Joe Franklin of Kingston University tackles twin crises of housing and ecological pressure with sustainable, flexible settlement in his project Ultra Town
Silver Medal winner
Joe Franklin for Ultra Town
Kingston University | UK
Tutors: Nicholas Lobo Brennan, Astrid Smitham
Joe Franklin takes the belt of countryside for the shelved HS2 as a site for a forested new town, a ‘weird’ place in the woods for counter-culture and temporality: Ultra Town. There is a clue to his inspiration for Ultra Town in a shot of trucks and buses forming their own settlement, lined up at the Castlemorton rave, a festival for travellers that turned into a huge party in 1992. His parents are in the scene, in their truck; this is a world that he was introduced to and is familiar with. ‘When people felt the pressure we feel today, in the housing market, this was a form of resistance,’ says Franklin.
He draws on this model and sets about forming the successor to the suburban escape from the city with a 50-year plan that first consolidates ecological diversity – starting with the pioneer species, the silver birch, recolonising mono-cultural fields. Ancient woodlands and symbiotic plant species all feature. ‘Trees are going to play an increasingly important role in our future. How can we encourage their growth, alongside our own expansion?’ he asks. Thus this project tackles what Franklin identifies as the UK’s dual crises of housing pressure and ecological decline.
Service runs are threaded along the site on low pylons, with wires and tubes held together with characterful stripes. To each side are the timber structures, designed on Passivhaus principles, that can be adapted as factories, fire stations or sports halls. They can also be modified as homes with a zig-zag plan to successive apartment entrances over a south-facing timber deck that helps manage solar gain. ‘Quite a formal architectural response,’ he admits. Franklin is more used to designing for tight urban sites and enjoyed the freedom of parking these truck-like forms ‘casually’ around service runs along the green HS2 highway. He hopes it is recognisable but uncanny, following his investigation into the concept of ‘ultra’ – or ‘beyond’ in Latin – a term that has been adopted by fashion and high-performance kit.
He is optimistic about entering a new political age of new towns with responsible development and responsible growth, which points to a healthier place. From Clancy Moore Architects’ studio in Dublin, where he is now working, he hopes that any such large-scale projects can take a long term view and be supported through their early years establishing themselves.
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SILVER MEDAL PANEL
Mina Hasman (Chair) Sustainability director and climate advocacy lead at SOM (UK)
Teddy Cruz Professor of public culture and urbanization in the Visual Arts Department of the University of California, San Diego (USA)
Sandra Denicke-Polcher Assistant dean (education) at the School of Architecture of the Royal College of Art (UK)
Takeshi Hayatsu Founding director at Hayatsu Architects, and lecturer in architecture at Kingston University (UK)
Adam Khan Founding director at Adam Khan Architects (UK)
Nasrin Seraji Founding partner of Atelier Seraji, and full professor of architectural design at University College Dublin (Ireland)