Portfolio | Joseph Bass

In CLASS OF 2020

Joseph Bass

P 1 – Paraglider’s Refuge

Blacka Moor, Sheffield

A joint project with Lucie Iredale, we were tasked with designing a small building within a landscape, with our brief being a paragliding centre located at Blacka Moor in the Peak District. Our response centred on the concept of the journey a paraglider would make throughout the day, from the early start and breakfast to drying and storing kit after a day’s flying. Our refuge incorporates a meandering timber structure, creating defined thresholds and intermediary spaces for the activities undertaken by the users, and nestles within the hillside, providing warmth, shelter and framed views of the surrounding landscape.

Measure Task

Threshold Task

Site Analysis

Ecology Study

Paragliding Process

Initial Ideas

Refuge Programme

Model

Final Design

Section AA

Section BB

Preliminary Drawing – Lucie Iredale

External View – Lucie Iredale

P2 – OFFLINE Library

Ropewalks, Liverpool

In an over stimulated techno-centric society, the OFFLINE library offers a refuge. A chance to escape social media notifications and misinformation and discover a book in an honest and physical environment. Located in the vibrant Ropewalks district of Liverpool, the library responds to the axial shift of libraries away from physical media and becomes a champion of the real book, offering nooks to explore the collection and read with a view. A Faraday cage encases the structures, switching off device signals and making the user offline and free to learn and enjoy without distractions.

Site Analysis

“I suspect that the human species — the unique species — is about to be extinguished, but the Library will endure: illuminated, solitary, infinite, perfectly motionless, equipped with precious volumes, useless, incorruptible, secret.”
Library of Babel, Jorge Luis Borges

Conceptual Precedents

Brief

Visual Brief

Facade Study

Initial Designs

Materiality and Seat Exploration

Design Development

Site Strategy

Spatial Organisation

Final Design

Ground Floor Plan

First to Fourth Floor Plans

North Elevation

Journeys to the OFFLINE Library

Reading Room

Entrance to Tower and Archivist’s Office

P3 – Makers’ Court

Burngreave, Sheffield

A creative-led housing scheme in the post industrious district of Burngreave in Sheffield, Makers’ Court explores the typology of contemporary vernacular design, incorporating arched workshops into the ground floors of dwellings to form an arcade reminiscent of the steel factories that once populated much of the area. The scheme aims to reignite the creative heritage of Sheffield as a City of Makers, concentrated in the courtyard of the three housing units to create a hub of activity, with sunken workshop gardens spilling onto the communal interface and wider surroundings.