Name: Alice Wilson
Atelier: &rchitecture
Undergrad: Queen's University Belfast
Reasons for choosing Grizedale project: Social impact of providing open access into the Arts, through a Grade II listed project in the Lake District
Architectural interests: Adaptive Re-use in the historic built environment.
Interests outside of architecture: lifedrawing and suminagashi marbling

Welcome to Week 2! This week is all about utilising all the research materials from week 1 to propose an external programmatic extension to the Farmer’s Arms and all the activities it aims to facilitate. The week will start with site analysis and exploration of the existing building, before moving into smaller design teams to create proposals during the second half of the week.

Today, we started with a short presentation from our two wonderful MLA students who gave us an idea of what landscapers will consider in a design proposal. Our site is located in the countryside, so considering the landscape is so important, so this presentation was so informative.

We then moved into 4 study groups to carry out site analysis. These were sun-shadow analysis, accessibility, site lines path-view analysis, and adjacency diagrams. All teams worked really hard and the BA students came up with innovative ideas to present their findings. Tomorrow, we’ll be using this analysis to begin some exciting concept proposals!

Focusing on the design, Day 9 was all about fully developing and refining our concept proposals in our two groups. Using zoom whiteboards, we were able to combine our ideas and ensure that our proposals were considered, relevant, and site-specific. Lots of small changes were made to ensure that there was a relationship between the Farmer’s Arms and the orientation, height, and location of the proposal.

A really clear way to develop our ideas was through small models. Not only do these help us to understand the volume, but they also give us a 3D understanding of scale and space in relation to the people who might use it. The prototype for Group 2 can be seen in the image above.

The afternoon was spent on each student working on the four outputs. These are: site plan, market stall design, circulation diagram, and threshold strategy. At the very end of the day, we practiced a mock-presentation, in preparation for the real thing with Grizedale Arts tomorrow!