Bachelor of Architecture
Thomas Hanson
My architectural interests lie in materiality, and its careful and considered expression in designs that respond sensitively to context. My final year’s design replaces a 1970s shop building that's rear facade was a blank, featureless wall. The building had turned its back on the interior of a city centre block that had developed congruently through history up to the point of its introduction, stifling its life and in turn contributing to the neglect of the area. The new design attempts to right these wrongs, breathe new life into the block, and re-establish the route that used to lead from the block's interior to the main shopping street at it's Northern facade. It replaces an impenetrable, hermetically sealed brick box with a permeable design that expresses its construction, offering a sequence of spaces and experiences rather than an object.