Works

M.ARCH
A House for DAD

A HOUSE FOR DAD
Culture & Artists-led Urbanism in Dover

Three weeks into the semester, our Master of Architecture students presented their first design project of the year. The project was delivered in close collaboration with Dover Arts Development (DAD).

DAD is an artist-led not-for-profit limited company that functions as a collaborative porous framework within which its artist directors, Joanna Jones, Clare Smith, and Louisa Love, conceive, manage and deliver ambitious projects of artistic excellence within the visual arts, poetry, sound and music. Founded in 2006 and established as a limited company in 2008, DAD has worked with over 150 visual artists, architects, designers, film-makers, musicians and writers as well as other local, regional, national and international partners on the delivery of art projects in and for Dover. The various art and placemaking projects instigated and managed by DAD have linked culture and heritage stakeholders and public authorities with each other and thus contributed to the revitalization and activation of Dover’s cultural, public and civic realm.

For a few years DAD maintained a studio space in Dover’s Old Sorting Office. But for most of the time the DAD directors and collaborators have been operating in a migratory way, with a temporary presence at various project locations in the Dover district. In other words: DAD was where the art was. Louisa Love currently oscillates between Scotland and Dover, Clare Smith shares a studio with other artists in Astley Avenue, and Joanna Jones has her studio in her private home in which she also provides a space for artists in residence, as well as the Dover Urban Room, part of the official Urban Room Network.

Whilst other coastal towns in Kent have undergone an intensive culture-led urban regeneration process in the past decade – for example Margate with its Turner Contemporary, and Folkestone with its Creative Quarter – Dover has not seen an equivalent investment in its cultural infrastructure. Recent years, however, saw the continuing trend of new artists moving to Dover, and there is a growing demand for studio spaces and a dedicated place for exchange and collaboration within the arts community.

The brief asked students to design ‘A House for DAD’ – a building that combines the provision of artist studios, communal workshop and exhibition spaces with such a place for exchange, debate and community engagement. The testbed for our design speculation about such a building was a vacant site in central Dover. Located within the urban block framed by Bench Street, Townwall Street and York Street, the site is in close proximity to Dover’s Market Square and seafront promenade. To the right, a few glimpses of last week’s project reviews. The proposals will also be featured on DAD’s website and social media platforms.

"Dover Arts Development is delighted with the research, vision and creative thinking that went into the ‘House for DAD’ by the Master of Architecture students at UCA Canterbury. The students' attention on DAD and what it might need in its ’house' comes at a perfect time as DAD is moving into a more multi-voiced organisational structure led & shaped with a new generation of artists."

Joanna Jones, Clare Smith and Louisa Love (DAD)
https://www.dadonline.uk

TEAMS

CUT
Henry Chan, Jason Lee, Wenny Liu & Abigail Sheanon

A HOUSE FOR DAD
Bianca Angheluta, Lauren-Lois Duah & Matt Ralph

THE SALON OF STRATIFICATION
Ethan Leach, Sian Taylor & Thomas White

A CANVAS FOR DOVER
Clinton Olajide, Shandri Van Rooyen & Harsha Vissapragada

A SHED FOR DAD
Daud Butt, Jack Harding & Gabriel Peck

THE HEART OF DOVER
Denis Lung Yau, Marylin Rey & Zain Qureshi

A HOUSE FOR DOVER
Ethan Burley, Jacob Hedge, Junyan Du & Edward Flores Acuña

DOVER TO THE WORLD
Tendai Musasike, Marizu Onwu & Nellie Ogbonna

CHANGING IDENTITIES
Boróka Bán, Narges Fakhari, Anish Rey & Madeline Seymour

WELCOME TO DOVER
Grace Lung, Anna Reeves & Shivram Singh

A HOUSE FOR DAD
Cordelia Ibinaiye, Hanna John Makhoul & Bianca Marginean

THE GARDEN GALLERY OF DOVER
Florence Japzon, Vivina Joseph Selphy & Yeny Torres Vergara

THE ANCHOR
Maria Domide, Helen Li & Abdullah Shabab

BENCH STREET ARCADE
Olivia Christoulides, Aikaterini Kalogridi & Alex Marno

THE COLLAGE HOUSE
Vanessa Cheong, Paua Sabuda & Keerthigan Thavaseelan

M.ARCH TUTORS
Adam Hiles, Carla Novak, Bethan Kay, Duarte Lobo Antunes, Gabor Stark

In collaboration with

DAD
Dover Arts Development
https://www.dadonline.uk

Master of Architecture (ARB/RIBA Part 2) 2020/21
https://www.uca.ac.uk/study/courses/master-of-architecture/