Project 2 - Nottingham Kayak Club - Research

Fig 1. Nottingham Kayak Club. Yuan Lin. October, 2016

Nottingham Kayak Club(NKC)¹ has been established for just over 50 years and has occupied the site on the River Trent embankment for the last 40+ years; it is an independent club set-up, run and built by its members and receives no substantial grants from SPORTS ENGLAND. This is a live project and will be presented to the Chairman

Fig 2. Site plan of Nottingham Kayak Club.

Yuan Lin. October, 2016

and committee members and of NKC on completion in January 2017. The clubhouse and facilities are now in need of updating and the club is exploring the following options:

a) Re-design the existing building with limited structural interventions

b) Structural extension and re-design the existing building

c) Demolish the existing building, and propose new design using existing footprint

Studying how the buildings function currently works - which has importantly been developed by active Kayaking members who understand the process of boat storage and use really well - so function over form is very important.

I had some experience of kayaking and boating before. So I can understand how the whole process of this sport quite well. So for supporting my design method, I started to look at the equipments, preparation, human activities that are relevant to this sport.

1) Definition of Kayak:

2) Different Kayak boats:

3) Necessary equipments while kayaking:

4) Materials for making a Kayak boat:

5) How to paddle Kayak:

Nottingham Kayak Club organized and members joined Hasler Race Marathon 2014 Time Lapse 4K.

Fig 3. Hasler Race Marathon 2014 Time Lapse 4K. https://sites.google.com/site/nottinghamkayakclub/Home

After collected all these data, so then I could make a conclusion of the very essential and functional rooms for a Kayak club, which should be a big enough storage, reception area, female and male toilets and shower rooms, cloakrooms, a clubroom with a kitchen or bar, a GYM or training room.

But, according to club members' need, the toilet and shower rooms are apparently too small and inconvenient. Storage is already overloaded so some of the boats had to be piled in the corridor under eaves outside of the house. And GYM equipments are squeezing with people in the current clubroom.

Image shows below is the current plan and photos for this house:

Fig 4. Existing plan of Kayak Club. Yuan Lin. November, 2016

And the house itself is very rough and in very poor condition.

Fig 5. Existing building and construction details of Kayak Club. Yuan Lin. November, 2016

Reference:

Fig 1. Yuan Lin. October, 2016. Nottingham Kayak Club. Unpublished.

Fig 2. Yuan Lin. October, 2016. Site plan of Nottingham Kayak Club. Unpublished.

Fig 3. Google Sites. Hasler Race Marathon 2014 Time Lapse 4K(online). Google：Google Sites. Available at https://sites.google.com/site/nottinghamkayakclub/Home [Accessed 11 November 2016].

Fig 4. Yuan Lin. November, 2016. Existing plan of Kayak Club. Unpublished.

Fig 5. Yuan Lin. November, 2016. Existing building and construction details of Kayak Club. Unpublished.

1.Google Sites. Nottingham Kayak Club[online]. Google：Google Sites. Available at : https://sites.google.com/site/nottinghamkayakclub/Home [Accessed 11 November 2016].

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