Architecture Studio Teaching

Education and research have always been fundamental to our design ethos. This archive brings together posts related to our early studio teaching and academic inquiry, originally documented during our foundational years as Tim Offer Architects. It represents a chronological journey through themes that continue to inform the work we do at Threshold Architects today. By revisiting these academic explorations, we maintain a bridge between rigorous theoretical research and the delivery of high-end residential architecture.

Plymouth University Architecture Celebrations 2016

The end of an academic year is always a time for celebration and a chance to look back over the work of the last year and to reflect on where we are.

As always we have been hugely proud of the work and commitment of all of our students and wish them well in the next stages of their training and careers, especially to the third years who are leaving to find work in practice to continue their development.

And also congratulations to all of the prizewinners, including those from our unit:

2nd year:
Tatiana Muringani – Design Prize for achievement in design work
Mike Smith – Technology Prize for best technology work
Sam Almukhtar – Prize for highest progression in 2nd Year design work

3rd Year:
Grace Losasso and Alex Pringle – RIBA Bronze medal nominations
Bridget Eaton – Communications prize for best presentation work
Grace Losasso, Alex Pringle, Tatiana Muringani – BDP Collaboration Prize for best group masterplanning work (Presented by Building Design Partnership)
Grace Losasso – Mitchells Construction Prize for best development of construction strategy in studio work (Presented by Mitchells)

The show looked fantastic and shows the quality and depth of the work produced this year – it is well worth making the trip for.  It was also great to see so many familiar faces from previous years return to celebrate and to hear where they are now and their plans for the future.

Well done all!

Plymouth University Architecture Degree Show 2016

6th June 2016

Come along to the Architecture Degree Show at Plymouth University, opening with the prizegiving at 4pm on Friday 10th June.  The show is open until the 23rd june on Floor 6 of the RLB.  Please see https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/whats-on/hot-16 for more info.

(Masterplan model by Tatiana Muringani, Alex Pringle and Grace Losasso)

At the show you will see the work of the studio I have been running this year as well as all of the other students in the undergraduate and postgraduate schools.

Architect Devon

Plymouth University Architecture Degree Show 2015

9th June 2015

The work of the students at the Plymouth Architecture School will be on show at the RLB from Friday the 12th June.

Come along to see the great work of our 2nd and 3rd years – this year based on Exeter Quay tacking issues of redundancy and renewal, notions of public ground and the question of ‘where to build the walls that protect us’.

Our work this year was triggered by Stephen Hodge’s project ‘where to build the walls that protect us’ – a charette that searched for a future Exeter.  See wheretobuildthewallsthatprotectus for more info.

Tim Offer
rdv

Plymouth Architecture School Design Research Publication

27th June 2014

We were pleased to welcome Mark Edworthy of Burrington Estates to the opening the architecture degree show at Plymouth University, including the work of [r]dv at Stowford Mill in Ivybridge.

Burrington are the developers of the site and Mark kindly sponsored a prize for the best masterplan.  It was interesting to have a fresh pair of eyes on the work, looking at it through a slightly more commercial and practical lens!

Top prize went to Eva Pontika, Xunhern Liaw and Filip Zielinski for their masterplan ‘Revealing the Invisible’

The show was a huge success thanks to the efforts of all of the students.  We were also grateful to the Western Timber Association for their sponsorship.

The show also saw the launch of the unit book ‘From Redundancy to Renewal’, which collates all of the student work and research.  The book was made possible by the sponsorship of RIBA Plymouth.

[re]defined vernacular
Burrington Estates
Stowford Mill

Architect South Devon

Plymouth University Department if Architecture Degree Show 2014

Ivybridge Paper Mill Exhibition

3rd April 2014

The Mill is closed.  The machines are silent.

The scrap dealers have emptied the buildings, the foresters have cleared the site.

All that remains – the ragloft, workshops, production line, warehouses, offices, victorian garden, greenhouses and farm – are empty, echoing with the memories of the activities and lives that defined them and the town for 200 years.

Come and see visions for the site drawn up by students from the Plymouth University School of Architecture.  Visions that respond to notions of redundancy and identity, to the promise of the town and the opportunity that the site gives for a reinvention of Ivybridge.  Visions that respond to ideas of civic pride and community, of new industry and job creation, of a new identity, new activities and new lives to define the town for the next 200 years.

Opening in the Watermark Library on 22nd April 2014.

redefined vernacular

Tim Offer Architect South Devon

Recognition in RIBA Presindent’s Medals for best Student Work

4th December 2013

A number of our ex-students are up for the RIBA president’s medals tonight – good luck everyone!

Part 1:  Ben Watkinson, University of Plymouth (part of our redefined vernacular unit)

Part 2:  Elli Farant, Kingston University (part 1 at Nottingham, in our Lateralisms unit 2009)

Part 2: Dan Ladyman, Cambridge University (part 1 at Nottingham, in our Lateralisms unit 2010)

Part 2: Chris Ansell, University of Bath (part 1 at Nottingham, in our Lateralisms unit 2010)

Part 2: Laura Gaskell, University of Nottingham (part 1 at Nottingham, in our Lateralisms unit 2010)

Architect south devon

Study Trip to Copenhagen

3rd December 2013

We recently returned to Copenhagen (with a quick trip over the water into Sweeden too) with our students from the Plymouth University School of Architecture – another inspiring week of looking and sketching.  Started developing a few ideas for some up and coming projects while away too – watch this space!

architect south devon

Architecture School Exhibition at Ivybridge Watermark

21st November 2013

Come along and meet the authors and ask questions at a private view – 17.30 today at the Watermark library.

As a unit the [re]defined vernacular [r]dv, are interested in themes of identity and redundancy, this year we are considering the Stowford Mill site in Ivybridge.

Ivybridge appears to have undergone an identity crisis following its vast expansion in the 1980’s and 90’s. For many years the mill has given the town its identity and in some way all of us through the papers produced there for birth certificates and other documents that are used to officially define us. In recent years the mill has increasingly become a marginalised landmark, as expansion of the town provided housing for people working elsewhere along with a lack of infrastructure to connect the new residents with the town.

The redundancy of the mill buildings provides a crossroads and we are asking our students to look at ways that these great buildings and the fantastic site can be brought back into use, given a new identity, and act as a catalyst for the whole town. We hope to create a destination rather than somewhere to pass through or simply to sleep by placing the mill once more at the heart of Ivybridge’s identity and consciousness whilst linking to the surrounding natural assets.

The work exhibited here at present is based around a series of studies that try to define a ‘centre’ for Ivybridge and give an understanding of the context for any development at the mill site. By looking at the town centre and proposing interventions in this territory, we have established ways of working that can activate reciprocity between the town itself, the mill site and its wider context.

The work exhibited here has been made by 2nd and 3rd year students from the BA Architecture programme at Plymouth University from the Design Studio Unit [r]dv.

The students are:

Roshni Bagga, Richard Barker, Shakhrukh Bazarov, Jessica Bettesworth, Naomi Bush, Sam Butterworth, Nikolaos Christopoulos, Joseph Coulter, Amanda Draper, Anastasios Dedes, Kissme Delos Santos, Jacob Handford, Hazel Hodges, Michael Holliday, Tareq Jilani, Ryan Lake, Sarah Lee, Xun Hern Liaw, James MacMillan, Christopher Mannings, Nathan Mitchell, Hannah Passco, Eva Pontika, James Reason, Jonathan Rosser, Yannick Scott, Emanuela Taneva, Jane Taylor, James Vernon, Liam Whitfield, Stanimir Yordanov, Filip Zielinski

The tutors are:

Andy Humphreys
Rob Hilton
Tim Offer

We would like to thank the following for making this exhibition happen:

The Western Timber Association for their generosity in donating the wood.
Arjo Wiggins, in particular Clive Wilson, Teresa Drew and David Box
Lesley Hughes, Ivybridge Town council.
Lesley Thatcher, Stowford Mill Archivist
Tony Kemp, Ivybridge Community College
And finally Lynn West for providing the space to accommodate us here at the Watermark

south devon architect

Ivybridge Showcase for Plymouth Architecture School

17th November 2013

The work of the unit that I teach at Plymouth University with Andy Humphreys and Rob Hilton is being exhibited at the watermark in Ivybridge next week.  The exhibition runs from the 20th until the 26th, with a private view on the 21st from 5.30pm.

We have been looking again at ideas of redundancy and identity, this year in Ivybridge, looking at the identity of the town in preparation for the major project of the year which will be based at Stowford Mill.

Plymouth University Architecture Exhibition 2013

13th June 2013

Our 2nd and 3rd year students will be exhibiting their work on the 6th Floor of the Roland Levinsky Building, opening this Friday, 14th June.  Come and see their proposals for the re-imagining of the lower Plym valley.  Here is a small selection of work to wet your appetite!

Ben Watkinson

 Max Bontoft

 Kathryn Mackrory

Tom Boss

While these posts capture my time as a studio tutor and lecturer during the early years of Tim Offer Architects, the lessons learned in those academic environments are deeply embedded in the DNA of Threshold Architects, and continue through involvement in academia to the present. Teaching forces a clarity of thought and a precision in communication that we bring to every client consultation and planning meeting today. We continue to bridge the gap between architectural theory and the practical reality of delivering high-quality homes in Devon and beyond. If you are interested in how this research-led approach can benefit your own project, we invite you to explore our current Portfolio or Get in Touch to discuss your vision.