Ross Ferguson (He/Him)
Winner
James Brough Memorial Prize
I’m Ross Ferguson, an interior design student from Inverness, Scotland. After graduating with a HND in 3D Design: Interior Design from City of Glasgow College, I continued to Glasgow School of Art to study for my BA (Hons) in Interior Design.
During my time at GSA, I have been able to adapt and evolve my design process by testing it against a variety of design briefs and typologies. My work explores the relationships between spaces, using materiality and the user journey to establish form in the interior. Context – both social and geographical – take the forefront in my design process, making sure to honour the host space and its situation.
My recent work has focused on the ‘makings’ of an interior space; both in the design development through model making, to the physical realisation of a design proposal.
Pubfab – Makerspace
Pubfab is a public access fabrication facility in Glasgow City Centre. The project aims to create a hub to facilitate the act of making, democratising the equipment of industry to the common maker.
Located in the Cowcaddens area of Glasgow, the facility occupies the former Glasgow Savings Bank: a wedge-shaped Edwardian Baroque building with long splayed facades and two curved corners. The site’s unique shape is echoed by the triangular paved island it sits on, emphasising its monolithic appearance.
The proximity of the site to GSA’s campus offers the possibility for a relationship with the institution, with potential for it to serve as an extracurricular facility for students to use alongside the public.
The spatial arrangement of the site is structured around a conceptual process established early in my research; the ‘3 Steps of Making’. This is a common process applicable to all disciplines within ‘making’ – the three phases a maker inhabits on any given project: Ideation, Making, and Made. All projects start with an idea, and the facility aims to provide a space for makers to see these ideas become real, tangible things. This linear narrative was applied to the site’s verticality, the journey starts at the top of the space with Ideation, and finishes at ground level with the Made. This takes users through the journey in reverse when circulating the space, promoting chance encounters between users of different disciplines, as well as providing an inspiring route past adjacent workspaces.
The proposal is comprised of two angles: the bespoke and the universal. The bespoke refers to the interventions that are a specific response to the host space, such as the creation of the void and curved partitions, which react directly to the building’s existing forms. The universal alludes to interior elements that are adaptable to almost any given space. In keeping with the typology, the use of standard materials and basic construction methods ensures accessibility in the realisation of the design proposal, or indeed the replication of the design in another space.
Please view the ‘Project Folio‘ linked below to see the project in its entirety. Also linked is my ‘Design Journal’, documenting my research and development process in this final year of study.
Partition System
Ground Floor – Made
The user journey begins with the Made. The ground floor serves as the public-facing element of the facility, providing a flexible retail and exhibition space for the selling and showcasing of user’s works.
First Floor – Making
Within the linear narrative of the ‘3 Steps‘ is a gravitational arrangement to the workshops. Spaces find their place in the vertical through the weight of their processes. The first floor houses the heavier, or more traditional activities of woodworking and metalworking.
Second Floor – Making
The second floor hosts the digital fabrication facilities and ceramics workshop. Though they are physical disciplines, the fluidity to the materials and processes at hand creates a gradient between workspaces as the user travels further up the linear narrative, bridging the digital matter of the Ideation floor with the tangible artefacts being made on lower levels.
Third Floor – Ideation
The third floor hosts the Ideation phase of the narrative, providing a computer lab and electronics workshop (or hackerspace), the resource library, and a social space/kitchenette.
