Part 1 Architectural Assistant

In response to our brief to design a performance space and accommodation for the music charity ‘Sistema Scotland’ in Balloch, I have proposed a linear building which acts as an extension of Balloch Park. This acts to connect the train station and main road with Loch Lomond and ‘The Maid of the Loch’. The positioning allowing for performance to spill out of the hall spaces and into the park, harnessing it as a musical destination.

The overall concept reflects the linear park with the accommodation placed directly behind the performance hall to allow students to have maximum freedom whilst remaining safe within the building. As a result the building provides a deeper feeling of security as you venture further through its layers into the bedroom spaces. A break out space in the form of a raised external courtyard separates the two buildings and provides a stopping point to reflect upon the surroundings. This also provides private access for students from the accommodation into the performance space.

Currently in my third year of studying architecture I have developed a passion for sustainable and simple living. The brief to design a music retreat including a performance hall and accommodation for SISTEMA Scotland in Balloch was refreshing and challenging. It was important to consider energy, landscape and culture and bring them all together. With the site being so close to home i wanted to capture the feelings and memories i had of visiting the site as a child; taking the train to the last stop in Balloch where ironically the journey only just began, discovering Loch Lomond only a footsteps away. Inspired by my trip around Scotland visiting the Maggie’s Centres’, I further looked into the work of Frank Gehry. The curvature in his architecture and abstract angles led me to creating two very different buildings which were to contrast but also compliment each other.

My childhood unleashed a desire to know how things work, this soon developed into a more specific interest in Design, Technology and later Architecture. While looking for inspiration I discovered how architecture can enhance people’s everyday experiences as they move through and interact with a building. The right building can be both functional and beautiful, so that people feel engaged with it instead of being restricted.This strengthened my desire to be an architect, observing your hard work turning into a reality and having someone to not just admire it but use every day, I believe, is surely one of the best feelings in the world.

Lily is a RIBA part 1 graduate whose work is unique and playful. Social commentary and strong conceptual strategy inform her practice. Lily’s recent projects are highly polemical. With a spirit of invention and interrogation, she seeks to create inclusive spaces that will engage with the richness of a site’s community, landscape and history.

Lily’s achievements include Young Creative Awards 2016 for Architecture & Design and multiple ERASMUS scholarships to live and work in Germany, Romania and Slovakia. As well as working on many 1:1 builds, Lily is passionate about craft and heritage and is skilled in a multitude of disciplines including illustration, textiles and jewellery design.

Lily is primarily concerned with the social sustainability of the built environment and creating empathetic and accessible designs that facilitate empowerment.

Lily Sinclair, a Stage 3 student of Architecture at MSA, GSA. Born and educated in Newcastle Upon Tyne with a strong allegiance to the city and love of its coast and castles.

This year the Stage 3 Architecture Project brief was to design a residential retreat and music education centre in Balloch. The client was SISTEMA Scotland, a charity which takes young underprivileged children away from the stresses of everyday life on residentials to teach them music. The main theme of the project was ‘How Low Can You Go?’, this meant creating an eco-friendly build within a budget.

I brought to this project my experience in music education, which includes performing in various performance spaces from large venues such as the Royal Albert Hall and The Sage, Gateshead to smaller more intermate spaces, together with the experience of rehearsing in a residential setting. I loved this project as it felt very personal and learnt a lot about my style in architecture and where my strengths lie.

Currently, I am seeking 12 months placement in a RIBA certified practice for my Part I year out.

Stephanie Reid believes that successful design is empathetic. Understanding the people around her and the way they navigate the world is what fuels her growth as a designer.

The project brief was to create a retreat for the charity Sistema, who tackle social inequality using musical education. The response, ‘Elevate’, focuses on empathy towards its context and its inhabitants. It is based in Balloch, in the Loch Lomond National Park. Serenity rules in this place, which is relatively unchanged by the passing of time. Beyond this little town, the influence of time is merciless. The modern world is a clamour of excitement and outrage ceaselessly mingled.

Balloch´s connection to Loch Lomond makes it a perfect home for any institution seeking comfortable quiet without solitude or isolation; a careful balance which a retreat must possess. The site is worth guarding against the ruthless progress of the modern world, but protecting the site does not mean allowing it to stand still. ‘Elevate’ intends to guide Balloch’s evolution toward true sustainability. It aims to utilise the advantages offered by the site, and in return provide the site with a sustainable role to play for benefit of the community.

In summary, the goal is the elevation of the site, and of the experience Sistema is able to offer to its students. Sistema seeks positive social change and uses music as a tool to achieve this goal, making its message to the world of as unending value as the hills and valleys of the National Park.

Debora Gyimah works with a range of digital software to create architectural designs that tell a story. This project is a Residential Retreat resting in the unruly environment of Balloch. The retreat is a place to which children, teens and adults escape to learn and celebrate music in addition to building their social skills. The themes of this project are landscape, energy and culture.

The project explores landscape through materiality and placement. It deals with how the building instills itself into the environment and how it interacts with it. It also examines how the building can amalgamate its environment outside with that of the inside. Furthermore, the notion of placemaking is explored through landscaping. It allows the history of Balloch, the existing community, and the retreat to connect to one another.

Materiality also bleeds into the notion of energy. It is a factor that works in conjunction with form to create a design that conforms to the zero-carbon approach. Careful considerations were applied in the buildings form and materials for a design that is more sustainable.

Lastly, culture is explored by understanding those that will utilize the building, and their main goals, which are musical education and building communication skills. Tailored spaces are provided to accommodate these interests as well as other needs.

Emily Ireland is graduating from stage 3, at the Mackintosh school of Architecture. The past three years have allowed her to explore and develop a design ethos that encompasses people. Seeing architecture as a fundamental to life, and as society evolves the space we occupy must do so also.

Sustainable architecture is an approach to design that motivates her greatly. Recognising improved means of design/construction that will reduce the environmental impact architecture can have.

Stephen Brown is graduating stage 3 at the Mackintosh School of Architecture. This exhibit pulls the key representations from a year-long project that addresses sustainability and contextual engagement through the design of a concert hall and a retreat centre that accommodates performers. The proposal is situated in the Trossachs National Park on a narrow strip of land that runs from the town of Balloch to the south shore of Loch Lomond.

The project engages the themes of energy, landscape, and culture, as an exercise in rethinking and expanding ideas around sustainability. The proposal’s environmental strategy goes beyond the sourcing of local and renewable materials, to consider wider criteria including low energy/passive design, prefabricated construction, and longevity in the buildings’ relevance to the cultural context of the locale. In this sense, aesthetics, adaptability and intuitiveness are paramount to the designs, ensuring their sensitivity to their natural surroundings and their capacity to serve the requirements of their users and the wider local community.

A key design challenge was integrating sustainability into the structural fabric of the two buildings. The exhibit is presented in such a way to show how this is achieved through the use of simple volumetric forms, around which hinge modular elements to make up the secondary structure. This approach seeks to establish an equilibrium in spatial arrangement that is both efficient of space and materials, whist being optimal to the scale and movement of the human body.

This project is an accumulation of two separate parts comprised of a residential retreat and performance hall that together create an approach for a sustainable, sociable and environmental masterplan. In situation with the Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomond, the concept is for an exciting client known as ‘Sistema Scotland’. Sistema is a charity programme that aims to transform the lives of children from challenging communities through the power of music. Whilst the primary aim is to develop core musical skills such as listening, concentration, teamwork and rhythm skills the secondary aim of the programme is also to develop social fluency and health and well-being. With such inspiring targets an equally aspirational and multi-functional building is needed: a building that is first and foremost a safe space; as well as an idyllic retreat where they can contemplate and reflect; a space where staff and pupils can free themselves to become immersed in creative experiences; and somewhere that can easily be personalised to suit the needs and preferences of the various individuals who will visit.
On my first site visit to the town of Balloch, enthralled by the picturesque landscape, the question occurred to me; in which way as a designer can I create a concept for a building that captures and compliments the natural untouched beauty already present? This burning question, along with my innate desire to create environmentally conscious creations was the catalyst for my completed design. To study the important relationship between Architecture and nature, I embraced the study of Phenomenology, which, when interpreted by and through human consciousness, seeks to understand the outside world. The belief of German Architecture theorist and Phenomenologist, Martin Heidegger, is that all man and nature are connected. He suggested that the best way to create an experience is to be more in touch with the mystery of existence. In architectural terms it is my challenge to create these experiences, which in turn create lasting, tangible memories. To make these memories more vivid I engage all of our human senses by manipulating materials, space and light. To truly embrace the theory of Heidegger my design also strives to bring man and nature closer together. By creating opportunities where we can submerse ourselves in nature Heidegger believes the more we will truly experience phenomenology and be at one with our consciousness, and once experienced, will have a lasting effect on how we view our world. It is my hope that through various design techniques and choices, a strong essence of the contextualism of nature and the experience that comes with that can be appreciated throughout the imagery of my Project.

The following images are from my first project of Stage 4. This project explores homeless housing which questions and redefines the relationships between labour and domesticity.

During my Part 1 year out working at MAST Architects in Glasgow, I worked on a variety of social housing projects. I found that the skills I learned here helped me with my exploration of social housing typologies and design strategies.

Every day in Scotland, 18 people are made homeless. In Glasgow, there is a lack of housing for these people. By changing our approach to social housing, this could be changed.

One of the leading causes for homelessness is the loss of work. By integrating work and living into a new form of co-living and co-working social housing I hope to eliminate this problem. This can be done by creating a space in which skills can be learned to enhance the working life and help educate homeless people, allowing them to reintegrate into society.

Homelessness affects many different types of households. In Scotland annually 70% of these household types are individuals or couples and 30% are families. These two household types have different requirements and often different responses to labour, therefore they require different cell types. Spaces where all of these household types can coexist and encounter will allow them to benefit from learning skills from each other.

Isolation is a problem within the homeless community. I aim to eliminate this through the creation of a sociable space, where interaction is encouraged. By creating a community through a sociable space, people will support each other. In addition, community spaces which allow other homeless people out with the programme to visit, will allow residents to support these people and teach them skills.

By creating a self-sufficient space, with the facilities to grow their own food, the finances will no longer be a priority and the focus can be placed on learning skills. Through the use of built-in furniture in permanent spaces, this reduces the users need for furnishings.

Chloe Spiess is an American architect in training. Spiess graduated with her B.S.Arch from the Ohio State University in 2017 and proceeded to find work in an architecture firm in San Diego for two years. During her time at Ohio State, her interests in architecture focused on considerate design reflecting the history and needs of a place.

“each of us is not simply a machine “sleeping, eating, drinking, and performing its numerous other animal functions- but also seeing, touching, and remembering familiar associations and all the other intangible activities of the mind and soul; all of which I personally believe are of far greater importance and in far greater need of consideration than our purely practical functions in life.”
– Alexander Girard

The project – a physical critique on the present-day relationship between labour and domesticity, developed in three phases and scales: a cell unit, a masterplan, and a housing block.
For the working parent, navigating the time/interaction between labour and domesticity is crucial, for their own well-being, the well-being of the next generation, and the impact of their labour and dreams. I believe that by increasing living arrangement flexibility, “sharing” the burden of domestic labour between genders and under-employed neighbours, providing opportunities for rest, wonder, and exploration, working parents and their families will have more time to focus on what they deem most important.

The Cell – I started with a double-unit 2-story cell with a shared terrace for an inter-generational family, wrapped around a tree. Crucially, each unit possessed an independent entrance. As I adapted the initial cell to the form generated in the masterplan, the stair-and-tree-well lost the tree and was pushed to the edge of the unit, creating a filtered-light effect and providing a green-house-like effect inside.

The Masterplan — was the result of the collective work of Samuel Us, Tess Hillan, Gabriella Togni, Norbu Verhagen, and myself. Multiple courtyards take the central idea of my cell and expand it with gardens and plazas in the centres. As a prospective development along the high street of Glasgow – Trongate, we felt that such a project had a duty to provide an alternative to the commercialism of the surrounding area. Towards this aim, we imagined a series of public, semi-public and resident-only open spaces to make up for the lack of similar spaces in the Merchant City.

The Block – The block of the masterplan that I chose resides in the South-Western corner of the site. Hedged by the main street of Trongate and the side-street of Hutcheson, the block is a sandwich of dental offices, live/work units, a creche, a grocer market on the ground floor, housing in the middle, and entertainment (badminton court, petting zoo, community garden, café/bar, and therapy offices on the top with a view of the magnificent Merchant City skyline.

Graphic style – During the last few weeks of the project, I was also reading a book about Alexander Girard – pioneering designer of the mid-century modern movement and friend of Charles and Ray Eames. His playful use of colour and texture inspired me to go wild with my graphics, as well as add a kinetic rain-screen to the deck-access units.

Micro Production and Shared Commerce

Production Is returning to the urban realm. Over the past 50 years’ the production of goods has largely been outsource to countries that are able to mass produced cheap products. Unable to compete with the outsourcing and low cost of mass produced products, large swathes of the Uk’s production industry closed.

Current trends have shown a reanimation of production in western countries. The current state of the earth’s climate has led to consumers being more interested and involved in the storey of locally produced goods. With the rising cost of space in the urban realm and with a growing interest in sustainability previously separate forms of production have learned to band together to minimise waste and to tell the story of the ingenuity.

Using this as the foundation I hoped to create a community of differing scales operating within the shared economy, creating a lively varying hub of micro labour for entrepreneurs, technical and creatively minded people. To reduce the amount of outsourcing, in the hope of creating a self-sustaining community.

I have been an architecture student at the Glasgow School of Art since my first year in 2015. This year, I will be graduating my Bachelor of Architecture (Hons)

The two projects presented here are parts of my work from my 4th year. One is a housing project from the first semester, and another one is my thesis project from the second half of the year which, unfortunately has to be cut short.

Despite the halt in the teaching, I have continued to work independently on the project to the most of my ability with the limited facility and resources.

For more information, CV or complete portfolio, please do not hesitate to get in touch.

I, as a graduating student at the Glasgow School of Art, would like to state my support for the Pause or Pay Campaign.

Designing small-scale domestic spaces for everyday use in connection to wider public areas has been a primary interest of mine. I feel this typology offers the greatest opportunity to consider modern human needs in detail, whilst still relating to the larger picture of citizen-oriented necessities and allowing opportunity for architectural expression. I find it important to relate my designs to the current urban demands and reflect the deeply-rooted historical traditions from which they stem. I enjoy giving attention to concept, detail, and aesthetics in every project. I aim to produce purpose-orientated, adaptable, and sustainable designs, and am always imagining how these might evolve in the near future. My experience working on corporate projects in China, Belarus, and the UK exposed me to the industry’s unfortunate gravitation towards fast-production and human-neglected builds; my aim coming back to eduction was to avoid these approaches, focusing on how one well-derived, concise project can be multiplied to produce satisfactory urban building.

Craig Stephens is a Student, Freelance Architectural Consultant, Project Manager and Architectural Developer.

He studied Construction and Architectural Technology at Forth Valley College where he graduated in 2014 before taking up his first post in professional practice at Pollock Hammond Architects where he took on the role of Architectural Assistant for three and a half years, completing range of projects from small extensions to large-scale commercial projects, participating in all stages of the RIBA plan of work from concept, technical stages, procurement and administration.

Craig is particularly interested in the development of housing in Scotland and the UK and believes that Architectural Developers have the potential to transform the housing market to provide better end-results and better value for money. Since 2018, he has been providing Architectural services as a Freelance Consultant, project manager and Developer. 34 Riverside View, Alloa was his first project constructed as a ‘Design & Build’ Developer. Completed in 2019, he designed, costed, and project-managed the project.

Craig Studied undergraduate at GSA on the part-time mode while he worked in practice. Beginning Stage 4, he switched to the full-time mode.

In Stage 4 Studio, he explored the relationship between Life and Work, developing a thesis based on his own experience as a work-at-home freelancer. His findings were that Life/Work is a balance that is constantly in Flux, influenced by individual requirements. A study of his own home environment, the successful implementation of Maggie’s Centres to provide mental stability, and Japanese Architecture as a way of blurring the lines between nature and the building environment, allowed him to focus on key factors in developing a successful design toolkit: Light, Nature and Adaptability. Adopting a Spacio-Structural system, inspired by the works of Kuma and Fujimoto, he developed a dwelling concept that would allow for quick construction and adaptation using 3x3x3m blocks which could be placed in a three dimensional modular layout. The result was a flexible, simple structural system that would allow nature to occupy the street level with dwellings floating above and courtyards to allow light to flood from above. Following this project, he worked on a new building adjacent to the development. This time a multi-storey commercial building that would provide development space for creatives to research, explore and develop their ideas. In order to maximise the creativity of the occupants Craig explored techniques for increasing creativity and productivity through the physical environment as developed a vertical building based on a continuous ramps system which followed the natural development of each project. This project is still in development.

Craig Developed his Dissertation on the viability of the Architect as Developer, as a practise that could improve the quality of social and private housing in Scotland and the UK. As part of the project, he developed his own experimental dwelling designs, based on real-life plots. From these he explored the design process, the construction process and the final costs, using his own experience and successful professional precedence.

Rihards Saknitis is a Stage 4 Diploma in Architecture Student at the Mackintosh School of Architecture, who has been awarded a Bachelor of Architecture with Honours from the Birmingham School of Architecture and Design. Professionally, he has experience working on architectural projects in a variety of scales and contexts in the UK and Latvia.

Rihards Diploma study has been focused on establishing and experimenting with frameworks to identify and address social and environmental issues in the context of Glasgow. His projects explore how the city can function with less detriment on natural systems, by reestablishing and mimicking those systems in the built environment and how architectural planning can support more self-sufficient lifestyles. By designing space for nature, natural systems and principles of democratic production into the urban context, the consumerist culture and its impacts on the world are attempted to be reduced.

Jackson Deans is a multidisciplinary designer from North Yorkshire. He specialises in architectural design, graphic communication and illustration. With a fondness for bold and brutal forms, his work draws from 20th century Post-Modern, Metabolist, and Brutalist architecture that feeds into all aspects of his work. Whilst studying in Stage 4, Jackson has designed two large-scale architectural projects relating to domesticity and labour in the urban context of Glasgow.

‘Urban Housing’ explores the relationship between not only domesticity and labour, but the broader district in which our site is located, and a masterplan design was established in order to discuss vital social issues within the district. The project is presented from the large scale of the city down to the small scale of an archetypal dwelling, or ‘cell’ that forms the larger build up of the housing complex.

With ‘Urban Building’, Jackson develops a hybrid typology that incorporates contemporary nightclub spaces into the fabric of a traditional Roman bath house. This project addresses issues relating to the LGBTQ+ community and offers spaces that intend to provide different, perhaps contrasting experiences catered to the desire of the user; a meditative spa, an intense techno nightclub, private darkrooms, and virtually any spacial and experiential variance in between.

Digitalization & Physicalization

Everything is increasingly passive in this modern world of ours, mostly indicate through image instead of touch and body response. People tend to focus on how physical things being digitalized. However, many are forgetting the fact that we are also physicalizing digital things at the same time using 2D and 3D printing. Thus, digitalization and physicalization are both happening in our society and should be treated equally.

The proposal for this project is to explore and experience both the digital and physical world. In order to provide different experiences, elements such as structure, material and lighting are designed carefully to create different environments. The idea for the physical world is representing by something rigid and solid while the digital world is more like something ephemeral and void.

RIBA Part I (BSc Hons with International Study, Strathclyde School of Architecture, 2012)
– Arkitektskolen Aarhus (ERASMUS semester, 2016)
– 3 Design Scotland (Interior Designer, 2018-9)
– MAST Architects (Architectural Assistant, 2016-7)
– JM Architects (Architectural Assistant, 2014)
– Ryder (Junior Architectural Assistant, 2012)

The conflict in Antwerp is recessive, hard to notice in corners of city. However, they lie within the crowd of pedestrians, lie across the infrastructures and among the religious buildings. 48% of inhabitant in Antwerp has immigration background. The mapping of religious buildings indicated that those inhabitants lives within their enclosed neighbourhoods with similar religion and culture, separated by physical boundaries.

The thesis is about proposing a spiritual space at the city centre of Antwerp. A model of the Church of Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, indicates the territory of several denominations by colours. And the dome in white is shared by everyone as a sacred place. A neutral and spiritual space is needed in a city like Antwerp, as same as the Church of Holy Sepulchre.

What is spirituality ? What lies between spirituality and architecture? The research came up with a conclusion of ‘Time’. The self-transcendence experience could always match to specific perception of different moments in architecture through the use of light and shadow. They imply time and thus spirituality in architecture. The journey of time offer a retreat from the conflict, from the city and chaos, where speed of vehicle, reflection from curtain wall and noise interfered the perception of time, and bring spirituality with the expression of different moments and self-transcendence experience.

The design occupied both sides of the site and connected through underground space. It breaks the physical boundary, ie. the traffic and infrastructure, between enclosed neighbourhoods. The design goes deeper into underground progressively, as thresholds between the spiritual space and the (physical and visual impact of) the city. The journey of time start from ‘Chaos’ (city), then ‘Authenticity’, to ‘Eternity’ and finally arrive ‘Transiency’, forming the compress process. Then it would go through a decompress process, from ‘Eternity’ , to ‘Authenticity’ and finally back to ‘Chaos’, no matter which side the visitors start their journey.

Christopher Michailidis is a RIBA/Part ll postgraduate. He completed his RIBA/Part l at Northumbria University, and holds a qualification of character design and concept art from ESCAPE studio in London.

He has worked as an architectural assistant in Cyprus and London. His main areas of interest are residential architecture, western history of architecture and phenomenology.

Ruoyi Wang is a Stage5 architecture student with more than one year of architecture practice experience. She studied both undergraduate and Diploma at GSA, adhering to the school’s restrained and rigorous design spirit, mainly focusing on elderly architecture, medical architecture and urban planning. From 2017 to 2019, she joined the Shanghai branch of AIA Life Designer Practice and has participated in architectural works in many fields, such as medical health, residential, industrial architecture and urban planning.

With the impact of global aging, she tried to reevaluate how the elderly are treated within society and explored the possibility of establishing an “old-aged friendly city” in Antwerp.

Hailing from the tropical island of Jamaica, Ryan is an architectural designer who earned a Bachelor of Art in Architectural Studies from the University of Technology, Jamaica with first class honours in 2015. Since then he has worked in two of the countries’ leading architectural practices and gone on to attain his postgraduate degree in architecture from the Glasgow School of Art. His architectural interests include biomimicry, sustainability and disaster relief design. While he’s not working on his next proposal, Ryan can be found outside surfing, hiking or playing sports. His love for sports developed from early childhood and led to him being awarded a sports scholarship at his alma mater. Ryan is obsessed with travelling and learning about different cultures and the architecture born out of those environments. His love for travel has helped him develop a keen eye for good design and discovering the underlying issues they seek to resolve.

He is deeply interested in self-build, semi-permanent adaptable structures. These structures have the potential to be revolutionary in the Caribbean where natural disasters such as hurricanes, earthquakes and volcanic activity destroy millions of dollars of property every year. For his final year developing the idea of creating inexpensive, durable and adaptable structures was his intention, however the project location chosen (Antwerp, Belgium) is not affected by any of the previously mentioned factors. Though the thesis has less to do with the ‘disaster relief’ associated with this type of architecture, the structures have proven to solve many of the social and cultural issues facing a residential community. Through multiple iterations and testing of this project, he have uncovered another way in which these structures will impact the Caribbean Society as well as maintaining the original idea of self-assembly and adaptability.

After graduating with an Honours degree and embarking upon the final year of Architecture, I sought to build upon skills and interest from the previous Honours year. With a particular interest in Sustainable design and Passivehaus, the final design thesis for Stage 5 focused on an educational institution within the urban landscape of Antwerp.
Taking the concept from Hermon Hertberger’s Space and Learning and applying it to the site, a project is proposed which creates a “Learning Landscape”, sculpted from the tools and measures which promote social interaction. This is achieved through designed space which embodies the idea of inhabited circulation that is given equal importance to the classroom with regards to space and lighting. By providing a communal area to bring together the different cultures of users, a catalyst is created for greater social networking.

An aspiring designer interested in adaptability, metabolism within an architectural/ urban framework, future technologies and sustainable systems. I explore architecture mainly through photography and it’s manipulation as we currently live in a world in which our smartphones are an altered perspective of our collective realities.

As a response to the expanding city and the large amounts of abandoned industrial warehouse areas, the thesis explores the possibilities of deconstructing abandoned industrial 20th Century buildings for the potential of reusing all their materials and elements to create new buildings for different functions.

Elements and materials from 20th Century warehouses that are considered to be of a low architectural value are taken in use for testing their ability and future as a base for new public buildings. A catalogue of elements can be used to promote the modern production of reuse and remaking, seen as an important and publicly accessible activity, therefore creating a monumental space expressing the importance of remaking in the modern world of consumerism.

I am testing this in the district of Den Dam in the north east of the city centre, where I have identified thirty three warehouses that are abandoned or that lack potential for adaptation for new use. All elements and materials that these buildings are made up of have been catalogued and studied, which has been taken in use when designing the new buildings. The entire masterplan is made up of new buildings, determined by the amount of materials available.

In order to test new expressions with the elements they have been tilted, rotated and combined in different ways, allowing larger spaces to be created and new textures to be explored.

The programme of the building explores the push of remaking, made up of workshops for professional and for public use. The process consists of a waste collection point, going through to workshop spaces, and with remade and fixed objects being sold at the market. Additionally there is a teaching facility for sharing the knowledge of making and remaking, so that it is accessible and available for
everyone.

My thesis challenges the permanence of the city through the speculation of a new type of roaming civic architecture, challenging the centralisation of power and culture in Antwerp, whilst recharging these civic institutions as democratic forces for urban repair.

The idea of a civic centre is here adopted as a vehicle with the potential to shift social and political investment away from the medieval core of the city of Antwerp. The thesis proposes to establish a new civic centrality directly on top of the ring road between Antwerp’s historic city centre and the 20th century belt district of Morkhoven. The ring road is a product of permanent urban scarring inflicted by the medieval fortifications and this has subsequently been immortalised by the motorway that currently circumnavigates the inner city.

The civic centre can be defined by the presence of institutions of both culture and political power within the city. However, it could be argued that these institutions, namely our city halls and national parliaments, have become increasingly ambiguous in their contributions to the civic realm and in turn influenced the public’s perception of what constitutes civic architecture. This project aims to address this ambiguity within a new civic typology where institutions of power can now fully embed themselves within host communities with a renewed civic importance.

Institutions of power and culture are planned to move site every 15-20 years in an effort to repair more of the fabric of the city. Whilst these programmes are free to move, this thesis takes a critical position on the longevity of it’s architecture, whereby a balance is struck between permanent construction and the design of key spaces that are critical to the programme, thus are temporary and bespoke.

When the programmes of these civic institutions relocate, host communities inherit the site, where permanent structure is re-purposed for housing and community facilities. The dismantling of temporary structures allows for public courtyards to adopt new roles, shifting it’s responsibility from from serving the city, to serving the community and the individual.

To be continued.

Tong Shu is an architecture student from Shenzhen, China and had his undergraduate study in Guangzhou, China and is studying DipArch in GSA. He is interested in exploring the spiritual significance of architecture and its contextual response to the urban environment.

About me

I am curious about transformation of underused spaces, co-creation, rootedness, connection with nature, finding creative ways of working with communities and facilitating balanced urban developments.

I worked as architectural assistant with O’DonnelBrown Architects in Glasgow, Konishi Gaffney Architects in Edinburgh and EFFEKT Architects in Copenhagen. Also, I am a co-founder of Un/Common Glasgow (Architecture Fringe 2019 programme participants).

I would be pleased to discuss my thesis work or a future collaboration. My contact details are below.

Estate of Change

The thesis seeks to bring the diversity of urban life to Antwerp’s peripheral modernist social housing estates by improving the quality and equality of everyday spaces. Normally demolished as part of comprehensive redevelopment plans the four slab blocks of this proposition will be retained thus respecting the unique character of the modernist housing and allowing the existing residents to continue to occupy their flats during construction.

This proposition to transform modernist blocks in Luchtbal neighbourhood will focus primarily on re-working the ground level, which is so typically underused in modernist urbanism. Between the blocks and their existing pilotis the principles of shared commons, mixed use, gradation of scales, distinct spatial identities and lasting quality of design are explored.

Identified needs of the ethnically diverse and economically deprived residents were used to inform a new masterplan and related architectural interventions at multiple scales. The existing situation of a private dwelling, a common stair and an overwhelming open space outside are mediated in this proposal by adding the ‘missing’ in-between spaces, thresholds encouraging stronger social relations and trust between the residents of the blocks and the wider neighbourhood.

The proposition includes:

1. Additional ground floor housing to redefine the public realm. Existing flats are provided with new sunrooms to increase desirability and common stair landings are made more generous to provide space for conversation between neighbours;
2. New pedestrian streets with active façades linking major attraction points in the neighbourhood (for example, train station and leisure destinations) to create spaces with distinct architectural identities and reduce car dependency;
3. Affordable work spaces, community education facilities and the associated civic spaces are proposed to address unemployment and bring more visitors to the area;
4. Clear distinction between public streets and semi-private courtyards shared by the residents of the blocks in order to encourage ‘ownership’ of the underused green spaces and create opportunities to strengthen trust between neighbours. This introduces ‘fronts and backs’ to the serially planned slabs;
5. Shared community facilities such as kitchens and laundrettes in the semi-private courtyards to allow the possibility of residents to re-think their daily lives on more communal terms;
6. Architectural language, design code and materials of the newly formed spaces are respectful of the existing buildings, ease navigation and give a sense of scale, ‘warmth’, comfort and lasting quality.

Marrying tradition with tale, ‘Cleansing Rituals’ explores customs with fable aspects.
The work investigates premarital ceremonial ‘cleansing’ with natural elements; soot, salt and feathers, all thought to possess holistic virtue with purifying properties carrying protective and fertilising powers.

Scottish writer Margaret Bennett’s Customs: From the Cradle to the Grave yielded the body of work with biographical narrative. Bennett’s interview material and manuscripts notes describes archival recounts involving soot being rubbed onto the skin prior to ‘feet washing’ in order to cleanse and bring luck. Other occurrences describe finding the ring of a woman who has been in an enduring marriage in a chamber pot filled with salt. The events have been adapted with a lyrical approach, telling an unknown past by using natural elements.

The body of work began with large format nude self-portraits, exhibited in ‘Pt.2 – Com Des WIP Show’. The images were created through photo etching, which is a highly precise corrosion process used by chemical etching. The intaglio printmaking method was originated as Photogravure. The pairing images were printed with handmade ink from soot and linseed oil.
Following this was an exploration of Salt Printing, a photographic process involving wetting paper with a solution of table salt then brushing it with light-sensitive chemical, silver nitrate.
The reoccurring trope of the soot, salt and feathers throughout ‘Cleansing Rituals’ is integral to both the subject matter and the making of the images.

I am Rosa Sawyers, a Graphic Designer, Image Maker and Film Maker based in Brighton/Glasgow.

I’ve recently been exploring my interests in moving image through various animation exercises, focusing on movement and growth within the natural world. My work tends to mix digital and organic processes, creating confusing and surreal imagery with lots of visual pleasure.

Danielle Macleod is a photographer from the Outer Hebrides. Her work depicts the oral traditions of the Gaidhealteachd where stories are passed down generationally, growing a new magical detail every time they change hands. She gathers these stories through interviews and records them as collections of poetic photographs, re-telling the stories once more and leaving space for their regenesis.

Having been based in Glasgow for a number of years, Danielle’s photographs reconnect her with her island home in a new dimension, where landscapes become mystical and people become the keepers of mythology. She seeks to deepen our spiritual connections to the places we call home by reimagining her own through the lens of living legends.

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“One day whilst droving cattle by the shore at Bayble, my great-great-great grandfather was approached by a small rowing boat. He was kidnapped by the men aboard and put to work in a far away place. Six years later he reappeared, walking down the garden path to his widow.” —Scott Macleod

‘Nuair a Leig i Tharais Thu’ tells the story of a kidnapped crofter and his return home, portrayed in these photographs by his direct descendant Scott Macleod. Whilst tending to daily tasks, he was snatched away by a strange ship from his pregnant wife and island community, making his quiet escape and eventual return 6 years later. In those days, men from the west coast were sometimes kidnapped in this manner for forced labour, because of their hardiness and familiarity with seafaring life.

Initially, I had intended to salt print these images using seawater from the locations in the story, but due to COVID-19 that has been put on hold. This project is on-going; I plan to collect more stories and turn it into a series.

Rebecca Ashton is a multidisciplinary illustrator with a heavy focus on film and painting. She uses a culmination of stop motion approaches, drawing frame by frame, as well as creating props and costume to create an authentic yet often disturbing reality within her film. This exchange of mediums through out help to create a collage like feel, playing to her referential approach to narrative. She is currently working on a pixilation animation exploring the concept of virginity.

I’m a graphic designer and image maker based between London and Glasgow with a focus on art direction and process led design.

My design style falls between graphics and illustration as my practice often includes some kind of image making element. This even translates into my lettering and typography with my interest in decorative and bespoke type design, which is best illustrated through my work with FATHER. This stems from my love of process, whether that be the carving of Lino or the sketching of letterforms, I really enjoy the journey from the initial spark of an idea through all it’s iterations until it’s final form as well as the constant learning that comes with the discovery of new techniques relevant to my projects.

Mairi Louise Caldwell is a Glasgow based illustrator, and recent graduate of the Glasgow School of Art.

Characterising the main themes of her practice as ‘Hidden’ Histories, Memory and the Mythological (that is, concerned with untold stories, folk knowledge, superstition, personal recollection and the unwritten history) her work typically combines analogue drawing, writing, collage and photography.

Type design and interactivity have been the underlying themes of my practice during my final year at the Glasgow School of Art. Throughout my Third year on my graphic design course i began to learn basic coding skills. This in turn opened up a whole realm of possibilities for my practice. It engaged my interest for the potential that lies between the border of communication design and interactivity.

Thus this drove my final years work. Scene 3.0 is a typeface I have designed which is reactive to the spoken word. It is a three Axes variable typeface. The parameters change in reaction to the sound. Focusing solely on the qualities of the human voice it measures the Volume, Pace and Pitch of the audio that is fed through it. Words are read to be spoken with this in mind i wanted to challenge the perimeters of type design to expand the capabilities of communication in letter form.

I am an illustration student graduating from the Glasgow School of Art. Primarily my practice
involves the creation and relaying of narratives through multidisciplinary techniques, focused particularly on social issues surrounding class and hierarchies within society.

In my final year studying at the Glasgow School of Art, I aimed to explore the topic of social hierarchies within society, particularly the experiences of those from different backgrounds within educational environments. I explored these topics within two ongoing projects. My first project is a children’s book project, inspired by previous research, exploring poverty proofing within primary schools. The purpose of this is to educate children on different experiences, and represent social classes within schools, therefore providing a voice.

I also explored this idea within ‘The Pecking Order.’ The aim was to investigate my own experiences and the experiences of others, focusing in particular on students from working class backgrounds entering higher education. Through this, I wanted to create 3 animations or ‘episodes,’ that portray relatable narratives whilst also informing the audience.

My name is Katie Muir and I am a graphic designer and filmmaker. My work centres around the themes of the intersection of nostalgia and current world issues. The film ‘Sequoias are Dying!’ is a documentary short about human effect on the giant Sequoia trees in the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range. The film was made with the aim to see how nostalgic archive imagery behaves when placed within a modern context, and the effect this has on the topic itself. The project was expanded on with a series of satirical postcards. The film ‘Eastfield Jam’ also uses archive footage, and acts as a moving collage for the 10-minute musical piece it was made for.
The logo development and leaflets are part of a project reworking the identity of grassroots Glasgow-based charity Urban Roots. The project began by investigating current identities of smaller, not-for-profit companies, and aimed to create a visual identity that has a playful, professional and easy to use set of visuals that can be translated throughout the all aspects of the identity, and can be used by anyone in their offices and remain consistent.
The final project is an ongoing commission for a children’s book. It was made in collaboration between the author and another Communication Design (Illustration) student Bethany Millican, whose black and white ink paintings are featured.
I have also included an image from the Pause or Pay campaign in solidarity with the graduating class.

I am a multi-disciplinary designer and I love working with type with a passion for editorial design and branding.
I am a believer in an insightful strategic approach and putting audience engagement upfront in my evidence-and-context based design practice but I believe these traits should be a given. It’s truly my will and ability to innovate pushes me to find a fresh solution towards experiences that impacts peoples daily life positively.

I love working under pressure with tight deadlines as well as collaborating with other creative, playing the role of a team player and strive to not just better myself but those around me.

Zoë Ward is a womenswear designer from Brighton, currently based in Glasgow, Scotland.

She appoaches design and making with a visceral exploration of craft and craft history resulting in textiles and garments rich in detail.

Zoë prioritise’s a slower approach to making – isolating techniques, such as hand smocking and appliqué that would enforce a more mindful and meditative approach. By applying honest, traditional craftsmanship, the garment can be seen as a narrative object; it tells a story of time and care before its even worn. Zoë believe’s considering clothing in this way we come to respect and value our belongings in a deeper sense. Applying this philosophy she hopes to re-address the relationship we have with what we use and what we wear.

Sustainable practice is at the core of what Zoë does. Utilising second hand, up-cycled, found, or in some way repurposed cloths and materials. The resulting textiles and garments reflect this history, the provenance; the landscape they come from and the people who created them.

Zoë hopes her collection honours the communities that have inspired her, that it recognises the traditions and processes of generations of craftsmen, and that it celebrates narrative in the objects we own and treasure.

Born in Germany, Isabell is a Glasgow based designer and seamstress. After successfully finishing an apprenticeship as a seamstress she moved to Glasgow in 2014 and will graduate with a BA (Hons) in Fashion Design summer 2020. Isabell gained a wide range of knowledge for manufacturing and garment construction, throughout her studies and work in the bridal, costume and performance sector.
Especially through her work for bespoke bridal gowns and creating her own collections at the art school, she developed creative problem solving and pattern cutting skills.
Isabell herself is outside the studio passionate about a wide variety of outdoor activities. Her connection to nature and her creative way of thinking is her drive to push sustainability in the sports industry forward.

I, as a graduating student at the Glasgow School of Art, would like to state my support for the Pause or Pay Campaign.

With an enthusiasm for story telling and cultures of the past, Caitlin Fraser is a unisex designer from Glasgow. Whilst studying her BA in Fashion Design, Caitlin has had a keen interest in garments of the past and how they could convey so much information about the person wearing them. This interest has spanned from the tudors of the 1500s to the punks and skinheads of the 1980s.

Caitlin’s current project is about exploring her own heritage and identity by focusing on the city where not only she grew up but also her family generations before her. The main inspiration behind this project comes from old family photographs, poems and film as each garment aims to tell a different story through the cut, silhouette and fabric choice.

I, as a graduating student at the Glasgow School of Art, would like to state my support for the Pause Or Pay campaign. To read the full manifesto click here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MwdvZfLTp1udaASJ1EAmRT9XR-OPQIyU/view

As a graduating student at the Glasgow School of Art, I would like to state my support for the Pause or Pay Campaign.

I am a visual communicator from Latvia with an innate socio-anthropological interest. My work strives to explore relationships between and to others within an integrated design practice.

Through a trans-disciplinary format I like to provide visibility to people, objects, settings and narratives which would otherwise not be told.

Currently I am working on a collaborative project with Latvian weavers, jewellery makers and craftswomen to understand the relationship between historical trauma, craft and design now. It is a research of human displacement in the history of Latvia, the formation of memory and possible ways of preserving the ancient craft skills.

Sophie Marshall is a Womenswear Designer and Pattern Cutter based in Glasgow. Throughout her studies, Sophie has developed a keen interest in tailoring which has become a fundamental component of her graduate collection. Sophie is passionate about the physical aspects of the design process, particularly creative pattern cutting.

Her graduate collection, ‘These Will Be Our Pink Days’ is a womenswear tailoring collection which aims to challenge society’s construction of femininity. By deconstructing sexualised representations of women in the media, it is possible to instead create a flattened sense of sexuality- leaning towards androgyny- which will allow women to exist outside of the confines of their gender. Sophies research consists heavily of female artists whos practices are fuelled by a desire to emancipate women from the patriarchal gaze of our heteronormative society.

Sophie’s practice involves using traditional tailoring found in menswear, alongside silhouettes and fabrication techniques from women’s lingerie. Her design process involves analysing the cultural significance and sartorial power associated with certain items of clothing- namely, traditional tailored pieces-and using these symbolic references to distort and subsequently rewrite society’s idea of how a woman should dress, look and behave.

The aesthetic drive for this collection lies within the highly sexualised and auto-erotic representation of women in 1990’s/early 2000’s advertising and the media in general. Sophie is interested in the individualist portrayal of women in postfeminist imagery, which suggests that women are empowered and in control through consciously conforming to a heteronormative, patriarchal construction of sexiness. This collection has been influenced by feminist theory and an in depth understanding of the need to disturb and breakdown stereotypical representations of women in the media.

Even when worn by a woman, it is difficult to see a suit and not also have an attached idea of that suit belonging to menswear. For this collection, Sophie takes specific elements found in tailoring and uses these in nontraditional ways to grant women the power which belongs to men’s tailoring, without there actually being any notion of gender.

I, as a graduating student at the Glasgow School of Art, would like to state my support for the
Pause or Pay Campaign. To read the full manifesto click here

Exploring the role of place as the cause and outcome of social action, Gibb’s work examines how the multiple and dynamic identities which emerge from and within place impact the past, present and future. Her work primarily comments on the influence of Christianity in the shaping of social relationships, attitudes and outcomes within the context of her native Northern Ireland.

The graduate collection featured, Where There Is No Vision the People Perish, explores the influence of strict Christian morality in our affinities to each other, ourselves, our bodies and our space. Gibb scrutinises the manifestation of creed in the sculpting of societal ideals of sexual virtue in contemporary Northern Ireland and respectfully commemorates the subsequent detriment with the objective of equality. Through the study of changing bodies, posture and psychology, healing and mending Gibb presents this relationship to materiality through the creation of genderless, slow fashion.

As a graduating student of the Glasgow School of Art, I won’t be using this platform to present and promote my practice as an act of solidarity with the Pause or Pay Campaign. If you would like to see my full works please follow this link to my website: gibb.cargo.site

Melody Uyanga Ramsay is a Scottish-Mongolian fashion designer whose work focuses on heritage, ethics, sustainability and its intersections using fashion.

After gaining invaluable experience in the Concept Design Department at Ralph Lauren, she has honed her own creative vision working between fashion, installation, performance and video.

As you start to figure out her visual language; the process of theoretical and historical research becomes evident as a form of figurative expression, transporting you with tailored British narratives and a homage to Mongolian horse-riding culture. This melting-pot of culture and art forces to overwhelm and define you.

Through her research, she has developed a design process that involves a rich cross-pollination of sources, bringing together literary, material and visual references.

Her 2020 graduate collection is presented as a meditation on cultural narratives, presented within a carefully considered scenography and casting.

Drawing upon the images and textiles of authoritarian dress in a transnational dialogue, she moves across time and space by bringing these references under the lens of a new era in postcolonial critique.

Callum Blair is a Scottish born creative technologist who is interested in discovering how design and technology can be used to convey movement in sports, particularly in tennis which he has a passion for. By comparing the elegance and beauty of the movement in tennis to an improvised dance he can see the relation to art. The skills required to perform at highest levels allows players to develop shapes and styles while they move on court which Callum transfers into his design practise.

Callum’s work looks at how he can turn this motion into data visualisation, by listening to radio broadcast of past tennis matches he turned the language used in the broadcast and turned it into data. With inspiration from Brian Eno rule based thinking, Callum explores how rule-based patterns could influence his work using them to direct his design choices when using data to create his visuals.

Along with the data visualisations of past matches, Callum experiments with machine learning, feeding a computer algorithm text from radio broadcasts. He taught the machine how to reproduce its own tennis points. By interpreting the points made he would draw the interpretations and create prints and calling it a collaboration between human and machine, drawing the interpretations and creating prints.

Zach Mason’s work investigates the relationship between digital and physical spaces through design research across both spaces. The liminal space created between these environments is experimented with in order to reproduce objects in alternative forms. This subverts their purpose, and reduces their forms to better understand them, and the process of object reproduction.

Hoping to break down the stigmas associated with digital space, he uses 3D modelling and machine learning along with 3D printing to move objects and ideas from one facet of space to another. Using surreal and intangible notions, he aims to break down engrained barriers within the spaces we inhabit, in order to invite users to approach them in a less fragmented manner. He sees mental, physical and digital space as a continuous realm to be explored, made tangible through a symbiotic trifecta which allows for the creation of objects in liminal space.

Throughout her practice, Ailsa’s work focuses on the subject of identity, which has been explored in several different mediums. Many of the works focused on the face; specifically how history, culture and similarities passed on through the generations help to define us as individuals.

This year Ailsa’s work consists of various studies looking at the gestures that we all use to accompany our dialogue, predominantly centering around hand movement. People often display nuances in their movements, emphasising how gestures are specific to that individual. It is Ailsa’s belief that these subtle differences in gestures can convey as much information and emotion as the spoken words they accompany.

Starting with detailed pencil drawings of hands, Ailsa progressed to several small studies. These included looking at contrasting performing arts and exploring the ways people use hand gestures to express themes and passions. Through a series of interviews, she scrutinised the way in which people’s bodies responded to her prompts and guidance. Experimenting with both digital machine learning and physical plotting devices, Ailsa’s work continues to explore the use of sculptural materials as a means of data visualisation.

YongWon Choi is an artist based in the Glasgow, United Kingdom and Seoul, South Korea. He is working on various subjects of art and science conflict, reality and virtual, immersive content, brain-computer interface, data visualisation, and user experience based on the question of human essence and humanistic knowledge.

His latest study, “Implementation of Interactive Content in Virtual Garden with Application of Personal Data,” is questioning about “Can future immersive content, such as virtual reality, be used as a form of art?” and “How can we use reactions such as the mind and the emotion of human nature to provide a different experience in art?”

His work is a virtual garden space where you can experience a new form of multisensory (visual, auditory, tactile) as an immersive content, and implements a responsive brain-computer interface based on theoretical backgrounds such as immersive content, simulation, and user experience data. His work consists of a brainwave recording device (EEG) and a virtual reality headset, and that produced in the Unity programme.

The new value presented by his proposal is that the user’s creative response (sensory experience) to virtual reality, emotions and empathy can be interpreted and understood in a new way by integrating into the art in the form of ‘data’, and this value can lead to new forms of creativity that are different from existing art. His work says that the act of seeing in the future will be an active process based on interactive communication, not a passive process that unilaterally accepts transmission from a two-dimensional screen. This change of experience will eventually change the future beyond our conventional and general perceptions and lives.

Charlotte Holland is a creative technologist exploring the intersection of art and technology. Her latest body of work explores our relationship between the real world and the virtual, through the lens of online gaming.

Her work incorporates the “W”, “A”, “S” and “D” keys, which are a common input when playing computer games. Each letter acts like an arrow key, moving the player up, down, left, or right in relation to its position on the keyboard.

Mirroring these controls, she has used each letter to signify a direction. Generative line drawings are created by analysing a text and then plotting each instance of “W”, “A”, “S” and “D”, moving the line in the corresponding direction.

She developed a particular interest in the unique language patterns used in gaming chat logs. Taking gaming conversations out of their original context, she uses chat-log messages as input data to create these generative artworks.

Chat-log language is typically informal, rude, misspelt, and laced with gaming jargon. She found it humorous to create works of art inspired by this which from the outside seem sophisticated and mature. Her work plays with perceptions of what is worthwhile or important in this new digital age, finding beauty in unexpected places.

Inspired by the blurring line between reality and the imagination, Ankita Nagaraj’s work is an experimental exploration into our relationship with the technology we have created. Finding the most interest in the journey of research and development, her work branched from the imagery of machines gaining consciousness, free thought and emotions, shown in the music video ‘The Music Scene’ by Blockhead. Basing her work on this science fiction idea, while pulling reference from the concept of singularity in Eastern culture as discussed by Alan Watts, she uses browser extensions, popups and physical pieces of technology to personify and humanise these machines.

Valentine Scherer is a French/Australian interaction designer who is interested in finding and making connections between generative and organic processes, analogue and digital, material and non-material, to discover new lenses on sense-making in a world of chaos & disinformation. Her most recent research and work were initially inspired by some of Richard Sennet’s writings on craft and how we live in the built environment.

Her work interrogates processes in making, production and consumption in the networked digital society. Allusions to the circularity of the economy are made throughout her work as an attempt to make a playful commentary, drawing from a broad range of inspirations such as Dadaism, George Brecht’s instruction art or more contemporary artists and designers like new media artist Philipp Schmitt. Much of her research and work on the ecology of modularity stems from a fascination with the role of craft as a means of sense-making in society.

Much of this work is based on a set of images of hybridised furniture pieces which were produced using Machine Learning algorithms via Runway ML software. This process enabled the generation and computational ‘imagination’ of a new set of furniture designs based on standardised IKEA graphic instruction covers.

Seeking to critique flat pack and modular furniture and the IKEA model which is hyper-dominant for all students and young people worldwide, she uses machine learning, 3D modelling and printing methods to uncover the flawed value system underlying the culture and production ethos. Using a playful and absurdist spirit of inquiry, she developed a way to auto-generate semi-functional modularity which shows just how ridiculous it is, and how it is just creating toxic landfill at an exponential rate, how this culture in itself is a huge driver of economic externalities that can only be eliminated by thorough system change.

Sally’s practice primarily focuses on ideas and issues related to mental health. From experiencing mental health problems herself, Sally has become passionate about using her personal lived experience and creative practice to open up much needed conversation and challenge existing stigma and ill-informed perceptions of mental health problems. She uses technology to develop interactive and immersive audio and visual experiences that communicate the often hard to explain realities of living with a mental health problem.

Sally often combines her creative practice with her voluntary youth work role at See Me Scotland. In her most recent work Sally has been working closely with other young people from See Me to develop a series of engaging and interactive works that communicate voices, lived experiences, challenges and stigma that young people face in relation to mental health. This work focuses on three key themes; stigma, medication and barriers to accessing support.

Light is the primary creative medium of Sean Mallon’s practice and he has been increasingly inspired by the technological use of light in invisible wavelengths for networking and data distribution. He is concerned with using visible light to express the effects of connectivity on the psyche. Seminal texts have been drawn from, such as those by Marshal McLuhan, who famously wrote of the interplay between the development of our brains and the media processed by them or as his contemporary John Culkin said; ‘we make the tools and then in turn the tools help to shape us’ (Culkin 1967). His work aims to express this interplay between technology and human experience and to show that we are at a new intersection of adaptation as we are exposed to networked media.
These ideas are expressed with interactive installation work which aims to draw attention to the body / self. An awareness of oneself is created by mirror images of pixel-like white light, transplanting the body with a digital representation of such. Light follows the movement of the viewer, reaffirming the interplay and our close ties with technology; symbolising the technological human condition we now inhabit.

Rebecca Lindsay is a digital artist and designer who in her recent work explores the act of cognitive offloading and the trust we place in technology storing information without error. We often misremember things as our memories change over time and can be altered due to outside influences. As our minds are fallible we take pictures to remember events which we backup to computers and phones under the assumption that this information will remain unaltered. Many of us use memory apps through social media to remind us of events. However, as our devices and apps can be hacked our information can be compromised – could we remember clearly enough to dispute that our information and consequently our memories had been altered?

Inspired by artists such as Zbigniew Rybczyński and Sophie Calle, her recent work uses machine learning and coding as a method of generating imagery. Using personal information uploaded by others and herself ranging from text to images Rebecca’s work explores our relationship and reliance on technology to both save and express aspects of our lives and identities within a non secure digital landscape.

My passion for Interior Design stems from the love I have for show homes, seeing the way people manipulate a space in various different ways. The achievement I feel when I see a project coming together is extremely motivating. I particularly enjoy designing domestic and commercial interiors. I have chosen to design a building featuring activities to enhance the learning and play of children. This proposal is a place that suits any type of child including children with learning difficulties giving parents an ideal place to take their children to experience the power of play.The interior features specific areas that expand different types of learning skills. I was inspired to design this type of space as I have a family member who is autistic and wanted to delve into their complex needs this is why I have designed this space within my concept to enhance their education through play.

Samuel is a graduating designer from Liverpool showcasing a multidisciplinary approach to spatial practice, with a key focus on structural context and materiality leading to an increasing insistence on circular economic principles.

His work emphasises the phenomenology of space to create respectfully adapted and contextually significant spatial environments whilst applying understanding gained from working experience with companies including MADE.com and bluesky.

I am Megan Collins, an Interior Designer from Glasgow. I studied at The Glasgow School of Art for four years whilst maintaining consistent employment throughout. In 2018, I and a group of collaborators designed and produced the school’s Graduate Fashion Week pop-up for that year’s graduates, seeing the development through from a charette based project into a fully realised scheme.

My Graduate Project – “The Waverley Studios”- surrounds the repurposing and restoration of a forgotten community building in Glasgow’s Southside. Originally used as a Cinema, the design aims to showcase several fundamental features that were discarded over time through revealing the barrel-vaulted ceiling and staircase in the building’s main hall. Split into two parts – The Waverley challenges the old and the new. The Entrance Hall acts as a tribute to Victorian Era in which the building was built, whilst adopting contemporary finishes. The Main Hall maintains its element of theatre through the construction of studios on the stairway, creating alien forms which allow glances into the workspaces through slit windows – revealing only moments of what is happening internally. Theatricality is also maintained for the user – with the addition of a louvre roof that when opened allows them to hear the sounds from throughout the building as well as maintain a visual connection with their surroundings.

Overall, The Waverley Studios presents Glasgow’s Southside with a new way in which to gather and celebrate both the Arts and the Local through both the building itself and the Community that inhabits it.