Project 3- Leeds Hybrid Housing
Precedent Research and Design Conception
YEAR 2 -
Creation of my Hybrid housing scheme located within my masterplan was not possible without in depth precedent studies. Looking at schemes that were within a masterplan or independent building within the community offered the wide and focus scope I needed to consider all avenues in my build. Buildings like 'The Markthall' in Rotterdam were essential in showing just how residential apartments could be incorporated into a market place scheme offering plentiful space for both to coexist.
A local and still pending renovation project in Nottingham aimed to turn a dilapidated church into a vendor for multiple stalls and public social eating, during which time there would be performances and entertainment.
An important lesson was learned while reading into a housing scheme in London as to how to effectively develop a design concept in stages and allowing the housing to evolve and grow naturally from the parameters that exist on site. Working with the restrictions first and using the remainder of free space as the guide.
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Design Development
Through my research I deduced that just as in the Hybrid Housing scheme by MVRDV, variety of residence type was important in ensuring fast sale/rental turnaround, as more denominations of families have the amenities and space they need, without it becoming wasteful. Rooms for a couple and rooms for families of three and four diversified the community as couples would often be middle age or younger, and parents with children would often be of a different generation. In order to ensure interaction between these different generations the plotting of the residence type is mixed into each other.
Using this information I took to conducting research into the community of Leeds and their distribution of age, gender, class etc.: as well as looking into topography travel networks and what groups may typically find difficult about the lay of the land and the area the site is based in. Having done this I moved on to plotting flats for various sized families into the massing I established for the first stage of this project, the masterplan.
Final Renders and Model
My first aim in this stage was to deduce a maximum capacity for the site and the two buildings that I theorized in the space given and working downwards however much I needed and wanted to, to provide more comfort for less people.
The passage behind the two builds determined the traffic flow, and I could use this to help place the market stalls I wanted on the bottom floor to match the vernacular, and for a sense of continuity between the Corn Exchange and Kirkgate Market.
Another aim of mine was to create a zonal set of community gardens on the roof, terraced as to allow light from the south to come through clerestory windows between each tier, and aluminate the bedrooms below. Each tier would house its own greenhouse, vegetable patch, storage, planters and bushes, with a patio area for all the gardeners to commune afterwards.
The terraced nature of the gardens meant that the ceiling heights were different in each house. To counter this and make all the spaces worth their money, the square-footage of each flat increases in the opposite direction, meaning, the flat with the lowest ceiling is delegated the largest floor space to make the scheme seem less cramped, and vice versa. Each and every flat also has a balcony over-looking the central walkway, towards the inner city of Leeds, or back towards the masterplan garden scheme within the re-designed car park.
In terms of private and public spaces and restrictions, the ground floor is public, with either external sales people and chefs flogging their culinary delights at the vendors, or the residents themselves, as the market spaces are rented as in the market within the INTU Victoria in Nottingham which I visited at the start of this project. The first floor is semi-private, and can double as a rental meeting space for various local communities and clubs. The private residents have a laundry room just off of the hallway that separated the social space with the private landlord/resident space. The second floor houses each flat, and the roof garden although private, sources the ingredients for the vendors, the café in the building opposite and their own sustenance as well.
My final renders were mixed media, beginning with a pencil render of each section and elevation, also running along the avenue between the buildings. These pencil drawings were scanned and then photoshopped with section of the streets beside them to create a collage and contextualize the build within an actual location.
The scheme is mainly brick, with some copper detailing and the windows have been designed to indicate a phase shift or graduality, encouraging passers by the travel through the buildings or to even come inside.
My final presentation of my scheme; because of the Covid-19 outbreak, had to be conducted in my bedroom, and consisted of massing models, development models, my finished model, plans, sections and elevations, before my laptop screen and webcam. The overall neatness and complete nature of the scheme to its finer details was praised and I obtained a Mid 1st. My finished digital sheets and design boards can be viewed bleow.
I began my final model by making a close up-version of the site with only the immediate context around it, then voiding the space in which my building were to go. Each building base was made from presentation board card, and then exterior walls and dowel and plastic windows were added to establish the correct heights and sizes of each space that followed. Each floor was based off of the ground floor, the voids and staircases marked, the interior wall divisions placed, and the furniture added, before it was slotted into the scheme. Greenhouses were made of simple Perspex boxes and differentiation between brick motifs, glass and copper were dependent on the paper used between the window frames.
Hybrid Housing Boards
