Combining boat building - education - racing into one program

Located in the west of Bristol, Spike Island is a man-made island formed in the 1800s to create a floating harbour for trade vessels - this is where all of Unit 4's sites were based.

My main interest in Spike Island was the historical change of boat usage - drastically changing from almost entirely trade driven to pleasure use from the early 1900s onwards. My building is situated in a node of boa related program buildings however these educational, crafting and sailing places were all incredibly separate.

My architecture aims to create a hybrid structure of boat programs - educating through sailing and building but also making building part of the racing with a civil outreach in the form of a function room which doubles as a public walkway. Investigations were made into sampling surrounding materiality and structure of the west of Spike Island and making appropriate deductions from the context.

The function perfectly compliments the surrounding building programs and executes its purpose by conglomerating these different programs into one hybrid building. The materials are a soft contrast to the redbrick surroundings which enables the building to be individualistic without being an eyesore. The siting extends the public waterfront and will be the western anchor of Spike Island.