Inhabitable Wall Fragments, Norwich

This project interrogates Norwich’s urban grain, scale, and density to introduce housing within a currently derelict car park. It balances permanence and flexibility through a field of wall fragments that respond to site conditions and establish a durable spatial framework. Within this framework, lightweight timber structures are inserted to form 2–3 bed mezzanine apartment blocks.

The system is designed to evolve as patterns of occupation and spatial needs change over time. While the structural wall fragments are intended to endure, the secondary timber frame that hosts occupation can adapt into any form supported by the walls, allowing the architecture to transform and potentially become something entirely different in the future.

The images below are selected to help highlight the key stages that influenced the project. 

This project reimagines Hyde Park Nursery as a publicly accessible urban sanctuary that preserves and enhances its horticultural legacy while promoting sustainable living and community engagement. By activating an underused site with a carefully calibrated mix of programmatic elements, the proposal aligns with AIR Initiative’s commitment to adaptive reuse, environmental stewardship, and long-term value creation.

A central hub organises exhibition spaces, a café, and a restaurant that draws on on-site produce, supported by greenhouses, allotments, and living walls that integrate cultivation with architecture. Rather than imposing a standalone building, the design works with the existing landscape and infrastructure, blurring the boundaries between built form and productive ecology.

Expressed through an organic form, translucent cladding, and planted surfaces that evoke a living organism, the project encourages people to linger, learn, and participate. Visitors are drawn into a central node that immerses them in an educational experience, not just as spectators, but as contributors to a vibrant, sustainable ecosystem.