Where are they Now? - Joe Bradley - Year 2

Guest blog post written by Joe Bradley, all images appear with his permission, thanks Joe! Joe is now in his second year, this is his second post for us, his first can be viewed here:

http://trcarthive.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/where-are-they-now-joe-bradley.html Joe Bradley

University: University of Cambridge - Christ's College

Course: Architecture (K100)

 

T H E  N E X T  E P I S O D E ______

J O E  B R A D L E Y

2 N D  Y E A R

A R C H I T E C T U R E

C H R I S T ‘ S  C O L L E G E

U N I V E R S I T Y  O F  C A M B R I D G E

 

 

 

So I finished up first year bedraggled and depraved of much needed sleep. However, I could not care less. My first year down at Christ’s was amazing. I’m currently writing this half way through Michaelmas (first) term of my second year and very little has changed.

 

In fact it has only got better; the work is much more detailed and sophisticated, we are much tighter as our own little architecture family (now a mere 35 students in the year) and the most important point is now that I am a fully-fledged second year, I know what the crack is.

 

Last year we were all working on the same project, a church in the centre of Tottenham that was isolated by busy roads. The brief was to somehow dissolve these boundaries in a way that would lead to the church being part of the community once again. This year we have been split into three separate groups working in and around the King’s Cross area. The studio group that I am in has begun to look into the designing of art houses and hotels in this developing part of London. It’s quite nice being in smaller groups in that much like at TRC, it was better to have a smaller class so you had more of the teacher to yourself. Spending so much more time with the tutors is great as you get to know them a lot better and have a much closer relationship with them.

 

Last year was a very busy year, which included trips here there and everywhere! Our trip at Easter was definitely the best, going for a week to study the architecture through the ages in Naples. We visited the lost city of Herculaneum, watched the sun set from the top of Mount Vesuvius and went for a meal at a girl on my course’s house all in a day! That house definitely showed how the other half live too!

The actual work last year was really fun too, branching out to things like model making and photoshopping model photos to look like a real building.

However, some things are too good to let go of

This year we’ve moved onto bigger and more elaborate ways of working. We began the year by making a 1:1000 wooden site model of the King’s Cross area. Once this had been completed, we moved onto more individual pieces of work.  These were looking at how art houses could be built within the area, and what moments they may capture from the street. I chose to do this by making film set type models where I would have cutouts of people so no photoshopping was needed.

 

 

 

 

All this said, Cambridge isn’t all work. Once exams are done with, we have a week-long party. I have managed to work my way into a band, and as front man, I played at quite a few of these parties, alongside other acts like Pendulum, Scouting For Girls, and the evergreen S Club 3 (the other 4 were busy). I helped transform my college into the wonderful world of Oz with our theme of ‘The Emerald City’ and many of my scavenging skills learnt at TRC came in handy while working on the design team.

Overall, this past year has been absolutely amazing. I feel so proud to be here, mixing with these people and experiencing this city. Not a day goes by without me thinking this at some point. Yet at the same time I feel so lucky, in that I didn’t even consider coming here, it was only by virtue of someone else thinking I could make it that I applied – so, thank you Bev for speaking to Richard.