The Lade Design Development

Makeshift desk at home

My development process took me on a journey which began in the University studio and finished up at a substitute workspace in the corner of my living room at home due to the Covid-19 lockdown. Because of this I had to change and rethink a lot of my planned outcomes. I had to leave most of my work behind in the studio and work my time around homeschooling my son and dealing with a hyper toddler at home. Nevertheless I pressed on sketching out the final details for my family centre..

I then started to model out the final model in CAD to finalise the design before moving onto the interior details. This allowed to me to play around with materials and forms making the most effective design outcome.

I was inspired by how the old buildings had succumbed to nature which was now thriving in the long abandoned site and how children need access to nature themselves in order to blossom. The design is very focused on nature and sustainability. It takes advantage of the Lade; the water channel running through its centre, not only as an aesthetic feature but to also power the hydraulic wheel and provide power for the centre. The copper patina zig-zagged roof of the building not only mimics the flow and reflective nature of the water, but it too harnesses the power of nature using photovoltaic tiles to capture the suns energy. This means that after the initial outlay the centre will be very eco-friendly and cost-effective to run.

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