The Architects’ Journal Architecture News & Buildings
About the Leicester School of Architecture
Location Leicester | Courses BA (Hons) Architecture, MArch, Architect Degree Apprenticeship Level 7 | Head of school Kate Cheyne | Full-time tutors 15 | Part-time tutors 4 | Students 416 | Staff to student ratio 1:18
Undergraduate
Jake Southcombe
Course BA (Hons) Architecture
Studio/unit brief We Are Makers
Project title Spinning Gin – The Nation’s Non-Alcoholic Gin
Project description The proposal is for a gin distillery and housing block for the town of Tamworth in Staffordshire. Co-housing will provide multigenerational living combined with a family-owned gin distillery. Communal spaces allow users to gather and socialise, and are complemented by private living pods. Landscaping will be developed to regenerate and connect the newly established Spinning Gin distillery family to the local neighbourhood. A series of botanical pods will allow the public to interact with the gin process. Spinning Gin is an inclusive community, designed to add economic, social and environmental value to the town.
Tutor citation Jake’s vision for Tamworth brings together his social agenda with placemaking while recognising the importance of a natural landscape woven throughout his response. He has explored his proposition rigorously and has the potential to become a ‘changemaker’ within our profession. Jon Courtney–Thompson, Andrew Waite
Postgraduate
Mehul Ashok Jethwa
Course Architect Degree Apprenticeship Level 7
Studio/unit brief Infrastructure Futures (Unit 2)
Project title Resilient Horizons: Safeguarding Suffolk’s Historic Coastal Villages from Climate Change
Project description This project uses retrofit and material reuse to derive an imaginative, playful and systematic design. It offers a vision for a community of makers and farmers in Dunwich through the design of a collective, workshop, resource library and homestead in newly formed marshland. The highly functional, environmentally and culturally sensitive architecture is an example of how low-tech integrated design can be at once forward-thinking and contextual, giving a new vision for interpretation of critical regionalism.
Tutor citation Rarely do we see architectural projects dealing with climate change and flooding address a variety of scales, from the larger town-planning and landscape perspective to careful detailing. This project champions the local economy and the preservation of the village, while offering a vision for its rebirth. Yuri Hadi, Vasilena Vassilev
