My final year project focuses on building sustainably, fostering community through design and the intersection between sustainability and community. The scheme is composed of cohousing with urban farming, as well as public gardens that promote biodiversity, and a café that funds the upkeep of the project. I am interested in the close relationship between design and mental and physical wellbeing, and how community and green spaces help to promote these.
I have looked at sustainability and how this can be integrated effectively into people’s lives through design that promotes learning, curiosity, and encourages a strong community, both within the cohousing space, and in the wider local environs. The space is carefully designed with a balance between privacy and communal public space, with attention to movement flows both within the buildings and around them. The green spaces are also intentionally interactive, fostering a closer relationship between people and their living environment.
I have recognised the importance of the evolving building and how design needs to consider how people will maintain and use the building, as well as thinking about the initial impact of the building’s materiality choice and structural build up.
I am very interested in research and how this can play a role in architectural design. This is something I am keen to bring to further in practice. I hope to further explore research past my degree, having been selected as a Fellow in the Venice Architecture Biennale (now postponed until 2021).
