Academic Technical Building Study: Koops Mills

Following a recent 30 years reunion since Mark graduated from Newcastle University we were approached by a current third year architecture student Daniel Mijalski there regarding one of our completed projects Koops Mills.

Koops Mills a mixed use residential and office scheme in Bermondsey for Kuropatwa Property Developments, it was a project that raised many significant technical issue when we developed the technical design for the scheme.
 

Located behind a grade II listed former tannery, we were familiar with the site as the original warehouse building was the first studio for Mark Fairhurst Architects in 2002. The site, a former Ascot shed which housed a building contractor’s work shop, was surrounded by a railway viaduct, industrial units, adjacent construction site and the Jubilee Line underground. These site constraints required careful consideration including issues such as structure, acoustics, construction management and heritage. It was these constraints that attracted Daniel to study the scheme in more depth as part of a constructional analysis report.

Daniel studied the relationship of the exterior design relative to the location and context, structure, fire protection, movement, waterproofing, acoustics and thermal properties of the materials. Daniel referred to original construction documentation which allowed him to understand the technical aspects of the project in more detail, from these he constructed a 1:10 scale model of a detail junction picking up a ground floor window, slab and column detail. This type of experiential learning allows students to develop their understanding of construction through skills required to build the model replica of the building in great detail, thereby enhancing their appreciation of architectural design.

Daniel highlights that the ‘3-dimensional understanding and representation of architectural detail is a key in initiating architectural thinking about how all elements are put together and work in real life’. The study contributed to Daniel’s successful completion of his Architectural degree course.