The North Quays
The north quay is currently a vacant, underused frontage, formerly a ship building, grain processing and port the area was once a hub of activity. The North Quays group aimed to populate this area with industry once more and create a new ‘industrial city’ across the river. A pedestrian loop was established with two pedestrian bridges allowing residents to interact with the river’s edge and the train line to the port is reopened.
A deep study and evolution of the Mat Building was the remit of Edoarda Mercuzio Cerpelloni’s thesis. Defined as a large-scale, high-density structure organised on a modulated grid, this archetype symbolizes the anonymous collective. An evolution of the Mat Building was achieved by rooting it to site. It then evolved beyond its 2D configuration and grows in height, acting as a landscape for the site.
Oksana Lastovetsky based her thesis on a study of the architectural and urban strategies that are publicly considered to be monumental, in scale, form or concept. The building needed to work for many industries and in the future could be modified to suit a specific function. The project set out to design a beautiful space for large scale activities. The interaction of people in this space also became an important part of the project.
This thesis, by Max Federov, explored how an existing structure can influence a new design and how light can be the middle third between the new and the old. If light appears where the structure is expected to be, in a junction between new and old, it can create a different dialogue. In the old grain malting plant Max proposed a craft co-op of micro breweries with a public bar for tasting the building’s produce.
Architecture, it can be said, is inherently concerned with aesthetics. David Graham explored this idea with a thesis on structure and skin, interior and exterior relationships and space formed by function. The building hat developed these theories was a Cruise Liner Terminal with spaces to house multiple programs from retail to concerts.
A water treatment plant, proposed by Christopher O’Keeffe, attempts to re-configure our attitude toward water. By allowing the public to occupy spaces around and engage with the facility while bringing people to the river’s edge, attention is brought to this often undervalued resource.
Amandine Di Ciaccio looked at the permanent and variable conditions within an architectural project. She endeavors to create an architecture which facilitates an understanding of these opposing conditions. The building she proposed was an automated warehouse for Amazon. A platform of concrete and rammed earth retaining walls supports a structural clad rack of steel above. With time, if unused, the racking could be removed and the permanent base could be reused, adapted or left as open public space.