The House by Jessica Burton

The House by Jessica Burton is a community architecture and interior design project set in an old fish market in Portsmouth.

The useful idea is simple: a building that could be read as leftover urban fabric becomes a place for connection, gathering and creative reuse.

Project images

The project visuals show how interior architecture, public use and drawing technique can work together to explain a community-focused proposal.

Project overview

Jessica graduated from the University of Portsmouth with a First Class BA(Hons) in Interior Architecture and Design. She also achieved best portfolio in her course twice and had a year of industry experience as a Visual Project Coordinator at VMGraphics.

The House was her final major project. It was modelled in SketchUp, developed with orthographic drawings in AutoCAD, then rendered in Photoshop using a collage-led visual style.

What makes the old fish market useful

• It gives the project a real local anchor rather than a generic interior brief.
• It lets the design connect memory, community and public use.
• It creates a reason to think about thresholds, gathering and shared activity.
• It gives the portfolio a clearer story around reuse and civic value.
• It helps the reader understand why the building matters before judging the image style.

Portfolio lesson

For interior architecture students, this is the part worth noticing: the project is strongest when the social purpose and the drawing method support each other. A collage style can be powerful, but only if the reader also understands the brief, site and user journey.

Architecture Social view

Stephen’s recruiter view is that practices rarely have time to decode a student project from visuals alone. The stronger move is to make the project legible: site, user, problem, response and evidence.

Next step

Explore more student projects, read the portfolio guide, or submit a community architecture project.