The Architects’ Journal Architecture News & Buildings
About
Location Leeds LS2 | ARB/RIBA courses BEng/MEng Architecture | Head of school Carlo Prato | Full-time tutors 8 | Part-time tutors 10 | Students 170 | Staff to student ratio 1:15 | Bursaries available Yes
Undergraduate
Thomas Hannay
Course MEng Architecture
Studio/unit brief Kirkgate Arts and Crafts
Project title Kirkgate Arts and Crafts
Project description This is a proposal for a craft centre designed for a new kind of multi-disciplinary arts collective, Kirkgate Arts and Crafts, made up of a collective of creatives who would share work in central Leeds. The new collective will host activities involving the local community to facilitate an inclusive place for craft. The proposed five-storey building has workshop and studio facilities. A public ground floor hosts a café, shop and offices with direct access to a rear courtyard. The building’s form is curved, its roof elements distorted, with studio pods jutting out into a large atrium. Timber, rammed earth walls, recycled plastic roof tiles, bridge links, pods and a vertical garden combine to make a decorated environment that is representative of its brief.
Tutor citation The ambition of Thomas’s scheme to create a visually maximal experience is underpinned by a strong technical justification and attention to sustainable practice, including low-carbon materials and a sophisticated, naturally driven environmental control system.
Justin Lunn
