The Architects’ Journal Architecture News & Buildings
About
Location Liverpool L69 | ARB/RIBA courses BA (Hons) Architecture, MArch Architecture | Head of school Nwola Uduku | Full-time tutors 47 | Part-time tutors 46 | Students 729 | Staff to student ratio 1:12 | Bursaries available Yes
Undergraduate
Erlina Long
Course BA (Hons) Architecture
Studio/unit brief Northern College of Art and Design (Studio Practice North)
Project title The Society of Artists
Project description The brief called for a School of Art and Design close to Liverpool’s university campus. Adopting the structural grid of the adjacent Georgian terrace, the main elevations are repetitive and formed of 6m-spaced ribs. A freer approach is taken elsewhere, evident in an undulating roof form to an atrium which folds down to form a canopy on the gable ends. Inside, the lecture theatre is conceived as a floating pod. The route through the building is designed to slow progress, opening and compressing at stages, symbolising discovery and opportunity during a creative process. External spaces have been created to each end, with a plaza and terrace providing access from Liverpool’s Women’s Hospital to the building’s exhibition gallery.
Tutor citation This design is a poetic resolution of a complex brief in a challenging historic context, adopting the structural grid and repetition of the adjacent Georgian terrace, yet providing a freer and more playful approach elsewhere. Anthony Mackay, Richard Dod
Postgraduate
Hannah Agong, Joe Bamber, Julian Djopo, Daryna Vershniak
Course MArch Architecture
Studio/unit brief Ecological Narratives
Project title Peat District
Project description Peatland has the potential to become the country’s most valuable natural resource for combating climate change. This project tackles the question ‘what architecture is needed for creating a habitable landscape that prioritises peatland restoration and expansion?’ The scheme focuses on damaged areas of peatland. Taking reference from the site – the ecologically pioneering post-war new town of Warrington (which has an abundance of peat subsoil) – the proposed settlement on stilts supports peatbog growth through a complex infrastructure, including ponds and rewetting channels. The settlements are laid out in clusters in a gridded archipelago for long-term adaptability. To retain biodiversity and optimal peatland restoration, there is a 35 per cent density per hectare.
Tutor citation This is a project of repair and restoration, posing questions around the role of the architect in the context of sensitive landscapes. Working in a multi-scale and multi-centred way, the group project brings together innovations in adaptive urbanism. Luca Csepely-Knorr, Joy Burgess, Yat Shun Kei
