Second year sees the arrival and integration of students from our sister university XJTLU in China as well as international students on exchange programs from around the world.

The academic year started as it seems to have ended with a lot of rain! A wet day trip to Blackpool with abandoned sand castle making competition was followed by 3 week-long projects. Subjects covered representation, tectonics and typologies prior to embarking upon the main design project of semester 1.

The overarching theme for the year was music. Although the briefs for each studio varied there was parity in the objectives, skills and techniques building upon skills gained in first year. Studio projects included a music venue in Toxteth Reservoir, a community music lab in Birkenhead, a radio station for Everton and a recording studio near Bold Street. Each project explored context on different urban sites as well as placing emphasis on materiality, structure and construction.

Semester 2 began with a film project. Small groups visited buildings and created short films which were screened to the year. A mobile phone voting system allowed awards to be given to those films which impressed us most. In one afternoon, we ‘visited’ 60 buildings; a spectacular feat!

The main projects for semester 2 included a residential music college, a community nursery, an organ works and music performance venue. Again, buildings were similar in scale and submission requirements including a new environmental component. With a larger project students had time to develop a narrative, designs and really improve their skills. The semester was supported by structural workshops, weekly lectures and day trip to London.

We would like to thank our wonderful team of tutors and visiting guests for their work this year. We are impressed with the professionalism shown by staff and students in response to the exceptional circumstances that lockdown has created. We thank students for their hard work and dedication in these testing times and wish you good luck for the final year of your degree.

Studio 1

Alex Dusterloh – lead
Matthew Armitt
Michael Baldwin
Jane Cadot
Peter Farrall

Studio 2

Anna Gidman – lead
Hanan Barakat
Phil Owen
Ben Prince
Martin Shutt

Studio 3

Dr Andrew Crompton – lead
Hanan Barakat
Dr Niall O’Hare
Phil Owen
Nick Wilde

Studio 4

Dr Patrick Zamarian – lead
Roland Keogh
Ürün Kilic
Marcus Schofield
John Wakefield

Special Thanks

Steve Finnegan
Prof Rob Kronenberg
Jade Meeks
Ted Ruffell
Martin Winchester