Doug Pearson

Architecture student Doug Pearson’s work is strongly influenced by sculpture. The 5th year student has used a course in sculpture that he did last year as the basis for his final year project. "I wanted my building to be very connected to its use, so I developed a sculptural retreat in Portland."

"The building is built into the rock face and sculptors can use the rock that is left on show in each room to help in their creations, meaning each of them will leave the building in a slightly altered state to when they arrived." Models and drawings of Doug’s design will be on display at the Degree Show.

Doug, who is originally from Edinburgh, plans to get a job in a practise after spending the summer travelling.

Ohme Santrakul

Ohme Santrakul, 22, is in her 4th year of her Architecture degree. Ohme, who is originally from Thailand but went to school in Edinburgh, has developed a building to home a potential film school in Newcastle. The students were given the choice of sites to work with and told to create a building that could help a community.

Ohme says, "I wanted to examine how light played an influence on how we feel in a building. Research has shown that people work in a different way depending on the light quality, so I played around with the idea that lots of light would influence their behaviour. There is lots of glazing on the building and I want to encourage people to move around a lot and really enjoy the space. People should be more curious."

Models and drawings of Ohme’s design will be on display at the Degree Show.

Liz Smith

Liz Smith is a 3rd year architecture student and was given the task of finding a potential development site in Dundee and designing a potential building for it.

Liz designed an Arts Centre in Lindsay Street, which also housed a Polish consulate and cultural centre. She took ideas from a visit she made to Krakow in Poland as part of her course. The space is turned on its head, with a raised courtyard that hides the services underneath it. Above it floats a frosted glass box.

Liz says, "My building had to fit in with its surroundings, but it also had to be modern and appealing. I want people to walk past and be desperate to go inside."

School of Architecture

The School addresses many complex issues: conceptual speculative design, cultural appropriateness and technical resolution. Only an architect is trained to have this holistic understanding of building design and its study involves a combination of analysis, understanding and creative problem solving. All year 5 Masters students' work is based on unit themes: urbanism, responsive design, material expression, creative live practice and place as a generator for rich and diverse interpretations of what constitutes architecture.

Dean: Graeme Hutton