Greenpeace and Heathrow Airport

Based on a plot of land purchased by Greenpeace within the proposed Heathrow Airport Expansion area, this project explores a possible architecture of protest against the demolition of Sipson Village, a close-knit community outraged at their forced removal in preperation  for the Third runway (if realised). 

Greenpeace have purchased this plot and arranged a legal system of  purchase by beneficial owners - anyone willing can send them an email  to own a piece of the land. Currently 32,000 people have signed up, slowing the enforced land purchase as each owner will have a legal representative in the case against BA, and this project aims to reinforce this movement.

The project also aims to provide information and learning about the  alternatives to traveling abroad by plane. It offers a place to consider ‘holidaying at home’ through the teachings of The School of Life who provide a variety of ideas from philosophy to literature and psychology to the visual arts, all implemented to encourage a rethink into how we travel and to cherish the mundane and everyday. 

By David Bannister

Beyond the Cutlery Drawer

The project initially developed from my personal interpretation of Rome’s success as a tourist destination by taking influence from the immortalisation of fragmented ruins and the spatial sequences experienced whilst exploring the city, which creates curiosity and anticipation for both tourist and resident alike. As a resident and tourist of Sheffield, I decided to pursue the project locally to explore these themes.

The chosen site for this exploration is the St. Vincent’s area, which provides a link between the city centre and Kelham Island Museum.  Historically known as the Hollis Croft district, the St. Vincent’s area was the first area of expansion away from the medieval boundary of the city centre. During the nineteenth century, the area also accommodated the greatest number of workshops, which were primarily based around the tools and cutlery manufacturing industry. The area now hosts a variety of manufacturing workshops from surgical instruments to non-destructive testing facilities.

The aim of the project is to promote the past, present and future of Sheffield’s manufacturing heritage in the form of a cutlery museum that interweaves within existing domestic scale industrial workshops in the St. Vincent’s area, providing a link between the city centre and Kelham Island Museum. 

go......SEE Rome.

Project Introduction:

The agenda of this project is to question the pace and personal value of the typical, present-day tourist experience, set within the context of mass tourism in Rome. The intention is to provide a public tourist facility that aims to slow the pace of which the cultural heritage of Rome is experienced.

The hope is that by looking at less in greater depth, we might indeed SEE more. That the typical tourist might be converted from 'sight-seeing' to 'site-seeing' with a more thoughtful and enriched understanding of their immediate surroundings.

The site chosen for the building borders the Via dei Fori Imperiali, Mussolini's desired processional route between the Piazza Venezia and the Coloseum, and also overlooks large areas of the Roman Forum.

The intention for the project is to provide a place for shelter and rest, information, nourishment and cultural stimulation, within a building that rigorously explores and exposes the site and its immediate surroundings through a journey of views. The emphasis on a slower pace is enhanced by the provision of alternative seeing tools, and a prioritising of sketching and drawing above the speedy idleness of the digital camera.

Images included:

Seeing aids:

- Camera exchange
- Chair vending

Site Seeing - site analysis



by Rachel Harris.

Trajan's Market Theatre

This final project developed out of an earlier small intervention project – in which the natural ‘auditorium’ of the Spanish steps was given a stage. This led to studies of theatricality throughout Rome, spaces that can be transformed, rigorous investigations of existing buildings, and research into the history of theatres, ancient and modern. In contrast to the initial intervention project, Trajan’s market seemed to provide the stage; the auditorium was to be created out of the existing surrounding buildings.

Trajan's market is located in central Rome, amidst the ancient fora, just outside Trajan's historic Forum. Despite its enormous scale and imposing building mass as a single entity, it is dwarfed by the Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II just nearby.

This project aims to reinvigorate Trajan's market as a vibrant, bustling centre for culture, hosting a diverse range of functions throughout the year - changing art exhibitions, lunchtime music recitals, small scale promenade theatre, an outdoor cinema, large opera productions, rock concerts, and many more.

The building will also continue to act as a museum, displaying the archaeological artifacts found on site and highlighting the building elements themselves as worthy exhibits. In highlighting the often unnoticed details, the approach to the building seeks to continue this theme of revealing processes, turning the theatre aspect on its head, revealing some of the mystery and magic of theatre to the audience - allowing them to catch glimpses into props and costume making workshops, set building and rehearsal studios as they journey through the building's spaces.

The re-use of this building also incorporates the re-opening of the Via Biberatica, which runs through the centre of the market. New shops will line the shady street, encouraging a wider use by a larger variety of people.

With a view to making this site more accessible to the public generally, improving the circulation and encouraging routes through the building are key issues. While much of the intervention with the building is 'light touch' in manner, the approach to circulation is stronger, making visual links between levels of the building from its exterior. Using new circulation routes will also help preserve the existing structure, reducing footfall on the worn historic fabric, and encourage people to look again, and in a different way at the ancient building around them.

ROME: Culture & Commerce by Tom Marsh

The story begins with Mario Resca.  The government have formed a new 'super manager' role for him, his task being to create more revenue from Italy's museums.  Vallorizazzione or value-adding is the buzz word.  It is understandable that there is plenty of controversy surrounding this appointment.  Can the culture and heritage of Italy survive the inevitable influence of modern commercial business?

The brief aims to test this idea by proposing a sort of 'McMuseum' that merges exhibition space with retail space that efficiently extracts money from tourists.  It will house two exhibitions; a temporary show of original pieces that are to be loaned abroad and a more permanent collection of plaster casts from these pieces.  This duality questions whether culture can coexist with capitalism.  By adding 'value' to the museum, is the de-valuation of culture inevitable?

The idea of consumption is key to this project.  The building will be sited opposite the Pantheon in central Rome and the architecture will literally consume its surroundings for added attraction.  It is impossible to compete with the ancient wonder of the Pantheon in a contemporary building, however it is possible to offer alternative and enhanced experiences of it from within this building.

Palatine Archaeological Centre, Rome

Project Introduction

This project started by investigating the popular tourist destinations of the Roman Forum and the Palatine Hill. The latter is much less visited in comparison, perhaps the necessary journey to ascend the hill daunts many visitors, similarly; the lack of any well-known 'site-seeing' monuments that await visitor’s upon the hill means that many choose not to go on and explore the fascinating grounds.

Another great shame is that much of the site is inaccessible to any ambulant or disabled users. The Palatine Hill once accommodated one of the most complex arrangements of architectural space known to civilisation; surely it’s not too ambitious to think that this site could now become accessible to all?

The Master Plan looks to reinvent the Palatine Hill, give new merit to its visit whilst opening up some levels to the public, giving it back to the people of Rome. The scheme centralises around an area in the heart of the hill, an area which links the underground networks together and allows visitors to choose how to experience the Palatine. The space itself is a large excavation, built from the process of preserving some of the roman ruins. Modern technology is displayed in its performance, suspending fragments of the ruins, allowing visitors to view and interact with the archaeology in unprecedented ways.

The British Centre, Rome

Project introduction

This project is about the shifting, malleable concept of national identity and whether it needs to be re-harnessed for changing economic directions. The premise of this research questions the control and production of the perception of a nation, and goes on to investigate tourism as a process which works symbiotically with concepts of national identity whilst employing both cultural and economic systems on an equal level.

The project is based in Rome and the site lies in a prominent position between the Trevi fountain and the Galleria Piazza Colonna. This imposing context is used to explore the contrasts between internal and external presence, and the possibilities for dissolving these transitions both in plan and section. The collaboration of the 3 British entities in Rome; The British School, the British Council and the British Embassy creates the opportunity for consolidating the presence of British creativity and cultural production in the foreign territory. The building becomes a singular stage for events and interactions with the overt intention of promoting the evolving British knowledge economy facilitated by diplomatic administration.

The project investigates notions of a foreign national image and culture through materiality and the transformation of urban space with performance and spectacle by studying the dynamics and rituals of the Italian piazza. By employing methods gathered from the creation of retail typologies and mechanics and also the World Expositions as their intent evolved from industrial to cultural exchange, the British Centre seeks capitalise on Rome's intense flow of tourists by exporting and curating the products of the creative industry.

a composite of Nolli's map and an updated civic map

Pete McMahon.

For more information please see my MArch blog at http://petemcmahon.wordpress.com/