PHD
The Toolshed Project
This doctoral programme is based in the Leeds School of Architecture, part of the Leeds School of Arts, and is an initiative of the Expanded Spatial Practices Research Group. It aims to investigate the politics and practices of building with local timber. The research will engage with environmental and social questions, and will lead to the design of innovative systems, strategies and networks to facilitate the use of otherwise under-valued species and dimensions from local woodlands.
The practice- based PhD forms part of a project to design, prototype and construct an experimental teaching space on the site of an existing toolshed, at the Landscape Resource Centre on Leeds Beckett University’s Headingley Campus. As a ‘live project’ the design and construction will be incorporated into the school’s undergraduate and post-graduate curriculum. This initiative is founded on an understanding that space is produced through a combination of disciplines, and not by design professionals alone.
Hence, the research team has a strong commitment to inter-disciplinary practice and would encourage applicants from non-design backgrounds, for example: arts, engineering, social sciences, and humanities. An inter-disciplinary supervision team will be appointed according to the selected candidate’s interest and proposal. Whilst the project is situated in West Yorkshire and focuses on the organisation of local supply systems, its aim is to develop methods that may be applied to other locations.
Type: Doctoral Progreamme
Locate: LBU, Leeds, UK
PhD Candidate: Jubal Green
For February start, the deadline for applications is 30 September. We welcome proposals from home, EU and International applicants to come and study for a PhD at our school. As a PhD student you will join our vibrant and supportive research environment, taking part in regular seminars with visiting scholars, enrolling on our PhD training programme and participating in School events and workshops designed to support research students in developing the skills, knowledge and attributes necessary to become independent researchers.
Reclaiming Craft
Local knowledge, collective action,
and the power of bricolage in the city
Through a process of interventional public workshops and local outreach strategies the project seeks to stoke the flames of community integration in a way that reaffirms a collective narrative of space. The research aims to question the role of traditional architectural design processes in the way spaces are conceived, shaped, and maintained. The research examines whether traditional roles of the built environment could be better suited to those with an intrinsic stake in a location, when adopting the necessary skills needed to navigate the building process.
Within this cross examination of architectural norms, the collective approach can be applied to building itself in the assemblage of available natural materials and waste products of local building processes.
Framed by a rebuild of an old woodland toolshed into an outdoor woodland workshop, the research seeks to work in parallel with the physical redesign whilst also navigating the bureaucracy and micro political parameters of a university owned space and a public facing participatory build. I hope that through skills sharing, regular arts integration and empowerment of citizen autonomy, the space can serve as a case study for university-run sites and small-scale local spaces in need of better use.
Jubal Green has a background in architecture and later worked in practice in the Netherlands. He later diverged into physical building and teaching through his work as an arts technician for the university of Leeds and as a freelance technician and designer nationally and internationally. He is interested in the breakdown of traditional hierarchy within the built environment and the development of vernacular building strategies to foster self-sustaining communities.
PHD
The Toolshed Project
Type: Doctoral Progreamme
Locate: LBU, Leeds, UK
PhD Candidate: Jubal Green
This doctoral programme is based in the Leeds School of Architecture, part of the Leeds School of Arts, and is an initiative of the Expanded Spatial Practices Research Group. It aims to investigate the politics and practices of building with local timber. The research will engage with environmental and social questions, and will lead to the design of innovative systems, strategies and networks to facilitate the use of otherwise under-valued species and dimensions from local woodlands.
The practice- based PhD forms part of a project to design, prototype and construct an experimental teaching space on the site of an existing toolshed, at the Landscape Resource Centre on Leeds Beckett University’s Headingley Campus. As a ‘live project’ the design and construction will be incorporated into the school’s undergraduate and post-graduate curriculum. This initiative is founded on an understanding that space is produced through a combination of disciplines, and not by design professionals alone.
Hence, the research team has a strong commitment to inter-disciplinary practice and would encourage applicants from non-design backgrounds, for example: arts, engineering, social sciences, and humanities. An inter-disciplinary supervision team will be appointed according to the selected candidate’s interest and proposal. Whilst the project is situated in West Yorkshire and focuses on the organisation of local supply systems, its aim is to develop methods that may be applied to other locations.
For February start, the deadline for applications is 30 September. We welcome proposals from home, EU and International applicants to come and study for a PhD at our school. As a PhD student you will join our vibrant and supportive research environment, taking part in regular seminars with visiting scholars, enrolling on our PhD training programme and participating in School events and workshops designed to support research students in developing the skills, knowledge and attributes necessary to become independent researchers.
Reclaiming Craft
Local knowledge, collective action,
and the power of bricolage in the city
Jubal Green has a background in architecture and later worked in practice in the Netherlands. He later diverged into physical building and teaching through his work as an arts technician for the university of Leeds and as a freelance technician and designer nationally and internationally. He is interested in the breakdown of traditional hierarchy within the built environment and the development of vernacular building strategies to foster self-sustaining communities.
Through a process of interventional public workshops and local outreach strategies the project seeks to stoke the flames of community integration in a way that reaffirms a collective narrative of space. The research aims to question the role of traditional architectural design processes in the way spaces are conceived, shaped, and maintained. The research examines whether traditional roles of the built environment could be better suited to those with an intrinsic stake in a location, when adopting the necessary skills needed to navigate the building process.
Within this cross examination of architectural norms, the collective approach can be applied to building itself in the assemblage of available natural materials and waste products of local building processes.
Framed by a rebuild of an old woodland toolshed into an outdoor woodland workshop, the research seeks to work in parallel with the physical redesign whilst also navigating the bureaucracy and micro political parameters of a university owned space and a public facing participatory build. I hope that through skills sharing, regular arts integration and empowerment of citizen autonomy, the space can serve as a case study for university-run sites and small-scale local spaces in need of better use.
Leeds School of Architecture, Woodhouse Lane, LS1 3HE, Leeds, UK.
Graphic Design: Villalba Studio
Leeds School of Architecture, Woodhouse Lane, LS1 3HE, Leeds, UK.
Graphic Design: Villalba Studio