127sho_UNDERGROUND OVERGROUND PALIMPSEST!

The Unconscious Art of Demolition.

101par_acq_FAKE CLUB

A 2oth Century revival half-planked mock appearance? The exterior form of Fake Club’s Tudorbethan architecture segues perfectly into its interior karaoke nightclub croonings!

101par_fake building!

Spot the difference!

101par_acq_Shoreditch Station!

As seen on BLDGBLOG: BUY A TUBE STATION

107oly_acq_Rethinking the playing field: the WHAT_football box

There is massive economic disparity in the income generated by the English Premiership and the amount of finance available at football’s grass roots level with the English FA unable to reconcile the needs of the professional and amateur game. This project does not try to resolve this economic imbalance through entering the quagmire of footballing political policies but accepts the situation ‘as it is’.  Could architecture save (english) football? Accepting that FC Barcelona today represent the pinnacle of footballing prowess, we adopt their training ethos of ‘think, think, think – space, space, space’. In doing so we accept that design intelligence can improve football and provide better, more accessible footballing spaces to play, train and demonstrate creativity. The project is supported by Sport England, Play England and the English FA: the first WHAT_architecture Football Box is sited in Toxteth, Liverpool and has architectural features:
  • an artificial all-weather pitches / forget grass and mud: parents not forced to buy their kid’s fancy boots
  • pitches are smaller with less players per game = more space = more goals (21x greater density with 6 children per 100sqm WHAT_pitch compare with 22 premiership players over 7000sqm)
  • pitches come in various shapes: round, triangular
  • goals come in various shapes: tall, wide, basketball like
  • pitches contain obstacles

116abk_low rise high density urban fabric.

Low rise high densty urban fabric on the Black Sea.

116 abk_Urban proposal

116abk_Salakitecture! A Super Architecture?

The architecture has to embrace the local monolithic vernacular in Sukhumi, Abkhazia!

048per_GARDEN VISTA

Should the oversailing roof be extended? And whilst the grass count looks low (i.e. %)  that’s only due to the POV of this image…

116abk_Salakitecture! A Super-suburbanism?

If we accept that design can be good as sharp thinking is useful, how can we afford to live in a better designed world? One way is to build the best, the most for the least. If we create super high density so as to produce super discounted housing, how can we design this so as to have greater qualities than existing forms of housing afford today? Density is great as it leads to intensive productivity. This proposal starts with a prototype house type: in this case, a low cost 3b5p dwelling minimised in size yet maximised in number in accordance to the site yielding 100 units. The site is in Sukhumi, Abkhazia. The economic context is far below that of the lowest EU state. The project creates 100 3b5p units over a 100 x 100m city block. That’s means 500 people per hectare or equivalent to a density of 50,000 persons per sqkm. To appreciate the Super-Urbanism of Salakitecture, compare this with a list of the densest populated cities in the world: Manila, the densest, has 43,000 persons per sqkm; Paris has 20,000; London 4700; Istanbul 1700… This proposal is results in a Super-Suburbanism. Compressed most design low rise for least cost.