This year’s studio explored the increasingly vital issue of change of use. This allowed the studio to take a critical look at Dover’s unutilized building. My project focuses on the challenge of revitalizing Dover’s Former Marine Station.

No longer in use as a train station, the building currently functions as a cruise ship terminal. The terminal facilitates arrival and departure into and out of the town without encouraging visitors to stay and visit.

There is an important need to expand the role of the building to become an open and welcoming civic hub for the town. Extending the building’s offer in terms of a range of spaces and services is combined with a rebuilding of the public spaces around it.

This approach of slowing down travel allowed the opportunity to bring back an idea of glamour and excitement to the passengers experience and boost Dover’s tourist industry in the process. The overall influences for the design derives from Ricardo Bofill’s approach to inhabiting former industrial buildings as well as John Outram graphical styling and use of bold colours and Adam Khan Architects striking tiled facades evident in his proposal for an extension to the Stockholm Library.

My design approach for this building was also inspired by my initial visit. An overwhelmingly eerie feeling of not belonging permeated the terminal which was something my design aims to counteract. My proposed alterations play with the volumetric nature of the building, confidently expressing its program and complementing the existing architecture.