Project Duration: 1 week

Project Leaders: Hugo Keene & Matt Chan

2nd Years: Alex Davidson, Dessislava Gencheva, Emily Harries, Jessica Hartshorne, Mingyue Hai, Shadi Al-begain

1st Years: Alexandru Ticalo, Andrzej Bak, Dina Feddah, Hollie Jones, Joshua Peasley, Sophia Chrysanthou

LOST & FOUND was a design studio that was run and led by Hugo Keene and Matt Chan. It is a collaborative studio between first and second year architecture students to work collectively on a design-build project.

The purpose of the studio was to recondition our thinking toward a culture of upcycling and reuse. This should be intertwined with the notion that quality in buildings need not be about expensive materials or neatly honed finishing, but about the delight that comes from an innovative and playful response to the challenges of construction and design. 

The Project is located in Pembrokeshire, on Beeview Farm. The client asked us to design an enclosure to house two ‘thunder trunks’ (portable composting toilets) with provisions for installing a solar shower in the future. The cubicles must feature a removable panel to allow the owner to remove and empty the toilets once full.

The design was based around the stacking of waste timber off cuts, with openings placed strategically to frame the views across the Pembrokeshire hills. Waste material was gathered from across Wales and the surrounding area, and complied in a way that could withstand the harsh weather on site. The two toilet cubicles are backlit by the south facing bottle walls and the stacked timber allows the building to recede into its setting.