The Leeds School of Architecture Yearbook 2023

Overview
This year’s Level 6 Major Project is located in Temple Works, the Grade I listed
building in Holbeck, a large urban area South-West of Leeds city centre,
currently undergoing a major regeneration. The scale of the building, and its
unusual structural configuration, present a unique set of spatial and technical
challenges, but also exceptional opportunities.
Opened in 1840, Temple Works, thought to be one of the largest rooms in the
world, was an impressive piece of civil engineering conceived as an open-plan
space covered by sixty-six flat domes, each with a conical skylight and supported
by hollow cast-iron columns. Used for less than 50 years as a flax factory, it
has subsequently hosted multiple occupancies, which, together with lack of
maintenance, led to its deterioration.
Temple Works is presently being restored, having been chosen as the site
for the British Library North. Within these parameters, students have been
encouraged to problematise the role of heritage strategies in urban imagination
and production; speculate on new and alternative uses for existing industrial
structures; and critically engage with the politics of culture-led regeneration.
Substantial individual research projects, together with rigorous design
investigation, allowed students to grapple with these issues from a theoretical
as well as practical perspective. In parallel, students were asked to examine
and question standardised conceptions of space and time through adopting
alternative approaches to the design of interiors. Informed by their selfnegotiated
research topic and critical analysis of the allocated site, students
have defined a range of interior programmes that subsequently led onto the
formulation of self-generated design briefs. Asked to focus on a social agenda,
they have come up with unexpected and unprecedented programs that can
not only repurpose Temple Works, but also create radically transformed and
inclusive interiors for the present Leeds.
Students
BA3
Max Adams
Theola Ekua Aikins
Alritaj Alkhanfar
Alaa Alkurdi
Noah Bartram
Angela Black
Megan Boller
Alexis Hin Chin Chang
Anamaria-Claudia Csintalan
Jewel Conception D’Costa
Eve Downey
Ciara Duffin
Alexandra Elstone
Natalie Ferreira
Sian Godward
Haanee Gul
Emma Hardarker
Kimberly Lara Heard
Nathaniel Hughes
Catherina Kaufmann
Sylvia Keyse
Katie Lynn
Jody Matthew
Jennifer Mills
Danny Mulley
Abigail Prince
Anushka Redditch
Olivia Rutherford
Yvonne Sadu
Usaid Tariq
Madeline Taylor