Archive: Architecture
2013 Central Bank Dublin. "And Yes I Said Yes I Will Yes"
This project overlays a ‘Brutalist’ incursion in a urban context with a lifesize game and settings taken from James Joyce’s ‘Ulysses’ to stimulate a narrative about the global economy and re-assess one of its concrete products. A new gyratory circulation network in the form of Snakes-and-Ladders is cut through the structure, a counterpoint to the conventional stairs and lifts housed in the support cores, fun in a sober setting. Sweeping rides form instant spatial connections and overlook activity below. Good deeds have their rewards, bad deeds have their consequences. Competition submission 2013.
2007-2010 Castlefield Campus. With Aedas.
Part of the Manchester BSF framework, this project is located close to the city centre. It provides a lower school assessment centre and upper school vocational space, both opening on to independent courtyards. Completed 2010.
2010 Ysgol Glan Clwyd, St Asaph. With Aedas.
Phased development programming working around occupied premises,
2005-2009 St Pauls Piper Hill. With Aedas.
Part of the Manchester BSF framework, a project in Wythenshawe between motorway and housing estate, retaining a group of existing buildings, and comprising newbuild high school and part new build specialist support school, linked by shared external spaces and library. Completed in phases to 2009 enabling decant from retained and later converted buildings.
2005 New College Leicester. With Aedas.
Feasibility study for high school with options for 0%, 50%, 75%, 85%, 90% and 100% refurb.
2004 Tatton Garden Festival Pavilion. With Aedas.
A temporary structure with sound filtering out from an unseen source, a challenge to the notion that musicians crave attention. Their space is sunk into the ground by 2m, blackened by charred moss encrusted retaining walls. These absorb sound waves, which would otherwise be reflected disturbingly back across the space. A canopy is used to bounce primary coloured light and sound from below to the surroundings.
2003 North Liverpool Academy. With Aedas.
Project for a merged pair of high schools featuring a central ramped landscape terminating in a fantastic view over the Mersey estuary.
2002 Manchester Academy. With Aedas.
Project for a new high school with distinct learning zones focusing on a central social space. Completed 2005.
2002 Tseung Kwan O Schools, Hong Kong. With Aedas.
The basic premise of this design, the point of departure from the ‘Hong Kong Standard Schools’, is that the school will more easily develop a sense of community spirit, both within itself and with its neighbours, operate more effectively, and be more responsive to future change, on fewer levels than the standard 8 or 9. This has led to the development of a compact 3-storey solution. In order to control the extent of deep piling, the structure consists of 3 rows of piles/caps/ground beams, across which run storey-height vierendeel trusses, prefabricated in steel and possibly tower craned onto the site from barges moored in the Eastern Drainage Channel.
1999 Canon Slade Chapel. With Aedas.
The chapel consists of two interlocking volumes. The space formed addresses the school approach, creates a secluded entrance garden, and is partly enclosed as a foyer, which leads through the entrance and around to the “upper room”. 460m2.
1998-2000 Cardinal Heenan School, Leeds. With Aedas. Design 1998; completed August 2000; Leeds Award for Architecture; published in Architects Journal, DfES “Building Schools for the Future”; Languages College works and contemporary garden design implemented 2003.
1998 Dock 9, Salford. With Aedas.
Housing element of a commecial masterplan submission.
1998 Hotel, Salford. With Aedas.
1997 Heywood School. With Aedas. Infil with a view. Completed 1997.
1997 Temple School. Lost a bid, but gained a reputation? With Aedas.
1995-7 Archbishop Beck Sixth Form Centre. With Aedas.
A self-contained sixth form centre for 180 pupils, the fruit of a continuous professional relationship extending over five phases of building work. A range of teaching and ancillary spaces are provided on two floors. Social and study areas face South East, onto useable external space. The principal social/study rooms can be opened to a single space for examinations, assembly and community use by means of sliding folding screens. Completed 1997.
1994 Booth Street Offices. With Aedas.
1993 West Flegg Middle School. With Aedas.
A simple 2-class teaching barn enlivened with rooflighting, open truss and bay windows. Completed 1994.
1992 The Fan, St Lukes Primary School, Skelmersdale. With Aedas.
A continuous fan added to a single storey primary school which had become the victim of rooftop vandalism, at the same time replacing softwood cladding with a brick and render skin. Completed 1992.
1988-92 Commercial projects in Manchester.
1992 The first model for 82 King Street in Manchester, with Aedas.
1991 Cross Street in Manchester, with Aedas. Project-winning design, later built in different guise.
1990 Brown Street in Manchester, with Aedas.
1988 Peter Street in Manchester, with Aedas.
1990-95 Archbishop Beck High School. With Aedas.
9 phases of discontinuous grant-funded work trying to make sense of a rambling 1960s layout with a school "street" - at the time this was an innovative idea.
1987-90 Fiscal House Manchester. With Aedas.
Post-planning project-running duties, with some colouring-in. Completed 1990.
1986 Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings Barns Survey.
Volunteer survey work giving SPAB more than the simple text description.
1985 Cheadle Parish Church, Cheshire, Stonework Repairs to Tower. With The Moxham Clark Partnership and Laing Small Works.
Sensitive repairs in accordance with SPAB principles.
1983-86 MI Unit, North Manchester. With The Moxham Clark Partnership.
Terminating a hospital street on a site too constrained for a standard NHS "Nucleus" building, a problem solved by turning the street as a 45 degree branch through the site and designing a bespoke building. Each 45 degree room had to be intricately space-planned, but many were found to work better than the rectangular default. Completed.
1983-84 Infants Block, Manchester High School for Girls. With The Moxham Clark Partnership.
A linear activity hall sandwiched between two existing single storey brick buildings converted to classrooms. Completed 1984, followed by conversion of former infants block to a sixth form centre.
1981-84 Music Centre, Manchester High School for Girls. With The Moxham Clark Partnership.
Light and space, robust materials, specialist acoustic input. Completed 1984.
1980-81 Manchester City Art Gallery. Design Thesis project
Extending and connecting the Art Gallery and Athenaeum, closing Nicholas Street to form a new urban foyer.
1979-80 Les Halles. Competition. Year 5 group.
International Competition; "Consultation Internationale Pour L'Amenagement du Quartier des Halles", 650 entries. Published in the competition document.