New Wave is an adaptive reuse project developed in response to a redundant 1800s mill in Dundee called Wallace Craigie Works.

The original building has an important history for jute and linen manufacture. At that time Dundee, or ‘Juteopolis’, was also a global centre of textiles and whaling industries.

My project explores creative connections between these legacies that had long been forgotten. My new architectural concept examines future working in 2030, specifically creating a design in action workplace for communities of artists that is deliberately designed to attract local communities, tourists and to connect designers with research funders and business communities.

A central theme driving my concept has been to connect designers with society and help generate new products and markets. ‘Connectivity’ is translated through architectural incisions between floors, vertical transparency and reinterpreting the notion of ‘palimpsest’ where old laments and new materials merge to link the past with the present. The aesthetic or my work brings together architectural metaphors that reflect links between Dundee’s whaling and textiles industries. These have been translated through interior elements that evoke images of machinery, whalebone structure and shipping. Curvature is an important aesthetic in my design that suggests the meandering river Tay on the façade and in interior partitions.

The redevelopment of the building will include recycled building materials like the concrete and the glass as well as the insulation. This will significantly reduce the carbon footprint during the construction and redevelopment stage of the project.