Isabel Alcock
Rewilding Racehorses
The final project brief was to design an animal respite and care facility which also incorporates an animal bridge to cross the M4. Alongside this, a product must be grown and sold on site which also presents the requirement for production and bottling facilities on site. Each student was given a strip of the M4 from Bath to Reading. My strip was located in Newbury. The site borders the Newbury showground and Newbury Racecourse is also in my strip. This led me to choose horses as my animal for the facility. I decided the project would be centered around rewilding retired racehorses. This involves caring for the horses through a veterinary facility with stables to accommodate 30 horses. The scheme also involves admin offices and meeting rooms for interest groups and charities. The scheme has a green roof that turns into the bridge to cross to the south side of the M4 where the horses will be rewilded and eventually relocated to the New Forest where there are other wild horses. The facility has a skeleton of rammed earth walls which runs in a rhythm through the project like the rhythm of a horse’s galloping strides.
The final project brief was to design an animal respite and care facility which also incorporates an animal bridge to cross the M4. Alongside this, a product must be grown and sold on site which also presents the requirement for production and bottling facilities on site. Each student was given a strip of the M4 from Bath to Reading. My strip was located in Newbury. The site borders the Newbury showground and Newbury Racecourse is also in my strip. This led me to choose horses as my animal for the facility. I decided the project would be centered around rewilding retired racehorses. This involves caring for the horses through a veterinary facility with stables to accommodate 30 horses. The scheme also involves admin offices and meeting rooms for interest groups and charities. The scheme has a green roof that turns into the bridge to cross to the south side of the M4 where the horses will be rewilded and eventually relocated to the New Forest where there are other wild horses. The facility has a skeleton of rammed earth walls which runs in a rhythm through the project like the rhythm of a horse’s galloping strides.
Archaos
“The trouble with you British,” said the French circus veteran Pierrot Bidon, washing down a bottle of red wine with three glasses of Ricard before the day’s rehearsal, “Is that you do not understand danger”
A design for Archaos Circus, incorporating a tensegrity seating structure to facilitate a high-wire performance space. The facility is set to an angled structured grid with everything centered around the pool which overhangs above the walkway to enable people to see up into the water. The tensegrity wire structure is echoed beneath the overhang of the building, for people to navigate their journey through the walkway. The Corten cladding contrasts with the polished stainless-steel tensegrity structure in which each module is unique and different, this echoes Archaos Circus’ unruly nature and wild performances.
“The trouble with you British,” said the French circus veteran Pierrot Bidon, washing down a bottle of red wine with three glasses of Ricard before the day’s rehearsal, “Is that you do not understand danger”
A design for Archaos Circus, incorporating a tensegrity seating structure to facilitate a high-wire performance space. The facility is set to an angled structured grid with everything centred around the pool which overhangs above the walkway to enable people to see up into the water. The tensegrity wire structure is echoed beneath the overhang of the building, for people to navigate their journey through the walkway. The Corten cladding contrasts with the polished stainless-steel tensegrity structure in which each module is unique and different, this echoes Archaos Circus’ unruly nature and wild performances.
