Next Project
Commendation

Making Do

Part 1 Project 2021
Oliver Skelton
University of Nottingham | UK
The project looks at sustainable development through the repair and adaptation of a series of derelict railway warehouses in Nottingham.

The large area of surrounding ex-industrial land, at an important location within the city, was cleared in the 1980s to make way for a large-scale development which were never realised.

The thesis suggests a grassroots method of development should be employed on site, putting the needs of the community over corporate profits, through self-build, community ownership and slow development.

To facilitate this, the warehouses will be converted into a building centre to provide materials, prefabricated elements and training. Part factory, part school, the centre will construct itself stage-by-stage, with students/educators learning together and building based on their needs rather than profits.

The garden plays a key role in the project: as a place holder before the land is built on, as an urban element tying the site back into the city and as a metaphor for ideas of organic growth, maintenance and care present throughout the project.

The overarching attitude is one of ‘making do’. Interventions in the existing buildings are made appropriate to their specific case, rather than following an aesthetic theme.

Oliver Skelton

Tutor(s)
Elena Balzarini
bob Braun
Ros Diamond
2021
• Page Hits: 26981         • Entry Date: 01 October 2021         • Last Update: 07 December 2021