GENIUS LOCI - DESIGN BY PROCESS Part 1 Project 2000 Kevin O' Dwyer University of Lincoln Lincoln | UK To create an architectural intervention generated almost entirely by the conditions of the immediate site and context, and fused with the needs of the program and of the user was the core task of this project. The site is the Hessle foreshore on the Humber estuary - a semi rural location on the outskirts of Kingston -upon-Hull. The project is for a new lifeboat station including a public exhibition and amenities space, social space for the lifeboat crew, a lookout tower and improvements to the transition from building to the boat ramp on the shingle foreshore.The approach to the project initially focused on how the overall design could be arrived at by a conceptual analysis of the site as a generator of the building form, and then a process of rationalising and refining according to the needs of the user and the brief. Every occurrence of note within the vicinity was recorded by means of photographs or sketches, which were traced and overlaid creating spatial compositions.The plan and section evolved from the overlays – extruded 3 dimensionally. The form became dynamic and exciting on its own merits coming directly from information produced by a restless site full of movement and events. The façade comprises mostly of metal paneled hyperbolic paraboliod structures perforated for light and ventilation, the south facing glazed façade taking in light and heat. The roof a crumpled or creased metal leaf lurking amongst the tree tops. The interior spaces are ordered and arranged from intersecting points of the articulation between floor, wall, roof and landscape beyond – all unashamedly penetrated by a forest of slender steel columns. Kevin O' Dwyer