Andrew Percival

Derbyshire County Council, Derby, GB, Work Experience Student

Working purely to gain some experience and an understanding of the profession in anticipation of undertaking the architecture undergraduate degree.

University of Cambridge, Cambridge, GB, BArch, Architecture

I am currently undertaking my third year of studies having achieved a 2.1 classification in both my first and second year. In my first two years studies were focussed in London, firstly in Dalston and then in Hackney Wick just off the London 2012 Olympics site.

This year the project I am working on is an architectural outpost and enclosure as well as a hostel in the Lake district on a historical site adjacent to Lake Windemere. Focussing on the very specific and changeable conditions in this delicate rural area has forced me to consider ways of designing focussed around context and the environment in different ways to the urban London projects of the years before.

My dissertation is based on two concepts of Skyscraper Design originating in New York and Chicago, one based around land values and economics and the other based around social theories on the city. It concludes with discussions as to how these concepts are relevant in skyscraper design today and discusses the utopian skyscraper and its role in the urban environment.