Waterside Technical School
Exploring the parallelity of time, architecture & water by re-establishing Waterside School as a landmark and active node within the waterscape of Todmorden.
The project imagines a new epicentre for the Canal and River Trust apprenticeship programme within the former Waterside Factory School, re-connecting a forgotten relic of Todmorden’s water-borne industries to both the local community and the wider waterway network.
The canal becomes a central axis, with the existing school complemented by two new pitched masses and connected by a raised footbridge. The Technical School serves both an active training centre and as a canal-side hub. Intertwining teaching and community uses, the project celebrates the principals of visible craftsmanship, active preservation and community engagement.
The Waterside Technical School is a celebration of craft, time and creation, and these threads are reflected in the programme and material of the architecture. Motif and ornament inform a symbolic language that unifies the three buildings and tie together the past, present and future uses of the historic site. There is a playful contrast between the man-madeness of tactile details and structures, and equally of the evolution, recreation and changing of these material elements by time, the environment and especially water.
Water is a crucial theme that ties together the thesis, as a primary driver for the research and understanding of the site, community and landscape, and as a precedent and concept through the design process. The scheme ultimatley aspires to reinstate the building's connection to the waterways that envelope it and celebrate their role in shaping both the built and natural landscapes of the town and the communities' cultural idiosyncracies.
