With a passion for designing inclusively to cater to diverse communities in innovative ways, my architectural projects aim to reflect this in a creative and thoughtful way.
With a passion for designing inclusively to cater to diverse communities in innovative ways, my architectural projects aim to reflect this in a creative and thoughtful way.
Birmingham is one of the UK’s first super-diverse cities, buzzing with vibrant communities and fascinating cultures. It is also known as the city of 1000 trades due to the wide variety of skills on offer from its varied population. However, there is little support at the intersection of this diverse population and the trades they offer, with ethnic minority businesses in particular being largely underappreciated and unsupported. The Market of Exchange aims to resolve this, providing a space to celebrate these skills and businesses.
With its designated market hall and food hall spaces, The Market of Exchange provides permanent structures that provide a foundation for the temporary ones that bring the market to life. Aiming to provide a diverse exchange of goods, cultures and traditions in the city centre, the marketplace seeks to bring back the traditional market values of community interaction and togetherness back to Birmingham.
The project, “Stacks of Fun” aims to tackle the issue of child poverty in Birmingham, by providing affordable activity opportunities for children who are otherwise unable to access them, through a volunteer run activity centre located in Digbeth. Not only does the building aim to provide a place for children to take part in activities, it serves a dual purpose, by also adding to the social infrastructure of Birmingham- tackling a core social problem that the wider city faces.
As well as the building being designed for children- it is also inspired by them, down to the form of the spaces themselves. Inspired by the creativity children find when playing with an item as simple as a box, the building takes the form of a similar box shape, with some additional elements, and uses the act of stacking to create a variety of spaces- much like when children create their own stacked towers.
More than simply having fun, the many forms, and types of play, provide children with skills that they will take through with them in their lives. The building therefore aims to address these different forms of play through a programme where children can engage in many different types of play depending on their needs/ wants. A range of play-spaces for a range of needs are included- from social, to interactive, to independent, depending on the child.
With a canal located just by the site, the building utilises and celebrates this unique feature, by creating many terraces and openings to maintain a strong visual connection with the water. Additionally, the building has a ground floor workshop space dedicated to canal-based play, where children can create their own boats and participate in water-based activities to engage them with the canal in a hands-on way.
