Between Horizontal and Vertical

Through re-using existing buildings, the proposals challenge our unsustainable construction cultures. Located on the periphery of London, a public campus for flour is proposed, re-connecting urban and rural contexts. The interventions become collaged artefacts that mediate between the scale of both a person and their city.

The proposed study mediates between the vertical city and horizontal landscape through a campus for flour in Bromley-by-Bow. Made from different artefacts, existing buildings are carefully adapted and reused; exploring the notion of building and demolishing less. The proposal confronts unsustainable building habits, questioning modern construction processes. In search for an appropriate architectural intervention, the campus strives to make courageous civic gestures, whilst consciously maintaining an awareness in economic and environmental sustainability. Flour is a main cooking ingredient and its process and production are being relocated further from the consumer, meaning its carbon footprint is extremely high. The campus extracts grain from growing plots up the river Lea, reinstating the river as a sustainable transport route and consequently reducing heavy road usage. Grains are stored, processed into flour and distributed across London. The public can visit, buy and learn about flour milling processes, with access to baking classes and spaces between, acting as city playgrounds for events and markets. The campus becomes a place for connection; between artefacts of different scales and contexts. Following detailed survey studies, a project develops acknowledging both city and person, through civic and domestic scaled interventions. The campus negotiates between customary and ideal geometry, interrogating good proportion as a tool to balance existing collaged arrangements. The forms of the proposals enjoy dialogues between horizontal and vertical, using the diagonal as a repeated expression. The overall project looks to participate collaboratively on a fringe site between urban and rural contexts, awaiting imminent large-scale redevelopment.