Musical houses, fruit and veg market roofs and eco-friendly design: Lola Tartakover talks architecture projects

At the end of her BA (Hons) Architecture degree, student Lola Tartakover reflects on the projects that she has produced during her studies and her development as an architect. 

Lola is part of our Degree Show Spotlight Series, with highlights some of the talented students exhibiting in this year’s show. Want to discover more about our student exhibitors? Read our previous piece about Chantal Barbour, who is part of our inaugural graduating year of Fashion Art Direction students. 

Finding beauty in craft and the city 

Through attending Manchester School of Architecture, I have begun to realise that creativity stems from the ability to view places and experiences as an art form, as something of beauty that has been crafted in some way or another.

Therefore, my inspiration stems from anywhere and everywhere. I try to visit as many places and pieces of architecture as possible both in Manchester and abroad, visit lots of art exhibitions, lectures and design events organised by the School.

Manchester is an amazing city in which to do this, with quirky streets, people and events around every corner.

Designing from the inside out 

In this sense, architecture becomes an outlet for me, with it being a very personal way of visualising my perception of the world. An ideology which I aim to abide by within my practice is a place interior spatial experience as a starting point for design and something that is pivotal throughout the design process. I think there is a contemporary obsession with judging a building by its exterior view and forms rather than actually inhabiting its spaces. Therefore, I design not through viewing the building as one single entity or mass, but as many individual experiences compiled together to generate an event with the architecture acting almost as a stage for encourage human involvement.

When designing, I have always tried to push my ideas to the height of their potential. In first year, I designed a mobile home where every household object could transform into a music instrument, and in second year, I designed a house with a public fruit and veg market on the roof.

The philosophy of Manchester School of Architecture allows you to explore these unique concepts, but still make them tangible and relatable to the real world. I think my practice has benefited immensely from this with my designs becoming much more refined and sophisticated but retaining a sense of innovation and novelty.

Creating eco-friendly remembrance spaces 

In my final year, I felt like the brief perfectly catered to my interests and really helped me to focus my design ambitions. The aim was to create a piece of architecture that allows nature to thrive as well as promoting humanistic experience. I designed an eco-friendly cemetery where bodies are decomposed and turned into biogas, which is used to power and heat the building. The by-product of the process is also used to fertilise the land of the site. The procedure has been proven to succeed, but there are currently no cemeteries which offer it.

It was been extremely exciting to design an entirely new building typology and to invent my own set of criteria for the building program. My main priority has been to combine the functional, industrial aspect of a cemetery with the immensely emotional experience faced during a bereavement and querying how those two elements can be more closely intertwined to generate restoration.

You can see Lola's work at Manchester School of Art Degree Show until 20 June or find out more about her work through her portfolio.