'Framed' - Ambleside Community Arts & Energy Hub
‘Framed’ is my design project creating Ambleside Community Arts & Energy Hub (ACAE), nestled off the A591 by Lake Windermere and the picturesque town of Ambleside, within the protected Lake District. Designed to embrace traditional art forms, this sustainable and modular haven promises to inspire, educate, and foster creativity among locals and visitors alike.
Framed’s design concepts are rooted in sustainability and multi-functionality, embedded in a detailed life-cycle strategy. A pioneering modularised façade system of prefabricated timber frames that seamlessly interlock aims to revolutionise the construction process for efficient as-assembly and disassembly, also enabling future growth as need arises, ensuring ACAE can evolve alongside the artistic community it serves. One of the major goals of the ACAE is to bring community spaces to the forefront of the energy future, intertwining them and using them to create change, perhaps even to encourage activism and protest. The building has been designed with its life cycle in mind, particularly with an end-of-life strategy, that demands increased investment and shifts towards a renewable future. Thus, ‘Framed’ attempts to respond to my atelier’s position by asserting that nuclear energy is the stepping-stone to a renewable future, though it is not the future in itself.
This design also acts as a cultural catalyst, destigmatizing nuclear energy and educating locals on the energy crisis and their role to play nationally. ACAE, housing a small nuclear reactor, creates an energy hub powering the nearby towns of Ambleside and Bowness-on-Windermere, and aims to pave the way for a renewable energy future. It follows a speculative approach that addresses the various themes including the current energy crisis at contrasting scales – from prototyping a modular rainscreen façade system to a national community energy hub scheme that would improve access to energy, and shift the country closer to its energy goals.
