Built Project

Sustainable Architecture Studies collaboration

Dobbin Hill, 2024

Ongoing collaboration with students from the University of Sheffield School of Architecture's MSc in Sustainable Architecture Studies (MSc SAS) programme to explore strategies for the thermal-comfort focuses retrofit of a typical, solid-walled semi-detached family home in Sheffield.The work will inform physical adaptations to the property to be carried out in the near future. The work will be documented and building performance analysis will be carried out before, during and after the works.Built Project, Climate Emergency, Building Performance, Sam Brown

Urban regeneration

Love Wolverton, 2019 - 2022

'Love Wolverton' is a redevelopment of the Agora Centre in Wolverton, Milton Keynes. Within my role at URBED I was responsible for initiating the project. It won the Midscale Framework and Masterplans awards at the National Urban Design Awards 2021.The redevelopment working in collaboration with MOLE, Mikhail Riches and CIVIC Engineers will restore a historic street, Radcliffe Street, which was originally lost forty years ago as part of the Agora Centre’s development. The creation of two new, car-free, “little streets” also echo the historic streets of Wolverton and will connect key parts of the town, providing social and play-friendly spaces for residents, neighbours and their children. The scheme has been designed to be one of the most environmentally ambitious regeneration schemes in the UK with and includes collaboration with Community Energy Wolverton to deliver a community energy network. The project will also house Still Green, an over-50s co-housing community based locally.The development is being brought forward by the developer TOWN who were responsible for delivering the Cohousing Development Marmalade Lane in Cambridge. Jonny Anstead and Neil Murphy, founding directors of TOWN, co-ran our MArch Studio, “Degrowth” last year.Film, Built Project, Placemaking, John Sampson

20210316_People Powered Retrofit (1).pdf

Retrofit approaches

People Powered Retrofit, 2018 - 2022

This is a presentation that I have put together in order to share and disseminate the learning from a number of research design projects focusing on the delivery of domestic retrofit. The presentation draws heavily on my own practical experience working with URBED and reveals the key learning points from originally establishing the Carbon Coop through to delivering initial government funded R+D projects such as Green Deal Go Early. Presentation, Built Project, Climate Emergency, Building Performance, John Sampson

Low-energy construction

Creek Cabin, 2017 - 2020

Creek Cabin is an innovative low-energy, flood-resilient replacement dwelling in a protected wetland location of internationally-recognised importance. Working with Jon Broome Architects and MAP Architecture, Sam led the delivery of the building in close collaboration with client, contractor and various specialists required to realise such an ambitious design.The house features a pair of 'floating' green roofs set above the main body of the building with clerestory glazing concealing a lightweight steel frame. A super-insulated envelope of engineered timber cassettes filled with woodfibre and clad in kebony encloses the upper floor, whilst the ground floor accommodation is housed within flood-resilient masonry construction on a raft foundation. The project has been designed to passivhaus principles with a mechanical ventilation and heat-recovery system and relies on wood-pellet fueled biomass boiler for heating energy and a bore hole for water supply.Built Project, Climate Emergency, Building Performance, Sam Brown

Grand Designs Magazine _ Walters Way_Selected Pages.pdf

Retrofit and refurbishment

Walters Way, September 2016 - March 2019

Walters Way is the sensitive refurbishment of an original "Segal House" originally built as part of an innovative housing scheme run by Lewisham council in the 1980s. The refurbishment works are extensive and include a single-storey wrap-around extension, improved insulation and glazing, a renewed rainscreen and a modern spatial reconfiguration to suit a growing family. The work was carried out by the clients themselves, working with other trades and contractors where necessary. The design work was carried out by Sam Brown, working initially with Jon Broome Architects and latterly with MAP Architecture.Press Article, Built Project, Climate Emergency, Material Cultures, Building Performance, Sam Brown

'This is not about gentrification’: the pie shop reviving an Anfield street

Participatory design

2 Up 2 Down, 2015 - 2020

Commissioned by Liverpool Biennial and International artist Jeanne Van Heesvijk to co-design and develop a community bakery and retrofit local housing with local young people. The project has been widely published and featured in the Observer and The Guardian. Within my role at URBED I was involved in the design and implementation of both the participartory design process and the bakery fit out. More recently I inputted into an exhibition of the work in at the BAK Gallery in Utrecht running from the 14/09/2019 through to 12/01/2020. I used the experience from the project to create a lecture which I have given regularly as part of the Participation in Architecture and Urban Design Module.http://urbed.coop/projects/trainings-not-yet-exhibition-utrechtPress Article, Built Project, Event, EDI, Placemaking, Participation, John Sampson

Participative design

ASRM Festival of Architecture, Frankfurt, 2015

In 2014, URBED were invited to take part in the Architektursommer Rhein-Main ASRM Lab 2014: Region im Fluss, organised in association with the German Architecture Museum (D.A.M) and Kulturfonds Frankfurt Rhein-Main. This was a multi-disciplinary workshop in Frankfurt looking at some of the region's most problematic and neglected urban and semi-rural spaces, and in doing so explore ‘the regional city’. Over the course of 4 days participants visited several sites, discussing the constraints and issues facing each area with local practices and planners, and collaboratively exploring initial ideas and approaches.The subsequent ASRM Expo 2015 Region im Fluss exhibition at the German Architecture Museum (D.A.M) gave URBED an opportunity to present ideas for the region based on our central theme: cities growing together. It also gave us an opportunity to focus the discourse on Offenbach, a vibrant but often neglected part of the Frankfurt conurbation on the southern bank of the River Main.These events culminated in November 2015 in the ARSM Future Pavilion situated in the Goetheplatz in the centre of Frankfurt. The pavilion, codesigned by URBED and Ian Shaw Architekton, formed a public forum for discussion and debate around urban and regional development. URBED took a week-long residency within the pavilion following its inauguration, running a participative public exhibition to highlight the significance of Offenbach as a building-block of the creative city. To stimulate discussion and debate we built a scale model of the Frankfurt conurbation with the public over a number of days, and exhibited the attached drawings of Offenbach and the Northern Quarter in Manchester, the latter having some similarities as a cultural quarter.I utilised links established with DAM to set MArch Studio in Offenbach, Frankfurt. arrivalcity.studioBuilt Project, Event, Placemaking, John Sampson

Urban regeneration

Trent Basin, 2012 - 2018

Within my role at URBED I was responsible for leading the development of the Trent Basin Masterplan located on the northern bank of the River Trent, 20 minutes’ walk from Nottingham city centre. The scheme developed by Blueprint aims to create a new type of neighbourhood that is neither entirely urban nor entirely suburban. To do this we drew heavily on Dutch precedents for the way that the scheme relates to the water. The design creates a strong 3 and 4 storey waterside terrace punctuated by narrow streets.In many senses the scheme is a reinvention of the suburb rather than a lively urban neighbourhood. The idea is that the blocks, set back from the waterfront, feel calm and relaxed and not dominated by cars. In collaboration with Nottingham-based architects, Marsh Grochowski, Sarah Wigglesworth Architects and landscape architects Landscape Projects, we have set out to create a neighbourhood based around cycling, dog walking, jogging, fishing, reading, chatting, exercising and working. Trent Basin won the Urban Design Group Practice Award 2015, see the video hereI was also involved in securing InnovateUK funding for the project to accelerate the adoption of a pioneering Community Energy Storage proposal for the development.I also worked with Nottingham City Council to develop a strategy for the wider Waterside area of the city.Trent Basin is currently being built out - creating a new and unique residential neighbourhood on the edge of Nottingham city centre.Book, Film, Built Project, Climate Emergency, Placemaking, Building Performance, John Sampson

UD132_magazine.pdf

URBAN DESIGN 132 Autumn 2014 | URBAN DESIGN Journal Issue | Urban Design Group

URBAN DESIGN 120 Autumn 2011 | URBAN DESIGN Journal Issue | Urban Design Group

Urban regeneration

Brentford Lock West, 2012

A new sustainable neighbourhood in Brentford for ISIS Waterside Regeneration Ltd.Within my role at URBED I worked in collaboration with Johannes Tovatt Architects, Klas Tham, Tibbalds and Camlins to achieve an outline planning for a 500 home mixed use neighbourhood.The design process was one of collaboration with the local community based on URBED’s ‘design for change’ technique. This started with workshops run over two evenings at the start of the process in a local café. Residents and stakeholders from the area used the first to develop a shared understanding of the area today. The second evening focused on generating a number of different options for the site through ‘collages’ and plasticine models.The project was Awarded the Urban Design Group Practice Award 2012. The project continues to win architectural awards as it is built out.http://urbed.coop/projects/brentford-lock-westPress Article, Built Project, EDI, Placemaking, Participation, John Sampson

20111031_ALPHA FARM Report Web.pdf

Design research

Alpha Farm, 2011

Alpha Farm: A design-led research study commissioned by Manchester International Festival exploring the delivery of a Vertical Farm in Manchester. The project was a collaboration between URBED, Lancaster University, Cambridge University and Biomatrix Water. The team concluded that by taking a comprehensive approach to the integration of nutrient, water and energy flows within the building a vertical farm has the potential to be developed as a resource ‘sensible’ model. By this we mean that the farm has the potential to grow food using less energy than conventional farming based on the input of large numbers of pesticides and fertilisers and the transport of food over large distances.This resulted in a demonstrator growing project called the Biosphere being constructed at Manchester College that integrated fungiculture, aquaculture, hydroponics and vermiculture. The project won a National PACE Award for Environmental Sustainability.Exhibition, Press Article, Built Project, Climate Emergency, Placemaking, Building Performance, John Sampson

Cohousing development

Rural Urban Synthesis Society, 2009 - 2023

The Rural Urban Synthesis Society (RUSS) is a Community Land Trust (CLT) based in Lewisham, south-east London, with the aim of creating sustainable community-led neighbourhoods with affordable housing. Sam worked closely with the organisation to establish itself, raise funding, find a site for its first project, assemble a design team, run a co-design process, gain planning permission and start on site with its first, ambitious scheme of 36 homes at Church Grove in Ladywell, offering self-build opportunities for local people. The works are due to complete in May 2023.Case Study: The Rural Urban Synthesis SocietyBuilt Project, Participation, Material Cultures, Building Performance, Placemaking, Sam Brown

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