design and fabrication of bacteria 

spore based actuators 

Pippa McLeod-Brown 

Energy reduction policies imposed by the government have led to technological innovations 

to lower energy consumption in architectural design and building practices. Building systems 

“reduce energy use by means of technologically enabled climate-responsiveness”. Actuators are 

primary examples of this; they are used to regulate internal building environments by reducing 

nuances such as solar heat gain. Bioclimatic design has been the focus for attaining lower energy 

consumption figures, however the use of active building systems is still sporadically required 

when external environmental conditions do not favour the passive systems implemented. 

In recent years there has been a growing interest in developing organic material to replace 

traditional mechanical systems. Natural systems perpetually respond to the environment using 

genetically ingrained survival mechanisms. This has inspired a new generation of responsive 

materials in architecture that are capable of reacting intelligently to their environment. The 

properties of materials such as wood have been researched to understand how the natural 

systems function so we can programme them to work for human benefit. 

This dissertation will describe a series of experiments that explore a new type of hygromorphic 

material which uses a mutated strain of Bacillus Subtilis spores that can be applied to a thin, 

passive, polymer substrate and programmed into an actuating system. 

162

AUP Creative Practice / Social Sciences Dissertations 

Window: mediation between two spaces: The inhabitants and the street watchers? 

Yeqian Gao 

I chose the window and the transparency behaviology around the window as the key words 

of my dissertation. The main inspiration was from a study trip to the Netherlands which took 

place in April 2016. During the trip, we did several neighbourhood site visits. One thing 

that impressed me was the design of the windows. I could not help but look in the rooms 

behind every window. Even though sometimes nobody was at home just looking at the stylish 

interiors greatly enhanced my experience. It got more interesting when there were people 

inside, then you get to see all sorts of activities take place and even eye contact when they 

realized pedestrians like me, were looking through the window. Also, when a whole group of 

students with a guide walking around your neighbourhood, the residents will get curious and 

attempt to look out from the window. 

Soon, a question of what other contribution these windows by the street have to their 

neighbourhood and street experience in residential area? Rather than just playing a role of 

natural surveillance, which was from the eyes on the street theory from Jane Jacob, from my 

own observation and experience, the window contributes to the liveliness of the street and 

neighbourhood and therefore improve the walking experience among the neighbourhoods. 

Along with the research, the literature reading started based on the keywords: urban scale, 

lively street and neighbourhoods, private and public urban space, walk, window… However, 

most of the literature covers the topic of urban design only assume the public space as urban 

area and more specifically majority were about boosting economic in commercial area. Walking 

experience researches, that I covered, had more attention to neighbourhoods, nonetheless, 

they often relate to healthy urban. All enhanced the purpose of this research. Therefore, at this 

stage, I ste my research question into two aspects, windowology and within neighborhoods. 

Five site visits have done in Newcastle Upon Tyne, throughout different typology of the 

neighborhoods in Newcastle, linkages and clues are coming up slowly, and in this draft, I 

would like to share my findings basing on three of the Newcastle window experience. 

The Impact of Street Art Graffiti in the Process of Regeneration 

Lok Hang Luke Leung 

The importance of art that surrounds us in our society – among our built environment there 

is undiscovered uniqueness, for each passage and alleyways there is something mysterious. Of 

which, street and graffiti artists operate in these scenes, captivity transforming urban waste 

into a city canvas. These artists are the urban regenerators, reflecting their work on the social 

political aspect of the media. Furthermore, to contact these invisible figures among our society, 

I used the platform of Instagram to attract artist’s attention, as well as keeping a recording of 

this subcultural movement. Overall, the study revealed that city acceptance toward street and 

graffiti are the main contributors in elevating the creative industries within a city, however, it 

is the individuals that underline the city success. 

What are the impaction of Graffiti in the process of regeneration? How has Culture shifted? 

Making Street Art and Graffiti as part of our culture? Does Street Art and Graffiti have benefits 

to the wider norms of society? 

An Investigation into Subterranean Residential Developments within the Royal Borough 

of Kensington and Chelsea 

Andrew Blandford-Newson 

This dissertation explores the incentives behind the new popular method of undertaking 

subterranean residential developments within Kensington and Chelsea and how their impacts 

have labelled such constructions as an issue for concern over recent years, leading to respective 

local planning legislation changes. Through a qualitative research process, material from 

professionals, local residents and submitted Planning Applications are analysed to better 

understand such impacts and the adequacy of such newly established policies within the 

planning system itself. The results show an insight into the important role that the planning 

system plays in ensuring planning for the future in the best interest of serving the public. 

163

MArch Dissertations 

The 10,000 word MArch dissertation offers students the opportunity to undertake a sustained enquiry into a topic of particular interest to 

them and to develop their own modes of writing and presentation. Where appropriate the timing of the dissertation allows for topics explored 

to inform their final thesis design project. The research has a growing profile in the School, with two public presentations taking place in 

October and February, and the dissertation is now a feature of the Degree Shows in Newcastle and London. 

Scales of Aggregation: Material variation in architecture 


Standardisation has historically been promoted as a means of driving down manufacturing 

costs and hence improving the accessibility of products through economies of scale. Yet 

the materials which make our built environments are all starting to look the same, and this 

flavourless homogeneity may be taking an emotional toll on the people forced to live in and 

around them. A growing body of cognitive science research is revealing how oppressively dull 

environs can create stress and raise blood pressure as a direct result of boredom, and how 

variety can improve our quality of life. This paper looks at reasons why visual variation in 

architectural materiality is a property worth examining and retaining. To do so, scale and 

texture were employed as metrological frameworks for approaching the design of heterogeneous 

surfaces. This concern is especially valid considering the huge technological advances in digital 

fabrication of late. Multi-material printing is already possible and in the not-so-distant future 

it is anticipated that we will be able to embed and weave multiple materials into complex 

micro-structures specified with micron-scale precision. However, it is shown that there are 

other ways of orchestrating heterogeneity, mostly involving relinquishing some for of agency 

or control. The deterministic specification of variation is a much more complicated endeavour 

and an interdisciplinary method of approach is outlined. 

Although this dissertation quite clearly had the secondary agenda of highlighting some of the 

pitfalls of material standardisation, it has ended on a positive note. Whether by cultivating 

the need for craft and community participation in contemporary construction, or enabling 

material variety to become ‘free’ and accessible to all, a contingency which can be made 

possible through the wider availability of 3D printing, the refocusing of design energies to 

include the smallest scales of material design has the potential for real political and social 

traction in today’s world of every-increasing giganticism. And we do live in very exciting times: 

where the material concoctions we produce may soon be as varied as our imaginations will 

allow. 

164

Theatrical Reconstructions: Case studies on authenticity within the politics of heritage 

construction 

Vili Welroos 

Originating from ideas conceived in the 19th century, precise reconstructions are a 20th 

century phenomenon caused by the urge to preserve our legacy within a narrative of heritage 

construction. It has come to be used and abused by those in control of a dynamic Bourdieuian 

field of ‘heritage production’. In the 21st century, this phenomenon is rapidly accelerating 

via innovative methods of recording and the possibility for seemingly authentic replication 

through new technologies. The project typology, perhaps, highlights an evolving perception 

of heritage; one that is built on what existed, or preserved as a physical manifestation of the 

past after its destruction. Analysis of perceptions of historic authenticity is performed by 

juxtaposing three different case studies – St. Mark’s Campanile, the Berlin City Palace and the 

Triumphal Arch of Palmyra. The reason for using these examples is due to their underlying 

differences in terms of reconstruction and a comparative analysis based on a theoretical 

understanding of the preservation debate is performed. This research proposes that architects 

take a critical attitude towards the built (and rebuilt) environment which forms a part of a 

complex socio-political struggle taking place before us right now and in the future. Recording 

and archiving information renders it usable within reconstructions whilst keeping memories 

hidden forever makes their recording obsolete. The dilemma is that it always contains a level of 

political contestation. Destruction may be inevitable, but retaining a record allows humanity 

to celebrate the physical manifestation of memories in the present, making it indispensable as a 

tool for solace. Nevertheless, the debate carries on evolving towards a new type of transformed 

neo-physical preservation. What can the differing attitudes taken towards authenticity and 

precision tell us about the political struggle they are part of, and what can architects learn 

from it today? 

Social Housing, The Discography: A soundtrack to Britain’s modernist estates 

Adam Hampton-Matthews 

The phrases council estate and tower block have become two of the most stigmatised terms 

in the English language. Simply thinking about them brings about a plethora of negative 

connotations that we subconsciously associate with them. So much so that many of Britain’s 

estates are now brandished with the same caustic typologies of ‘dead-ends, vandalism, violence, 

and the absence of escape routes’. This ‘fear’ of crime and social malaise within estates is deeply 

rooted in British history and politics. 

Britain’s modernist estates have long been a social backdrop to which a variety of popular 

culture platforms are situated featuring heavily in motion pictures, yet what is less well 

documented is the way Britain’s estates have been portrayed in music. Often overlooked in 

writings of architectural representation, music could prove a particularly intriguing subject 

due to the close and personal relationship artists have with their lyrics; providing a deeper 

insight into what these estates meant to the people who lived in them, and how they were 

perceived both within a local context as well as across Britain. 

The dissertation begins with a study of prolific dystopian-novelist J.G. Ballard, focusing 

specifically on his influences within the emerging genre of New Wave music during the 1970s, 

reflecting on how artists began to comment on Ballard’s dystopian vision and the realities of 

British housing. The subsequent chapters include a comprehensive study of the modernist 

housing that developed in Coventry and Sheffield. Over the years, these utopian cities have 

proved to be a powerful tool for creativity for some of Britain’s most influential artists in the 

music industry. Taking a journey through the music ‘scenes’, this study aims to gain a better 

understanding of the relationship between the perceptions of Britain’s modernist estates and 

the genres that emerged. 

165

Linked Research 

Among the most exciting and ambitious modules we offer as a School, the Linked Research module 

is unique to the Newcastle curriculum and spans the two Stages in the MArch enabling year-long 

collaborative research projects between staff and students. Linked Research encourages approaches 

that extend beyond the conventional studio design project or ‘lone researcher’ dissertation model 

allowing space for multiple and speculative forms of research. Projects are often open-ended and 

collaborative and, because they are long term and involve groups working together, they can enable 

participatory projects and large-scale production with a wide range or partners inside and outside 

the University. This year an unprecedented eight linked research projects were completed, ranging 

from explorations of Newcastle’s unique nightlife to the study of abandoned and empty swimming 

pools. Linked Research is an increasingly popular option for students in our MArch, offering 

students first-hand access to the ongoing research of staff at APL, and allowing novel ways of 

collaborative learning that break new ground in how we educate at the School. 

Architecture by Default 


James Street 

Noor Jan-Mohamed 

Beyond Representation 

James Craig 


David Boyd 

Joseph Dent 

Nikolas Ward 

Ruochen Zhang 

Empty Pool 


Rona Lee 

Martin Parsons 

Stavri Rousounidou 


International Brutalisms 

Steve Parnell 

Testing Ground 

Graham Farmer 

Alexander Baldwin- Cole 

Kathleen Jenkins 

Katie Fisher 

Laurence Ashley 

Matthew Westgate 

Robert Evans 

Samuel Halliday 

Sophie Cobley 

Ulwin Beetham 

Zanzibar Futures 

Prue Chiles 

Alexandra Carausu 

Malcolm Pritchard 

Matthew Wilcox 

Nicola Blincow 

Joseph Wilson 

Raphael Selby 

Learning Space 


Cara Lund 

Carl Reid 

Gavin Wu 

Jessica Wilkie 

Kayleigh Creigton 

Thomas Cowman 

Newcastle After Dark 


Samuel Austin 

Matthew Sharman Hayles 

Rosie O’Halloran 

Thomas Saxton 

166 Text by Matthew Ozga-Lawn Opposite - Raphael Selby International Brutalisms

Architecture by Default 


Situated in the buildings and spaces which form the generic environments of contemporary architecture, Architecture by Default is a critical 

investigation into spatial production predicated on values of efficiency, economy, management and organisation. Through the reading of 

industry wide material specification documents employed by corporate facility management services, a catalogue of construction systems – 

from the suspended ceiling tile to plastic trunking – are identified and their repetition across a variety of rooms, spaces and building types is 

documented and analysed. 

These are the spaces procured by spreadsheet, by a committee of people not usually too interested in what a space looks like but how it 

performs. Examples are cited where the vision for a building or a space are dictated by the specification of the systems which form it; how they 

meet certain regulations, are packaged with particular warranties and fit into tightly controlled budgets. Conclusively the project addresses 

how these dominant products and systems affect the design of space and the wider impact this has on how modern buildings are constructed. 

It speculates on the wide range of default processes embedded in architectural production, from the use of standardised construction systems 

to the specification’s which dictate their implementation. 

(150) 

(24) 

(1) 

(1) 

(1) 

(150) 

(12) 

(1) 

(29m) 

(1) 

168

Beyond Representation 

James Craig & Matthew Ozga-Lawn 

Beyond Representation is a project based around an earlier project by STASUS titled Everest Death Zone. This project consisted of four 

drawings and a short text concerning the bodies of endeavourers who tried and failed to ascend Mount Everest. STASUS invited students 

to extend one of the drawings, based on the most famous endeavourer, George Mallory, into a physical installation at the ‘Mountains & 

Megastructures’ symposium (March 2016 at APL). The installation included performative and atmospheric experimentation and students 

worked with STASUS on designing, fabricating and installing the work. 

The installation was then extended and developed as part of ARC’s Scaling the Heights event in the North Tower of the Tyne Bridge (see 

pg.198) Students were tasked with installing the work, along with the work of other collaborators, as part of a battery-powered temporary 

exhibition in the tower. 

Finally, students were tasked with translating the installation into a virtual, embodied drawing through VR technology. Using the School’s new 

VR room, students exhibited work that mediated between a virtual representation of Everest’s landscape, the North Tower, the installation, 

and a physical apparatus within the room itself. This complex and multi-layered set-up bridged formerly distinct representational frameworks 

and allowed us to move and interact with architectural drawing in new and unexpected ways. 

169

Empty Pool 

Katie Lloyd Thomas & Rona Lee 

Acknowledging the various ways of defining emptiness, the study of The Empty Pool revolves around the state that follows the removal of 

water. This decision is derived from the intrinsic link between the pool’s main modus usandi – swimming and paddling. The specificity of the 

pool’s form prevents programmatic alteration, a constraint that offers ample space for imagination and discussion. The peculiarity at the sight 

of the pool’s exposed form, segregated from its intention, is an exceptionally intriguing theme, open for interpretation. Site visits, theoretical 

readings and film screenings were used as resources for the development of the project. 

The outcome of the group research was an inventory of empty pools, compiled in a book for the purposes of an exhibition. A volumetric study 

through a series of physical models was conducted for a selection of pools. The pool shapes in 1:500 scale were sunk into plaster rectangles, 

the dimension of which was derived from the standard swimming pool tile. 

Within the project students formulated individual research topics. Martin explored the purpose and patterns of oceanic lidos, a pool typology 

which is currently reviving throughout the British Isles. Stavri investigated the physical animation of the female body in the element of water 

through researching psychoanalysis, feminine theories and the swimming pool’s cinematic history. Theodora defined a typology under the 

name ‘exotic pool’ and used the exposed volumes of Tropicana Pool in Rotterdam as a lens to deconstruct and decipher the illusion of a tropical 

landscape fantasy. 

170

International Brutalisms 

Steve Parnell 

The group research looked at International Brutalisms – focusing on the ethical aspect of the movement as opposed to Reyner Banham’s 

aesthetic. Brutalism (whether called by the same name or not) appeared in many countries in the post war period. There is currently a debate 

on the future of these buildings as due to their age, they demand refurbishment, restoration, or demolition. 

The group focused on researching the context of Brutalism internationally by each student choosing a country to study and catalogue its key 

brutalist buildings. The purpose of this was understand the Brutalism in its native context and assess whether the findings could contribute 

to the British debate. 

The first semester of the project looked at the historical background of Brutalism, to understand style of architecture and how to identify it. 

This included literary and periodical research to identify key buildings and later, travelling to the chosen country to document the buildings, 

as well as interviews with local academics and architects, during the summer vacation. The final semester consisted of completing a written 

dissertation which also included the documentation of the buildings. 

The Architectural Journal of US Brutalism 

Joe Wilson 

My dissertation, led with the question “what characteristics constitute to defining Brutalist architecture in 

the United States of America, and do they focus on architectural aesthetics, as opposed to having an ethical 

stance promoted by British Brutalism?” This question was posed because North America did not suffer the 

same physical devastation as that of the UK and other European countries during the Second World War. 

I found that US ‘Brutalist’ architects’ ideologies did not carry the social missions as British Brutalist 

architects. From my conversations with U.S. architects, I discovered that it was the heavy, monumental, 

and sculptural aesthetic qualities of Le Corbusier’s work that captured U.S. architects’ imaginations. Le 

Corbusier presented concrete as a building material that offered sculptural plasticity. This freedom offered 

US architects an escape from the rectilinear style of sharp modernism, instead providing endless variability 

in form allowing inhabitants to engage with the architecture more intimately. 

I sought to confirm whether U.S. Brutalism is exclusively associated with concrete, and identified that 

the expressive use of concrete in the USA often resulted in three recurring features: monumentality, 

sculpturalism, experientialism. 

I explored Brutalism’s reception in the USA, with regards to the architecture itself and the terminology. 

I found that US architects believed that the word ‘Brutalism’ held negative connotations and that they 

referred to their work as ‘concrete modernism’ or ‘expressionism’. I concluded that the term Brutalism 

within American architecture is a superimposition by journalists for assemblage of aesthetically similar 

buildings that were constructed in concrete during the late modernist period. 

Brazilian Brutalism: An analysis of Brutalism in the context of Brazil 

Raphael Selby 

The dissertation aims to discover the essence of Brazilian Brutalism through an analysis of essential 

characteristics of the buildings researched. The term Brutalism has been used to refer to a widespread 

selection of modern architecture from the 1950s to the 1980s. The study argues that Brutalism in Brazil, 

although similar in aesthetics to other Brutalisms around the world, is native to the country. 

A recent ‘aestheticisation’ of Brutalism has seen the popularity of these buildings grow on social media. 

However, there is little knowledge outside Brazil regarding the context of these buildings, their purpose in 

the urban fabric and how they are inhabited and experienced. Field work in Brazil, which included visiting 

the buildings and interviewing key academics and architects, was crucial in providing the data required for 

the analysis of the buildings and their architectural qualities. 

The understanding of ethic as ‘essence’ - derived from the word “ethos” - rather than implying a notion 

of morality, is concerned with the intrinsic nature and essential quality of a material or space. It is such 

meaning, that determines the character of the building, resulting in more than just an aesthetic experience. 

By observing, documenting, photographing and drawing the buildings first-hand an analysis of three 

‘essential characteristics’, namely the ground plane, monumentality and natural light - argues for the essence 

of Brazilian Brutalism. 

By studying Brutalism in Brazil, the need for further research became clear. There is a large number of 

buildings requiring to be documented. The age and condition of the buildings, require academics and 

architects to identify their architectural importance, allowing for their appreciation, understanding and 

subsequent preservation. 

171

Learning Space 


Building on our previous linked research collaboration with Sunderland University’s Psychology Department, ‘Slides, Deckchairs and 

Watercoolers’, we continue our exploration into the psychology behind places, spaces and furniture designed for interaction. This year the 

focus was on increasing our understanding design which encourages people to physically engage with and modify a space/piece of adaptable 

furniture. 

Much modern workplace and education furniture is designed to be flexible. But it is only flexible if people engage with it and change it. Our 

practice experience in British Council for Offices’ award winning workplace design suggests this rarely happens in reality or as intended. Thus 

the central line of enquiry was to gain a better understanding of the psychological parameters, and having spatialized these, test an intervention 

in the architecture school, before refining and testing in a real-life workplace. 

Our students were challenged to work across disciplines, with real end users, to develop dynamic mapping tools and to undertake their own 

reflective ‘live build’. 

172

Newcastle After Dark 

Edward Wainwright & Samuel Austin 

Newcastle has become nationally and internationally famous for its nightlife. From ‘stag and hen do’s’ to the ‘trebles bar’ phenomena, the 

city has evolved spatially, economically and legislatively to accommodate a playground of desire, consumption and intoxication. Heavily 

dependent on the night time economy, Newcastle is continually developing spaces for the after-dark. The areas of the Bigg Market and the 

‘Diamond Strip’ of Collingwood street have been explored through film and photography, documenting the activities and experiences that 

contribute to the night-time streetscape. 

Newcastle After Dark explores the city at night; a dense fabric of interior spaces catering for excitement and excess, that spill out onto 

the streets and urban spaces in between. Nocturnal environments of the city - the bar, pub, nightclub - are well understood through their 

economic and social geography, but there have been few comprehensive, architecturally-led surveys of spaces of intoxication, despite their 

significant influence on the identity of post-industrial cities across the UK. 

This staff and student research project takes an architectural approach to to explore the spaces of the night – looking at their forms, materials, 

aesthetics and experiences – in the context of the city. Research into the city’s night-time economies, and their evolution, history, and role 

within Newcastle’s culture, informs an examination of how intoxication is enacted in, and through, the city’s space, and how space in turn is 

transformed through night time desires. 

173

Testing Ground 

Graham Farmer 

The Testing Ground Programme provides the opportunity for students to collaborate with a range of related disciplines, external organisations 

and building users through the vehicle of ‘live’ projects. 

This year the students worked on two main projects. The first involved a collaboration with The Middlesbrough Institute of Modern 

Art (MIMA) where the students designed and constructed the furniture infrastructure for the exhibition ‘If All Relations Were to Reach 

Equilibrium..…’ This project involving display, and public programmes explored the subject of migration on Teesside and elsewhere, bringing 

together artefacts and artworks made by asylum seekers as well as established artists. 

The second project engaged the students in the design and construction of a Heritage Lottery funded Wildlife Hide at the Bakethin Conservation 

Area, Kielder. The students navigated complex statutory and client requirements including making the structure fully accessible 

and only specifying materials from sustainable sources. The students worked closely with the Northumbrian Wildlife Trust and the resulting 

timber-framed structure contains two ‘pods’ on split levels, one for bird watching and one for forest viewing. The Hide is clad in charred larch, 

has a moss roof and includes innovative sash windows that slide into the wall to give unobstructed views 

174

Zanzibar Futures 

Prue Chiles 

This project seeks to explore the geo-politics of Zanzibar: a small island archipelago just off the East-African ‘Swahili coast’. Zanzibar has the 

ambition of being the most sustainable island in Africa, despite currently facing pressing development issues of rapid population growth and 

scarcity of resources. With a population of just under one million, Unguja, Zanzibar’s principal island, is truly a microcosm of the most critical 

nternational development challenges. 

The culmination of this linked research project was a journal, Zanzibar Futures, which represents a year-long documentation of the cultural, 

social and development issues on Unguja, resulting in a combination of research inquiry, design thinking and live building. The team’s journey 

began with fieldwork in February 2016, which formed an invaluable foundation for the subsequent research. Working together with the 

Ministry of Urban and Rural Planning in Zanzibar and the NGO Sustainable East Africa, they were briefed and informed on current practice 

and approaches toward local development planning. 

Featured in the journal are four key essays, which although individually authored are a result of closely related and interrelated research topics. 

Therefore, like much of the included work, these represent a collective endeavour and support the other ethnographic, historical and design 

studies. The essays also highlight different academic and architectural modes of production and methods used in their research. Alexandra’s 

essay on the typologies of Architecture in Zanzibar is an architectural polemic focusing on how the buildings in Zanzibar relate to each other 

spatially, materially and stylistically with regards to their varying cultural influences. Malcolm’s essay, overtly political, elaborates on studies 

of Zanzibar’s education systems, whilst simultaneously acting as commentary on the architectural design principals and construction patterns 

surrounding local education. Matt’s essay discusses one of the conundrums of contemporary exchange and commercial culture, by questioning 

the degree to which markets can be formalised, whilst finding ways to quantify in ways meaningful to architecture the variety of exchange and 

activity patterns of a marketplace. Finally Nicola’s essay on the cultural value of trees, highlights through both sytematic and poetic means 

the enormous political, social and economic value of trees in Zanzibar. From their fundamental importance throughout colonial and local 

histories, to the current economy and identity of the region, trees carry particular social importance and make a huge contribution to urban 

public space. 

Finally the team worked on developing a website to document the collective academic work which has been carried out in Zanzibar over 

the last four years by students from both the Universities of Sheffield and Newcastle. The website aims to bring together the design projects, 

studies and papers so that they can be shared with partners in Zanzibar, whilst also being accessible to other disciplines and anyone else 

interested in learning about the geopolitical, socio-economic and architectural complexities of this fascinating region. 

175

MA in Urban Design 

Georgia Giannopoulou, Tim Townshend, Ali Madanipour 

Contributors: John Devlin, Roger Meier, Martin Bonner, Aidan Oswell, Richard Smith, William Ault, Dhruv Sookhoo, Colin Haylock, Michael 

Crilly, Tony Wyatt, Sarah Miller, Geoff Whitten, Prue Chiles, Steve Graham, Cristina Pallini, Smajo Beso 

The MA in Urban Design is a well-established interdisciplinary programme at Newcastle University that draws on expertise from the 

disciplines represented in the School, namely Architecture, Planning and Landscape. The programme brings to the foreground a strong 

agenda of social and ecological engagement together with a relational approach to the built environment and public life. Three distinct design 

projects punctuate the year and are supported by theory courses and critical debate around the practice of Urban Design. The projects engage 

with varying localities and the challenges and themes emerging from the place as well as themes for regeneration and societal challenges. The 

two major projects are parts of a year-long project on a complex site in the city centre of Newcastle and deal with issues of post-industrial 

urban renewal; the first part of the project Skills in Urban Regeneration engages with contemporary concepts of Digital/Smart Cities, as well as 

sustainability in the context of a mixed use masterplan for this key site in the city. Housing Alternatives, forming the latter part of this project, 

examines new models of neighbourhood design in the context of the housing crisis and housing needs. The project explores concepts of 

affordability, sustainable living and community led-models as well as new and contemporary models for living addressing issues of resilience, 

changing patterns of working, and an ageing population centred on the increasingly popular in the UK cohousing model. 

The European field trip to Milan (Italy) aims to introduce alternative approaches to Urban Design using concepts of landscape, health 

and GreenBlue infrastructure. The project is based on a derelict site planned for a railway station on the Milan-Mortara line, including 

an unfinished railway structure by Aldo Rossi. Students are tasked with producing proposals for developing a salutogenic landscape using 

theoretical explorations on the theme as well as taking into consideration the city’s history in relation to its water systems and fitting into the 

context. The year concludes with the Urban Design Thesis, a major research-led design project, on topics selected by the individual students 

around their interests. The course features a robust engagement with urban design process including issues of financial viability and delivery 

across the design projects. Students in the course have many opportunities for visiting places within the UK and in Europe in the context of 

the projects. 

176 

Top left to Bottom right - Group: Xuan Zhou, Peijun Yao, Group: Adem Altunkaya, Jackson Leong, Group: Ryan Conlon, Diva Jain, Group: Laurence Bonner, 

Adem Altunkaya, Ryan Conlon, Group: Adem Altunkaya, Jackson Leong

Top - Group: Diva Jain, Ryan Conlon, Adem Altunkaya, Laurence Bonner Upper Middle - Group: Laurence Bonner, Ryan Conlon, Adem Altunkaya, Diva Jain 

Lower Middle - Group: Diva Jain, Ryan Conlon 

Bottom - Group: Diva Jain, Ryan Conlon 

177

MA in Architecture, Planning and Landscape (Design) 


Contributors: Astrid Lund, Nathaniel Coleman,Tony Watson 

The Master of Architecture, Planning and Landscape-Design (MAAPL-D) course encourages students to develop a deeper understanding 

of varieties of identity in cities. Students conduct detailed studies of particular urban communities, concentrating on determining strategies 

of appropriate development for specific urban sites. In each of the three semesters of the course, developing projects presuppose devising 

community based urban design frameworks for selected sites that broadly consider the surrounding context. In each semester, holistic design 

frameworks articulating the potential character and quality of the environment initiated by the proposed project support reasonably complex 

building designs. 

Semester one is divided proportionally between group explorations of the city and individual project work, augmented by developing research 

into the history, theory and design of cultural buildings in an urban context. The second semester project explores ideas of meaning and 

identity in the urban environment and the role that public space and buildings play in articulating notions of citizenship and community. 

Students produce three architectural/urban design schemes of increasing scale and complexity for a specific urban location. Architecture as a 

civic element is emphasised, including concentration on the relation between exterior and interior spaces. 

The problematic of public space within an increasingly privatised built environment; the degree to which theory can be verified by the design; 

and the support of both by close readings of set theoretical texts that consider architecture and the city from a range of perspectives are 

central to the course; as is a developing understanding of architecture within the expanded field of an urban context in relation to notions of 

identity, community, and culture more generally. No matter their scale, projects are construed as complex public buildings with key interior 

and exterior public spaces specific to their location and purpose. Thesis projects developed during the third semester provide students with 

opportunities for elaborating on many of the themes introduced earlier in the course. The thesis is a major design project framed by individual 

students that they largely produce independently. 

The MAAPL-D course challenges students’ preconceived notions of architecture, planning, urban design and the city, as well as their ingrained 

habits of architectural conceptualization and representation. In the course, individual buildings are considered as component parts of cities, 

rather than as isolated objects within it. As such, tendencies to over-emphasise buildings as spectacular image, interesting form, or virtuosic 

technological novelty are counter-balanced by the urban, social, and tectonic qualities of projects. Within the expanded field of the city, urban 

buildings are emphasised as socio-cultural elements rather than primarily as abstract objects of aesthetic (or visual) appreciation. 

178 Top -Mohamed Elghoneimy Bottom - Jemma El Chidiac

Top left to Bottom right - Jemma El Chidiac, Hala Almalkawi(2), Jiayin Zhong, Xinjue Wang, Xiaoli Tian(2) 

179

MSc in Experimental Architecture 

Martyn Dade-Robertson, Rachel Armstrong 

Contributors: Carolina Ramirez Figueroa, Andrew Ballantyne, Simone Ferracina, Aurelie Guyet, Luis Hernan, Rolf Hughes 

The MSc in Experimental Architecture is a new and exciting programme based on a visionary architectural practice that deals with global 21st 

century challenges that prepares students for a rapidly evolving professional environment. Our approach is grounded in an experimental designled 

methodology to working with new types of materials, methods and technologies that create the context for further social, political, economic 

and cultural reflection that, which are expressed through an architectural design project which is simultaneously provocative and visionary, but 

also grounded and rigorous. 

The course is design based and centred around two Studios: Living Technologies and Synthetic Ecologies (run in semesters 1 and 2 respectively). 

The studios are supported by lectures and workshops in drawing, modelling computation, fabrication and design methods. Students are expected 

to emerge from the programme with world-class design portfolios that also embody an informed position on the role of the 21st century architect. 

Students are encouraged to challenge accepted modes and practices in architecture using a variety of approaches that include design-led 

and scientific experiment. Such an approach seeks to address forward-focussed engagement with architectural agendas while also providing 

opportunities for young architects to develop the intellectual and practical skills by which they may develop strategies for dealing with a rapidly 

evolving professional environment that is being shaped by global challenges, such as rapidly rising populations, and emerging technologies. 

180 Synthetic Ecologies

Living Technologies 

181

MSc in Sustainable Buildings and Environments (SBE) 

Neveen Hamza 

Contributors: Alan J Murphy, Barry Rankin, Halla Huws, Hassan Hemida, Ivan Marquez Munoz, Liam Haggarty, Richard Allenby, Paul Yeomans 

MSc students in SBE use building and urban performance simulation tools and a deeper understanding of building physics to underpin their 

architectural design approaches. This academic year we were joined by students from the MArch and MAAPL-D route. The students worked on 

three live projects with their estates departments and Newcastle City Council. They engaged with a number of well-established professionals in 

the field. 

The Engineering Excellence Quarters in Newcastle University Campus studies: we were asked by the University to start looking at massing ideas for 

the project to maximize capturing the sustainability aspects of the site. Students looked into the environmental impacts (such as wind speed and 

shadowing studies) on pedestrians and how different massing ideas could lead to a unified campus where pedestrian movement is facilitated and 

the natural environment is moderated. 

The Freeman Hospital in Newcastle: working closely with the Estate Department to improve the 1960’s building. The occupants complain from 

drafts in winter and overheating and less effective natural ventilation in the wards year round. The project addressed possibilities of aesthetic 

improvements, and insertions of social interaction spaces while moderating the indoors climate using building performance simulations. Students 

also expanded their explorations to look at climate change scenarios and environmental architectural concepts can prevent the need for cooling. 

Fisherman’s Lodge in Jesmond Dene: the students presented design proposals for the public consultation that was managed by English Heritage 

and Newcastle City Council. Fisherman’s Lodge has been derelict for over ten years and ideas for its revival and extensions into various possible 

functions were introduced to the council to help them build ideas of potential usage. Building and urban performance simulation were used to 

maximize the sustainability potential of the projects and underpin design decisions in such a dark and historic valley. 

182 Top -Wuxia Zhang Bottom - Lwigina Ramirez Castillo

1 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

6 9 

9 

8 

7 

10 

11 

Top, left to right -Wuxia Zhang, Eliana Peralta Aquino Middle - Lwigina Ramirez Castillo Bottom - Eliana Peralta Aquino 

183

Locations 

Activities 

Byker Community Gardens 

Residents Ouseburn Farm YMCA Byker Storehouse Horticulturalist 

Byker Community Trust 

Education Productive Growing Horticultural Training 

Community Orchard Tending Public Spaces Community Meals Cooking Lessons 

Engaging with the two 

Growing fruit and 

Training and teaching 

The south facing terraces 

Residents employed to 

Shared meals between 

Utilising fruit and veg grown 

primary schools to educate 

vegetables in the Byker 

new horticultural skills to 

of Avondale Rise lend 

plant and maintain the 

residents developing 

around the redevelopment 

children on growing 

Gardens and around the 

residents to help people 

themselves to a small 

public spaces around 

relationships and providing 

to teach residents about 

plants and care for the 

estate. Food grown can be 

improve their gardens or 

community orchard, 

Byker, including planters, 

the opportunity for new 

healthy eating and cooking. 

environment. 

used for shared meals. 

pursue employment. 

growing a range of fruit. 

beds and hedges. 

social connections. 

St Lawrence’s 

Primary School 

PLANT NURSERY 

HORTICULTURAL 

TRAINING 

EDUCATION 

Ouseburn 

Farm 

PRODUCTIVE 

GROWING 

YMCA Byker 

Byker Aspire 

COMMUNITY 

ORCHARD 

Horticulturalist 

Residents 

Storehouse 

COOKING 

LESSONS 

Byker Community 

Trust 

TENDING PUBLIC 

SPACES 

COMMUNITY 

MEALS 

BCT Rapid 

Response Team 

Residents 

Recent PhD by Creative Practice Completion 

Making Byker: The Situated Amateur Practices of a Citizen Architect 


Positioned on the margins of the architectural profession as an informal and amateur practice, my thesis explored connections between 

‘expert’ practice and the city as a fluid socio-spatial construct of (re)production and consumption, freed from professional preoccupations with 

buildings as formal, static and aesthetic objects. 

In 1969, Anglo-Swedish architect Ralph Erskine was commissioned to masterplan and design the Byker redevelopment project in Newcastle 

upon Tyne. With colleagues, he established an office on site, and a number of the architects moved to the area to deliver the project. As a result 

of this direct engagement with the area, a situated mode of practice emerged in the overlap between their professional personas as practitioners 

and their social concerns as residents. 

Having moved into a house in Byker in 2011, my work onsite through the PhD drew on the approach of Erskine’s team as a touchstone, 

inspiring a mode of relational practice that draws on situated and everyday ways of knowing to inform acts of adaption, (mis)use and 

intervention, and that investigated the unique condition of the hobby rooms which Erskine’s team included in the design of the redevelopment. 

The investigation of the thesis developed a creative practice methodology to inform and trace a series of tactical and reflective operations that 

emerged out of my engagement with the social ecologies and political structures of Byker, as both a resident and an active citizen. Through 

the overlapping of my professional and personal identities I pursued a series of architectural projects and practices that sought to traverse 

the boundary between the professionally distinct configurations of architect and user to question new possible relations between these two 

identities and associated perceptions of the built environment. Through ongoing reflection on these operations, the thesis established four 

distinct themes: situated practice, everyday practice, amateur practice and citizen practice, that situate contemporary theoretical positions on 

architecture in the context of Byker. A situated drawing, inscribed onto my dining table at home, provides a site to explore each theme and 

their intersections. 

The work on site explored the historical and contemporary background of the underused and vacant hobby rooms in Byker as spaces of 

collectivity and leisure interest. Limited by the inaccessibility of many of these spaces, my investigations explored the spaces of hobby practice 

more broadly across the redevelopment in collaboration with Byker residents, identifying hobby space as that which is temporally inhabited 

framed by key equipment formed through the ‘everyday design’ of these users. The development of this altered understanding of the nature 

and use of hobby space informed the design and construction of a series of pieces of ‘hobby furniture’ for different hobbyists around the Byker 

area that explored the possibility for hobby space as deployed across a range of spaces. Reflection on the use of these elements paid closer 

attention to the forms of social infrastructure that supports and underpins the use and viability of collective hobby spaces, culminating in 

the proposal of a set of ‘hobby agencies’ that speculated on the social relationships that might enable spatial alterations across public spaces 

in the area. 

The situated actions through which the hobby rooms were addressed also confront the illegitimacy of amateur practice, revealing the creative 

and empowering potential of the informal social engagement of the practitioner with the conditions of use and appropriation, alongside other 

citizens, embedding practice within a local network of individuals, agencies, local organisations and political bodies. 

By deploying professional tools and methods within the context of citizenship, the thesis contributes toward ongoing discussions concerning 

the role of participatory practice in architecture, exploring these questions from the perspective of the practitioner’s involvement in the rituals 

and rhythms of everyday life. In doing so, it frames an approach to architectural practice that is spatially situated, yet temporally boundless, 

a cyclical operation that weaves together spatial, social, and political activity, making a claim for a new mode of situated, amateur, citizen 

practice. 

Main Supervisor: Adam Sharr, Second Supervisor: Katie Lloyd Thomas, Internal Examiner: Prue Chiles, , External Examiner: Katja Grillner - KTH 

School of Architecture - Stockholm, Sweden 

BYKER COMMUNITY GARDENS 

BYKER COMMUNITY GARDENS 

MAKING BYKER 

Hobby Agencies: Byker Community Gardens 

Hobby Agencies: Byker Community Gardens 

184

PhD and PhD by Creative Practice Students 

PRACTICEOPOLIS: Journeys in the architectural profession 


The contemporary architectural profession displays an on-going struggle for 

economic and cultural capital between heterogeneous cultures of practice, 

which together comprise what can be described as a state of dynamic 

equilibrium. The contemporary profession is dominated by a technical-rational 

culture of practice. The term refers to commercially-driven practices that are 

often associated with the production of buildings by or for multinational 

corporations and tend to echo their values. This research interrogates the 

imperatives of this domination on the values of the architectural profession. 

It builds upon two strategies: firstly, mapping the alternative cultures of the 

present architectural profession; and secondly, identifying the dangers of the 

increasing closeness in values between the profession and other actors in the 

building industry. The research argues that these increasingly shared values 

threaten the unique worth of the architectural profession and the dynamic 

equilibrium which characterises it. By inventing Practiceopolis: an imaginary 

city of architectural practice, the research aims to investigate the nature of the 

profession and the particular values it contributes to the built environment. 

Practiceopolis is a city built on diagrammatic relations between different 

cultures of practice covering a wide spectrum of the contemporary profession. 

The city became envisaged through a sequence of five iterative narratives 

whose specific narrations set the foundation for the next. An initial diagram 

becomes a map, which becomes the plan for a speculative city. These narratives 

are accountable for mapping the contemporary profession by building 

the complex metaphor of Practiceopolis. They explore the inhabitation of 

Practiceopolis by narrating stories about the competition between prominent 

cultures of practice in the city’s imaginary political scene represented through 

a graphic novel. The research ends with propositions regarding the particular 

values of the architectural profession, and highlights the necessity to explore 

how these values could be defined, communicated, and marketed. 

Life, Superceiling: A cultural history of the suspended ceiling 


Suspended ceilings are a ubiquitous element of contemporary architecture. 

From the generic spaces of the shopping mall, corporate office and hospital 

wing; to intimate spaces of domestic inhabitation, the suspended ceiling 

prevails. Their pervasive presence can be attributed to their simplicity, ease of 

construction and inherent repetitious quality. Organised on a regular grid of 

600mm x 600mm, the suspended ceiling neatly resolves the problem of how 

to conceal the plethora of technical and environmental services desired in the 

design of modern buildings. The proliferation of suspended ceiling systems 

globally testifies their status as the default ceiling solution for contractors, 

designers and clients alike. 

The ubiquity of suspended ceilings across our contemporary built 

environments, implies that there widespread application is not only enabled by 

technical efficiency but by active cultural, political and economic forces. The 

research examines and develops an account of the history of technical, social, 

cultural and economic factors which have contributed to the global production 

and consumption of suspended ceiling systems. Borrowing techniques and 

methods deployed by radical Italian design collective Superstudio; multiple 

readings of the suspended ceiling are developed, drawing out wider questions 

related to prevalent cultural attitudes toward standardisation, industrialisation, 

organisation and management. These attitudes are read through the suspended 

ceiling, contributing toward a critique of contemporary spatial production 

and its relationship to architectural practice. 

185

Towards a Synthetic Morphogenesis for Architecture 

Paola Carolina Ramirez Figueroa 

www.syntheticmorphologies.com 

Synthetic Morphologies is a design exploration project that emerges from a 

growing design discourse on the possibilities afforded by Synthetic Biology. 

The 21st century is poised to be the era of biology, very much like the 20th has 

been the age of digital information. The notion comes from recent advances 

from Synthetic Biology in manipulating and creating new living organisms 

that exhibit unprecedented traits in nature. Design, as many other fields, has 

felt the influence of such a paradigmatic shift. In architecture, for instance, a 

growing body of speculative work imagines a future material reality enacted by 

hybrids of machine and living organisms, whereby building are grown rather 

than constructed. 

Yet, Synthetic Morphologies poses the possibility that, in fact, Synthetic 

Biology presents design with a more profound challenge – one that stirs the 

restating of the discipline of design itself. To think, for instance, of buildings 

which are grown out of pre-programmed living organisms is, in effect, to 

continue the classic paradigm of design wherein the designer is an almighty 

giver of form. I propose an alternative approach – an organicist-inspired 

material practice for synthetic biology. 

I believe the intersection of design and synthetic biology invites us to think 

of design as a negotiation between different actors, some of which include the 

chemical environment, mechanical conditions, designers and living organisms 

themselves. Throughout my doctoral research I’ve engaged in different 

projects which characterise and trace the evolution of the speculative discourse 

initiated by synthetic biology, and which eventually leads to the notion of 

a biologically-oriented material practice: a technique to engage with the 

processes of designing through and with living organisms. 

Space Thickening and the Digital Ethereal: Production of architecture in 

the digital age 

Jose-Luis Hernandez-Hernandez 

www.digitalethereal.com 

Digital Ethereal came about as a design discourse on digital technologies, and 

the invisible infrastructure underpinning it. I believe our interaction with 

this landscape of electromagnetic signals, described by Antony Dunne as 

Hertzian Space, can be characterised in the same terms as that with ghosts and 

spectra. They both are paradoxical entities, whose untypical substance allows 

them to be an invisible presence. In the same way, they undergo a process of 

gradual substantiation to become temporarily available to perception. Finally, 

they both haunt us: ghosts, as Derrida would have it, with the secrets of past 

generations; Hertzian Space, with the frustration of interference and slowness. 

But it is these same traits of Hertzian Space that affords the potential for a 

spatially rich interaction with information systems, one that more closely 

resembles the interaction with real architecture. The challenge however lies 

in how to design with systems that are fundamentally invisible. They can 

be ‘translated’ – changing their modality into one which is tangible. This 

modality change is however always laced with cultural charges, which changes 

the nature of Hertzian Space. 

In order to take advantage of Hertzian Space, I advocate for a creative 

practice aimed at creating new objects, indexed to Hertzian Space, but 

which also captures the cultural and social complexity imbued in the use of 

such technologies. I call this new series of objects the digital ethereal. The 

design work created throughout this project blends together disciplines and 

techniques such as performance, photography, design, programming and 

electronics. 

186

Shared Identity: Buildings, Memories, and Meanings 

Stephen Grinsell 

News stories about either the decision to save or demolish many buildings of 

the 1960s and early 1970s regularly use the noun monstrosity, usually prefaced 

by the word concrete. However, not all concrete buildings create animosity. 

The recently demolished Birmingham Central Library, whilst derided by 

Prince Charles as looking like ‘a place where books are incinerated, not kept’ 

(Birmingham Mail, 2014) is also commonly and affectionately called the 

‘Ziggurat’, a reference to the stepped terraces of ancient temples. David Parker 

and Paul Long in their article ‘“The Mistakes of the Past”? Visual Narratives 

of Urban Decline and Regeneration’ write ‘For all their faults, the buildings of 

the 1960s and 1970s currently being destroyed supplied Birmingham with an 

identity’ (Parker and Long, 2004 p.18). Buildings are given their identity and 

meaning, or more accurately, given a multiplicity of meanings, by those who 

gaze upon them and allow the building to impact upon them. This impact, 

or the experience as a result of that gaze, stirs emotions and evokes memories, 

memories that heighten a sense of identity. This identity then becomes a shared 

identity as people share their memories, and what the building means to them. 

Parker, D., & Long, P. (2004). ‘“The Mistakes of the Past”? Visual Narratives 

of Urban Decline and Regeneration’. Visual Culture in Britain, 5(1), 37-58. 

The Impacts of Owners’ Participation on ‘Sense of Place’, 

the Case of Tehran, Iran 

Goran Erfani 

A key aspect for urban designers and managers concerns how urban 

transformation arising from regeneration of inner-city areas is associated 

with ‘sense of place’. Although much academic work tracks individual sense 

of place, little interrogates the community aspect and its link with urban 

renewal. This study investigated how the urban renewal schemes in Tehran, 

Iran have attempted to adopt the owners’ participation into their planning 

and implementation. It concentrated especially on diverse ways that different 

stakeholders perceived the methods of these schemes and the significance for 

community sense of place. 

The study examined the urban renewal projects conducted by the municipality 

of Tehran which concerns these areas as deprived neighbourhoods with various 

physical, social and environmental problems. Two cases were studied, namely 

the Oudlajan bazar and the Takhti neighbourhood, which both are located 

in the inner city (district 12). Despite similarities, they are distinctive cases. 

Oudlajan, which has outstanding heritage value to the city, is a commercial 

public space. The Takhti project was about the residential private space. In 

addition, each case had diverse socio-cultural and physical transformation. 

The selecting of the distinctive cases shaped a better picture of urban 

transformation in Tehran. 

The techniques applied seek to represent different types of participants, by 

means of local observation and semi-structured interviews with a range of 

stakeholders in these schemes. Additionally, to elicit what constitutes the 

interrelationships between people and place, Photo Elicitation Interview (PEI) 

was carried out. The photos captured by the residents were discussed with 

them to reveal the potential impact of urban renewal projects on place-based 

community attachment, identity and satisfaction in the eyes of individuals. 

Concurrently, planners, managers and developers were interviewed. To signify 

the intersubjectivity, the results and evidence from the previous phases were 

separately discussed with other participant and non-participant residents in 

the renewal schemes. Furthermore, the study considered the potential and 

limitations for sense of place associated with the urban regeneration schemes. 

187

On Repetition: Photograhpy in/as Architectural Criticism - Working 

through the Archives of Mies van der Rohe and Lilly Reich’s German 

Pavilion and the North American Concrete Grain Elevators 

Catalina Mejia-Moreno 

www.travesiafoundation.org 

‘Many of us, maybe all of us, look at some images repeatedly, but it seems that we do 

not write about that repetition, or think it, once written, worth reading by others’. 

T.J.Clark. The Sight of Death. An experiment in Art Writing. (New Haven and 

London: Yale University Press, 2006) pp. 9. 

In the photo-archives of two of the most recognised British architectural 

historians of the late twentieth century - Robin Evans and Reyner Banham - 

two iconic buildings come across repeatedly, almost compulsively. In Evans’, the 

Barcelona Pavilion (1929- reconstructed 1986) and in Banham’s, the Buffalo 

Grain Elevators (late nineteenth Century). While these slide sets can be 

understood as the result of the empiricist English tradition and the relevance 

of direct experience for the buildings’ histories and criticisms, they are also 

evidence of a wider phenomenon in architectural history: the drive to re-visit, 

the compulsion to re-photograph and the instinct to repeat. In this context, 

my PhD project questions photography as the inherent means of repetition 

in architectural history, while arguing that the photograph as material object 

and object of representation also performs as the criticism itself. By studying 

two important moments in time for the photographic dissemination of the 

two aforementioned buildings, and by understanding the material history of 

photographs as commodities and objects of transaction, I critically examine 

the relationship between architectural history, architectural criticism, and 

photographic and ideological techniques of (re)production. 

Looking Towards Retirement: Alternative Design Approaches to Third- 

Ager Housing 

Sam Clark 

UK society was first categorised ‘aged’ during the 1970s, and is currently 

heading towards ‘super-aged’ status, whereby 20 per cent of the population 

will be aged sixty-five and over by the year 2025. Indeed scientific evidence 

indicates linear increases in life expectancy since 1840, such that UK 

population ‘pyramids’ are now looking more like ‘columns’, with fewer 

younger people at the base and increasing numbers and proportions of older 

people at the top. There are 10,000 centenarians living in the UK today, with 

demographers anticipating a five-fold increase by 2030. Half of all babies born 

this year can expect to live one hundred years. 

Housing plays a significant role in sustaining a good quality of life, and there 

is growing opinion that moving to specialist or more age-appropriate housing 

has a positive impact on the wellbeing of older people, as well as potential 

benefits to the property market as a whole. Recent design research includes a 

competition commissioned by McCarthy & Stone to ‘re-imagine ageing’, and 

an RIBA report illustrating future scenarios in which ‘Active Third-Agers’ have 

made a huge impact on UK towns and cities. Both initiatives were predicated 

on the idea that today’s older population (colloquially known as the ‘babyboomers’) 

have alternative and more demanding lifestyle expectations that are 

likely to drive a step-change in housing choice for older people. 

Sam is working in collaboration with national house builder, Churchill 

Retirement Living, to further explore the needs and aspirations of those 

entering retirement. In this instance a PhD by Creative Practice is being used 

as a vehicle for applied design research that will contribute to contemporary 

visions for retirement living. 

188

Cities, People, Nature: An Exploration 


mynaturehood.tumblr.com 

With more than half of the world’s population now living in cities, it is the 

nature within the city that has the potential to enhance people’s lives on a daily 

basis. The city-people-nature trinomial raises a number of questions that form 

the basis of this research. My first installation coincided with the ‘Landscape, 

Wilderness and the Wild’ conference and explored two initial questions: 

Is there a boundary between the natural and cultural in the city? 

The relation between nature and culture is complex. The classical notion of 

nature is the world devoid of human interaction or activity; and urbanization, 

the antithesis of nature. At the other end of the spectrum there is the notion 

of nature as a social constructed phenomenon, and the idea that nature as the 

untouched doesn’t exist anymore, as human activity has affected the whole 

world. What is evident is that cities depend on nature to survive and vice versa, 

and it is therefore difficult to see where one ends and the other starts. 

Could the expectation of nature in the city be challenged and what could we 

tolerate within the urban? 

Within the city we tend to arrest the progression of nature in order to maintain 

landscapes and spaces looking a certain way, and avoid the chaos or fear that 

might result from a ‘wild’ nature. ‘Wilderness’ is found on abandoned sites, 

on former industrial sites, in the cracks of the pavements, in the joints of 

the walls, reclaimed by nature whilst waiting to be developed or cleared out. 

Is looking the reason why we arrest nature, and how is nature experienced 

through the other senses? 

Revealing Design: A Dialogic Approach 


www.ncl.ac.uk/apl/staff/profile/matthew.ozga-lawn 

My research project attempts to reveal hidden or overlooked agencies within 

the studio space and the representational modes therein, which is normally 

conceived of as a neutral zone through which designs are simply ‘transmitted’. 

In my study, the studio is conflated with a rifle range. The studio, in adopting 

the characteristics and agencies of the military space, opens architectural 

representation onto codes and phenomena normally considered to be outside 

its remit. These phenomena are drawn into the project through historical and 

theoretical links established by the rifle range space. 

My research blurs the agencies of the military and studio spaces, revealing 

coded agencies that we as designers often take for granted in how we relate and 

engage with representational artefacts in the studio. 

189

Quality Control and Quality Assurance in Construction – Case of Tower 

Buildings in Libya 

Salem Tarhuni 

The Conservation of Twentieth Century Architecture in China 

Yun Dai 

Comprehensive Intelligence in Sustainable Courtyard House 

Architecture 

Rand Agha 

A Spatial Carbon Analysis Model for Retrofitting the Guayaquil’s 

Residential Sector – GURCC as a Case Study 

Javier Urquizo 

Crisis of Traditional Identity in Built Environment of the Saudi Cities. A 

Case Study: The Old City of Tabuk 

Mabrouk Alsheliby 

Natural Ventilation: An Evaluation of Strategies for Improving Indoor 

Air Quality in Hospitals of Semi-Arid Climates 

Mohamed Mahgoub Elnabawi 

Learning from Vernacular Natural Ventilated Residential Houses 

in Mediterranean Climate Zone of Lebanon; and Developing its 

Application Methods in Designing Contemporary Housing in Beirut 

Najla Mansour 

The Contemporary Role and Transformation of Civic Public 

Architecture: The Case of Tripoli’s Central Municipal Building, Libya 

Abdelatif El-Allous 

A Coincidental Plot, For Architecture 

Ashley Mason 

Natural Ventilation: An Evaluation of Strategies for Improving Indoor 

Air Quality in Hospitals of Semi-Arid Climates 

Mohammed Mohammed 

Architecture for All in the megacity: Spatially Integrated Settlements in 

Istanbul Dominated by Desirable Affordable Housing that Values More 

than the Total Cost of Construction and Land Values 

Ulviye Nergis Kalli 

Impact of Community Participation on Peri-Urban Development Projects 

in Akure, Nigeria 

Oluwatoyin Akim 

Usage of Thermally Comfortable Outdoor Space through the Lens of 

Adaptive Microclimate 

Khalid Setaih 

Becoming Planners and Architects: the Formation of Perspectives on 

Residential Design Quality 

Dhruv Sookhoo 

After the Blueprint: Questions around the Unfinished in New Belgrade 

Tijana Stevanović 

Modelling the Effects of Household Practices on Heating Energy 

Consumption in Social Housing. A Case Study in Newcastle upon Tyne 

Macarena Beltan Rodriguez 

190

Architecture: Creative Practice Symposium 

The School of Architecture, Planning & Landscape at Newcastle University 

25-26 th April 2017 

Architecture: Creative Practice Symposium led by Professor Prue Chiles 

was conceived as an in-house event with the addition of notable external 

contributors, and the aim was to create a dynamic and informal forum in 

which to present, debate and create our sense of the breadth of creative 

practice within the School of Architecture, Planning & Landscape, and in 

architecture more widely. This small scale and intimate symposium consisted 

of workshops, round tables, exhibitions, and discussions creating fruitful 

exchanges in a positive and generous atmosphere. 

We were delighted to have as opening keynote Professor Jane Rendell from 

the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL. Rendell shared insights into how 

architectural design, creative practice, and material experimentation can be 

more fully presented as research, followed by an introduction to her work and 

the field of terms - critical spatial practice and site-writing - for which she is 

renowned. 

The evening continued with presentations by: Prof Prue Chiles – Social Ends 

And Means; Catrin Huber - Creative Practice; Prof Adam Sharr - Architectural 

Design; Prof Rachel Armstrong - Experimental Architecture; Prof Graham 

Farmer - Live Build Projects; Ian Wiblin and Dr Chris Müller – Photography; 

and a round table discussion led by Prof Katie Lloyd-Thomas. Dinner was then 

served in the newly opened Building Sciences Lab. The next day began with 

the workshop presentations by Elizabeth Baldwin Gray, Kati Blom, Andrew 

Campbell, James A Craig, Claire Harper, Dr Christos Kakalis, Daniel Mallo, 

Mags Margetts, Matt Ozga-Lawn, and Dr Ed Wainwright, each followed by 

crit-style feedback. 

After lunch landscape architect and artist Catherine Dee, and artists Penny 

McCarthy, Dr Becky Shaw, (SHU), Dr Polly Gould (APL) framed their 

projects, so to explore whether Fine Art offers a model of an emergent academic 

system that is useful in Architecture. Reports on visits to other practice research 

discussions elsewhere were presented by Dr Anna Holder - Researching 

Making/Making Research, Aarhus; Dr Martyn Dade-Robertson - Research 

through Design Conference, Edinburgh; James A Craig and Prof Katie Lloyd- 

Thomas - PhD By Design Conference, Sheffield; Nikoletta Karastani - RIBA 

North East: Dr Emma Cheatle on her practice and Newcastle University 

Humanities Research Institute (NUHRI); and Julia Heslop on Protohome. 

The coffee breaks were illustrated by landscape architect Dr Ian Thompson’s 

photographic work and Dr Peter Kellett’s recent exhibition on everyday objects 

in Addis Ababa. Our visiting Professor, Prof Julieanna Preston, Professor of 

Spatial Practice at the College of Creative Arts, Massey University, Wellington, 

New Zealand, gave the closing keynote; a performative presentation with 

voice, image and narrative, that brought the event to a moving close. We then 

enjoyed a guided walk with Dr Ed Wainwright past the architectural sites of 

note in Newcastle on the way to the sixteenth century building, Alderman 

Fenwick’s House, Pilgrim Street where Ian Wiblin presented his exhibition 

of black and white photographic prints and video work, with closing drinks. 

Image: 

Polly Gould 

Alpine Architecture: Piz Roseg, 2017 

Watercolour on paper 

34.5 x 54 cm 

New York, VOLTA2017 

Improbable architectures for mountain tops after the work of Bruno Taut 

(1880-1938) 

At points over the two days it was argued that different definitions of 

research might be needed in order to accommodate both the distinctive 

multidisciplinary nature of architecture, and its knowledge production 

through practice. The Symposium provided the opportunity to recognize the 

wide range of practice that is occurring at APL and to open questions for 

future inquiry. 

Text by Polly Gould 

191

ARC – Architecture Research Collaborative 

Architecture is often considered a mongrel discipline, and architectural research is often perceived as borrowing from many other fields from 

art history to civil engineering. We set up ARC with the aim of countering this view – promoting architecture as a discipline in its own right. 

We wanted to challenge a model of research which dissects architecture into its technical, social and humanistic components so we proposed 

a group composed of themes which would change over time whilst maintaining their collective identity. 

This year we have continued with the themes we set in 2015: Namely Ecologies, Infrastructures and Sustainable Environments, Experimental 

Architecture, Futures and Imaginaries, History Cultures and Landscape, Industries of Architecture and Processes and Practices of Architecture. 

In addition, we have a special and emergent theme Mountains and Megastructures which has framed some of our collaborative activity this 

year. 

Our AHRC-funded event ‘Scaling the Heights’, part of the Being Human Festival of the Humanities, was held in the in the North Tower of 

the Tyne Bridge on the 18–25 th November. The event attracted over 400 visitors to an exhibition which included the installation Everest Death 

Zone, presentations by a group lead by STASUS (James A. Craig and Matthew Ozga-Lawn) and presentations from speakers across the School 

and beyond. A follow-up publication is being planned. 

Our commitment to interdisciplinary research has an international presence through the Cambridge University Press Journal arq – 

Architectural Research Quarterly – whose managing editor, Professor Adam Sharr, and the majority of the editorial team are based in ARC . A 

special issue this year on Biotechnologies for the Built Environment was edited by Martyn Dade Robertson and Rachel Armstrong. 

As our numbers continue to expand with Polly Gould starting as the ARC Research Fellow at the end of last year and new colleagues joining 

us we have also turned our attention to how we present our creative practice and design lead research. Traditional research is often measured 

in terms of the quality traditional publications. However, in Architecture we seek to practice research through a much greater range of media 

and outputs. To this end we held a Creative Practice Symposium on the 25-26 th April to bring together practitioner researchers and research 

practitioners to discuss the role creative practice has in their own work. This is the beginning of a new initiative for the School as we develop 

emerging areas of research which have been overlooked for too long. 

Iraq and the Enduring Legacy of Gertrude Bell 

Sana Al-Naimi 

History, Cultures and Landscape 

In my PhD research I investigate the dramatic changes in the built environment over 

the last century in Iraq. I explore the enduring spatial implications of Gertrude Bell’s 

vision, which not only shaped post-WWI British Mandate Iraq, but also continued to 

inform the actions of consecutive governments. Bell introduced socio-spatial changes 

aided by the designs of Scottish architect J.M. Wilson. Both skilfully employed their 

shared passion and expertise in Islamic and Mesopotamian archaeology in “sugarcoating” 

colonialism. I aim to understand how novel architectural typologies and new 

space hierarchies contributed to the current cultural and political instability in Iraq. 

Acknowledgments: 

This research is funded by the Northern Bridge Doctoral Training Partnership. Artwork 

by the author based on images from Gertrude Bell Archive, Newcastle University, PERS_ 

B004B. 

Intoxicated Space 

Ed Wainwright 


From the nocturnal realm of the bar, club & pub, to the divine realm of the church, 

mosque or temple, intoxication – seen as phenomena that moves one outside of the 

realm of everyday experience – is enacted in and through space. Understanding the 

production of the spaces of intoxication, and how intoxication can be produced through 

space forms the basis of this collaboration research project and design studio. Working 

with installation artists, architects and researchers, Intoxicated Space seeks to explore 

the experience, politics and production of intoxication through practice based research 

methods. 

Collaborators: 

Gareth Hudson (School of Fine Art, Newcastle University) 

Students: 

Delia Heitmann (RWTH Aachen), Rosie O’Halloran, Tom Saxton, Matt Sharman- 

Hayles (APL, Newcastle University) 

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Witch Bottles 


Ecologies, Infrastructure, Sustainable Development 

Layering of material according to a chemical and symbolic programmes that speak 

to the elements of air, fire and water were located within the grounds of the Robert 

Rauschenberg Foundation property as a charm that discusses the values at risk through 

sea level rise. They symbolize our hopes, fears and dreams about climate change in a 

manner that draws from local traditions – the production of charmed bottles – and 

ancient knowledge practices, like channeling. These bottles are now part of the 

foundation’s land art collection and were also “virtually” gifted to the BBC Museum of 

Curiosity, Series 9 at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07lj6yh 


Robert Rauschenberg Foundation Fellowship Residency 

Rising Waters 2 confab, April/May 2016 

Pre-Columbian Tropical Urbanism 

Peter Kellett 


This AHRC funded project is evaluating the long term urban traditions exemplified by 

the diversity of pre-Columbian tropical cities of Mesoamerica, to inform sustainable 

urban futures. A series of interdisciplinary workshops will build on historically integrated 

research on tropical urbanism and environmental design to formulate a collaborative 

research project to test underlying principles. In addition to academic partners in 

several countries, the project will engage with wider audiences through a design ideas 

competition and public exhibition to create awareness of the archaeological relevance of 

the past for future urban living. 


Benjamin Vis (PI) University of Kent, University of Leiden, University of Gothenburg, 

RIBA South East, Sainsbury Centre for the Visual Arts 

The Alternative Public 

Xi Chen 

Processes and Practices of Architecture 

The research will investigate the nature and creation public space in the city in Wenzhou, 

a coastal city in the southeast of China. The research interrogates the theoretical 

analysis and the experimental artistic practice that attempting to test the possibilities 

of alternative approach towards the production of public space. It will re-examine the 

effects and understanding of the modern introduction of public space in contemporary 

Chinese society. By referring to the ‘right to the city’, the research aims to explore whose 

power accounts in the development of public space through the cultural, social, spatial 

and political lens. 

Website: 

www.unbuilt.net 

Constructing Informality 

Peter Kellett 


Since 1985 I have been carrying out longitudinal ethnographic research into the growth 

and development of informal settlements in the city of Santa Marta, Colombia. The 

30 year cumulative data set documents the housing trajectories of communities and 

households through changing economic and social circumstances and helps explain how 

built form and social formations are mutually and dynamically constituted through 

time. Living within a local family in a settlement for extended periods on multiple 

occasions makes it possible to explore the interrelationships between processes of housing 

construction, furnishing and habitation, and issues of identity (re)construction and the 

role of the dwelling in people’s lives. 


Benjamin Vis (PI) University of Kent, University of Leiden, University of Gothenburg, 

RIBA South East, Sainsbury Centre for the Visual Arts 

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The Modernism of Birth 

Emma Cheatle 


This research examines the impact of buildings and interiors on the history of English 

maternity. From the 1750s, concurrent with the rise of the novel, the incidental spaces of 

home birth were succeeded by lying-in hospitals run by newly established man-midwives. 

Across the nineteenth-century, birth was further medicalised and institutionalised in 

these purpose made spaces. Analysing particular buildings and novels, this research traces 

the developing relationship between the places in which birth took place, the women 

and men involved, and the development of instruments and practices. The related Being 

Human Festival project, Maternity Tales, spring from the above research. 

Key References: 

Emma Cheatle, Part-architecture: the Maison de Verre, Duchamp, Domesticity and 

Desire in 1930s Paris (Routledge, 2016) 

Emma Cheatle, ‘Recording the absent in the Maison de Verre’, in IDEA Journal (2012) 

Standardised Assessment of Building Adaptability 

John M. Kamara 

Industries of Architecture 

The aim of this project is to refine and test a theoretical model for rating the adaptability 

of buildings as a first step towards a methodology for the standardised assessment of 

building adaptability. The theoretical model is based on indicators of the adaptability 

of different elements of a building in relation to six adaptability features: adjustability, 

versatility, refit-ability, convertibility, scalability, and movability. Empirical evidence 

through case studies and analytical techniques will be used to model building change 

and test and refine the theoretical model. 


Dr Oliver Heidrich (school of Civil Engineering, Newcastle University), Dr Vladimir 

Ladinski (Principle Architect, Gateshead Council), Professor Mario Dejaco, Professor 

Fulvio Re Cecconi and Dr Sebastiano Maltese (Politecnico do Milano, Italy) 

Phenomenological Affordance Analysis 

Kati Blom 


My thesis laid foundations for an analysis of unique architectural experiences which have 

heterogeneous elements. The corresponding building offers a set of negative or positive 

affordances which may become noted in an experience. To analyse environmental 

relations via perception psychology (Gibson) proved to be useful particularly in 

evaluating glass buildings and the memorable experiences triggered by them. This 

analysis reveals continuities and discontinuities of surfaces of material substances, as well 

as the analysis of affordances within. Both exterior and interior can be looked as concave 

or convex surfaces. 

The Architect as Shopper 


Industries of Architecture 

This project investigates the emergence of the architect as ‘shopper’ and handmaiden of 

the building products industry in the interwar period – a transformation much debated 

at the time, but now largely forgotten, and an unquestioned aspect of contemporary 

architectural practice. It explores the role of women who, on the one hand were just 

entering the architectural profession, selling building products or working in the 

electrical industry, and on the other, were actively targeted as key consumers of building 

products. The research is in conjunction with the Building Centre (London) and a 

Canadian Centre for Architecture (Montreal) research fellowship to prepare the book 

proposal. 

Link: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KSc5m9mWQs 

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Revisiting the Modernist Dream 

Prue Chiles 


This project explores the newly renovated Park Hill in Sheffield, an iconic modernist 

megastructure. We worked with the new residents living there, stakeholders and people 

with memories of the old Park Hill, to build up a picture of domesticity, everyday living 

and how the residents interact with the building, the concrete and the space. From indepth 

interviews and interactive workshops with models and drawings the subsequent 

exhibition, we found that the new residents came from a surprisingly wide demographic 

and had diverse and inspiring thought and attitudes about their new lives at Park Hill 

and how they are making it home. 


Museums Sheffield, Kate Pahl and others at the University of Sheffield. Part of the 

‘Imagine’ project sponsored by the AHRC/ESRC 2012-2017 

Solar Futures 

Prue Chiles 

Ecologies, Infrastructures and Sustainable Environments 

An experimental, transdisciplinary and collaborative project to develop independent 

energy visions and neighbourhood strategies for the future of Stockbridge, South 

Yorkshire. Working closely and co-productively with a group of local residents for three 

years the project and energy systems modelling to describe the current possibilities, 

research ideas and local values of the transition. We explore the role of strategic national 

policy and the potential for holistic design in planning energy transitions. We develop 

a more visionary set of speculative “what if” projects/scenarios for discussion that could 

be relevant for all places like Stocksbridge. The nature of transdisiplinarity and coproduction 

in the project were key findings. 

Collaborators: In partnership with Durham and Sheffield Universities. An EPSRC 

funded project 2012-2016 

Art, Economy and Space 

Ed Wainwright 


Artist’s practices are intimately linked to space – its availability is intricately tied to the 

emergence of scenes of artistic activity. The spaces available for use by artists are directly 

affected by changing economies. The ebb and flow of capital being reflected in often 

surprising ways through environments that become available for studios and workshops. 

The effect these spaces have on modes of artistic production and the relations between 

artists forms the basis of an emerging research project, with collaborators between 

architecture, business and fine art at Newcastle University, and the arts organisation The 

NewBridge Project, in Newcastle upon Type. 


David Butler (School of Arts & Culture, Newcastle University) Charlie Gregory (The 

NewBrigde Project, Newcastle) Paul Richeter (Newcastle University Business School) 

Moon Writing 


Experimental Architecture 

Moonlight in the bay around the iconic Fish House at the Robert Rauschenberg 

Foundation in Captiva produces graphical traces on the surface of the water that suggest 

a correspondence between the sun and the earth, which is orchestrated by the tides. 

This Moon Writing invokes the production of symbols from a generative surface, which 

raises deeper questions about the kinds of languages that the natural world produces 

spontaneously and even understands – be they between cosmic bodies, or bacteria – and 

how do we begin to design with them? 


Robert Rauschenberg Foundation 

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Rapid Urban Change 

Peter Kellett 

Ecologies, Infrastructures and Sustainable Environments 

Ethiopia is experiencing rapid economic growth, development and modernisation, 

including large scale programme to improve the living conditions of the poor and to 

modernise the capital, Addis Ababa. Well-established communities are being moved 

from centrally located traditional courtyard housing to multi-storey blocks on the urban 

periphery. This collaborative research is documenting the lived experience of urban 

transformation and social change through case studies of low-income households. The 

aim is to give a voice to those with the least control and power and to gain insights into 

how communities cope with change, their levels of resilience and how they adapt to 

radically different social, spatial and economic circumstances. 

Key Outputs: 

Kellett, P. and Eyob, Y. (2016) ‘From Courtyards to Condominiums: the experience of 

re-housing in Addis Ababa’ paper presented at IAPS 24 International Conference \The 

human at home, work and leisure: Sustainable use and development of space in everyday 

life’, Lund University, Sweden, June. 


Ethiopian Institute of Architecture and Building Construction (EiABC) at Addis Ababa 

University, Newcastle University Institute for Social Renewal 

Visual Arts and International Development 

Peter Kellett 


This exhibition-based project draws on the techniques from contemporary art to 

question conventional narratives and world views and thereby contribute to the public 

understanding of the international development. Lively assemblages of everyday objects 

supported by photographic projections presented stories of celebration, innovation and 

creativity alongside development dilemmas and challenges. The exhibitions draw on 

material from Ethiopia. 

Key Outputs: 

Kellett, P. (2015) ‘Made in Ethiopia: Material Culture of Everyday Life’ solo exhibition, 

Long Gallery, Department of Fine Art, Newcastle University, April 2015. 


Addis Ababa University, Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO), Newcastle University 

Institute for Creative Arts Practice (NiCAP) 

Computational Colloids 



Imagine a soil, saturated with billions of engineered bacteria cells. As a force is applied 

to the ground, bacteria living in the soil would detect an increase in pressure. The 

bacteria respond by synthesising a new biological material to blind soil grains together 

and increase soil resistance. The resulting structure would consist of a material where 

sand grains are only cemented where the forces through the material require. Our 

EPSRC funded project will build a proof of concept to show how we might design 

a manufacturing process where the material itself acts as manufacturer and designer, 

modelling and responding to its environment. The implications of such a project could 

be profound. Such a technology would push well beyond the current state of the art 

and challenge a new generation of engineering designers to think at multiple scales 

from molecular to the built environment and to anticipate civil engineering with living 

organisms. 

Project Team: 

Martyn Dade-Robertson (School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape), Helen 

Mitrani (School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences), Anil Wipat (IOS, School of 

Computing science), Meng Zhang (Faculty of Life and Health Sciences – Northumbria 

University), Aurelie Guyet (School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape), Javier 

Rodriguez Corral (School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape) 

196

Construction Site for Ideas 


History Cultures Landscape 

A research programme investigation on the role of architectural media in the construction 

and dissemination of architectural ideas and discourse from their beginnings in the 

nineteenth century to the present day. It aims to understand the role of the magazine in 

the construction of architectural history and its influence on architectural culture and 

practice by charting the content and form of architectural periodicals across time, with 

particular focus on the contributors and their relationship to the changing nature of 

architecture as a profession, practice, and culture. 

Key References: 

Parnell, S. ‘Architecture Magazines: Playgrounds and Battlegrounds.’ In Common 

Ground: A Critical Reader, ed. K. Long and S. Rose, 305-8. Venezia: Marsilio, 2012. 

‘Architecture Magazines: Playgrounds and Battlegrounds’, 13th International 

Architecture Exhibition, Biennale di Venezia, 29 August – 25 November 2012. 

Parnell, S. ‘AR’s and AD’s Post-War Editorial Policies: The Making of Modern Architecture in 

Britain.’ The Journal of Architecture 17, no.5 (October 2012). 

Parnell, S. ‘The Collision of Scarcity and Expendability in architectural Culture of the 60s/70s.’ 

Architectural Design, August 2012. 

Bacteria Spore Actuators 

Martyn Dade-Robertson, Carolina Ramirez-Figueroa & Luis Hernan 


Very recent research has shown that bacteria spores combined with an elastomer like 

material can be used to create very powerful hydromorphic material. Hydromorphic 

materials can respond to changes in humidity by changing shape. There are a number of 

hydromorphic materials and most work by combining two layers – which have separate 

rates of expansion in the presence of moisture. As one layer expands it forces the other 

layer to change its shape causing the material to bend. In architecture there has been 

experimentation with timber based hydromorphic materials but, as yet, the bacteria 

based hydromorphic materials have not been considered by architectural designers. 

We have begun to experiment with the basic material and configurations of Bacilla Spore 

actuators and, through a Stage 3 (3rd Year Undergraduate) studio begun to work with 

mechanisms that may translate the power of the hydromorphic material to mechanisms 

which may form parts of a dynamic building skin. 

Output: 

Bacteria Hygromorphs: experiments into the integration of soft technologies into 

building skin – ACADIA 2016 

Out of our Control 

Prue Chiles 


An ongoing longitudinal auto-ethnographic research project to re-visit, re-evaluate and 

encourage the clients’ and builder’s responses to the homes they have lived in and built. 

This project turns from the eyes of the architect to the hands of the maker and to the 

senses of the dweller to interrogate ideas about the social and built everyday domestic 

space, its representation, the final outcome and beyond. Can bricks and mortar be a 

reflection of ourselves and transformational to the life of the occupants? Our architectural 

field of operation is an expanded site of multiple and layered accumulations of physical 

domestic locations, where the relationships, bodies and texts compound into what we 

define as Home. Contingencies of site are far more acute for us and placed us at the heart 

of a set of relationships and processes that became an expanded field for us beyond the 

conventional notion of site. 


The Architectural Practice CE+CA and many other interested parties 

197

Scaling the Heights: Mountains and Vertical Megastructures 

Tyne Bridge North Tower 

18-25 th November 2016 

Scaling the Heights: Mountains and Vertical Megastructures was an exhibition and programme of public talks on the physicality and ascent 

of tall structures and artificial mountains, presented by the Architecture Research Collaborative (ARC) and temporarily installed in the Tyne 

Bridge’s North Tower, providing a rare opportunity to explore one of Newcastle’s iconic buildings. This event was included as part of Being 

Human, the UK’s only national festival of the humanities, that took place in over forty-five towns and cities across the UK between 17-25 th 

November 2016 and followed that year’s theme ‘Hopes and Fears’. 

Contemporary economic and social conditions are driving cities and their inhabitants ever higher into cloud-grazing skyscrapers and highrises. 

We invited our audience to experience the long history and mesmerising appeal of all things high and mighty through an exhibition of 

mountains and megastructures. The North Tower was unlit, unoccupied, unheated and without electrical supply, and the event was set up as 

an entirely battery-powered show. The site was accessible from street level by a flight of stairs that led into the open tower cavity, criss-crossed 

by steel supports, home to pigeons, prone to leaking in the rain, and echoing with the rhythm of the bridge traffic overhead. 

Each visitor was equipped with a torch in order to navigate the exhibits: the dramatic installation ‘Everest Death Zone’ suspended in the vast, 

vertical space by architects STASUS; photographic works by the vertical urban explorer and photographer Lucinda Grange; Amy Butt’s Sci-fi 

reading corner; a participatory sound installation derived from recordings from all the Tyne bridges by James Davoll and David de la Haye; a 

curatorial cabinet of curiosity by Dr Christos Kakalis. 

A programme of events and talks from the exhibitors animated the site over the week: architect Neil Barker’s talk Building the Tyne Bridge; 

a walking tour with Rutter Carroll of the Tyne Gorge North Newcastle and Castle Hill and Tyne Gorge South Gateshead and St Mary’s; 

Professor Steve Graham and Amy Butt discussing science fiction and the vertical city; Dr Josep-Maria Garcia-Fuentes’ talk The Mountainous 

search for a Modern Architecture; Dr Martin Beattie’s talk Travels on the Edge of Empire: John Stapylton Grey Pemberton’s expedition to Darjeeling 

and the ‘snowy ranges’; and a chilly film screening of ‘The Epic of Everest’ Captain John Noel, 1924: restored 2013. 

ARCs success with opening an iconic but rarely accessible Newcastle building as a site for Scaling the Heights was met with great enthusiasm 

by the public, and has created ambition for further forays into temporary site-specific exhibits in the city, so as to profile the architectural 

research into the built environment that is coming out of ARC and APL. 

SCALING THE 

HEIGHTS 

MOUNTAINS AND VERTICAL MEGASTRUCTURES 

architecture 

research 

collaborative 

NOVEMBER 18-25 

TYNE BRIDGE NORTH TOWER 

#SCALINGTHEHEIGHTS 

#BEINGHUMAN16 

Book online at: 

www.ncl.ac.uk/apl/events/being-human/scaling-heights 

198 

Text by Polly Gould

199

Awards 

Newcastle University APL Awards 


H B Saint (William Bell) Memorial Scholarship for best major project designs: 

Mark Laverty 

Thomas Faulkner Prize: 

Angus Brown 

MArch Architecture 

H B Saint (William Bell) Memorial Scholarship for best major project designs: 


William Glover: 


Ed Bennett Prize: 

Greg Murrell 

RIBA Awards 


RIBA Bronze Medal nominations: 

Daniel Barratt 

Mark Laverty 

RIBA Hadrian Award nominations: 

Kat Bruh 

Matthew Rooney 

Melitini Athanasiou 

Tristan Searight 

MArch Architecture 

RIBA Silver Medal nominations: 



RIBA Hadrian Award nominations: 

David Boyd 


Matthew Sharman-Hayles 

Vili Welroos 

3DReid Award 

Nomination: 


www.3dreid.com 

200 

Top - Mark Laverty Middle - Daniel Duffield Bottom - Mariya Lapteva

Contributors 

Each year, the School draws on a vast and extraordinary array of talented architects, artists, critics and other practitioners who substantially 

contribute to our students’ learning, and to the culture and status of the School more generally. On this page we’ve gathered all (we hope!) of 

these vital individuals who come week-after-week to teach in our School. Our thanks go to each and every one of them, and we hope they will 

keep returning, as without their critical input the School would be a very different place. 

Stage 1 

Alanah Honey 

Cath Keay, 

Chloe Gill 

Damien Wooten 

David Davies 

Di Leitch 



James Morton 

Keri Townsend 

Laura Harty 

Mal Lorimer 

Maral Tulip 

Mike Veitch 

Nathalie Baxter 

Robert Johnson 

Sean Douglas 

Steve Tomlinson 

Tara Stewart 

Tony Watson 

Stage 2 

Albane Dullivier 

Andy Campbell 


Enrico Forestieri 

Jamie Anderson 

John Lowry 


Kieran Gaffney 

Luis Hernan 

Maria Mitsoula 

Nikoletta Karastathi 

Patrick Devlin 

Sam Clarke 


Vlasios Sokos 

Stage 3 

Adam Storey 

Alan Fraser - Structural Engineer 

Albane Duvillier - www.aaschool.ac.uk 

Alex Gordon - www.jesticowhiles.com 

Aurelie Guyet 

Bex Gill 

Chris French - www.simpsonandbrown.co.uk 

Craig McIntyre 

Dan Kerr - www.mawsonkerr.co.uk 

David Bailey - www.dlgarchitects.com 

Declan McCafferty - www.grimshaw.global 

Elizabeth Baldwin-Gray 

Fraser Halliday - www.harrisonstevens.co.uk 

Hazel York - www.hawkinsbrown.com 

Hugh Miller - www.hughmillerfurniture.co.uk 

Iris Van Dorst - www.faulknerbrowns.co.uk 

Jack Green - www.biomorphis.com 

James Nelmes - www.bennettsassociates.com 

James Perry www.harperperry.co.uk 

Javier Rodriguez Corral 

John McAulay - www.cundall.com 

Josh Duffy - www.arup.com 

Luis Hernan 

Julie-Anne Delaney 

Lee Haldane 

Liam Proudlock - (Proudlock Associates) 

Luciano Cardellicchio - Kent University 

Luis Hernan 

Marc Horn - www.studiohorn.com 

Mark Johnson - www.brentwoodgroup.co.uk 

Mark Sinclair - Structural Engineer 

Mike Harrison 

Neil Wallace 

Nicholas Peters - www.grimshaw.global 

Nita Kidd - www.mawsonkerr.co.uk 

Paul Bussey - (AHMM) 

Rachel Currie - gt3architects.com 

Ray Verrall 

Rob Morrison - Taktal 

Ross Blekinsop - www.studiohorn.com 

Rowan Moore - www.theguardian.com 

Sean Douglas 

Sean Griffiths 

Selena Anders - Notre Dame University 

Scott Emmett - www.arup.com 

Stephen Ibbotson - www.iarch.co.uk 

Stephen Richardson - www.sw.co.uk 

Stuart Hallett - www.arup.com 

Tim Bailey - www.xsitearchitecture.co.uk 

Tim Mosedale - www.mosedalegillatt.wordpress.com 

Tracey Proudlock - (Proudlock Associates) 


Valerio Morabito - Penn Design 


AUP 

Ali Madanipour 

Andrew Donaldson 

Dhruv Sookhoo 

Diego Garcia Mejuto 

Di Leitch 

Emma Gibson 

Georgia Giannopoulou 

Helen Robinson 

Irene Curulli 

Irene Mosley 


Jane Midgley 

Joanna Wylie 

Joe Dent 

Jules Brown 

Julia Heslop 

Ken Hutchinson 

Loes Veldpaus 

Martin Bonner 

Matt Wilcox 

Mike Veitch 

Montse Ferres 

Neil Powel 

Paola Gazzola 

Preena Mistry 

Raphael Selby 

Robert Douglas 

Roger Maier 

Ronnie Graham 


Sana Al-Naimi 

Sara Stead 

Sophie Ellis 

Tara Stewart 

Tim Bailey 


Xi Chen 

Stage 5 

Ali Manadipour 

Amy Butt 

Anna Czigler 

Ben Bridgens 

Chantelle Stewart 

Dik Jarman 

Evan Green 

Jack Green 


James Nelmes 

Jenny Conroy 

John Ng 

Jonnie McGill 


Leon Walsh 

Lisa Moffit 

Luis Hernan 

Manja van de Worp 

Megan Charnley 

Paul Thomas 

Remo Pedreschi 

Roger Burrows 

Ruth Hudson-Silver 

Sam Vardy 

Sarah Jane Stewart 


Tahl Kaminer 

Toby Blackman 

Stage 6 

Alistair Robinson 

Andrew Carr 

Andrew English 

Gary Caldwell 

Howard Evans 

Rolf Hughes 

Maurice Mitchell 

Neil Armstrong 

Nick Heyward 

Patrick Devlin 

Pete Brittain 

Peter Hoare 


Photography 

Brandon Few 

Ko-Le Chen 

Lucinda Grange 

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NUAS 

Newcastle University Architecture Society is the student-run representation body within the School. Representing just under 600 students, we 

work to provide opportunities that enhance our member’s education through programmes ranging from skills workshops, industry panel talks 

to one on one support. For many students in APL the society forms the heart of the School, bringing together students from across different 

stages with staff and practitioners in a casual environment. Every year we work to host a variety of events aimed to break up academic teaching 

including international trips, socials, and our annual Summer Ball and Charity Ball, which raised over £1000 in aid of Crisis in December. 

NUAS continues to go from strength to strength after winning the 2017 ‘IBM Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Student 

Community’ highlighting our work to boost cross stage engagement around the School and campaigning to improve students’ safety and 

welfare. We are also celebrating winning ‘Best Departmental Society’ for the second year running for our work providing an enjoyable 

atmosphere outside of lectures to meet, discuss and challenge the built environment sector. 

The Society wishes to thank all the staff of APL for their endless help and enthusiasm as well as RIBA, NAWIC and our industry partners for 

their support. Our thanks also goes to our members, for without whom we simply would not of had the outstanding year we have. 

President: Jonathan Pilosof, Secretary: Joanne Cain, Treasurer: Jhon Sebastian Valencia Cortes, Events Director: Ellie Waugh, Social Secretary: Helena Taylor, Raising and Giving 

Officer: Rowena Covarr, Formals Officer: Farrah Noelle Colilles, Exhibition & Shows Coordinator: Regen James Gregg, Lectures & Talks Coordinator: Jose Figueira, Marketing and 

Communication: Bahram Yaradanguliyev, Kofibar Representative: Matilda Barrett, Sports & Activities Coordinator(s): Toghrul Mammadov, Brandon Few 

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Sponsors 

This year our thanks go to several special practices who have been kind enough to sponsor our end-of-year degree shows and publications. 

The Newcastle-based practice FaulknerBrowns is our principle sponsor and plays a big role in the life of the School, particularly through the 

teaching of Paul Rigby, one of the practice’s partners. Hawkins\Brown and Farrells have also provided generous sponsorship and our thanks 

as a School goes to each of these practices, which are all active in the Newcastle area and beyond. 

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faulknerbrowns.co.uk

We are proud to support 

the School of Architecture, 

Planning and Landscape at 

Newcastle University 

hawkinsbrown.com \ @hawkins_brown

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Newcastle University School of 

Architecture, Planning and Landscape 

Yearbook ‘17 

Editorial Team 

Elizabeth Holroyd 



Special Thanks 

Alison Pattison 

James Craig 

& Linked Research Group 

“Curating APL” 2014-15 

Title Partners 

FaulknerBrowns 

Printing & Binding 

Statex Colour Print 

www.statex.co.uk 

Typography 

Adobe Garamond Pro 

Paper 

GF Smith 

Colourplan, Mandarin, 350gsm 

First published in July 2017 by: 

The School of Architecture 

Planning and Landscape, 

Newcastle University 

Newcastle Upon Tyne. 

NE1 7RU 

United Kingdom 

w: www.ncl.ac.uk/apl/ 

t: +44 (0) 191 222 5831 

e: apl@newcastle.ac.uk 

ISBN 978-0-7017-0256-4

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