Joshua is a second-year Bachelor of Architecture student currently studying at Western Sydney University. He’s an enthusiastic individual who has always had a fervent interest in the built environment, displayed through his obsessive following of construction projects – such as the Sydney Metro, the Nancy-Bird Walton Airport, and the Sydney Fish Market – on top of the piles of old and fantastical sketches of supposed “building” concepts from his primary school days. He hopes to contribute in creating something for himself one day.

Joshua Duffy

 

TITLE: Micro-architecture for the Non-human Blacktown Animal Rehoming Centre (BARC) is an exemplary and contemporary animal shelter, housing up to 380 rescue animals. Through direct collaboration with an active community organisation, both a “pop-up meet and greet transition space” and “the forever home” were considered and conceptualised within the design project. The process of creation was assisted with the preliminary “adoption” of a client – a 2-3yr old, male, domestic short hair named “Dumbledore” – to focus the design considerations. This design process highlighted the potential existing environmental impacts and saw maximised integration of the building both on the site and within the forever home. The pop-up micro-architecture exists for both the human and non-human, accommodating both scales through layout, purpose and furniture whilst retaining functionality and practicality. Architectural concepts played a large role in dictating details of the space; Prospect and refuge, Meeting the land and sky, Shelter and shade… The structure hovers above the native vegetation due to the hidden raised foundation, minimising its imprint on the land and allowing for the occupancy of both fauna and flora. It meets the sky with greenery, as its roof is vegetated between the staggard walls of the skylights which extend upwards, serving as an equivalent space as which is below, expecting the occupancy of flora – birds specifically – and fauna. Materiality of the building is made to be basic as its structural elements is all wood, and its cladding being corrugated sheet metal. Furthermore, the form of the structure is consisting of circular repetition. It is the combination of these two factors which generated the idea of modularity through the deconstruction and reconstruction of the pop-up meet and greet space to the forever home. The main detailed section being the “flat pack” nature of the structural framing for each quadrant.