Issue date: 06 June 2006
Friday 9 June to Sunday 11 June
New Studios Building, Frenchay Campus
Work by final year students of Architecture, Architecture and Planning and Architectural Technology and Design at the University of the West of England will be showcased at the annual end of year Degree Show this weekend.
The Degree Show will be opened by Professor Richard Parnaby, Chair of the Design Commission for Wales who also leads the Architecture awards at UWE. The Show opens between 1800 to 2000 on Friday 9 June and on Saturday 10 June and Sunday 11 June from 1100 to 1500 at UWE's award winning New Studios building on the Frenchay Campus.
Professor Parnaby said, “This show presents an excellent opportunity to experience the creativity of this year's graduates. The extraordinary variety of the projects on show demonstrates how similar briefs can be the jumping-off point for startlingly different design responses. The exhibition is likely to interest prospective students planning to study architecture and planning as well as professionals looking for creative new talent to joint their teams, all are welcome to come along.”
Programme Leader Harry Charrington said, 'This year the exhibition represents a new level of quality in design. The responsive imagination of much of the work challenges conceptions about how creative professionals might intervene in many of our more problematic environments such as suburban sprawl and redundant industrial landscapes. I hope all those interested in the environment, not just architects and planners, will come and enjoy the students' achievements.'
Student profiles:
Jasmine Punatar
Jasmine Punatar has just finished her first year on the BArch Architecture course. Her project focuses on a residential development in the West of Swindon. She has worked at modifying existing communal spaces within each cul-de-sac to create amenities for people to use. These amenities include play areas for children, orchards and allotments. Jasmine explains, “The idea is to create a different theme within each cul-de-sac to enhance the lives of the variety of groups of people living in the area and by carefully treating the surfaces the importance of the car is reduced in favour of pedestrians and cyclists. I have also proposed the introduction of a High Street in close proximity to the residential development as there are no local shops. This ties in with the whole BArch units work to identify a route from West Swindon to the centre of Swindon.
“I have then created 'greenways', which are made up of trees and hedges increasing the bio-diversity of the area. These run through the residential area to link the high street to Shaw Ridge Park.
“The residential areas immediately adjacent to the park lack an edge or formal boundary to the park so I have proposed to create an inhabited wall which is partly made up by the edge of new housing that I have designed, copper mesh fences and hedges. The greenways exit into the park through the inhabited wall.”
Kirsty Street
Kirsty Street is a student in her final year of the Architecture and Planning course. Her final degree project was to study the city of Newport and develop a brief for a Centre for Celtic Learning. Kirsty explains, “I have designed a microbrewery that contributes to the regeneration of the east of Newport that will also include facilities for wine tasting, buying and selling traditional Celtic alcohol.
“The building is a 40 metre square glass box that is penetrated by a number of geometric objects such as a glass wine tower, three wine tasting pods that sit on a triangular mezzanine floor and brewing tanks. The building provides a new active city facade to the River Usk contributing to the proposed cultural corridor along the river. I've tried to make the space exciting and contemporary to re-engage this river site with the existing urban fabric of the city centre.”
On completion of the Architecture and Planning course Kirsty will start a new job with Stride Treglown, an architecture practice with offices throughout the UK. As part of the full architecture accreditation process, the position will involve receiving training in all aspects of architectural design. Kirsty says “I am really looking forward to my year in industry with Stride Treglown and to be staying in Bristol. The course has been challenging but very enjoyable as well.”
Rob Thorley
Rob Thorley is in the final year of the Architectural Technology and Design course. For his final year project Rob was set the challenge of designing prefabricated bedroom pods that could be put into a hotel building. Rob explains, “We were given a range of locations to design our pods for and I chose Chamonix in the Alps.”
Rob describes his design, “The site of the Chamonix hotel is located on a mountainside within a valley. The form of the hotel derived from the image of a leaf falling down the mountainside, a fragmented shard of rock cutting through the snow. The hotel has a primary use of skiing and other winter activities whilst providing a venue for a cave theatre and conferencing facilities. The central building forms the public sector of the hotel that incorporates the reception, a theatre, restaurants and shops.
“The hotel accommodation is housed in the surrounding curved buildings allowing the rooms to have the best views across the valley. The buildings are linked by walkways and passages all at different levels. The form of the building dictates that visitors and hotel guests can ski in between the buildings, where at ski slope level there are shops, bars and cafes creating an active frontage.
Rob has been offered a job at the architectural practice in Bournemouth where he did his placement year. He said, “I'm really lucky that RWN Architects have offered me work for the next year. I learnt so much when I was there because as the company is relatively small there was more scope to get involved in many areas of work that a larger company might not have been able to offer. I have negotiated some extended leave time during my time at RWN Architects to travel in Australia and Europe so I'm really looking forward to what will be a very exciting year.”
For more details please contact
fbe.entry@uwe.ac.uk or 0117 328 3000.
- ENDS -
Editor's note
Visual available upon request from the Press Office.
Caption: Pictured from left to right are Rob Thorley, Kirsty Street and Jasmine Punatar.
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