John Madin Archive

So last Thursday saw the second year portfolio hand in. With most of it pretty much done for the pin up the week before, I surprisingly found myself with nothing to do! Praying for that PASS to move onto the second year. I even feel we've had it easy this year in relation to the first year, and I'm not even gonna think or say anything about the third year!

So below Ive posted my 'small' collection for the year.


This page consists of the NE and SE section of the site. The SE section shows the long slope which runs from the bridge into the hub of the main structural archive. The whole idea reflects the multi level city of how Birmingham is built up, compared to other cities. The 3 levels consist of Train, Pedestrian and Motor Vehicles. Ive tried to pull this idea and incorporate into my design. The upper level consists of the green roof and the lower being the long slope into the open gallery space.

The Elevations I think really show how the buildings sits within the context. On the canal side, reflection off the water was addressed and vertical louvers have been placed, this will stop the internal space from over heating and provide shelter from the harsh sunlight reflecting off the water. Horizontal louvers are also situated on the long glass windows.

The plans show how the main archive and its surrounding rooms connect throughout the building. This will be positioned at the furthest and widest point of the site to allow for sufficient size rooms. The central room on all of the plans consists of the Archive space. This situated here to give the feeling of protection from the outside environment, away from direct sunlight and human contact.


The environmental design within the building shows how the hot and cold air is flushed into and out of the building. High thermal mass concrete slabs will be used to slowly release warm air into the spaces. A heat exchange pump will also be installed within the canal.

So, thats the small section of the portfolio. Didnt put all the pictures up! Just hope its worth that pass. But as for now thats all ive got! Hopefully be posting some more information and updates on the hayes bridge project currently underway. Just a couple more design tweeks and meetings, then the build will take place on the 18th July! Keep watching!

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Hayes Bridge

So for my extra study last year my elective consisted of a project called Hayes Bridge. Not knowing really what the project was going to be all about and definatly didnt realise how hands on the course was going to be. It really put things into perspective on how much you can learn whilst out of the classroom and actually using your hands to design and build a bridge. Our first couple meetings were general discussions on how were going to plan and approach such a mammoth task!

We broke the project into stages.

• Health and Safety (boring but has to be done)
• Felling of the Sycamore and Ash
• Early stages of design
• Selected design chosen and developed
• Metting with club 101
• Meeting with Structural Engineer
• Numerous meetings with group
• Construction of bridge!

So currently to this day we have almost finalised all the design and structural issues relating to the bridge. The next stage will be on the 18th July when the bridge should hopefully be constructed and 2 weeks later be finished!

Our client for this project owns and large plot of land in Hayes, Stone in Staffordshire and requires a bridge to gain safe access to the woods nearby. The bridge will also help the users of club 101 gain access to the surrounding countryside to help them in their days out.


So, here we are on site of the Hayes. This was taken last year and since then, the timber has been air drying in a well ventilated stack effect. The stacking effect drys out the timber which is required when cutting and building with the natural wood. The day was hard in manual labour and with no machine tools all of the trees were cut and carried by hand, to an open space outside of the woods about 50 yards away. With the largest of trees measuring 10m in length and 350mm in diameter. This one trunk took about 10 hard working malnutritioned students to carry!


Here shows the existing bridge or if you call it a bridge! But this is basically the only means of access into the nearby woods. The bridge which will be built in mid July would really benfit the community and not just the owner of the land. Due to the small community being so close, many people would find use of this bridge.

The bridge was designed to act as a meeting point aswell as a continuation of walkway from one place to another. We, the designers were left with an open brief by the client to design and communicate a bridge which would reflect the materials and community. We wanted the bridge to not just provide a walkway but also be accessible as a small promenade for those who would enjoy to stand and reflect in that area of the Hayes. This meant the overall footprint of the bridge would have to be larger than normal, and the design would have to be worked into the landscape rather than a linear cut into the earth.



Our design consisted of a 'Z' shaped primary framework with a secondary framework overlapping creating a strong rigid structural platform. This will then hold the reclaimed timber planks which will act as the walkway over the bridge. Small pieces of Ash timber will be used on the 'wings' of the bridge which will also be availble to walk upon. The primary structure will in some places be exposed to show the construction side of the bridge but also shout out the fact that the bridge is made entirley of timber.

As this bridge is taking up a lot of our time and were doing it on a voluntery basis, i've recently applied for a little sum of money on the 'o2 think big' application. This will help us with a small grant on costs such as travel costs and food.

We are students afterall!

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So it's slowly coming to the end of my second year of university and the blog will eventually witness a flood of my work for the year. Not much had changed from the gentle progression from the first to the second year but the levels and detail of work increases hugely and more is expected from us poor students. Even working all day and through the night for the crit the next day, nothing is ever right. We think it is, but were always wrong and the tutor is always right! Even though all my studies have been entirely self taught with either a praise or a bollocking every Monday on crit day I feel I have slowly picked up valuble lessons that I will be taking onto my final year.

Ive recently started to read a book called 'Architecture Depends' and found a great section which describes the life of an architecture student and the days we capture. I'll list a few of my favourite quotes from the book.

• ...the alarm clock tells you when to go to sleep
• ...you know what UHU tastes like
• ...you think it's possible to CREATE space
• ...you've discovered the benefits of very short hair
  
• ...you always carry deodrant
• ...you take notes and messages with a rapidograph and colour markers
• ... you've got more pictures of buildings than people
• ...when someone offers you a bic pen you feel offended

and my personal favourite

• ... you can live without human contact, food or daylight, but if you cant print
  it's chaos!