Olivia Bissell (she/her)
I am Stage 4 architecture student from Glasgow with an interest in contextual community based design, minimal architecture, light manipulation and subtlety of form.
Exploring both residential and civic building in stage 4 has been enjoyable and exciting, especially within the context of urban building, I have discovered a love for designing for the urban environment and the communities that exist within it.
I enjoy working in sketches to explore ideas through diagramming and model making to understand form, light and materiality before finalising a project with developed drawings. This is a method I used and enjoyed for the following projects based in the Barrowlands, Glasgow.
Urban Building; A Gallery in the East End.
This Gallery in the East End of Glasgow explores the celebration of a culture of art and making in the East End of Glasgow.
Taking influence from other civic exhibition spaces around the city, cultivating an accessible space for the showcasing of local and current art, whilst supporting the archival experience of the historic memory of artistry in the East End.
The GIA festival supports the scheme on a nationwide scale, with the building acting as a hub space for this event, as well as the rich artistic heritage of the East End grounding it into its site in the Barras. Although it’s core purpose is in showcasing varied and relevant exhibits from local artists and community projects.
The footprint of the building infills the site amongst a collection of existing buildings, completing the corners of the block whilst maintaining an accessible and permeable façade. Hosting a series of gallery spaces, interweaving lobby spaces, archival rooms on upper levels, a theatre and humble courtyards creating space for the gallery experience to flow into.
The programme of past and present is echoed in the contrast of lightweight and monolithic structure, and the lightness and darkness of space.
Contrasting atmospheres arranged programmatically create a journey through the scheme as inspiring as the experience of the art, media and artefacts displayed within it; with ground floor galleries capturing bright and ethereal space in contrast with the archival and theatre spaces capturing darker, moodier atmospheres.
The scheme’s ethereal and intimate atmospheres contrast with the vibrancy and buzz of the Barra’s market and music venues, celebrating the beauty of both.
Bain Street Elevation and Section - Theatre Section
Urban Housing in the Barras.
The two main focuses of this thesis lie in the domestic community and the visibility of the labor done within that community.
This district will be home to makers and traders who work and live within the community. Domesticity and labor will be re-aggregated in the district, with makers and traders living adjacent to their studios, workshops, markets, kitchens, cafes etc.
Domesticity:
The domestic spaces will be built on the model of private cells and communal facilities; kitchens, washrooms, gardens. With the shared facilities on the ground floor, with access out into the yards and gardens in the district, and the private living and sleeping quarters on the upper levels. This is put in place to reinvigorate community and quality of living, creating wider connections across families whilst maintaining a sense of intimacy for each individual. The shared domestic facilities will become the heart of the community, with the acts of domestic labour being relieved of burden, the visibility of these acts is maximised and value is placed on the joint effort within the community.
Labour:
The labour spaces will be in buildings adjacent to the domestic blocks, following the same model as the domestic space; with permeable workshop facilities on the bottom for heavier crafts, and more intimate studios on the upper levels. These spaces will be inhabited by trades peoples and craftsmen who will produce goods that will then be traded back through existing markets in the district. Industries will include textiles. carpentry, ceramics, repair work, artists etc. Common Condition, Domestic and labour spaces will share the same presence in the block, both accessing yards and gardens, communal kitchens etc.
The distinction between domestic and labour space will be made through architecture, with domestic buildings donning smaller residential size windows and with labour spaces having large, dominant windows. Referring back to the notion of visibility and celebration of labour. Movement through the district will be promoted by people walking across gardens and yards to get to their studios/workshops, to hang their washing out, to meet friends in the kitchen and tend fruit and veg in the urban garden.
