Olivia North

Projects 06: Community Hub for Wellbeing

The site location of Projects 06 is in the Ribeira district in Porto, a vibrant city with a rich and creative culture. My brief is a community hub with a focus on wellbeing, facilitating research, education, support, outreach, activities, events, and leisure for the local community. The aim of the hub is to improve the overall wellbeing and mental health of the local community though more holistic approaches involving user groups such as clinicians, mental health professionals, researchers, students and local people.

Bringing back a sense of place and responding to the social issue of poor mental health was key in the design process. For example, using materials and colours to suit the local context and creating an immersive space though the use of a curved building form within a more regular structure. This connects both sides of the building together using it as a main circulation route internally and a sunken courtyard externally for both stepped access and seating.

Projects 05: Pocket Living Social Housing

The site location of Projects 05 is in Hackney, London, with the given brief being to design a minimum of 12 houses on the site to suit a live-work lifestyle from home, for a user group of our own choosing.

For my brief, I chose to design pocket living social houses for families of 3-4 people. The area of one house is 35sqm to suit the typical area of pocket living houses, with my design being terraced and 4 stories high. The small area of each house meant I could reasonably fit 30 homes onto the site whilst still providing outdoor community space. Material cost was kept to a minimum whilst also providing durable and more sustainable housing for as many families as possible.