PAUL LEADER-WiLLIAMSCV & Portfolio

2006 - 2009 Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London BSc (Hons) Architecture (2.1) - 2009 Professional Studies Prize2004 Open University Level 1 Course: T173 Engineering the Future - Distinction1998 - 2005 Simon Langton Grammar School for Boys, Canterbury, UK GCE A-Levels: Design & Technology (A), Geography (A), Maths (A), Physics (A) GCSEs: Art (A*), Design & Technology (A*), Double Science (A*A*), English (A), English Literature (B), French (A*), Geography (A*), ICT Short Course (A), Maths (A*)1996 - 1998 Vernon Holme, Canterbury, UK1995 - 1996 Newnham Croft, Cambridge, UK1991 - 1995 International School of Tanganyika, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

education

The Smithfield Soap Factory, West Poultry Avenue,Smithfield, London.

The site, a disused public toilets on a traffic island near Smithfield Meat Market, which was historically part of the market, is currently abandoned, and cut off by streams of traffic during the day. The new use of building links it back to the market via a system of underground tunnels, used to bring fat offcuts out of the market. The offcuts are then rendered to produce pure fat, which can be made into soap by the owner and his assistant.

These processes take place in a specially designed, gravity fed ‘production line’ inside the building, designed to run from ‘dirty’ to ‘clean’ away from the market side of the building. The soap cures in a ‘wall’ that runs along one side of the building, before it is dispensed by a vending machine, which makes up the public face of the factory.

Y1/p5: the smithfield soap factory

By day the site is an island, cut off from the market. At night it reconnects, as supplies are brought in for the next days production.

The soap cures in a ‘wall’ running down one side of the factory, filtering golden light down into the spaces below.

Construction details.

The Mobile Garden/Camley Street Natural Park, King’s Cross, London.

Camley Street Natural Park is a tiny wildlife reserve on the site of an old coal store near King’s Cross. With the area currently undergoing huge redevelopment, new buildings are springing up all around the park, transforming it into a tiny enclave of greenery, under threat from the expanding city around it.

Bounded by Goods Way, Camley Street and the Regents Canal, and sandwiched between the great rail terminuses of King’s Cross and St. Pancras, the Natural Park is linked to most of London. A self-sufficient ‘mobile garden’ is designed to exploit these transport links, spreading seeds throughout London, and colonizing the city’s forgotten spaces with greenery.

Y2/p1: the mobile garden

Seeds from the nature reserve are spreading across the canal and colonising the abandoned buildings in the area.

By making use of the different transport links around the site a fleet of mobile gardens could colonize the city. As it moves it collects and regulates it’s own water supply, produces light, and disperses seeds

The Garden of Eden, Fondamenta al Rio della Croce,Giudecca, Venice.

Around the turn of the twentieth century, an Englishman, Frederic Eden retired to Venice to convalesce. Acquiring land on Giudecca he set out to create an English garden, complete with an orchard, livestock and vineyard. In 1903 he published A Garden in Venice, to tell the story of the creation of the ‘Giardino Eden’, the Garden of Eden.

The largest private garden in Venice, it is currently overgrown and unused. The programme hopes to restore the garden to its former glory, by introducing a retreat hotel and winery. The building is constructed under an artificial landscape, in deference to the garden, pixelated with private courtyards for each room. The winery is forms a linear mass, with the wine-making process cutting through the hotel and ending in the consumption of the finished product in the restaurant.

Y2/p2: the Garden of eden

The site of the garden on the southern edge of Giudecca, facing out towards the Lido is currently overgrown and poorly maintained.

The building sits under a landscape of green roofs, preserving and deferring to the garden, while pergolas shade the courtyards and continue the landscape.

The Institute of Inventors and Archive of Unused Patents, Gunthorpe Street, Whitechapel, London.

The Institute of Inventors is a society of paranoid inventors who advise each other on matters of patent law, closely guarding their plans until they can be patented, and marketing them once they are protected. Searching for a place to meet, the inventors begin building a new headquarters in a quiet back street in Whitechapel.

Hidden behind facades ‘borrowed’ from the area’s rejected planning applications the Institute begins to grow, as each inventor seeks out his own private space. External envelope becomes internal division as voids form within the growing structure and are then occupied.

To market their inventions, the inventors must allow the public into their protected enclave. As their distrust and paranoia deepens they develop hidden spaces and secret entrances into the Institute, allowing visitors only the tiniest glimpse of what the building conceals.

Y3/p1: the Institute of inventors

The Institute is an almost constant state of construction, and is disguised behind scaffolding, false facades and advertising hoardings.

The Institute of Inventors: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ev2c6Cu_JNE

Istanbul Metropoliten Planlama, Camlica Hill, Istanbul.

65% of buildings in Istanbul are unplanned, and until recently there has been no formal planning law. Even now a huge number of buildings are built illegally, and the planning system is not understood by many of the residents – there is criticism of a lack of transparency and consultation.

A new office for the Istanbul Metropoliten Planlama (IMP) is designed for a popular lookout spot on the more deprived Asian side of the city. The IMP brings people up to the park and tea garden by chairlift, passing through the building, where they can begin to understand the planning process, and providing exhibition and education spaces for those who take a greater interest.

The bulk of the building is cut into the hillside, respecting its surroundings and providing views out over the city for the people who must study it. The design takes its inspiration from the technologies of vernacular architecture to address the sustainability issues that will affect Istanbul’s future, as well as combining free-flowing external spaces, shaped by the hillside, with more formal internal areas.

Y3/p2: istanbul Metropoliten planlama

The building looks to the history of Istanbul and the Ottoman Empire, translating vernacular architecture into prototypes for the future of Istanbul.

An initial concept blends into the terrain, cutting courtyards down into the mass to provide light and ventilation, while wind towers channel anabatic winds.

Roof Plan: Green roofs and courtyards fit into the contours of the hillside, a field of heliostats produce solar energy while wind catchers on roofs and lower down the hill serve to ventilate the building.

Ground Floor Plan showing building set into the hillside, with office space and exhibition space combined, allowing visitors to see the planning office in action.

South facing orientation allows lighting via rooflights and glazed facades, double facades and adaptive solar screens serve to prevent excessive gains in summer.

Malqaf wind catchers and light sensitive mashrabiya screens adapted from vernacular architecture are important features of the building. The passageway to the chairlift provides views across the city.

2013 - robin Partington & Partners, london, uk Architectural Assistant

Since rejoining Robin Partington & Partners I have worked almost exclusively on 3 Merchant Square: a large residential building of 201 mixed tenure apartments, and the first phase of construction on the new Merchant Square masterplan. I joined the project as construction of the concrete to the basements completed, and with the project due for practical completion at the end of May, have gained a great deal of site experience and a growing knowledge of the construction process. I have dealt directly with client, consultants and both main and subcontractors under a design and build contract, and have taken charge of several packages.

2012 - 2013 Adjust your set, london, uk Tech/Production Assistant

Working in a video marketing agency my role with the technical team included initial design and layout of video players and websites. I also assisted the production team with storyboarding and still photography for video shoots.

2010 - 2011 Robin partington Architects, london, uk Architectural Assistant

Working with clients, consultants, contractors and other members of the design team on several large-scale mixed-use and commercial developments across the UK, as well as smaller residential and cultural projects in London, and design competitions as far away as China. Responsibilities included design work, both architectural and masterplanning, from concept through to planning applications, including design drawings and 3D visualisations, as well as drafting reports and preparing and giving presentations, both internally within the company and design team, and externally at planning meetings and public consultations. I also worked on the company’s presentation materials, including a website and brochures.

2010 saunders boston architects, cambridge, uk Architectural Assistant

Working with other members of the design team on several residential, leisure and education projects in. Producing design drawings and visualisations for concept designs, planning applications, and detailed design stages.

2006 benjamin tindall architects, edinburgh, uk Architectural Assistant

Responsible for producing AutoCAD technical drawing; hand drawn, Illustrator and Photoshop visualisations, and modelmaking. Also accompanied the partners and architects on site visits and at meetings.

employment

3 Merchant Square, Paddington, London.

A large residential building of 201 apartments, due for practical completion at the end of May.

I have worked on many aspects of the interior fitout throughout 3 Merchant Square, with a focus on the penthouse apartments, designing a number of bespoke staircases, and also developing the bathroom fitouts, as well as dealing with most of the purchaser changes throughout the building. I also worked on the fitout for a nursery school, provided as part of the Section 106 agreement.

Working with a Foundry in Grimsby I have helped to develope a range of cast iron landscaping elements for the masterplan, including several designs of bench and a large amphitheatre.

Robin partington & Partners

1 New Street Square, Holborn, London.

A 38,000 square metre, BREEAM ‘Excellent’ rated office building in central London.

I originally worked on the project up to planning application submittal, helping to develop the intial concept and massing design. With the project now starting on site I have rejoined the team to coordinate the cores, assist with fitout design and develop lobby and recption designs.

Robin partington & Partners

Kimmerfields Masterplan, Swindon.I worked on this project through early masterplanning and concept design, developing parameter plans for an outline planning application, and beginning design of the first phase, which has now completed.Fernshaw Road & Edith Grove, Chelsea, London.A high quality residential development spanning two terraced streets in Chelsea, I worked on intial design prior to planning application submittal.

Robin partington & Partners

Lincoln Road Flats, Peterborough Planning applicationMillom School Swimming Pool, Cumbria Concept designRoyal Holloway Sports Centre, Egham CompetitionWhittle Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Cambridge Planning ApplicationPride Veterinary Hospital, Derby Construction Tender

saunders boston Architects