More Posts

After establishing the key drivers of the design, we started the early concept development by sketching different aspects of the proposed extension for the Tetley, which will be at the heart of Central Park. The 4 main outputs of this process were:
1. Facade development, driven by lighting strategies and materiality.
2. Landscaping, focusing on sculptures and seating areas.
3. Entrances and permeability between the park and the extension.
4. Circulation; how the old connects with the new.
This process will be followed by combining the initial concepts and creating 2 more defined design proposals.
Posted 11 May 2021 16:31
Today the BA and MLA Students continued to discover some intriguing landmarks around Chorlton, as a group they investigated the possible pathways that could encourage community collaborative as well as understanding of the surrounding neighbourhood.
Posted 11 May 2021 16:23
SKETCHING

Let's have a look with creative concept ideas from BA students!
Posted 11 May 2021 16:21
SKETCHING

Let's have a look with creative concept ideas from BA students!
Posted 11 May 2021 16:20
SKETCHING

Let's have a look with creative concept ideas from BA students!
Posted 11 May 2021 16:20
DAY 2

Filming has started. Here's a quick look at the behind the scenes of the filming for our Architectural photography workshop video. We're excited to see what the final outcome will look like!
Posted 11 May 2021 16:09
Yesterday we launched PLOT-TWIST with a group introduction before joining the ‘Inspire Bradford (21)’ group in a virtual Tour and Q&A of Bradford City Centre by two of our collaborators, Kieran Thompson and Simon Cunningham. Our Ba students followed this by joining the Masters students in looking at how we may want to first map out the masterplan of the site over the following two weeks before presenting their initial interests in both types of pavilions and buildings of cultural significance. The afternoon was spent modelling these, both digitally and physically in a task which aims to try and capture the essence of these early precedents as a way of inspiring this masterplan and new cultural hub in the centre of Bradford. we can’t wait to see where the project ends up!
Posted 11 May 2021 15:49
Today we have had the opportunity to hear from Tom Bloxham MBE, chairperson and co-founder of award-winning regeneration company
Urban Splash. Tom started off with introducing the background of the company and their values and insights in place-making and moved on to introduce the Manchester Blue Line Project - the opening up of the Irwell River and the reimagining of Manchester city center. It was an inspiring talk which not only introduced students to the company's projects but also
motivated students to be bold and creative in doing whatever they wanted to do. There were endless possibilities and as Tom puts it - "Everything is possible."
Posted 11 May 2021 15:38
PERSPECTIVE WORKSHOP

Following this morning's successful drawing experiment, MArch student Eva Hughes Filose has presented a workshop on different types of perspectives. The students were then encouraged to try sketching themselves and we have seen some very ambitious attempts for 3, 4 or even 5 point perspectives! The general feedback of this exercise was positive and it encouraged both BA and MArch students step out of their comfort zone and try their hand at some complex architectural compositions.
Posted 11 May 2021 15:27
Key Drivers
Following on from day 1 of the project, some key drivers for the design were established from the students' precedent and site analysis. These were accessibility, green buffers, social features, lighting strategies, thermal comfort, inclusive appeal, permeability and heritage. These key drivers will act as a guide for the concept development of the gallery extension.
Posted 11 May 2021 15:11
DAY 2

To start off the day, we looked through all of the video storyboards that were created yesterday for our video themes (architectural photography, sketch models and sketching). By talking through the various storyboards that the BA and MArch team members had produced, we were able to see the similarities between them. Now that we've agreed on which storyboards, we're going to film, we're spending the rest of the day filming.
Posted 11 May 2021 15:08
Day 2: Research
For day 2 of How Women Build? we have split our team up into three groups. Each group has been given 6 names of women who have graduated from the Manchester School of Architecture and have gone on to be successful in various different fields. It has been interesting seeing how different groups have approached the research and how they have collated their findings onto the group Miro Boards.
Posted 11 May 2021 14:34
Day 2: Research
For day 2 of How Women Build? we have split our team up into three groups. Each group has been given 6 names of women who have graduated from the Manchester School of Architecture and have gone on to be successful in various different fields. It has been interesting seeing how different groups have approached the research and how they have collated their findings onto the group Miro Boards.
Posted 11 May 2021 14:34
Day 2: Research
For day 2 of How Women Build? we have split our team up into three groups. Each group has been given 6 names of women who have graduated from the Manchester School of Architecture and have gone on to be successful in various different fields. It has been interesting seeing how different groups have approached the research and how they have collated their findings onto the group Miro Boards.
Posted 11 May 2021 14:33
JIGSAW DRAWING

This morning, our BA and MArch students were given a puzzle piece of a bigger composition and were asked to draw it in their own style. The end result is an unique composition, where complementary drawings enhance one another. Afterwards, we have asked the students about the experience and they shared some insight into the preferred art technique with the rest of the group, such as materials used or creative process. The resulted composition will be shared on our social media as part of the final workshop exhibition!
Posted 11 May 2021 14:20
An exciting fresher’s discussion involving the students, collaborators and guests from the Chorlton community. The BA and MLA students were able to gain greater insight into the Chorlton neighborhood by discussing themes such as artistic social identity and their grassroot initiatives. The guests briefed the students about their campaign ‘Our Green Chorlton’ that promotes the community to look after it’s green space and make more use of them.
Posted 11 May 2021 14:13
OUR BRIEF
#Social Requirements:

Due to the demand of everyday life, some sustainable strategies on utilities, like composting toilets and geothermal energy and solar, can also be focused on during research. This project also takes social responsibilities concerning housing problems and calls for affordable houses to build or rent. As is built in Whitworth Park, it can also be promotional while representing the voice of locals or having spaces for some posters of the incoming events of Whitworth. It would be lovely that a stage could be built up around the house which provides a platform for community integration.
Posted 11 May 2021 14:03
OUR BRIEF
#Physical Requirements:

For this project, we plan to design a house for two people that contains plenty of space to live and meet guests. The house is expected to have a private garden or something similar to provide an environmentally friendly lifestyle. Some building material choices and passive strategies are concerned with climate changes or other environmental issues. Moreover, how to balance the privacy of the house’s users and publicity towards park visitors is essential. Private and secure upper floors with ground floors potentially being more public could be a solution.

Looking forward to seeing more creative ideas in the following days!
Posted 11 May 2021 14:00
Our first completed guest workshop!
We just met with a talented local team who produced an infographic map of Chorlton and its main features. The students had the opportunity to discuss with Anna Violet and Danielle Lowry.

Anna who originally trained and worked as a landscape architect for many years, is now a freelance illustrator, specialising in children's books, maps, logos and museum exhibits.

Danielle, who is the director of 'The Make It Shop' based In Chorlton was also an instrumental figure when coordinating the map production.
Posted 11 May 2021 12:44
Day 02: Initial Ideas

Our BA students have begun sketching and diagramming their initial ideas for temporary site accommodation. The students brainstormed initial concepts reflecting on a day in the life of a construction worker, engineer and design manager. These users are expected to have different requirements for the site accommodation which will inform the design development. Spatial adjacency diagrams of the different programmes are beginning to reflect the daily routines of these users which will inform the final design proposal.
Posted 11 May 2021 12:43
DAY TWO...WORKSHOPS AND SKILL DEVELOPMENT:

We wanted to give our team the chance to improve skills for both this project and within their future workplace. Everyone has their own unique design process, but can struggle when putting this to paper; therefore, we presented two morning workshops to cover some basics:

Our first workshop covered tips and tricks for those that prefer hand drawn methods, whilst the second one focused on digital drafting via Sketchup, including suggesting plugins to streamline the drawing process.
Posted 11 May 2021 12:28
Day 1 – To understand the difficulties of gardening with disabilities we asked our group to take an image of their garden/ park and analyse the constraints they currently possess in relation to accessibility. We then produced images to demonstrate the potential improvements we could make to these spaces.
Posted 11 May 2021 11:30
Day 1 – To understand the difficulties of gardening with disabilities we asked our group to take an image of their garden/ park and analyse the constraints they currently possess in relation to accessibility. We then produced images to demonstrate the potential improvements we could make to these spaces.
Posted 11 May 2021 11:30
Day 1 – To understand the difficulties of gardening with disabilities we asked our group to take an image of their garden/ park and analyse the constraints they currently possess in relation to accessibility. We then produced images to demonstrate the potential improvements we could make to these spaces.
Posted 11 May 2021 11:30
DAY 01:

The first day of the MSA LIVE event saw the MArch and the BA look into and research the possibilities for architecures that incorporate reused elements. Such examples include discarded pallets, plastic chairs and even ceramic tiles.

The aim of this task was to investigate possible areas for further exploration, to help answer the question as to how we can be more sustainable as future architects.
Posted 11 May 2021 11:10
DAY 01:

For the first day, we set the task to introduce ourselves by letting an object that we own do most of the talking. Each student then entered into a fun conversation about all of the fun and interesting backgrounds that we all bring to the group.
Posted 11 May 2021 11:10
JIGSAW DRAWING

The first exercise of this morning will be a group one, where our students can showcase their personality and art style. We have prepared a collage and each student got assigned to work on one piece of the puzzle. The aim of this exercise is to allow collaboration between the BA and the Masters students, while creating a unique and eclectic art piece!

Keep an eye on our instagram page @msa_sketchy_business where we will update the process!
Posted 11 May 2021 11:02
Welcome to Day 2!

DAY 2 HIGHLIGHTS:
10:00 - Intro to Research-Network Week
10:25 - Ethnographic Study
10:55 - Presentation & Group Discussion
11:35 - Finalising Research
13:45 - Intro to Research Task 2
16:30 - Debrief
Posted 11 May 2021 10:44
DAY 1 HIGHLIGHTS!!

Meeting with Client:
We had an amazing opportunity to meet with our clients who introduced Lifeshare to the students and have clarified the students about the brief. It was a very informative session and there was a plethora of information to take in. The information taken will serve to inform our design decisions.
Posted 11 May 2021 09:58
Initial Brainstorming Session!

Today we all used Miro to gather some initial images and precedents of fun inspiring spaces.

As a team we will be designing a series of pods for children and communities to engage with and use as hubs of creativity!

We started by thinking big and colourful, thinking of spaces which children would love to interact with.

Miro has been a really useful tool to allow us all to share our ideas and collaborate as a team even though we can’t physically be together.

The team has got some really great ideas so far and we can’t wait to put these into practice and see how the designs develop over the coming weeks!
Posted 11 May 2021 09:57
Day 2! We have invited some special guest in to share their experience on modular housing today!

10:00 - Briefing
10:30 - Guest Talk (Michael Swisszczowski)
11:30 - Group Discussion on Miro
12:00 - Design Concept
12:45 - Lunch
14:00 - Guest Talk (Philip Watson)
15:00 - Presentation & Discussion
16:30 - Debrief
Posted 11 May 2021 09:26
DAY 1 HGHLIGHTS!!!

Achievements and Learning Icons:
Students have started to sketch out some ideas of achievements and learning icons for the app and attempted to use Adobe illustrator to convert these sketches into vector images.
Posted 11 May 2021 09:20
DAY 2 - SCHEDULE
TUESDAY 11th MAY 2021

10:00 - URBAN SPLASH Lecture

11:45 - Defining & Exploring the Project Materials

14:00 - MArch Recycled Project Presentations

14:50 - Investing existing Sustainability Frameworks
Posted 11 May 2021 09:18
It’s Day TWO!

DAY 2 TIMETABLE:
10 AM - Introduction to objectives of the day, learning further about the barriers and issues of visibility
11 AM - Group Exercise 1: Precedent Studies, diagramming, sketching and documenting an initial strategy.
1 – 2 PM - Lunch
2 PM - Completing Group Exercise 1
3 PM - Short informal presentations of each group’s initial strategies
4 PM - Recap of the day
Posted 11 May 2021 09:00
DAY 2!
Posted 11 May 2021 08:25
Colour the City #DAY2 schedule

9.45 a.m.: Morning catch up and briefing
10.00 a.m.: ‘Get-to-know’ Invisible (Manchester)
10.35 a.m.: Virtual tour with the Invisible (Manchester) tour guides, Danny and Laura!
11.45 a.m.: Coffee break
12.00 p.m.: Photograph and text exchange

1.00 p.m.: Lunch break

2.00 p.m: Graphic layout talk by Dan James
3.00 p.m.: Task Allocation
3.30 p.m: Review of #DAY2
3.45 p.m.: Run-through #DAY3 schedule
4.00 p.m: End of #DAY2

We are really excited and looking forward to the sessions!
Posted 11 May 2021 07:11
Design Team - Day 1
After a successful virtual site visit followed by splitting into two teams, the design team further delves into the design aspect of the project. The session commences with a synchronized brainstorming on the MIRO board. Further dividing the main design idea into two subgroups: QR display & visitor experience center. These are the main design elements within our site. The session ends with a detailed discussion of each individual's ideas. The response was overwhelming. There were some great precedents to take inspiration from. Also, it was nice to have seen different design approaches towards the same site. Looking forward to getting more perspective tomorrow after layering down all the concepts to our collaborators.
Posted 11 May 2021 04:36
Schedule for Day one
10:00 - Group Welcome
10:15 - Ice Breaker
11:45 - Guest Speakers and Getting to Know Chorlton
13:30 - Group Discussion
14:00 - Site Analysis
15:45 - Group Discussion of Site Analysis
16:30 - Debrief

Posted 11 May 2021 02:41
DAY 1 HIGHLIGHT 2!!!

In our smaller breakout groups, the students guided by the MArch students created a variety of different elements for the app. One of such elements was the clothing for the avatar. They have come up with a series of clothing designs all created using Illustrator. A lot of the students used Illustrator for the first time, and yet they did an amazing job!!!
Posted 11 May 2021 00:56
DAY 1 HIGHLIGHT 1!!

To get people used to the interface and process of illustrator we designed the same door element using a number of illustrator tools. Today, the students learnt how to use the curvature, shape builder, pencil and text tools to create these wonderful designs.
Posted 11 May 2021 00:52
Meet our guest speaker!

We are so excited to welcome John Lee as our guest speaker this week! John will inspire our students by telling us all about his work with Projekts MCR - a skatepark in Manchester that has utilized shipping containers for establishing various social and leisure spaces.

John Lee is a senior lecturer from MSA and has taught in the Continuity in Architecture atelier since 2004. He is interested in investigating all aspects of context and learning from traditional architecture as means of achieving urban continuity. He is also keen on exploring the role of ornament in architectural design and its relationship to the craft of the building.
Posted 11 May 2021 00:07
Guest Speaker: Heritage trade specialists

We're looking forward to being joined by individuals who work within heritage trades, such as stone masonry and gilding, on Tuesday 11th may.

This session will be invaluable for our team as it will give us a chance to really get to grips with the specialist work they will be carrying out on the town hall. We plan on asking lots of question to find out what the requirements for these users might be.

Posted 11 May 2021 00:01
Day 1 round up!

Our team spent some time virtually exploring our site and it's surroundings today. Using Google Maps and Google Street View we were able to take a closer look around Albert Square in Manchester. Our team members each picked out an architectural detail that interested them from around the site and produced an image in a medium of their preference. We later shared these on MIRO and collated them to create some visual journeys through our site.
Posted 10 May 2021 23:54
Initial response by the BA students on the Nelson Redevelopment. They were able to analyze issues brought up by the external partners and come up with individual elucidations to them. A really productive day and an excellent start.
Posted 10 May 2021 23:44
Today marked the start of the MSA Live 21 Events and the Space Invader family has gotten bigger. Introducing BA students into the team. The first meeting along with the external partners.
Posted 10 May 2021 23:42
Day 1
Welcome to Forgotten Citizens!

Today we have welcomed our BA1 and BA2 students to join our team. We have spent some fun time together with some ice breaking activities to get know each other. We also joined Dominic Sagar’s talk on WOAH Workhouse Project. The talk has enriched our team a lot by giving us many interesting ideas on creating social infrastructure to integrate homeless people back in the community. Thank you very much Dominic!

Our team has started to investigate the backgrounds of homeless people. From the reasons for being homeless, demographics backgrounds to existing policies, we have discussed our findings as a team. Further investigations will be continued tomorrow.
Posted 10 May 2021 23:41
After everyone in the group had a go at putting together these user profiles, and trying to understand what the extension could do for them, we used sketching exercises to try turn these needs into ideas for spaces, landscaping and facilities that would all be wrapped up in the project. We looked at people who may not be that interested in Art, and what the extension could do to interest them, and involve them better into the project.
Posted 10 May 2021 23:14
We finished up todays work by trying to put together an image of the communities that we want this extension to properly serve. We split up and each developed a character that would use the site, whether a tourist, member of staff, volunteer, student or local visitor. From these user profiles we put together routes of how they would approach the site, and from where, and what the project could offer them individually.
Posted 10 May 2021 23:13
A successful first day brainstorming all of our initial ideas for the Manchester Blue Line!
Today each team member worked on producing a sketch, diagram, collage or visual that represented their first impressions of the project which was later presented to, and discussed amongst the team.
Ideas generated coved landscaping, placemaking, planting, typologies, structures and much more.
This task helped us start the conversation for the project and gave us many exciting ideas to draw on for the rest of the week!
Posted 10 May 2021 22:46
Group research on different types and methods of modular housings presenting using Miro (Modular)
Posted 10 May 2021 22:45
Group research on different types and methods of modular housings presenting using Miro (Prefab)
Posted 10 May 2021 22:45
Group research on different types and methods of modular housings presenting using Miro (Flying Factory)
Posted 10 May 2021 22:44
Join us as Tom Bloxham MBE, the chairman and founder of Urban Splash, the award-winning urban renewal property developer, presents at MSA.

Tom Bloxham will give an introduction about his work at Urban Splash and the upcoming Blueline project that encompasses a strategic opening and urban design of the River Irwell, aiming to reimagine Manchester City Centre.

An Introduction to Urban Splash – Tom Bloxham
Tuesday 11th May, 2021
10:00am London

Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/95171888723
Meeting ID: 951 7188 8723

We look forward to seeing you all there!
Posted 10 May 2021 22:38
DAY ONE… CONCENTRATION FACES!!

Today we have welcomed BA1 and BA2 students to the team.

We have spent the day getting to know each other, the project and the site. Lots of thinking, sketching and discussing followed.

Tomorrow we’re getting stuck into the concept design!
Posted 10 May 2021 22:36
HIGHLIGHTS OF #DAY1

Great work from Colour the City team for #DAY1, getting their minds with creative and brilliant ideas. Here are all the snapshots from today's activities.

#DAY1 done! More fun activities are ready and waiting for you, so join us on #DAY2. Looking forward to seeing all of you!
Posted 10 May 2021 22:22
The Mosaic Task

Mosaic task is the first activity of our group!
Students can use any available materials to complete their Mosaic task, such as recycled materials, Post-it notes, cardboard and so on
Through the first attempt to Mosaic project to other members to show their strengths, preferences and anything else they want to show. Mosaic task is a bridge for group members to get to know each other and
it will also help BA students have a better understanding of the future activity plan of our Rochdale Revival team.
Posted 10 May 2021 22:11
It's brainstorming time!
Each group was given the task of coming up with fun and exciting ideas for the students at the MHA to enjoy. We then concluded with a feedback session on how to proceed with each of our ideas.

We're looking forward to developing these activities into engaging and easy to use tasklets for the members to use during our time with the school.
Posted 10 May 2021 21:48
DAY 1

Meeting our First Guest Speaker

We would like to thank Robert Houmøller for his insightful talk on casting! All of us really enjoyed the lively discussion about the merits, methods and qualities of casting well as other architectural views.
Posted 10 May 2021 21:38
DAY 1

First Project Meeting

We really enjoyed meeting everyone all of our BA1 and BA2 team members today! We had a few ice-breaker introductions and planned our videos. We're looking forward to starting filming the footage tomorrow!
Posted 10 May 2021 21:31
Day 1
Our collaborator from Purcell Architects, Vanessa Torri gave us a small presentation on Microsoft Teams. She explained how the project started, what are the steps of the conservation project, and how the project is going on by the drawings and photographs. She answered all our questions and had a small chat with us afterwards.
Posted 10 May 2021 21:07
Skyscrapers the Limit is finally up and running! We started the day off with some ice breaker activities to get to know each other better and brief the BA1 and BA2 students with our project introduction presentation. We split ourselves into four subgroups and started our brainstorming session to consolidate the ideas for tomorrow.
Posted 10 May 2021 21:03
Here is week ones schedule, it is aimed at using the MCR town hall as a provocation for how one may go about re-using the waste materials it has. Our first week will focus on research — inspiring the creation of a document (template) of which will contain a guideline for how one may design for re-use in any future development of an existing building. We are all looking forward to see how the rest of the week goes with the outcome of the document.
Posted 10 May 2021 21:01
We at Power Trip can’t believe how the first day of MSA Live just flew by. We’ve spent an exciting morning, where we got to know all the architecture undergrads and master landscape architecture students. This was followed by a short introduction to our Case Studies and our project aims – to create a website for kids to learn about the infrastructure of power in the UK and an exhibition at the National Coal Mining Museum.

The afternoon session was the highlight of the day – as our collaborators, Richard Brook and Luca Csepely-Knorr, gave an introductory talk about their research on the landscapes of post-war infrastructure. This was followed by a brainstorming session on how to best illustrate main features of our Case Studies to make them engaging for kids between 6 and 10 years old.

We cannot wait for the following days to come, ready to create some amazing graphics and really eager for our upcoming Virtual School Trip!
Posted 10 May 2021 20:50
To get the creative juices following, the students were asked to draw something they’ve been staring at for the past year working from home! There were some great sketches from city views to blue cheese dip and breadsticks.
Posted 10 May 2021 20:19
MSA Live begins! The team is finally complete and we were able to meet the BA1 & BA2 Students. We introduced them to the brief, the site, and what we plan to do over the next two weeks.

For some of the students, this was the first time they had been exposed to applications such as Paragraph 79. We took them through the project slides and a tour of the model to gain a better understanding of the innovative technologies they will be researching during the project.

Finally, we split into 3 sub-groups:
- Energy Conservation
- Energy Generation
- Energy Storage

The students will be diving into these 3 sub-groups, researching innovative technologies that could benefit the ‘Little Rissington’ Project.
Posted 10 May 2021 20:18
VIRTUAL SITE VISIT: ALBERT SQUARE

Using Google Earth application, we had a virtual tour led by Payam and an overview of the Albert Square to get a better understanding of the site. As part of the exercise, we have carried out S.W.O.T analysis based on our first impression of the site, identifying strength, weakness, opportunity and threats present. Our discussion and findings consisting of some observations and initial ideas on potential elements to include such as skateboarding/ cycle ramps, visualisations of precedents, even the type of trees that can be planted to convey different seasonal vibes. All these are collated in our shared Miro board.
Posted 10 May 2021 20:15
Welcome to MSA LIVE 2021 "RE-USE". Over the next two weeks, we will be exploring the repurposing of materials from the Manchester Town Hall Project in collaboration with Purcell Architects. We will be designing a model project as well as a re-use framework, which consists of a developed analytical guide to inform the re-usability of materials that may be found on any construction site, as well as making use of niche objects found within such specific conservation retrofit projects. Why don't you give us a follow and keep updated! Explore our journey of creating a better future through our built environment.
Posted 10 May 2021 20:03
Meet the Mapping Colour Team! Today's session involved icebreakers and getting to know each other's skills through presenting quizzes and presenting a piece of work that we were proud of to the rest of the team. Following this we began an initial research task in smaller groups before coming together for the daily debrief. After a very successful and productive first day, we are excited to continue working with our very talented team members!
Posted 10 May 2021 19:55
CONFIRMED!

We are super excited to announce that we will have two virtual tours with the Invisible Manchester tour guides (Danny & Laura!). This virtual tour will help us to have a further understanding of how the tours are usually being conducted and possibly to gain experience from it. By engaging with all the parties involved in Invisible Manchester, all students will have a more personal understanding of each tour guide's experiences, personal and sentimental approach in exploring different places. And from this, students will be able to design the booklet creatively through sensitivity.

Danny, an “adopted Mancunian,” will show people the city’s streets as he has lived them. His tour is a thoughtful and poetic exploration that will transport you to the flip side of Manchester, beyond the mere surface of its tourist attractions.

As a transgender woman, Laura explores the history of inspirational Mancunian women who have influenced her journey of transition. She truly celebrates the rich past of our radical feminine history by linking the history of women or of a particularly notable woman at each selected place.

Found out more about their tours at:
(Danny)
https://invisible-cities.org/our-tours/off-the-cobbles-with-danny

(Laura)
https://invisible-cities.org/our-tours/powerful-women-of-manchester-with-laura
Posted 10 May 2021 19:52
The meet with our collaborators included representatives from Rochdale Development Agency (RDA), Heritage School Programme (HE) and St John Baptist Church (SJBC). The collaborators provided key insights and information that aided our understanding of both the church and Rochdale.

St John Baptist church has always been active in community engagement, organizing events in collaboration with local schools and hosting social events throughout the year. Apart from social initiatives, they aimed to establish heritage presence to a wider crowd, particularly the large modern mosaic hall. Therefore, they seek for ideas or intervention that could promote its heritage significance.

The final design output could be any form of creative solution. On top of that, they are looking to integrate key parts of the proposal in the future regeneration plan. Thus, the proposal is part of a place making strategy that could impact both the church and Rochdale all together.
Posted 10 May 2021 19:13
The session starts with an ice-breaker game by using Kahoot online application. In this game, participants have to guess the missing landmarks when their iconic buildings were removed! The lesson was to sharpen our observations towards surrounding context, and on how we approach buildings. In this case, imagining Town Hall was missing and left only the Albert Square as a gateway to the building. We would like to congratulate the top three winners in this game, Charlotte Bell, Charlotte Farrel and Charlotte Ellis!
Posted 10 May 2021 19:04
HERITAGE TEAM: RESEARCH DAY 1

Following site introduction and team voting, allocated members of the Heritage team move to a separate call for initial brainstorming session. Findings are collated in our shared Miro board so everyone on the team can access the information. The goal of the session is to get to know Albert Square better, its surrounding context as well as historical facts and narrative that could potentially feed into our 'story' later.

Collectively, we found many interesting informations, quick facts, historical imageries, landmarks as well as site drawings. Some interesting informations include the story during the initial idea of the square which involves demolition of dense housing on site as a prerequisite for locating the Albert Memorial. Other than that, we have also patched together informations from different sources to create a historical timeline recording as early as the 1850s until present, showing when the square and the Town Hall was built and completed, later refurbishment and current restoration, Our Town Hall project.

Overall, this session was a great start to develop our narrative further.
Posted 10 May 2021 18:51
Pay Inn Display is up and running! After brief good mornings and introductions we started the day off with some ice breaker activities to get to know each other better. In line with the focus of our project, we began with an architecture based pub quiz.

MArch students then took BA and MLA students through the week’s programme and gave background information on our collaborator Grizedale Arts and the focus of the project; the Farmer’s Arms.

Once this was complete we introduced various research methods and split into groups to begin the basis of our research. After combing through online resources we met and discussed key topics, themes and information we had found, and planned how to take these forwards in line with our planned outcomes for the end of the week. We are focussing on the themes of; The Valley; The People, The Building and the Context.
Posted 10 May 2021 18:48
Hi All!

Today we had an amazing guest lecture delivered by Erect Architecture! They gave a detailed and thorough explanation of their project Play Holland Park which you can find below!

https://www.erectarchitecture.co.uk/projects/holland-park-playground/

The talk was enaging and interesting to see how they created playscapes for children, using topography and natural materials. They also offereed some great insight into the safety of construction for children and inclusivity of spaces.

We want to personnal thank them for delivering a fantastic talk to us today!
Posted 10 May 2021 18:34
PERSONAL CONNECTIONS

For the second task of the day, we have asked students to think of a place that has a special meaning to them and draw it for the rest of the group. This was a great way of not only learning more about each other but it was also a way of conveying meaning to the sketches.

More drawings can be found on our Instagram!
https://www.instagram.com/msa_sketchy_business/
Posted 10 May 2021 18:32
SKECTHING OUR WORKSPACE

For the first sketching exercise of the day, we have asked students to look at their surroundings and pick some of their object from their workspace to draw. The aim of this task was to show how even everyday objects can have meaning behind them and details which we might not always notice, as they become part of our routine.

More drawings can be found on our Instagram!
https://www.instagram.com/msa_sketchy_business/
Posted 10 May 2021 18:29
DIVERSITY ICE BREAKER QUIZ

To kick start the day, we played a diversity quiz and well done to the Project team for participating! Congratulations to our runner ups, Chante and Anj, and to our winner, Yutong !
Posted 10 May 2021 18:03
Day 1 - In the afternoon, Joe returned and talked about creating a ‘sense of place’ using psychological foundations and the work of Urban Planner, Kevin Lynch. A valuable starting point for our project which opens up further questions... is the park a node? Could the park become a landmark?
Posted 10 May 2021 17:55
In the first week we will be working to produce a package of design strategies that will define the theme and character of the Blue Line from start to finish at a masterplanning scale. The adoption of these strategies within the design will help the Manchester Blue Line to act as a coherent and recognisable orientation point. The team will work in smaller groups on their chosen/assigned strategy to produce the required information. The strategies will cover: signage and furnishing proposal, a general landscape strategy, transport connections and structure for typologies to use. By the end of the first week, we want to have produced a presentation of work for each strategy. Each strategy should have similar deliverables, depth of research and quality of design.
Posted 10 May 2021 17:54
Meeting the rest of the team and introducing the project.

Great start to the week with a day of getting to know each other and the project. Was great to hear from each member and their interests with the project, architecture and within their day to day lives.
Was great to have Emily Crompton to come and speak to us all about her involvement with the LBGT+ Centre and its history.

A shame that we cannot all be together at this time but a strong start to the project nonetheless.
Posted 10 May 2021 17:51