Defining Legible Space
These drawings where undertaken for Ash’s masters thesis undertaken at the Welsh School of Architecture in 2017-18 where he worked under guidance of Kate Darby.
Leominster is a small market town in Herefordshire. My masters design thesis primarily interrogated it’s vernacular and how the new material town produces: Steel can be utilised in a new vernacular.
This new industry has formed organically as the Leominster’s agricultural sector has diversified it has created the highest concentration of steel fabricators in the UK. This sector has an enormous ninety million pound turnover six times higher than the annual turnover of the market town itself. Most of this wealth is exported but interrogating Leominster’s relationship with this new material could add the density and character needed to bring the market town into the modern era.
Leominster’s varied history has left its townscape a palimpsest of varying styles of architecture, which are unique in their legibility. My proposal captured the distinct architectural eras of the market town in steel and translated them into a new architecture in the Arkwright Exchange.
The Exchange provides the opportunity to allow for more density for business within the town. Drawing from the approach of corn exchanges similar to that, which used to exist in Leominster and other market towns. It uses the density of one point to provide a primary hub for trade. By providing different spaces: a new market space, co-working spaces, and an art gallery with adjoining maker spaces the exchange seeks to attain the density described. These spaces reduce the overheads for the individual business owners as well as the start-up costs for new businesses and provide both a forum and support for new business. Through its other functions it can spur more a focus on culture within the market town.
The two types of tectonic provide a variety in scale and characteristics of the spaces within. The echo spaces are the larger gathering spaces whereas the shed spaces form a more subservient architecture.
Shortlisted for the archisource drawing of the year 2020
