RECENT WORK

Review. The Shortlisted Boards for the Mackintosh Ideas Competition.

http://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/daily-news/a-sneak-peek-at-the-mack-shortlist-the-ex-students-verdict/5207731.article

Eco-sustainable architecture. Whatever that means?

Human activity is responsible for approximately 27 billion tonnes of carbon emissions globally every year. Approximately 90% of this amount is contributed to by the concrete and airline industries. How can the designers of buildings help more effectively? Stop using concrete? Boycott air travel?

One of the major limiting factors when conceiving, and then implementing eco-sustainable architecture, is in the manufacturing phase. No matter what environmentally conscious devices (photo voltaic panels, green roofs, renewable building materials, passive ventilation, thermal mass etc) are utilised by considerate designers, a disproportionately high amount of energy has to be spent/wasted when actually making buildings.

We believe that one of the most straightforward solutions to this devastating global burden is to, as much as is possible, remove or negate this wasteful construction phase. Like our ancient cavemen predecessors, we should start to use and exploit existing/found treasures to make our homes in (building sites are very inefficient/wasteful places, so pre-fabricated modules/parts are inherently more eco-sustainable). For example the export/import industries use hundreds of thousands of freight containers every year to carry cargo around the world and as it is cheaper to buy a new container than to transport empty ones back to base, a high percentage of them are left empty and unused. This is obviously a problem in terms of cluttering the landscape, but also a huge waste of a very useful (and structurally sound) object with a high level of embodied energy (due to what it’s made of, it’s construction and transportation around the world). The idea (that a few designers have utilised) is to use these containers as a way to create architecture. A simple customisation/modulation of each container is a financially astute and environmentally friendly way to make (amongst other things) affordable homes for many hundreds of thousands of people.

However, this idea is not only limited to freight containers; as depending on the local context and what can be found close to potential construction sites, the possibilities seem endless. We are therefore convinced that by reducing the amount of energy expended during construction phases and utilising, eco-devices, as well as local materials or ready-made structures we can significantly reduce the combined carbon footprint of the worldwide building industries.

We really want to make a difference.

Eco-House (i) Strawbale + Palette Truss

mA received project management training in the construction of Strawbale Housing and the processes involved in the design and building of eco-houses that re-use natural elements to provide sustainable living in a harsh climate. The project was carried out in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico for Worldhandsproject, a wonderful organisation run by inspirational architect and eco-inventor Alfred von Bachmyer. Straw is a huge waste product in the US and so purchasing the 18" x 12" bales was a cheap way of obtaining material to make walls from. Palettes picked up from around the neighbourhood, bought for a less dollar each, were quickly dissassembled to be fitted into a truss system to carry a sheet metal roof. The roof was one of only a few of high embodied energy materials (others were rock-board for internal ceiling, concrete for foundation and rebar for stability) used to harvest any rainwater which fell throughout the year for reuse with domestic functions such as washing or bathing. Juarez has a harsh climate with less than 6 inches of rainfall a year so water is a precious commodity.

The strawbale walls are held firm using metal rebar which is tied inside and out and fixed to a bond-beam at the top of the walls; these ties are then looped through a shallow but necessary concrete foundation underneath the walls. Pallette trusses are then fixed to the bond beam and stabilised across themselves with spare wood. The sheet metal is then fixed to the trusses.

The material applied to the walls is called Cob. It is a hand mixed concoction of straw, sand, clay and water and is mixed often by stomping around in a tribal fashion! This Cob, starting with a viscous mixture, is applied by hand to the strawbale walls and continues until the whole wall is flush straight with an even plaster-like finish. In particular, the detailing around the windows is soft and aesthetically very pleasing. A natural wheat-based lime finish is then painted onto the Cob walls to give a stunning white-washed finish to the building.

mA were in discussions with Worldhandsproject regarding systems that in the future could be implemented to provide even more recycling of waste and water to fertilise fruit-tree gardens and composting crop beds. The self-contained allotment of the future perhaps necessary in an age where the Earth's natural resources are being exploited so carelessly?

Good intentions and a dwindling population...

In the 1930’s the population of Glasgow peaked at about 1.1 million people, and for the following fifty years or so remained above one million. However, during the 1960’s the population of Glasgow began to decline, dropping to about 600,000 inhabitants by the start of the new millennium. This was due in part to the major relocation of people to ‘New Towns’ and Glasgow’s peripheral developments, which happened after the clearance of slums and poverty stricken areas such as ‘the Gorbals’. This wholesale break up of deep-rooted communities led to the rise of suburban ‘anti-places’, such as Robroyston. These endless swathes of suburban housing took hold and continue to spread uncontrollably outward, destroying the green belt surrounding the city. If this tumour is not diagnosed swiftly and intelligently then we could potentially end up covering the countryside in a two-storey crust of mediocre cul-de-sacs and not much else. 

Critical Humdrum

Critical Humdrum is focused upon the tensions between the physicality of Belfast’s Cathedral Quarter and it’s social architectures, and how these tensions shape the experience of everyday life for locals. It is a key-based map describing mundane yet critical places, which contribute to a social and survivalist topographical depiction of the area. Designed to bring you on an alternative tour of points and nodes around the area, the map will highlight unspoken activities and their locations. Playfully between fact and fiction, the user is drawn to find the extraordinary in the street corners such as the discovery of Accidental Architectural Genius, Drug Exchange Points, Important Pubs, Semtex Stores, Outdoor Disco locations, an MI5 Bunker and suggested places to shack up for the night if one is penniless.

Suburbs in the Sky

This video is a 2 minute snapshot of a larger mA work looking at the rapid construction happening in the Middle East. Filmed in Bahrain, Dubai and Abu Dhabi the work is shot from rooftops and half-finished tower blocks. The footage asks the questions 'who is building the Middle East?', as it borrows portraits of the immigrant workers. The film examines the reality of a sky-high suburbia, sold as a western vision to potential buyers and points out the experimental architectural playground the Middle East has become for it's kings.