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Work Title
Not For Us, But For All
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Work Title（EN）
Not For Us, But For All
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Please describe the concept of your artwork in 2000 words.
9 million of us in the UK are lonely. How can we shape places that tackle loneliness in our cities?
to answer this question it is critical to understand the principles of connection and how they can inform the type of spaces we shape to address social isolation in our daily environments. The places we create must place value on recognising diversity and establishing a sense of agency, while allowing us to show up as ourselves and be human.
"Not For Us, But For All" aims at re-programming the current Camden Council HQ in London into a building that encourages connection, collaboration, and offers a heightened sense of belonging. Through our platform's dialogue with Camden Council and by identifying their needs as a community, it proposes at creating a more porous building that is better connected with its local proximity. Resulting in a community building that offers a variety of spaces for inhabitants to interact, while enabling them to express their individual identities.
My thesis project proposes to achieve this through introducing 4 interventions that act as "influencers" spreading a community-based culture throughout the pre-existing program of the building. Transforming it over time into a more inclusive building that fosters connections while allowing occupants and visitors to feel a sense of ownership towards the site. Creating a new experience of urban community by combining individualism with urban density.
The intervention that has direct relation with this award is: "INTERVENTION I - PERIPHARIES"
A series of three interventions grouped into one, wrapping themselves around the building's peripheries. The three interventions are:
A) HIGHLINE: A green bridge that connects the building to its local proximity, while offering in-between spaces for interaction and user defined activities.
B) POROUS FACADE: A new shell structure replaces the previous cladded facade creating fluidity of movement between different floors. Introducing a variety of in-between spaces that offer a chance for inhabitants to take a moment of pause away from their daily environment, and have new opportunities to interact with each other.
C) CAMDEN GROWERS CLUB & ROOFTOP CANTEEN: An urban growing program tailored for families and seniors is introduced on the roof, creating an outdoor green experience that can provide produce that can be shared with the rest of the building's community through the roof canteen and beyond.
CANTEEN — Canteen structure and materiality informed by pre-existing structural walls and columns. The different elevations create new possibilities for visible connection and enjoying the building's views.
GROWERS CLUB - Inflated ETFE pillows form a lightweight membrane providing coverage throughout areas of the roof program. Allowing the roof to be more accessible throughout the year, while maintaining breathability for the air handling of the building. The pillows can easily be removed or added, making the membrane’s exposure programable to suit the building community’s defined usage of the roof.
More information on project found on Main Page Url shared in submission -
Please describe the concept of your artwork in 2000 words. （EN）
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Work Specification
The visuals and drawings for my thesis project started as hand-drawings and progressed by using a range of 3D modelling and rending software - such as Revit, Rhinoceros 3D, Grasshopper, Vray, Enscape and Lumion.
The Plant Play intervention interactive sound Installation installed at the RCA SOA Graduate Show 2021 - as shown in the shared video link - was created using a series of hardware, such as Sparkfun, Arduino, Playtronica, Elektron Digitone, and further executed through software, such as Ableton Live and Max for Live.
Due to the pandemic and lack of access to workshops at the RCA, the majority of the project was developed at home and digitally. -
Work Specification（EN）
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Media CoverageURL
https://2021.rca.ac.uk/collections/age-agency-joy
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Video URL
https://vimeo.com/616437391
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Your OfficialURL (Website, Instagram, Facebook)
https://2021.rca.ac.uk/students/dara-khakpour
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Please describe how your work relates to the theme of the special prize.
My thesis project relates to this prize because at its core sits a foundation that is formed around delivering a better sense of well being and quality of life for the inhabitants of its site - Camden Council's Headquarters, London, UK.
By investigating available data and pre-existing research, I aimed at shaping an evidence informed design strategy that proposes to reprogram the previous DNA of this building into a new building program that is focused on enriching its daily inhabitant's quality of life.
Through hosting a series of Miro workshop's with Camden council employees situated throughout this site and various satellite locations, I was able to identify a series of needs that they was missing in their daily experience of this site. These conversations were quite informative and directly influenced the process behind shaping my design strategy to transform this building into community building.
It does so by introducing a series of interventions that open the building up and create an incubator shell for a new form of life and inhabitance, the plants. This porous shell structure grants an opportunity for a green program to wrap itself around the building's peripheries, and spread throughout the pre-existing structure of the building. Creating a series of in-between spaces that encourage visitors to connect with each other and the green program, while providing an opportunity to express their identity and feel a heightened sense of ownership.
My ambition was to transform this building through various design and architectural solutions and technologies, into a porous and well connected building that is more inclusive, green, efficient and accessible to a wider community of inhabitants. A building that improves their well being and daily lives by nature.
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Not For Us, But For All
9 million of us in the UK are lonely. How can we shape places that tackle loneliness in our cities?
to answer this question it is critical to understand the principles of connection and how they can inform the type of spaces we shape to address social isolation in our daily environments. The places we create must place value on recognising diversity and establishing a sense of agency, while allowing us to show up as ourselves and be human.
"Not For Us, But For All" aims at re-programming the current Camden Council HQ in London into a building that encourages connection, collaboration, and offers a heightened sense of belonging. Through our platform's dialogue with Camden Council and by identifying their needs as a community, it proposes at creating a more porous building that is better connected with its local proximity. Resulting in a community building that offers a variety of spaces for inhabitants to interact, while enabling them to express their individual identities.
to answer this question it is critical to understand the principles of connection and how they can inform the type of spaces we shape to address social isolation in our daily environments. The places we create must place value on recognising diversity and establishing a sense of agency, while allowing us to show up as ourselves and be human.
"Not For Us, But For All" aims at re-programming the current Camden Council HQ in London into a building that encourages connection, collaboration, and offers a heightened sense of belonging. Through our platform's dialogue with Camden Council and by identifying their needs as a community, it proposes at creating a more porous building that is better connected with its local proximity. Resulting in a community building that offers a variety of spaces for inhabitants to interact, while enabling them to express their individual identities.
