Day 4: combining the concept and stories of each member in group 1, they sketched the new ground floor plan, and have an initial idea about how to separate space and what people can do in different areas.
Our team are pleased to invite Joe Dempsey of dag_Architects to join us this morning for some advice and feedback on our designs for the Artisan Studio so far. We intend to take full advantage of Joe's experience of delivering spaces which are people focused and contextually driven. This discussion will mark the end of the first week of MSA Live 2021 for our team putting us in a great position to start signing off on our final design at the beginning of week 2.
To get a better understanding of existing playscape interventions we dived into looking at existing precedents: learning more about its response to site, materiality, form, colour, interactivity and SWOT analysis. These have helped to develop and further understand our ideas for our proposal designs for Beech Road Park that’s best suited for the community of Chorlton.
By using our online Miro Board, we were able to see, analyse and present to each other playscapes from all over the world; ranging from local play areas built here in Manchester to huge landscape projects located internationally such as in Taichung, Taiwan.
By splitting ourselves into two groups, we were able to undergo a fully ‘virtual’ site analysis of Beech Road Park in Chorlton. Thanks to our collaborator, Laura Sanderson from Friends of Beech Road, we were able to see a walk-through video of the entire site. By using online resources, we were able to gather enough data to understand the tangible needs of the site’s future playscape. For the community wants, interviews between the MA students and the client were conducted before-hand. This information was then relayed to our BA students for their knowledge.
Day Five // Friday’s Timetable
10:00 – 12:30 Developing master-planning concepts in sub-group explorations
13:30 – 14:00 Sharing sub-group concepts and ideas
14:15 – 16:30 Group drawing activity – in two teams Inspire Bradford will work collaboratively to draw on Miro as we develop two masterplans
After another great session yesterday, today we will be starting a new method of design development through speed model making. All of your installation proposals will have buildable elements and through a speed model making exercise you will develop and refine your design further in 3D.
You will need basic materials like paper, card and scissors to do this speed model making exercise. In your groups you will then refine your individual models into one group model that incorporates all of your models’ strengths, this will be then defined in perspectives and a final image for your group proposals.
We hope you all enjoy today’s exercises, which is great for getting ideas out and developed, without being too precious early on. Remember to have fun with it!
Lunch 1 – 2 PM
Guest Speaker - DAY 4
The morning session started with a great talk by Craig Dick, the sustainability manager for the Manchester Townhall Restoration project. He is a part of our project partner Lendlease for more than 4 years now. He spoke about how to make a building more efficient for future use and some tips about material reuse and ways to reduce carbon emission. His useful insights were reflected by the team, which led to some great design developments for the rest of the day.
Group 3 - Home screen and Building Elevation group
The third group further refined a unified style for creating these conceptual elevations by finding a midpoint between the results of the previous 2 days. In this instance they once again took 4 different elements from different buildings and combined them together.
Group 2 - The Avatar clothing and the splash screen/loading screen group
The designs made by the group are inspired by the different iconic sites and buildings around Manchester like the Beetham Tower. Once the group became more confident, they began to detail some of the buildings with different styles.
Group 2 - The Avatar clothing and the splash screen/loading screen group
For the fourth day, the second group focused on creating ideas for the splash screen of the app. the original illustrations the main elements that the group wanted to explore, such as the type of buildings to represent, the colour scheme and the style.
Group 1 - Achievement icons and Learning platform group
The group has continued to design the achievement icons for the learning app, finalising a draft in preparation for the presentation that will be held with the client the next day.
The proposed pavilion functions as a shelter for the public. It considers the circulation axis to the church and addresses the arrival from the metro link. The symmetrical language established by the structure celebrates the church as the focal point of the square. During the day, pavilion shelters people from rain and allows for market stalls to operate. At night, the space is catered for mass events such as projection show or film screening. The scheme enhances the dynamics of the square and accommodates for multiple uses while paying homage to the church.
Anca, Tak and Tom did some studies about the existing building in regards to the spatial layout, materiality and urban relationship. They also looked at how the staffs and residents occupy and encounter each other inside. By examining the current condition of the building and end-users, we will try to redesign and upgrade part of the building with a cost-effective way.
Key Components of Cooperative Discussing
1. Individual accountability to maintain student responsibility and behaviour
2. Engagement and outcomes
3. Positive interdependence relating to each group member learning to depend on the rest of the group while working with others to complete the task
4. Positive face-to-face interactions involved with listening, encouraging shared decision-making, personal responsibilities and teaching how to give and receive feedback
5. Group processing to allow time for the team to discuss how well the group achieved their goal and maintained an effective working relationship
In this session, BA students are broken into groups of 3-4 and we place MIRO BOARD to let them share the ideas, related to their certain stories. Each group starts at a different scheme and is given a different way to show with. This strategy is useful because it causes students to work together in their groups but also within the whole team. It helps to hold all students accountable because they have to draw their ideas down and help their group members who are struggling to come up with something to write.
BA students showed great enthusiasm and creativity. Unlike the previous few days, everyone was more familiar with each other and the team was communicating more smoothly. Even with computer screens in the way, all the team are still full of energy.
Abu and Irina have investigated about the history of the Cornerstone Day Centre. They collaborated together and did a timeline diagram to show the past of the building. It clearly showed that the building has been used for supporting disadvantaged groups since the 1940s.
Alex, Jessica and Louis did some research about the environment of built environment. From circulation to climate analysis, they expressed their findings by mappings. The research gives us the idea of site opportunities and constraints for the further design.
DAY 3: Create a space for children in THE TETLEY
Everyone is creative today, and someone is paying attention to children!
It's so exciting!
Children will finally have their own space in The Tetley.
Let's see how it goes!
Another material we spent time analysing in regards to its sustainability was Tiles. We spent time questioning how to reuse, recycle, and repurpose this material, creating this framework to use when examining the process of other tiles.
This is a Flow diagram curated by Miruna.
Great afternoon session today! We've been brainstorming ideas for the target audience, narrative, engagement strategy, visual representation, emotional connectivity, and distribution strategy for the workshop.
After researching the sustainability of materials further, we started to question the reusability, recyclability, and repurposing of Metal. We started to formulate a flow diagram (framework) for identifying how sustainable metals are.
On the topic of finding alternatives to recycling metals, Harrison (a BA student within the group) mentioned how he had previous experience on using old Ductwork to create a Lifesize instillation model
Today’s activities began with a presentation from the fifth years understanding how to present interim process and being able to identify and showcase core concepts mid-way through a project. Following this, the groups were split again into their break-out rooms to further develop their designs through mixed-media approaches. Towards the end of the day the focus transitioned into developing presentations for tomorrow’s guest speaker.
Sneak Peek! The video shooting was done today to record the experimentation of the light and shadow effect from the various perforated pattern we created with the BAs. Looking forward to seeing the finished work after the post-editing session tomorrow.
Following a graphic presentation and photoshop workshop by Dunni and Aidiel. The project team commenced collaging the cities that have been researched so far, in order to serve as the ‘hero image’ within next weeks infographic posters.
Following a graphic presentation and photoshop workshop by Dunni and Aidiel. The project team commenced collaging the cities that have been researched so far, in order to serve as the ‘hero image’ within next weeks infographic posters.
Following a graphic presentation and photoshop workshop by Dunni and Aidiel. The project team commenced collaging the cities that have been researched so far, in order to serve as the ‘hero image’ within next weeks infographic posters.
Following a graphic presentation and photoshop workshop by Dunni and Aidiel. The project team commenced collaging the cities that have been researched so far, in order to serve as the ‘hero image’ within next weeks infographic posters.
Following a graphic presentation and photoshop workshop by Dunni and Aidiel. The project team commenced collaging the cities that have been researched so far, in order to serve as the ‘hero image’ within next weeks infographic posters.
A busy day on site (covid safe) and a lot of sketching!
We met with Dominic Sagar and Eva Schlunke, from the Workhouse project, and started to discuss ideas. Regeneration of the Lost Highway will have a phased development and our job is to kick start phase one!
Phase one is to get people excited about development, start tackling the 'food problem' in Hulme and start to involve the community in the regeneration of the Lost Highway. This phase will also involve securing funding for the future.
With this in mind we started to consider how we could design a structure with minimal funding. By building with local recycled materials, we could save on material and labour costs. We considered the use of wooden pallets, tyres and plastic bottles. These are all materials we could resource locally on Facebook marketplace or recycling centres free of charge.
We spent the afternoon sketching and planning developments with these unconventional building materials deciding on key concepts to explore further tomorrow!
Today some of the students have been experimenting with the form of residential housing using a 5m x 5m structural grid. Some of the experimentations done involve stepped housing, more traditional housing and a cluster typology. After discussing the pros and cons of the ideas with specific focus on natural daylighting, privacy, amenity and accessibility we’re looking forward as a group to progressing with the design!
The storyboards show how people are guided by these curved structures to the open square in front of the church. and a taste of Rochdale's history in the curved walkways.
During day 4 of MSA Live, our team further expanded on the design work of the previous day. Moving from the initial conceptual stage of the design to a more detailed one, we focused on the spatial requirements of the programme of the workshop and classroom, as well as analysing precedents and making tentative decisions on materiality and structure, laying the groundwork for further exploration.
Following a graphic presentation and photoshop workshop by Dunni and Aidiel. The project team commenced collaging the cities that have been researched so far, in order to serve as the ‘hero image’ within next weeks infographic posters.
Following a graphic presentation and photoshop workshop by Dunni and Aidiel. The project team commenced collaging the cities that have been researched so far, in order to serve as the ‘hero image’ within next weeks infographic posters.
Today, we run a photoshop workshop to demonstrate basic techniques and steps for image creation. Students are tasked to curate 3 images or collages that communicate their design strategy in both macro and microscale. The exercise allows students to revisit their design strategy and compose these in visual form. Throughout the process, composition, colours, scale and hierarchy of elements were explored for the communication of work.
Following a graphic presentation and photoshop workshop by Dunni and Aidiel. The project team commenced collaging the cities that have been researched so far, in order to serve as the ‘hero image’ within next weeks infographic posters.
Following a graphic presentation and photoshop workshop by Dunni and Aidiel. The project team commenced collaging the cities that have been researched so far, in order to serve as the ‘hero image’ within next weeks infographic posters.
The first image shows a large scale 3D view of the symbols representing the church that one can see on the way from the station to the church, including the small mosaic dome, the fire station tower, the mosaic road, and the information about the church that one can see on one's mobile phone after scanning the QR code.
The second picture gives a closer look at the small mosaic dome pavilion. The signage takes one in the direction of the church. It is also possible to see in this picture how people move around inside the small dome exhibition pavilion.
The third image, the final image of the storyboard, makes it clear how the people are guided by the mosaic path to the even more beautiful church at the end. These three storyboards act like a book, gradually leading one to the best part of the story - the mosaic inside the church.
Day 4 – Developing our concepts ideas, the accessible planter group created a series of concepts. We have taken inspiration from the precedents and the materials found on site to create ideas centred around making cheap accessible interventions. These are focused around four different styles of planter:
Following a graphic presentation and photoshop workshop by Dunni and Aidiel. The project team commenced collaging the cities that have been researched so far, in order to serve as the ‘hero image’ within next weeks infographic posters.
Great to see everyone learning so much whilst editing the footage together. One of the Ba students (Satish) has learnt to create animations like this which we will be using to annotate parts of the Photography tutorial video.
WHY I’M NO LONGER TALKING TO WHITE PEOPLE ABOUT RACE
To kick start the day, the team read the chapter ‘the system’ within the influential book by Reni Eddo-Lodge, Why I’m No Longer Talking To White People About Race.
The team then split into groups to draw out common themes in relation to diversity and equality within the system, and from yesterday's Q&A with Tara. These themes included colour-blindness, institutional racism, positive discrimination, lack of role-models, tokenism, positive discrimination, and so much more; which can be applied to the construction industry and many others.
After following our tutorial on Illustrator, BA students made spatial arrangement diagrams this afternoon. All of them showed the clear spatial relationship for initial concept ideas. Well done!
Day 3 – To get a better understanding of existing interventions we researched into more precedents: learning more about existing wheelchair planters and the best dimensions, different heights of planters for different ages and abilities, table-top planters with different planting depths for roots, planter layouts for easy access, and alternative path materials and temporary ramp interventions for adaptable sites. These have helped to develop our ideas for new interventions to be placed in Platt field market gardens and be able to transfer these designs to some of the other sites MUD works in.
Session time! our drawing group members took part in the activity that would become the framework for our tutorial video. Expect to see more from our other groups and their activities.
After confirming the website's layout on day 4, the team was split into two groups based on individual interests in web design and research. One group spent the day brainstorming the website's structure and hierarchy; the other group focused on building the site's landing page. Our website design firm came up with some great presentation ideas for the website, emphasising simplicity through design while incorporating WOAH's theme. The research team also drew mind maps to collate thoughts while simultaneously laying a solid foundation for the website.
Keep reading to see how we contribute to the final design by integrating these creative ideas into the final web design!
Today we split into three groups based on students’ preferences to learn different pieces of software. The Map Making team focussed on creating fun and consistent graphics using Illustrator in order to create child-friendly site plans for our website. The Paper Nets and Colouring Sheets team designed a series of coal-industry themed sheets for kids to unleash their creativity while learning a bit about energy supply and electricity. The team mostly used AutoCAD and Illustrator to design these outputs. Finally, the Exhibition Space team modelled a potential exhibition space at the National Coal Mining Museum in SketchUp and rendered a couple of short clips with the space in Enscape (clip above).
We are really eager to see how all these outputs are going to come together by the end of these two weeks. We’ll keep you posted!
Today we had an amazing model making workshop where we learnt how to quickly model our ideas into concept forms that will aid us to develop the design further.
Today all four groups have made huge progress in the development of their schemes.
Group 4 drew some inspiration from galleries and art installations to further develop children's activity rooms, integrating different textures and colour projections for varied experiences. Students have also combined a cafe space for parents with the sensory route - allowing the space to become part of tasting and smelling experience. The scheme has also been developed to take advantage of the site's orientation, the roof garden positioned on the south end of the site to receive as much sunlight as possible.
Today, students have also developed several sets of plans and sections, illustrating the site being used by families during the day and as a venue for events during the evening/night to further explain their multi-purpose use of the proposal.
Today all four groups have made huge progress in the development of their schemes.
By considering the idea of creating a community in Chorlton park, group 3 decided to design a well-being centre which includes spaces for yoga, art exhibitions, drawing classes, a library and a small cinema that could used by students and people in the neighbourhood. Additionally, the idea of having an amphitheater on the site, which is proposed to be used as an outside cinema as well, will encourage further community engagement and the possibility of collaborating with local schools and dramatic groups.
Day 2 involved a solar and passive strategies workshop which started with a presentation providing the students with some inspiration for some of the fantastic designs they came up with. We encouraged the students to really explore all of the different possible, materials, orientations, proportions and window arrangements which would maximise solar gain. The workshop also encouraged students to explore alternative passive strategies such as wind power and rainwater recycling.
The students came up with some really fantastic ideas, the design shown in this blog post explores the idea of a moving structure which follows the sun throughout the day, maximising solar gain and harnessing wind power to motorise the moving mechanism!
Day 3: Creating a flexible and fluid space from the perspective of a family:
BA students have come up with several concept drawings, imagining how a family would use the Tetley's ground floor in the future, based on the case studies they have researched. Access, circulation, functions and spatial relationship have been analysed.
Today all four groups have made huge progress in the development of their schemes.
Group 2 is ready to wrap up the design presentation with some perspective collages as final touch, and is excited for the exchange of ideas on Friday's presentation. Development of the scheme has been represented by sketch diagrams, layout arrangement, and a sectional view of the whole site
Today all four groups have made huge progress in the development of their schemes.
Group 1 has focused on their sustainability agenda, refining their programme and material sourcing. For example they have proposed to reuse pallets from material deliveries, to create ergonomic garden furniture.
Today our team member Jordon gave a fab sketch modelling workshop! Using items found lying round the house he showed how to make quick sketchy models as a design development tool. The aim was not to think about it too much, just have fun and be creative.. sketch models do not have to be perfect!
The workshop set up the rest of the team for an afternoon of creating their own sketch models which we will be using to analyse and create more detailed designs.
The fourth day started off with a talk from Glass-House, who introduced us to the community projects that they are involved in. They set up an interactive activity for us to take part in where we had 20 minutes to think of a social distanced engagement activity to help design an object in a park for the community.
A big thank you to James Altham for joining us today to provide us with a great SketchUp workshop. James provided the team with some really helpful top tips when it comes to building SketchUp models to create renders. This will be really beneficial as we start to consider our design proposals as three dimensional spaces that fit into a wider site context.
Day 4 - With our site being located in a park, there are numerous boundaries and edges. Ian Fisher, a landscape architect and staff member at the Manchester School of Architecture, talked us through each constraint and offered suggestions on how to better them and our initial proposal. This included providing more spaces for reflection, engagement and activity. These urban design elements will be the teams focus in Week 2 and so it was really useful to have them introduced now!
Our team had an intensive design day. We did lots of sketching, laying out our programme on site before presenting our initial designs using Miro. It was great to see everyone's ideas on paper and we can't wait to combine them over the next days as we begin to finalise our designs.
In the morning, Juliet led a model-making workshop, to help generate ideas for the concept and form of the new buildings on the site. She gave a short presentation about how, why, what, when, and where models are used before showing an example she made specifically for the project. Students were asked to create similar sketch models in groups, subdivided according to the three key buildings on the site; the community space, leisure centre and library. They were encouraged to use recycled materials and consider how their model was photographed, through their lighting and position.
The resulting sketch models, created by the BA students, demonstrate a broad range of approaches which explore different materials, from the use of cardboard and polystyrene to paper and foamboard. This exercise helped us to identify key points of interest from each student’s model, which could be combined to inform the final form of the buildings.
Today the team started off by researching, finding examples of and then discussing our projected outputs; a Zine; a string of informative Instagram posts and an exploded axonometric diagram of The Farmer’s Arms.
We had a guest talk from a visual designer, Joshua Corden of Philip Colbert Studio. The talk and Q&A gave a great insight into different styles of graphic presentation and final outputs that can be achieved, some which the team had not considered for the future outputs.
ARUP Live Talk // This morning Inspire Bradford were joined by Terry Lee-Williams, Manuel Garrido and Lean Doody from Arup for a discussion on the development of a fifteen minute neighbourhood in Little Germany. We shared our findings from the historic, social and pragmatic site analysis carried out over the week as well as the ideas generated from our early sketching activity looking into what we thought should be included in a fifteen minute neighbourhood. Terry, Manuel and Lean identified that Bradford already exhibited many of the qualities needed for a fifteen minute neighbourhood and that Little Germany was a part of the wider strategy for the city. As such the focus shifted in the project, looking more at how Little Germany could become a district in the city with a designated purpose that suited its context. Since the talk we have begun to identify what Little Germany should be and why as an area it is failing, whilst also developing principles that will aid the design of our masterplan for the area. We look forward to building on these ideas tomorrow and into next week as we look reintegrate Little Germany into the life of Bradford.
This morning's session Introduced the BA students to Rhinoceros; a 3D modelling software that we will be using in the upcoming week. In it, we went through the basics of the software which they can use during their academic course.
Fifteen-Minute Neighbourhood Sketching // We started the day with a quick drawing exercise where we represented our idea for a fifteen-minute neighbourhood.
In response to the site analysis completed on Tuesday and the article by Arup on ‘Designing the fifteen-minute city’, the team produced a variety of different concepts and drawings in a range of mediums. This work collated our ideas relating to the needs and requirements for people to live comfortably within a fifteen-minute city, providing everything from amenities to education and health care. The diagrams, sketches and photomontages enabled us to have an informative and productive conversation with Terry, Lean and Manuel, from Arup, as they challenged us to respond to the wider context of Little Germany.
We are currently exploring different ideas such that various art forms can be instilled into the heart of Nelson town in such a way that the streets are livelier, and people are constantly entertained with activities that they can take part in and not just be a spectator. Work by Kerryn Arianne Karishma Peters, James Baker, Rana Pauliana Budianta.
After a detailed study on the ergonomics, mobile and flexible structures, and the needs of the people of Nelson, our second intervention is to create a flexible and mobile pod that can be instilled in any part of the town. These pods can be dismantled and fit back like lego blocks depending on their use. Work by Virginia Italia, Regina Anna Jedrzejek, Fanta Dembele.
Our group has done a schematic exercise aiming to configure a porous programme for the community to result from healthy growth instead of a division of land. The residential offer for our ownHAUS intersectional users will be mixed on-site, ranging from students sharing a cooker and a cup of tea with older members of our society to extended family modules.
ownHAUS design principles rely on sheltering each member of our community, regardless of payslip, age or identity. Our group has started to draft ideas of an intergenerational - intersectional community that will generate ownHAUS living configurations based on their needs.
Today we made alterations to the existing plan, trying to create an open and multi-functional space. We did that focusing on events that will be held in the town centre throughout the year and what they will require, including a kitchen, performance space and exhibition wall that will show off the different cultures and faiths within Nelson.
Further working on bridging the gap between the generations, the idea is to design an interactive pod that is enjoyable for all. This pod will comprise of multiple activities like vertical chess boards, swing sets, hammocks, seating areas and green spaces. The pod is to be made with sustainable materials like recycled timber and Strings. Work by Anita Luburic, Ke Han Oh, Oliver Chard.
There are some great stories of various characters. Let's discover a day in the life of a musician, an artist, a disabled person or a homeless person in the 'House of Negotiation'.