The Rural Society / BArch YR03
Overview:
One of the great bonuses of human evolution is the capacity to derive profound pleasure from certain interactions of sound, light, line or space.
The final year of my Bachelor of Architecture degree involved a year-long project composed of two segments. From the choice of four briefs, I selected ‘Liveable Cities’ which focused on how Architects can no longer design using an object-centred approach, but rather people-centred. Social, economic and cultural factors all need to be explored and by combining these with an understanding of sustainability, we can create a link that encourages people to want to live where we design – a liveable city.
Two themes are derived within the brief: fractured cities and amphibious living. The choice of locations are four sites all located within the Humber Estuary: Spurn and Sunk Island involved a more rural setting, where the boundaries between land and water is malleable and Bransholme Estate and Hull Fruit Market concentrates more on the fractured city theme of Hull. Creating liveable environments enriches people’s sense of well-being. I chose Spurn as I wanted to confront environmental design with it being a pressing issue in the real world. The location also presented an opportunity to confront our new disposition of social interaction. It is a terrifying thought to think how physical interaction is being lost through virtual socialising, which ancestrally is incorrect and is creating negative psychological implications. These interests led me to design a sociable community that thrives on human interactions, rather than mobile phone screens. This is our natural environment.
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