In the design module “TIA 1841 – Design Studio 4 – Integrated Design” we got an assignment to design a house for a soon to retire architect and his wife, the house would be constructed on a property in the town of Holmfirth. This design task was challenging and exiting to work with as this would be the first house I ever designed, where I also had a set list of rooms and requirements that had to be make room for. This project also involved more complex and advanced research into legal documents and regulations, as the site is in between two neighbouring properties (to the East & the West) and two roads (to the North & the South). The site also included a continuous slope going 5000 mm from the North west corner and down to the South east side. The slope gave me a challenging time, since I had to research and understand how excavation work could be undertaken on the narrow site without letting the construction be obstructing traffic and the neighbourhood, I also had to find a smart and efficient way to put up retaining walls for the ground and first floor.
After completing this assignment I have learned more about architectural technology, theory and how to plan for what systems and strategies to integrate into a project, in order to find the best solutions to accommodate the building on the site, and fulfil the clients requirements and wishes without thinking that the budget would be unlimited.
Here are some floor plans, elevations and sections to show some of the 2D graphic images I have made from this project. The illustrations posted under “Non-Photorealistic Perspective Visualisations in Architecture” are made for this project, so hopefully you will get the idea of how the home is intended to look and function like.
In the module “TIA1121 – History & Theory of Architecture” we were given two coursework assignments this year. Both assignments had to relate to one significant contemporary building with an associated public outdoor space.
One assignment asked us to produce a series of diagrams illustrating what we thought the architects wanted to achieve with their project, and the other assignment was to write an comparative appraisal of historical and contemporary architectural theory and practice, were we after completing the paper should have a better understanding of the importance of precedents and theory in contemporary design.
For this assignment I knew immediately which building I wanted to do further reading and research into – The Oslo Opera House in Norway. This building is know for the large prominent public outdoor space located on-top of the roof and around the building. I also wanted to do research on this building, since I have for many years visited and walked around in this urban landscape, but never knew where from or how the concept came to life.
Here are some of the diagrams I produced for this coursework:
Diagram: The public outdoor space found around and on-top the opera roof is shown in white, shadows indicate a change in level and dark grey shows the inaccessible rooftop.
Illustrations show how the windows of the opera house illuminates the urban landscape at night, in contrast to how they reflect the sky and clouds during the day. The interior space becomes more visible to the “passerby” at night.The Oslo Opera is monumental with its sloping horizontal lines in contrast to the surrounding urban neighbourhood. The Oslo Opera is here seen next to the Barcode Project, a series of tall commercial and residential buildings (proposed two years before the opera was completed).The opera gave Oslo and its residents a new urban playground with a new coastline, giving the people a chance to get in contact with the Oslo fjord and water, as well as many new vantage points over the downtown city area.
In our Module for “Personal Development” we were asked to create 4 Non-Photorealistic Perspective Visualisations of our design for a house design we did for another module. The process of creating these collages ended up being a fun, hard and learning experience. I have worked in Photoshop for many years due to my previous degree in Art Photography, but for this assignment I had to learn new tools and methods to work quicker and add more detail to my work. I have watched different courses online to help me to gather a basic knowledge of methods to work with and how to import and use new tools in Photoshop.
Before I started Photoshop I had to gather “trace images” from my 3D model. I had to set up a scene in SketchUp and export these images as PNG or JPEG files, before importing them to Photoshop where I could work on adding textures and shadows to make the illustration give a sense of what I envision it to be.
The final result is something I’m very happy with, and I can see the improvement I have made since the beginning of the year. My skills in creating digital collages in Photoshop have only gotten better, and I’m now better equipped for the next time I’m going to make a collage.
The collages illustrate my design for the assignment “A House For A Retired Architect” in the module “TIA 1841 – Design Studio 4 – Integrated Design”.
Facade of the house, facing the street.Outdoor deck on the 3rd floor.The living room has beautiful views out to the hills. The client wanted space for a grand piano in the living room.The library.
The hostel is meant to be designed and constructed using Eco friendly and sustainable methods. For me I thought of using timber as the main building element for this project, based off what the curriculum is teaching us, the use of timber would have a far less impact on the environment both before and after the construction process.
The design process for this project was both difficult and exiting to work through. A large amount of time was used to properly understand the site and how other aspects on and around the site would affect the hostel. The design took shape during the exploration of the site features. Ideas and solutions for different site challenges were dealt with and helped to continue the design of the overall building. Different texts were read and taken into account to figure out the room arrangement, in the hope of design a hostel that had a good and functional interior arrangement, that incorporated and utilised the different positives from the site, like views, shaded areas, riverside and more. Climatic and environmental factors had a say in the way the building got shaped. The direction where the prevailing wind and winter storms come from and the direction of the sun helped me figure out how to arrange the rooms in a way that minimised the impact of the wind and still utilised the sun to give the guest bedrooms that let them wake up with the morning sun and have shading in the evening.
A lot of inspiration was gathered form a cabin project that the Snøhetta Architects did for the Norwegian Trekking Association. They gave their design a beak like shape to help slow down strong winds, this feature was something I incorporated into my design to help with the strong winds occurring on the site in Holmfirth. They also used timber and CLT as their main building element for this project.
(All visual material in this post is gathered from the Portfolio submission done for the TIA 1840 – Design Studio 3 – Place and Architecture module).
Presentation board from the portfolio submission done for TIA 1840 – Design Studio 3 – Place and Architecture.Elevations of the Eco-Hostel.
For the major project in Term 1 (2nd year) we were asked to design an Eco Hostel to be constructed in Holmfirth. This project wanted us students to consider ways that architecture and urban design can meet anticipated climate and environmental challenges. This assignment looks at “Place and Architecture” in Holmfirth, where we are asked to design an eco hostel for backpackers, hikers, rock climbers, walkers and other people who are traveling to the Holme Valley and West Yorkshire to experience the beautiful nature. Two sites were given, site B is close to Holmfirth town centre and site A is located a bit further north (6 min car, 16 min bus, 28 min walking) in a place called Thongsbridge.
In this post I will write about my interpretation and understanding of the two given sites.
Looking at pros, cons and opportunities for both sites
The B site at Woodhead Road has a pond occupying around 30% of the land, the water collects at the south east side following the River Holme going into Holmfirth town centre. I know from experience that the water runs up toward north east (following the topography of the valley, it runs down toward Thongsbridge which is at a lower altitude than the Woodhead Road site ). By looking at the areal site map you can see that the site border starting in north east going to the south west seems to outline a change of levels in the land. From the areal photo it seems like you can access the site from two roads, Lower Mill Lane and a small road going off the Woodhead Road. The rest of the site seems to be untouched except for the roads leading into the site, the current parking spaces and a small path going from the parking to the pond. This site is situated close to the urban building mass and road infrastructure, which I believe would make the area experience a greater and higher frequency of noise pollution than you would experience at site A. The surrounding valley landscape and the green fields to the south wouldn’t be easily visible unless the building would be elevated a couple of meters of the ground. But again you could make the landscape around the pond be the focal viewpoint out from the building, making people look inwards to the nature feature on site.
Site B is close to town centre and would be ideal for a short commute between the eco hostel and the town (3 min car, 8 min walking). But for me this does not play into the idea of a hostel that could give the peace and tranquility I would like to experience if I were to travel to West Yorkshire. I myself like to hike and travel outdoors during summer and autumn, so for this project I placed myself in the role of the guest of the hostel, and started asking myself what kind of views or surroundings I would like to see while staying at a hostel designed for nature and outdoor people, and what types of accommodation I would appreciate and benefit from having access to while traveling abroad (or within my country even). In doing so I quickly figured out that I would like to invest more time in researching and developing a design concept for site A, because I believe this site and the surrounding landscape will give the guests a more close to nature experience, both because you’re on a green field surrounded by trees, but also because the views out of the building would be towards the hills and the large green areas . The Thongsbridge site (28 min walk, 16 min bus or 6 min car ride away from Holmfirth) seems to offer less noise and air pollution and more greenery/nature, which I think is more fitting for the project.
Site A in Thongsbridge, is a large green field tucked in by trees surrounding the site border from east, to north and all the way around to the west side. The site seems to be green grassland that can have been/still are being used for outdoor sports or as a leisure park. The River Holme runs along the western and northern side of the site, separating the site from the adjacent parking lot and tennis hall on the other side of the river. The only access to the site is a small road that goes off Miry Lane and into the site, Miry lane connects to the A616, A635 and A6024 roads.
The site is close to Thongsbridge Tennis and Fitness Club, the Cricket Club, Holmfirth Gaming Centre and the Albion cycle shop. These nearby businesses could together with the eco hostel offer a partnership between each other, giving the guest a greater selection of activities to do outside the hostel. And since the guest are active sporty people, they might want to either relax at the hostel or do some exercise on days they are not hiking in the valleys. To better improve the options for transportation I was thinking that the cycling shop could together with the hostel offer some sort of bike service, where you could borrow a bike right out from the hostel and take a ride in to Holmfirth. This would give the guest an easy, active, environmental and cheap way of transportation to the surrounding areas.
Site Analysis
Once I choose to go for site A in Thonsgbridge, I made a couple of diagrammatic maps to communicate my findings. This time around I wanted to try out some new ideas and techniques for creating diagrams. I had seen some inspiring videos and illustrations online, and I wanted to replicate that to some extent to learn from it and see if I could communicate my findings clearly (please comment if you find the diagrams hard to read or have any tips).
During week 45 we had a sketching project in our design module TIA1840 Design Studio 3: Place and Architecture. For this short (one week) assignment we were asked to design an Apple store to be placed in Holmfirth.
The project description talks about how Apple Inc. has taken the bold move to build “out-of-town” stores in more rural areas like the Holme Valley, where the new urban interventions would turn the area into a hot spot for company growth. The growth will happen in correlation to the large numbers of young creative professionals who are expected to find the area in the Holme Valley attractive for a place to live or work.
The site is located in the “roundabout parking lot” next to the Post Office and Riverside Shopping Center in Holmfirth. This is the same location I used in my “Vision for the Future of Holmfirth” portfolio.
The design of the building was to be made so it would house a large showroom, three entrances one for the shop/showroom, one for the staff and one for “Click&Collect”/Servicing. The building envelope has to be designed with a high standard of insulation to minimise energy requirements for space heating, we are asked to place “climate control” lobbies at all entrances. By company policy the employees would be allocated a generous amount of space for their locker rooms, staff rest room and a kitchen that accounts for the preparation of Kosher, Halal and Vegan food (Living as a Vegan for 3 years I really don’t see the “need” to create a separate vegan kitchen. This of course differentiate from person to person).
Here is the outlined schedule of accommodation we got for this project:
Showroom, including display units and sales counter (with climate-controlled entrances) 500m2 Manager’s Office 15m2 Staff Rest Room (Including dining area and full-fitted kitchen) 85m2 Female ‘Locker Room’ (Changing area; 2 WCs, 2 showers) 80m2 Male ‘Locker Room’ (Changing area, 1 WC, 2 urinals, 2 showers) 80m2 Staff entrance and lobby 20m2 Customer collection point (Entrance, lobby and service counter) 45m2 New Stock room 50m2 ‘Click-and-Collect’ stock room 30m2 ‘Serviced’ stock room 30m2 Plant rooms 50m2
I just noticed that I forgot to draw a climate control lobby at the staff entrance, and a door from room 7 to 8 to let the employees have a passage way from their “private” part of the building in to the work area. If the door had been there it would show the internal connection between the two separate areas work and rest. At the moment it looks like the employees have to exit and reenter the building to move between the spaces, my plan was to have this drawn in.
“Vision for the Future of Holmfirth” is the final portfolio submission done for our first project in our design module – TIA1840 Design Studio 3: Place and Architecture.
In this time period I worked closely with fellow student and housemate Michal Luszpinski. We had many conversations and discussions about this project and ended up co writing parts of the text for the portfolio.
The assignment asked us to:
The objective of the exercise you are about to undertake is not only to examine what comprises Holmfirth at the moment but also to use your imagination to think how (in what ways) the character of Holmfirth could be enhanced and be made a more attractive place for people to live, work and spend their leisure time (and do most their shopping and generally, to spend more of their income in the town) and to encourage even more visitors.
What sort of urban or architectural ‘interventions’ (for example, the removal of existing buildings; the development of new buildings; the creation of new urban spaces; changes in circulation patterns, etc.) might encourage more people to ‘shop locally’ and persuade more people to visit the town?
LOCATION PLAN
The location chosen for the future developments in Holmfirth is based on discussions had with fellow students in my “Bubble Group B2”, by visiting the town and experience the space and built environment, by studying maps over Holmfirth and the surrounding area, by researching academic text, by looking into lost space and weaknesses related to how to get around town.
The orange outline shows the area for my urban interventions. In this area I plan to remove all existing buildings to make room for a new road and build a cul-ture centre for Holmfirth. My vision focuses on culture and community for Holmfirth. The idea is to create a new cultural hub in the Holme Valley. The area would inhabit a Library & Community Centre, a Heritage & Visitors Centre, a Bus Station & “Cross City Work Meeting Centre”, a Kiosk, a Culture Cafe, a Residential Art Centre and a walk path in/over the river to let people make more use of the space in the river.
The vision hopes to create a inviting and vibrant culture & art scene for people in Holmfirth, but also to make this town more interesting to visit and hopefully a place to move to. By giving the town a boost in cultural space, new urban designs and new architecture this would make Holm-firth a must visit place for people travellingto Yorkshire.
Location Plan for the urban intervention.
URBAN IDEAS AND PROPOSALS
My “Vision for the Future of Holmfirth” wants to create a culture Hub in Holmfirth. The town centre would be located in this new urban landscape. The buildings would house different purposes, but be related to each other through the cultural, community and art driven scene, that happens between these buildings.
The buildings would be open and inviting at ground level, to not let the space feel to closed off or narrow. The facades would consist of bricks placed and organised in a pattern, that would give you another experience with brick buildings. In between the buildings there would be public green spaces.
My visualisations show different types of buildings, but they all try to capture my vision for how this new area would look like.
Illustration for the new cultural hub.
Illustration for the new bus station.
Illustration for the new walk path over and in the River Holme.
Vision for the public outdoor space. Let people take part in the river side by walking through or sit down to take in views.
ROAD INFRASTRUCTURE
In a discussion with my group to make a radical change for Holmfirth, we have talked about removing the River Side shopping centre to make room for a new road connection between A635 and A6024. The shopping centre doesn’t belong to the vision of this area, it’s not only unpleasantto look at but also takes up a large amount of space. By connecting these two roads together, we hope to ease the congestion in the centre that until now is a big problem. The usual bustraffic would change, as the busses wouldn’t have to drive to the “T” junction connecting Hud-dersfield Road and Victoria St., to get to the busstation. Also visitors travelling by cars, tricycles and monowheels would be able to drive through the centre (Bentzen & Luszpinski, 2020).
A critical explanation of the design development and final design proposal.
Hi Let me start off by introducing myself. My name is Philip and I’m a 27-year old Norwegian architect student, doing my second year at The University of Huddersfield. This year I will use this platform to record, organize and share my ideas as a new tool in digital communication. This is my first post on this platform, and with this post I will try to give an explanation to my design development for my very first major architect project.
East facade elevation and section + North facade elevation and section
The Video Games Art Museum Project The major project we as first year students got in the second term was to design a Video Games Art Museum. The design process in my experience went through many stages. I started with some first initial ideas and sources of inspiration, I then moved over to the study of the site and area around, looking into what Huddersfield future blueprint wanted the area to transform into (a culture hub). Over time by looking into more specific precedents, material use and gallery exhibition spaces, I formed what I believe to be an interesting, well functioning and modern museum building that would benefit this area in Huddersfield.
From the assignment my class got, I understood that the placement of a Video Games Art Museum in the heart of Huddersfield could trigger a cultural and economic growth to the town. The museum building would be a place to exhibit the process of making video games, hence have exhibition spaces that would be able to showcase a wide range of works and materials both physical and digital.
The design development for the museum meant taking into account future vision, building criteria and functionality. I have listed the building criteria below, to better understand what we as students had to have in the back of our minds from the beginning of the design development.
List of criteria:
An information/reception point
A cloakroom
A central void/atrium
A flexible space that can be used for small presentations (maximum 48 people)
Exhibition spaces/rooms which can also host small interactive installations
A small shop
Lavatories for all sexes and for those with ambulant disabilities
A facility for baby changing
A small cafeteria with panoramic views
A roof garden
A small office for 2/3 people (for administration)
A lift and stairs/ramps (including fire escape).
Sketch off the site and neighbouring buildings.
The Design Development Exterior Material Early on I got inspired to use the corten steel/weathering steel material for the outer cladding of the building. The inspiration came from looking at materials and buildings around the site, where I noticed a lot of rusted steel elements. The research I did on exterior materials in the April/May led me to believe that the corten steel could be a good choice for the building. Because the weather and common rain in Huddersfield would have a benefitting effect on the material, where the corten steel would start to rust and make a thicker outer layer, which would make the material stronger, and in the long run leave you with a facade that wouldn’t need a lot of maintenance.
The use of this material on the exterior would also give the building a significant character that would make the museum stand as a landmark in town (I hope). Over time the colour of this material will change and go from a warm yellow/orange hue, to a more dark brown. I believe this choice of material will make the building stand out, without being in to large of a contrast to the surrounding building mass.
Green Wall In the beginning I also had an idea of incorporating a green wall to the building. The vertical green wall covered with vegetation was an idea to help suck up some of the air pollution from the ring road near by, and as well work as a sound-absorbing wall.
Model of museum (1:100) with a vertical green wall.
Shape of the building In the beginning of the project I got inspired to play with curved and/or round windows for the museum. This was combined with the idea to make the building more “organic”, by this I mean that I wanted the building to have curves/waves or seem to “move”. Over time I left this curved vision behind and ended up choosing rectangle and square windows, and a very static shape overall.
The process of designing a shape for the building took some time; I was inspired by the Bacconi University building in Milan, where they have large windows at ground level, from the outside looking in, you see the ceiling tilting, leading you to the floor below. Another large inspiration source was the Groningen building in Netherland. This building has tilted exterior walls that make the building look like it’s twisting. From studying this building I learned how to taper and slice pieces of ordinary geometric shapes to create new design opportunities.
Sketch inspired by the Bacconi University building in Milan/Italy. Where the tilted ceiling draws your view down to the floor underground.
The shape of the building is a result of wanting to incorporate large sloped walls, having in mind the weather and climate conditions, I did not want to cover the entire site areal with a flat roof, but instead lead the rainwater of the building on large sloped walls of glass. By tilting the walls on the east and south side of the building I also gain a lot of daylight streaming into the different museums floors.
Interior Space For the interior space I was fixed on the idea of having large open floors hanging on top of each other giving you the chance to look into the floors below. The reason for having open floor plans is to give the museum and the curators who put up exhibitions to have the ability to put up walls and create spaces, as they want. By doing this I don’t force a set standard gallery space upon the museum, where there is no room for change later on. This was seen done in practice at the MoMA in New York, by watching their YouTube series “At the museum” (Recommend searching for this series if you are interested in museum and gallery interior spacing).
Planning of gallery space.
Screenshots from the YouTube video “The Making of Max Ernst (S1, E2) | AT THE MUSEUM” (The Museum of Modern Art, 2017).Sketch for flexible gallery space.Isometric representation of shape and floor placement. Building measuring 29m in height and 20m x 40m at ground level.
The interior space is intended to feel exiting and interesting, a space you want to explore. From the “shielded” entrance you are lead into a large atrium where the info desk, the lockers, the toilets and elevators are located. There is an underground level split into two parts, one for the museum visitors where the museum shop and game arcade is located, and one where the museum archive and storage space is located. When entering the building you can glance down to the museum shop. In the middle of the building you can take the elevator or the stairs up to the floors above.
The first and second floor has large open gallery spaces, where as the third and forth floor has smaller gallery spaces to make room for the flexible room, the office and a room where you can show videos. The fifth and final floor contains the café and outdoor herb garden with views to the east, south and west.
3D representation of interior space.
Final Design Proposal My final design proposal is a building that tries to evoke inspiration and excitement in exploring interior spaces. In my design I try to lead the visitor through the building in a spiral, in the way the staircases lead you through the floors and gallery spaces. The interior space is designed so that visitors can access the roof garden without buying a ticket to see the exhibition. This is done by having ticket scanners at each floor to separate exhibition space and walking passages. My design gives the museum the opportunity to create custom spaces for different exhibitions. Hopefully my design could give Huddersfield a new cultural hangout place, where local people and people from around the world would come to visit.
Bentzen Architecture Studio 
