In my view, architecture is the one of the most broadly permeating professions with which one can engage. It covers the political, social and environmental spheres amongst many others and the work undertaken by architects therefore forms the bedrock of the built environment and the communities it serves. To this end, my final design project would look at solving the difficulties of post-Brexit manufacturing through the concept of community growth. I looked to create an enterprise zone along the border, providing tax advantages for firms located in the area as an initial means of attraction. I then designed a network of manufacturing centres, linked to both one another and the populace areas of Ireland. The manufacturing centres in turn contain an internal network of production and social areas in which a number of businesses collaborate and agglomerate to mutually grow and prosper. I envisaged a mixture of traditional craft businesses and high-tech start-ups to induce a vibrant and engaging atmosphere within the centre. The final design saw the efficient packaging of service, transport and logistics functions in a vertical format to allow most of the site to contain wild, open-access, parkland that both provides an additional social space and beds the building in its surroundings. Above this, I planned an area populated by timber modules that ‘plug-in’ to the centre’s services and contain a variety of manufacturing and social spaces. A central park area and external sky gardens provide a further area for tenants to socialise and build connections. Thus, while fulfilling the brief of providing a seamless manufacturing installation on the Irish border, my final design provided a far deeper investigation into building communities and inter-personal relationships through architecture.
