Bombay Sapphire Distillery - Thomas Heatherwick

During the Christmas break, I visited the Bombay Sapphire Distillery as part of my research into distilling and how architecture can enhance the overall experience. It was interesting to explore the role that architecture had within the Distillery. The Distillery itself is placed in Laverstoke Mill, which until 2011, was used to produce paper used in bank notes. This gave the site a rich cultural and historical presence within the town dating back to as early as 1086 and was recorded in the doomsday book.

During the tour, it was explained how Bombay Saphire had purchased the Grade II listed buildings to renovate the mill to be used as their distillery and visitors centre. When exploring the site in relation to my project, I was struck with how Heatherwick Studios has been able to add such modern and innovative architecture onto a listed and culturally significant site. The greenhouses almost became an extension of the historical building and created a bridge between the site’s history and its future. The use of glass and metal frame structures allowed the greenhouses to sit effortlessly within the landscape, creating a seamless effect on the site. These glasshouses stand out, yet they seem to look like they have always been there. The glasshouse also explores nature’s role in distilling the organic shape, becoming a key focus in the glasshouse’s design. These spaces housed some of the botanicals used within the distilling process and allowed the visitors to understand better what is included in Gin. The glasshouse also creates interesting, unique spaces for tours to gather, creating intimacy and serenity in the otherwise busy and populated Distillery.

What was also key to the Distillery’s design was how the architecture encouraged many people to attend the tours. When speaking to others in the group, it was clear that many people had come to admire the glasshouse and explore their construction rather than the Gin. This was interesting to me, particularly when thinking about my Distillery and how to harness extra income for the community and encourage interaction and exploration by those who don’t drink.

Overall the tour was extremely interesting and allowed me to consider how elements could be built into my overall design. It also helped me to consider architecture has a role within a distillery; if you get it right, visitors are encouraged to keep coming back!

Masters Thesis Project - Inchindown Tanks

Throughout our visit to Scotland, our aim as a studio was to choose a site for our individual thesis project. Before visiting Scotland, I was keen to see Inchindown tanks due to their history and connection to Invergordon. When looking at photos of the site, it was interesting to see a dystopian effect due to its abounded nature, which I was keen to explore first-hand.

When visiting the site, I was struck by the sculptural nature of the oil tanks and how they helped define and frame the local landscape. The tanks were extremely large, making their impact even greater. The site terrain was very rough due to the site being left since the 1960’s, creating interesting challenges when trying to get closer to the tanks. Overall I was struck by the site’s beauty and decided that this would be my thesis project location. I am interested to see how the site will influence my design work and how I use the site. Below are some of the images taken today when exploring the area.

Masters Thesis Project Site Trip - Inverness, Scotland

During our stay this week in Inverness, as part of my final year design project for my MArch, I collected many interesting photos capturing Scotland's beauty and industrial heritage. This is somewhere I have never visited before, and was struck by the beautiful landscape and its connection to the industries around the highland Captial. Below are some of my favourites, and I would highly recommend a visit!

Forest Walk

During a dog walk this morning in my local wooded area I was fortunate to see the sunrise. I decided to capture some photos as the sun broke through the tree canopy. This kind of light is dramatic and emphasised that light and shadow can make an influence in how we experience spaces. The shadows formed by the trees and woodland made the space feel enchanting and enclosed, the light also created natural highlights in the space encouraging the eye to focus on certain areas. I inspire everyone to try and experience local spaces, particularly during the pandemic in the U.K as it is advised to stay local.

RHS Hampton Court Flower Show - Featuring the Duchess of Cambridge's Back to Nature Garden

During my summer break I was able to revisit the RHS Hampton Court Flower Show.  This year it included the Duchess of Cambridge’s Back to Nature Garden. This was very interesting as the garden was inspired by encouraging children to explore the outdoors and play within the natural landscape. This is a very fitting topic for our current environment where more housing is being built with less access to natural outdoor spaces.  This garden reminded me of my concept for my second year secondary school where I too encouraged children to explore the outdoors. The Duchess had placed secrete areas only for children, as well as campfires and a working river where children were encouraged to play in. Parts of this garden can now be found at RHS Wisley Gardens. 

These gardens once again where inspiring and helped me to explore even more about landscape design and how architecture can be influenced by it. 

There was a number of sensory exhibits which I found very interesting.   Encouraging the use of multiple senses in the garden ,was popular amongst many designers, and very inspiring.

Tallinn - Third Year Study trip

During my third year at the Welsh School of Architecture I was lucky enough to be able to travel to Tallinn and Helsinki for a week.

This experience was one that I will never forget. The architecture was amazing and so vast and contrasting between the two locations. Some of the famous architecture we visited was Tallinn’s famous old town which now connects to the more modern parts of design as well as Tallinn’s old town hall.

We also visited Tallinn’s architecture school whilst there, we took part in a share program where we as a school took some examples of our work and discussed the techniques we used. In collaboration to this Tallinn school of architecture also showed the skills their students have and some examples of their current projects.

Whilst in Helsinki we also visited lots of famous architecture for example Temppeliaukion Church, Kamppi Chapel, Amos Rex.

RHS Hampton Court Flower Show

During the summer of 2017 I was luck enough to attend the RHS Hampton Court Flower Show, this was a particularly interesting as it was focusing on mental and physical health and how garden can inform these emotions. Above are some images taken by myself whilst visiting, with particular interest how gardens and plants can become spaces and inform an area.

Another aspect that was interesting was the use of bright colours to help inform a space, I also found that particularly smells help to enhance mental health within a outside space as well as adding bright contracts to the landscape architecture.