Street Society 2016

A one week project based in West belfast, with a group made up of BSc Architecture students and MArch students.

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Presentation Day!! Well done group!!

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Some internal and external renders done by Bonnie and Loes yesterday!

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Day four: Putting it all together

First thing this morning i met up with the client to confirm a time to meet in the afternoon, and then proceeded on to the colin glen building to work on the A1 poster and various other pages that will be used to present our ideas and proposed design. 

The group pulled together to great some amazing images for the client to best understand the project, renders of internal and external space completed by Bonnie and Loes and various sketches of the details of the design. 

The meeting with the client at 3.30pm was a success, they were impressed with the amount of work that we had produced in such a short amount of time, and inspired by what we had come up with, it became more of a real project than just an idea, and something that could be used in the future to produce real spaces within the building. 

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Day three: Design Concepts

Today each of us arrived at the colin glen building with ideas for how to design the spaces to the specification of the client. The nature of the work that is done in the Centre makes for a unique brief and one that requires research and careful planning. 

Some great ideas were shared among the group and integrated into a plan for the interior space and exterior space, the main focuses being on storage, therapy and flexibility of spaces both inside and out. The budget the client has is also a key factor in the design and choice of materials and finishes that are chosen. 

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Day Two: Meeting the Client

This morning we met the client for a meeting at 10am, we were given a walkthrough of the building as well as information about the services they provide. Security within the building itself is a big issue due to the nature of the work that is carried out, also the importance of a homely feel to the building rather than the more clinical childcare facilities that have been proposed around the country in recent years. 

Our task is to redesign a space within the building that is currently being used as a nursery, into a child play therapy space and area for parents, this space is to be multi functional so that when it is not in use by play therapy, that it can be used by other children in the building. An external space is also to be redesigned to allow for outdoor play therapy as well as playspaces and areas for parents to lease with members of staff. 

The afternoon was spent surveying these spaces (Charlie, Quadric and Bonne) in order to later be able to come up with a strategy for design back at the colin glen trust centre. 

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Meet the team!

Croina  (Project Leader, MArch)

Bonnie (Graphics, MArch)

Loes (Graphics, MArch)

Charlie (Documenting, Graphics, BSc)

Serene (Graphics, Photography, BSc)

Quadri (Graphics, Treasurer, BSc)

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Day one: The Brief

    This week long project is based in one of the five urban villages (run by the Strategic investment Board) located in Northern Ireland, Three separate groups are working in West Belfast, two are working on the Colin Town Centre masterplan and one group (ours) is working with a women centre located in Colin, Footprints. 

The aim of the week is to lease with our client and establish exactly what space they would like us to design, and we have to come up with proposals that could be used in reality at a later stage. 

     Footprints is a women centre located on Colinmill Road, Dumurry. The centre was established in 1991 and built on a plot located within the heart of the community, at the time of construction Northern Ireland was in the midst of the Troubles and so the building’s architecture had to reflect the need for security. Women in the local community worked closely with the architect to come up with an appropriate design for the building, as well as ensuring that the building did not overshadow the rest of the community (Especially as it was run by women, for women, which at the time was an influencing factor), which resulted in the design of the building being two storeys, with a storey below ground level rather than above ground level. 

      The importance of security at the time of design and construction can still be found at the site today, the gated entrance to the building is actually an entranceway that is used in prisons, and the surrounding security fencing is anything but homely, but a requirement due to the anti social behaviour that had previously been experienced around the building.

       The facilities in the building itself includes day care, child therapy, a drop in room and cafe, as well as facilities for parents and members of the community to come in and receive any help they may need.

Our base for the week is the Colin Glen Trust building located on the Stewartstown road, they have kindly given us a space to work in throughout the week as well as access to the facilities in the building.