The Architects’ Journal Architecture News & Buildings
About
Location Cheltenham | ARB/RIBA courses BA (Hons) Architecture | Head of school Yvette Putra | Full-time tutors 1 | Part-time tutors 8 | Students 54 | Staff to student ratio 1:20 | Bursaries available Yes
Undergraduate
Aidan Lavin
Course BA (Hons) Architecture
Studio/unit brief An(Iconic) Museum
Project title Cosmos Connect
Project description Situated in Herstmonceux, East Sussex, this is a climate-awareness museum composed of two spatially contrasting edifices. One is the reused observatory that once housed the Isaac Newton telescope and the other is an adjacent new-build triangular structure. The museum uses this cosmic link as a philosophical underpinning of its climate awareness mission by highlighting the paradox that human life is insignificant in cosmic terms yet the planet’s survival depends on humanity. The abandoned observatory provides the framework for the museum, hosting a new research and exhibition space. Meanwhile, the new building’s plan is inspired by the astronomical ‘Summer Triangle’ and is wrapped in a dynamic façade whose edges are informed by climate-change data graphs.
Tutor citation Aidan has enthusiastically taken control of a challenging brief and made it their own, weaving together environmentalism, history, mythology, philosophy and science in a way that is aesthetically and tectonically sophisticated.
Yvette Putra, Charnjeev Kang
