Design Charrette LaunchTo start the final teaching block of my undergraduate course, the University of Portsmouth tutors set up a competition among students on the first day back. Students would be shortlisted and then finally, a winner would be selected and then entered into the inational competition hosted by Uni.xyz - 'Container City: Designing a Modular Life'. The coordinating tutor allowed us to have a group of up to 4 people, and I chose to team up with two of my course mates to take on this competition to form a team of 3. The competition's premises was to utilise the wastage of shipping containers in light of recent events involving Brexit and trade in the UK. As a result of recent industry trade shifts, many shipping containers have lost their serviceability and use. The principle was to design student accommodation. There were three categories of sites to choose from which included; Leased Land (surface sites for limited durations of 5 years), Water Deck (close to land decked on water sites) and Structural Grid (above a structural grid). We decided on designing on leased land; creating temporary accommodation that feels permanent while still feeling comfortable. Key questions answered when creating a proposal for this competition included: Can we make use of the unparalleled modularity of shipping containers? Can modular construction be an answer in relation to the rise in housing demands and costs? Can we reuse modular containers as a way to produce less waste and generate cost effective solutions? Can this have an impact on construction timings and provide faster accommodation solutions without compromising on quality? How can we use these qualities to our advantage to deliver better habitats to our people as architects? The initial competition presented one main challenge of compressing all of the proposal's information onto 1 A3 poster, which could be presented effectively to the audience and tutors. This poster included a brief of the proposal (50 words describing the programme), inspiring precedents, axonometric diagrams, plans, 3D views and a digital drawing.
Another challenge stated by the coordinating tutor was that we only had a 3-hour timeframe to complete the poster. Despite the challenge being difficult, it brought my attention to the amount of work I could accomplish within a short period of time. After 3 hours of work, I submitted the poster. Initially, students voted on posters submitted using 'likes', then later the tutors shortlisted 8 students. Being apart of the shortlisted students, I was required to present a speech of the proposal to the school and tutors that underpinned the concept. After being successful in this, my group and I won and officially entered the international competition on behalf of Portsmouth School of Architecture.
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AuthorJoel Tunha |