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Award winning architectural practice founded by Catherine du Toit and Peter Thomas

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• 51% projects

  • Cut + Run New York
  • Mumsnet Towers
  • Trinity Experimental Station
  • Drawing on the City
  • Whitechapel Art Gallery
  • Vicco’s Tower
  • Fairgrounds, Mineral County
  • Dover
  • Baumhaus
  • The Green House
  • Bridging the Playground
  • Social Cinema
  • Enthusiasm
  • 51’s

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  • Landscape

Fairgrounds, Mineral County

Reme­di­a­tion work on this 46 acre site was com­pleted last year, with the out­door arena being moved to its final posi­tion on the lower bench.

The for­mer sil­ver min­ing town of Creede is located in the Alte Vista Moun­tains, 10 miles from the source of the Rio Grande. The fair­ground site’s strate­gic impor­tance is its loca­tion on the flood­plain of Wil­low Creek - it can be seen for miles from the Sil­ver Thread Scenic High­way. The site makes an impor­tant con­tri­bu­tion to the nat­ural land­scape and could become an iconic sig­na­ture for the town.

The Min­eral County Fair­grounds Asso­ci­a­tion approached 51% stu­dios to develop with them a pro­posal for per­ma­nent all weather fair­ground facil­i­ties which could be imple­mented over time. Each phase will need to func­tion in its own right, allowing for the next with max­i­mum effi­ciency. We devel­oped a flex­i­ble mas­ter dia­gram, using reme­di­a­tion to cre­ate an endur­ing ‘func­tional land­scape’, pre­serv­ing and enhanc­ing exist­ing views to and from the site.

Facil­i­ties will include a multi-purpose all-weather arena, com­mu­nity cen­ter and pub­licly acces­si­ble land­scape where equal impor­tance is given, and clear dis­tinc­tions made, between pedes­tri­ans, the ani­mals and their trucks.

Local sus­tain­able design research has included a sur­vey of read­ily avail­able local mate­ri­als, effi­cient energy cre­ators such as ground source, solar cells etc, indige­nous build­ing tra­di­tions such as straw bale and stucco con­struc­tion, in-floor radi­ant heat, and nat­ural lighting.

The Min­eral County Fair­grounds Asso­ci­a­tion [MCFA] has suc­cess­fully secured city, county, state and fed­eral grants for the site, as well as over­see­ing the Vol­un­tary Cleanup Operation. 

Dover

In 2006 51% stu­dios received a spe­cial com­men­da­tion for this entry to the Kent County Coun­cil urban com­pe­ti­tion imag­in­ing a new future for the city of Dover.

Many roads to cross but I can’t seem to find my way over / Wan­der­ing I am lost as I travel along the white cliffs of Dover [from ‘Too many rivers to cross’, the Harder they Come, with apolo­gies to Jimmy Cliff]

Por­tus Dubris is a town denied its sea frontage, its beach and cliffs and ports — a town thrilling to arrive at by sea, car or truck, but mis­er­able to be in on foot. Yet Dover is also uniquely sit­u­ated to once again blos­som into a first class town — it has his­tory, char­ac­ter, iden­tity and nat­ural endow­ment in spoonfuls.

This ‘mas­ter dia­gram’ seeks to recon­nect the town and its sea frontage by bring­ing the coun­try­side into the heart of the town and sup­press­ing the relent­less traf­fic thun­der­ing along the A20 by bury­ing it between Snar­gate Street and Marine Parade. The space above the road will be a new car free land­scaped pub­lic space.

Along with the pro­posed quay­side quar­ters this rep­re­sents an oppor­tu­nity to cre­ate a sus­tain­able city to rival any­where in the world, so that over time our per­cep­tion of Dover will be first of green and then of white.

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