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DAY NINE...

Today our project partner Jane Leach from i-Architect, and a few members from the Chorlton Park Committee had joined us for the final concept presentation.

Group 2's final proposal presentation included a collection of multi-purpose spaces that are inclusive and could be used by community members of all ages. The students have focused their programme on both physical and mental wellbeing aspects, creating spaces for exercise, relaxation, education, and sensory activities.

The large canopies developed by the group provide shelter from wind and rain and produce an exciting atmosphere within the internal courtyard - depending on the time of day, the colourful "windows" of the canopies generate different reflections on the containers and the ground, providing plenty visual stimuli. Wind chimes, attached to the branches of the canopies also supply an audio experience as part of the journey through the site.

Feedback from the project partner and the park committee had been received and the team is currently working on some final adjustments to the drawings for the publication document.
Posted 20 May 2021 17:41
Day 9

More Allotment Designs!
In creating looking at the idea of urban farming in more detail, Evie and Tak have created collages to see how the idea can be applied in our site with the self-build tents concept.
Posted 20 May 2021 17:32
DAY NINE...

Today our project partner, Jane Leach from i-Architect, and a few members from the Chorlton Park Committee had joined us for the final concept presentation.

Group 1 has presented a concept of turning the shipping containers and surrounding space into a community garden and vegetable market. The idea of adventure playground is also explored in the site programme development. The area is proposed to be a blank canvas that allows the community to explore how they would like the space to be used.

Feedback from the project partner and the park committee had been received and the team is currently working on some final adjustments to the drawings for the publication document.
Posted 20 May 2021 17:27
Focusing on the design, Day 9 was all about fully developing and refining our concept proposals in our two groups. Using zoom whiteboards, we were able to combine our ideas and ensure that our proposals were considered, relevant, and site-specific. Lots of small changes were made to ensure that there was a relationship between the Farmer’s Arms and the orientation, height, and location of the proposal.

A really clear way to develop our ideas was through small models. Not only do these help us to understand the volume, but they also give us a 3D understanding of scale and space in relation to the people who might use it. The prototype for Group 2 can be seen in the image above.

The afternoon was spent on each student working on the four outputs. These are: site plan, market stall design, circulation diagram, and threshold strategy. At the very end of the day, we practiced a mock-presentation, in preparation for the real thing with Grizedale Arts tomorrow!
Posted 20 May 2021 17:20
Day 9

What has the 'sensory' group doing today?

"In the final phase of MSA LIVE, we are preparing tomorrow's presentation for the community. By utilizing the MIRO board, we organised our conceptual and architectural drawings, which were created and drawn from the first day to ensure that the layout of the publication is reasonable and persuasive. We are looking forward to presenting our playground project - Sensescape."
Posted 20 May 2021 17:18
The research and final diagramming has happened in multiple softwares. Word, InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, SketchUp but we made sure to put it all up on our Miro board to go through each and every study and diagram development so we could all comment and improve each other’s output and basically, GROW TOGETHER!

The first group, the Energy generation group studied about various methods that are being used when dealing with passive house designs. The topic was further simplified by looking at energy generation methods as solar, bio-energy, wind power, indirect solar gains, and general water systems. Each of these topics ended up in really cool diagrams that are being developed to their best potential!
Posted 20 May 2021 17:02
Yesterday we spent the time focusing on finishing our final outputs for the publication whilst teaching the BA cohort some more tips and tricks about using the various software.

Today was a chance for us to select a group of 4 to present a quick presentation that focused on the different routes into university whilst giving our own personal accounts of the experience.

We look forward to closing this two-week project on a high! And we can't thank our team members enough for their continued engagement and support for our cause.
Posted 20 May 2021 17:02
Master-planning Representation – Creating Visuals // One software that we experimented with this week was Procreate. The image above, created by Pablo (BA 01) shows a visual representation of one of the proposed arrival points into Little Germany. The image shows the proposed interventions on a currently disused car park on the site. Creating murals of artwork on walls and introducing soft landscaping to areas of the site form part of our proposals to improve the area.
Posted 20 May 2021 16:50
Presentations & Conclusions // Today Inspire Bradford concluded their work over MSA Live and presented our findings and finished masterplan to the collaborator Bradford Civic Society.

It was great to get feedback from Kieran and Si, from Bradford Civic Society, praising the proposals we had created. We were joined again by Plot Twist (MSA Group 31), as they have also worked with Bradford Civic Society, the two groups used the time to run through the work and explorations they have undertaken over the two weeks and presented conclusions. Plot Twist worked on a smaller vacant site, just North of Little Germany, and intended to create a new ‘gateway’ into the city. Situated next to the Forster Square train station, the site was unused and in need of regeneration. Find out more about their masterplan ideas at: https://live.msa.ac.uk/2021/group/31/
Posted 20 May 2021 16:50
Partner Feedback

Today we invited Emily Crompton and Sarah Christie from The Proud Trust to come and view the work we have been producing. We had hoped to be able to show them the work when it was fully finished however due to their prior commitments they could only attend today.

We took the partners through all the work produced and let each member talk about how they have contributed to the project. It was great to get positive feedback from both and has helped set that fire to get the work all completed to the best of our ability.

We would like to thank both Emily and Sarah for their help throughout this project and looking forward to work with them in the future beyond this project.
Posted 20 May 2021 16:46
DAY 9

Today the group were doing their second client engagement meeting with the Hopton Court residents. Each group member had 5 minutes to present and sell their scheme to the residents. After the presentations the Hopton Court residents gave their feedback on the design concepts. The client was thrilled with all the design and the ideas being showed to them. One of the client’s comments was “you have hit the nail on the head and captured what we asked for”.

Throughout the day the MArch students had meetings to begin finalising the publication and to organise printing out an A3 page of each group members design concept so that this could be given to the Hopton Court residents. This way everyone would be able to see the amazing designs done throughout the last two weeks.
Posted 20 May 2021 16:44
Day 8

Day Centre Extension Designing!
Irina and Alex both experimented the extension of daycentre and how spaces could be used and expressed in different architectural languages.
Posted 20 May 2021 16:38
Zine Progress

The Zine is starting to really come together with multiple pages completed and the remaining pages started. The focus of todays session was on colour theory and use within graphic design work. Its important when layering colours that the focus remains where it needs on the page, and that all text is legible. In mini crits, we talked over the completed pages, making suggestions of improvement.

Through research today one of the team uncovered a monument located in Sackville Gardens, next to the Manchester Gay Village. The monument is called 'The Beacon of Hope' as was built in remembrance for those who have, or have suffered from HIV / AIDs. From further exploration we found that this is the only monument in Great Britain for HIV/AIDs. For this blog post we as a team thought it was important to bring up this topic and raise awareness. If you don't know much about the epidemic that started in the 1980s, here is a link that will educate you on all you need and should know:
https://www.hiv.gov/hiv-basics/overview/history/hiv-and-aids-timeline
Posted 20 May 2021 16:32
Molly Kenwright
BA1

A park to me is an organic place of escapism. It is a place to reflect and physically detach from stressful situations; I use a park to socialise with my friends and enjoy the scenic nature.

Molly has been producing high quality work these two weeks learning from our skill workshops and producing creative artwork capturing the parks representation through many mediums.

I've enjoyed the combination of collaborative and independent tasks within this project; I have learnt a lot of new skills through meeting new people. Also, I felt that the external speakers were engaging and really complimentary to the project.
Posted 20 May 2021 16:26
InDesign Workshop!

Today our MA student Athena showed us how to use InDesign. We learnt how to use all the basic tools as well as more advanced techniques.

The session involved, importing images into frames, creating master pages, how to check if there are any spelling mistakes or file errors and lots more.

The tutorial was once again recorded so that all the students could look back at it for both this project and future ones.
Posted 20 May 2021 16:26
Day 8

Day Centre Designing!
Today some of our team have done collages to express the key spaces. Anca has tested out the layout on bedrooms in the day centre whereas Abu focused on the communal spaces.
Posted 20 May 2021 16:26
DAY 9

Premier and Pop-corn!

This afternoon we had our final premier to showcase all the video tutorials produced by the group on the theme of architectural portfolios, as well as presenting the publication. All the BA students produced amazing videos and really pushed their own boundaries to learn new skills. We can't wait to send off the videos to the MakeBank tomorrow.
Posted 20 May 2021 16:25
Day Nine // Thursday’s Timetable
10:00 – 10:45 Organising our conclusions and presentation
11:00 – 12:30 Presentations and conclusions with Bradford Civic Society and Plot Twist (MSA Group 31)
13:30 – 17:00 Reflecting on feedback and responding to advice from the morning presentations. Collating work for the publication.
Posted 20 May 2021 16:18
DAY 9 // ownHaus units

The diagram highlights the proposed public amenities on the ground and first floors, such as restaurants, study/learning rooms, gym and restaurant, which aim to create a dynamic space for the ownHaus residents and the surrounding community to enjoy.

The diagram also shows the proposed initial units from the second floor upwards for different user groups, which can be increased or decreased based on their needs. Each residential level also has greenspaces shared spaces that encourage interaction and outdoor activities for all the ownHaus residents.
Posted 20 May 2021 16:06
Yesterday's at AAS we had our collaborators over to review our outputs which gave us much feedback to work with throughout Day 9.
Posted 20 May 2021 16:03
DAY 9 // ownHaus massing

The overall mass follows the curve of River Medlock. The four main wings of the building are arranged around a pond in the central courtyard. Each level is connected by large terraces that can accommodate communal amenities.
Posted 20 May 2021 16:03
This group started off looking at feminist propaganda posters, historic and modern examples. They were keen to find any reoccurring interesting images that could be used in the wallpaper. After this, the group moved onto look at wallpaper precedents, although this imagery was interesting, they didn’t feel like this aligned with the type of wallpaper we wanted to create. Each group member created a concept design for the feminist wallpaper.

The first was created by Bima, taking inspiration from Helene Cixous’ Medusa. The design starts small and then grows into a large and explosive pattern, reflecting the amount of women enrolled in architecture over the years. Our second design was by Ruby, who wanted to create a link to architecture with a repetitive modular structure. The design also shows women out of windows holding a banner with their names on. The final concept was designed by Nicole, who started to combine the two ideas. After group discussions, the design was finalised.
Posted 20 May 2021 15:38
Today we met with Kieran and Si from Bradford Civic Council to showcase our ideas and developed images. It was great to have the opportunity for us to sell the designs to them and explain our thought processes as well as the undergrads getting to present work. The feedback we received was great and the clients were really happy in the reaches we made to create a radicalised design!
Posted 20 May 2021 15:05
With one day before the presentations, every group started developing our outputs to showcase the designs and intentions behind the uses of our pavilions. This 3D masterplan was also stitched together to give our client the overall view of the sites amendments as well as how each pavilion links between each other.
Posted 20 May 2021 14:59
Schedule for Day 9 is Here!
10.00 –Preparing Presentation Sheets
12:00 – Review the finial Publication
14:00 – Online Exhibition (including quiz game)
Posted 20 May 2021 14:45
IN SUMMARY:

'Architects know this stuff, but those down the line will tend to resist it, we have a lot of work to do'

In essence, the findings are that architects need to equip themeself with the knowledge to persuade and enforce sustainability in their designs. Not just in the construction, but also in their inevitable deconstruction.
Posted 20 May 2021 14:26
Namon Thongsuwan
BA2

For me, a park is a human-centred outdoor space where you can perceive sense of belonging and hear restful sounds. It gives your brain and body a break from the chaotic and loud world.

Namon impressed us with some detailed abstractions such as after visiting a park and overlaying leafs to showcase the variety of colours and flora there compared to other parks. She has successfully shown her reactions to parks and expressed the other medias.

I have learnt a lot of useful software skills and analytical skills from CiA, CPU and USE students. Also, I find the tasks very compelling as abstraction is very individual and could inevitably present personal views on what parks mean to us.
Posted 20 May 2021 14:25
TIME FOR A FINAL DRAWING!

Because of the success of our last jigsaw exercise, we decided to do it again! But this time students had to choose one building that would represent them in the collage, which was subsequently divided into 12 pieces. In this exercise, students can showcase what they have learned during the 2 weeks of MSA Live, as well as their personality and art style. The aim of this exercise is to allow collaboration between the students with a visible result in the time of Zoom meetings.
Posted 20 May 2021 14:23
DAY 8
We created a perfect roof garden for The Tetley. More leisure space is provided for the guests. At the same time, it also creates a more interesting experience for guests on the ground floor of The Tetley.
Posted 20 May 2021 14:00
CONTEXT COLLAGING- 'MTH' BY MAATI

Following an infographic briefing from the MArch 1 students in week 1. Members of the group have further developed their collages of the Manchester Town Hall site, understanding some of the materiality that may be found on-site, as well as conducting local connections to the city.
Posted 20 May 2021 13:44
CONTEXT COLLAGING- 'MTH' BY BECCA

Following an infographic briefing from the MArch 1 students in week 1. Members of the group have further developed their collages of the Manchester Town Hall site, understanding some of the materiality that may be found on-site, as well as conducting local connections to the city.
Posted 20 May 2021 13:39
CONTEXT COLLAGING- 'MTH' BY ISMAEL

Following an infographic briefing from the MArch 1 students in week 1. Members of the group have further developed their collages of the Manchester Town Hall site, understanding some of the materiality that may be found on-site, as well as conducting local connections to the city.
Posted 20 May 2021 13:36
Client Presentation

Our team presented our design proposal for the Artisan Studio to members of Manchester City Council and our partner, Lendlease, this morning. We had some fantastic feedback, commending our experimentation with form and materiality, and are hopeful that some of our key concepts will be implemented in the future design of the Artisan Studio that is set to be constructed later this year.
With this in mind, we are all set now to make some final touches!
Posted 20 May 2021 13:35
During the 8th day of our MSA live project, the team made their final refinements of the design and drawings as well as preparing for our final presentation to the client and members of the council on Thursday.
Posted 20 May 2021 13:19
Day 09: Photoshopped Sections

Developing our GA package, each student is photoshopping the interior of their own sections to experiment with the material choices and finishes of their proposals. Material choice is important as it can create spaces which users want to preserve and respect rather than promoting disrepair and damage. This will allow users to feel respected and aims to improve the welfare they experience during their working day. These sections are an excellent demonstration of the various uses that can be performed within one of our site accommodation units. The proposals are used by many different employees on a site, including contractors, architects and clients and are able to facilitate meetings, securely store PPE and provide an area for workers to rest.
Posted 20 May 2021 13:17
Joel Richardson
BA2

For me, a park is mainly a space to hang out with friends, or go for a walk through if I need to relax. The experience of being in a park is one of feeling reconnected to nature. Even small parks, with only a few trees help give you a break and remind you of nature and something bigger than yourself.

Joel has been fantastic to work with throughout the project consistently providing useful information and ideas. This leads to him creating high quality work that hits the brief exactly.

I have enjoyed spending dedicated time each day on creating an abstract response to a range of source materials. The feeling of continued exploration of one idea but through different forms has led me to consider parks much more carefully, and I think I’m more aware and critical of park design. I have also enjoyed the opportunity to practice with software that’s new to me, like Illustrator.
Posted 20 May 2021 13:08
LANDMARKS BY KOSTIS KATSIMIS (BA STUDENT)

Kostis contributes to the interactive feature that goes with the QR code interface. This page allows visitors to understand and appreciate the surrounding historical context of Albert Square such as the statues (and the stories behind each), as well as identifying several Listed Buildings Grade I and II nearby.
Posted 20 May 2021 12:49
Anjana Suresh
MLA1

To me a park is personal. It’s a space where I can reflect on my emotions. The calm and serene environment in a park really helps relax and kind of gives me the feeling of being home, where I’m the happiest

As a masters in landscaping student Anjana has been fantastic in helping understand how parks are used and then exploring their use in different medias and areas around the world. Her abstractions have only got better as she learnt from our external speakers.

This overall experience working with group Parktopia has truly been amazing and very much informative. As a landscape architect student, the topics discussed have been so helpful in my study and I think its also interesting to see different perspectives from each as to what an idea of a park is to them.
Posted 20 May 2021 12:43
Jason Chen
BA1

For me, park is a connection between human and nature, which is like a transitional zone between man-made objects and nature, where human and nature achieve harmonious coexistence. What's more, park provides me a space for escaping from heavy work, shutting off my brain and having a breath.

Jason has brought a very important approach to our exploration of re-defining the park going one step further analysing our interview questions and producing thought provoking abstractions.

In this Events, what impress me most is the lecture about abstraction and nature from Pandora, which conveys me new thoughts about abstraction. Moreover, among those activities, I like the park visiting most, and my skills of Photoshop has been improved a lot. What's more, I really like our atmosphere of working in everyday's group meeting, which is positive and reassuring.
Posted 20 May 2021 12:37
Check out the schedule for day nine!
9am - Catch up
9:35am - Workshop development
10:45am - Break
11:30am - Improving the final outputs
13:00pm - Lunch
14:00pm - Review of the work collated for the final publication
16:00pm - Debrief
Posted 20 May 2021 12:35
Last day!

Today is our last day to work together. The BA students have shared their comments on the project and how the MA students organised it. It’s a pleasure to work with all the BA students and hope you enjoyed MSA Live. Have a happy summer!
Posted 20 May 2021 12:26
Today we had a Diagram Tutorial from George.

As the students have been modelling and drawing for their diagrams, we took the opportunity to bring all of the work today in a cohesive style. Some of the students hadn't used programs like illustrator before so George took them through a quick masterclass. The students also learn't how to export drawings into Adobe software, to create crisp clean diagrams.

Each Energy Group then went into their break out space to answer any further questions, before finalising their diagrams!
Posted 20 May 2021 12:18
DAY NINE:

The penultimate day saw both of the BA teams ready their final designs for thier temporary pavilions. Both teams chose to base their designs on materials reclaimed from the town hall.
Posted 20 May 2021 12:05
WEEK 2
Colour the City #DAY8 schedule

10.00 a.m.: Morning catch up and briefing
10.15 a.m.: Colouring booklet development and marketing

1.00 p.m.: Lunch break

2.00 p.m: Colouring booklet development and marketing
4.00 p.m.: Informal work share
4.30 p.m: Review of #DAY8
4.45 p.m.: Run-through #DAY9 schedule
5.00 p.m: End of #DAY8

On to the last day!
Posted 20 May 2021 11:50
Day 8: MA students give some advice to BA students and answer the questions of learning skills and using softwares, including CAD, PS, ID, SU and hand sketching. Through the sharing screen, students can see how to use such softwares clearly. From this section, both BA and MA students make a grogress of using software in the future.
Posted 20 May 2021 11:49
DAY 9 HIGHLIGHTS!

10:00 - Briefing
10:10 - Rendering Model & Poster Design
14:00 - Video & Open Discussion
16:30 - Debrief
17:00 - Project Team Social!
Posted 20 May 2021 11:47
HIGHLIGHTS OF #DAY8

Another day, another great job shown by the Colour the City team. We also came up with a colour-in postcard booklet template to showcase the drawings.
Posted 20 May 2021 11:36
Day 09: Preparing General Arrangement Sections

The BA students have shown an understanding of the brief requirements based on their research of site and office accommodation. With input from external guests, they have learnt about the limitations of the current temporary site accommodation offer; discovering that limited budgets can often limit the provision of welfare facilities. Their final designs show rooms which have a duality of purpose with flexible furniture. We believe this to be an appropriate solution to the problem of insufficient temporary site accommodation which provides room for a reception, meetings, respite and storage within one boundary, therefore ensuring the units provide welfare facilities as a minimum requirement.

The students have been able to develop the photoshop skills by preparing the final GA drawings which is an important aspect of communicating the final proposal to the collaborator, and we hope the students will use these new skills as they move through architecture school.
Posted 20 May 2021 11:34
Eva Crutan
BA1

My idea of a park is defined as a backdrop for activities, both social and introspective. To me, its most important function should be shelter.

Eva has been a great member of the team inputting her ideas and opinions on a project where collaboration is so important. Her abstractions have been very successful using a strong skill set.

During the project I enjoyed analysing various forms of media, and translating them through abstractization.
Posted 20 May 2021 11:12
HIGHLIGHT
#DAY 9 - Presentation

10:00 Preparing Presentation Sheets
11:00 Collation
14:00 Presentation to the Whitworth Team
16:15 Debrief
Posted 20 May 2021 10:49
Manika Bhalotiya
MLA1

A park to me is a composition of dramatic colored sky, semi-matured trees and an endless patch of grasses captured in one frame.

Manika has brought a great set of skills and knowledge into this project understanding parks and showed interest with our collaborators as they share a passion for landscape design. She has also provided great analysis of the data we found giving us usable ideas.

Working with the Team Parktopia has been really inspiring. It’s been a new and fun experience to learn about the art of abstracting any thought, literature or even a song.
Posted 20 May 2021 10:41
DAY 9 - SCHEDULE
THURSDAY 20th MAY 2021

10:30 Final Changes to Design and Graphic Illustrations

12:00 Final Presentations to other groups

2:00 Preparation for Final Coordinator Presentations on Friday
Posted 20 May 2021 10:31
DAY 9!
Posted 20 May 2021 10:29
Olga Partyka
Year: BA2

'For me parks are a space to relax and reset from everyday problems, as well as the provider of clean air.'

Olga has produced some fantastic work with a unique perspective and art style that has captured the park representations and how she understands it.

'I enjoyed analyzing my views on parks and translating them into physical things. I also liked the guest speakers a lot.'
Posted 20 May 2021 10:26
Today is the big presentation day! We are presenting our two week project work back to Tom Bloxham and Oliver Clarke of Urban Splash, Louise Wyman of Manchester City Council and Edward Fox of Manchester School of Architecture. This morning we shall be finalising and running through the presentation - practising our oratory skills. Throughout the week we have collated this BLUELINE TEAM photo collage - it is fantastic to see everyone's lovely faces altogether!
Posted 20 May 2021 10:22
The design of the base map board has been completed! The team has applied pastel color with symbols and illustrations to make the overall board more pleasant and engaging to children. The educational purpose is further strengthened by adding city names and revealing the basic geographical zoning of the UK, to help children understand more of the UK geographic concept. Can’t wait to see the physical version of the board!
Posted 20 May 2021 10:16
Week 2 - Fourth Day!

Time to put everything together! The illustration of 2D components (baseboard, game manual, package box, mission and sabotage cards, paper money, etc) are all ready to print! The team has communicated with the B15 workshop for all specific printing requirements, and the team representative will go to B15 today to get everything physically completed. Look forward to the completed physical board game!
Posted 20 May 2021 10:14
Due to many questions from the BA students about our MArch’s experience during their time in professional practice, we decided to alter our schedule to allow for some time to discuss and answer questions about this.

We covered our job hunting experiences, general roles and tasks in the office, the various programmes and skills we used, and some tips on future networking and socialising with your work colleagues.
Posted 20 May 2021 10:03
DAY 9

We're now in the final stages of video editing, ready for the video premier session this afternoon. This screen shot is taken from the 'how to make a digital portfolio in PowerPoint' video that BA student Satish is currently working on. Satish choose to use PowerPoint to show how a portfolio can be made in software easily available to high school students. In particular students who are looking to apply for creative courses, such as architecture.
Posted 20 May 2021 09:55
1 more day until the submission! We will be finalizing all designs and drawings today and start formatting our outputs and publications.

10:00 - Briefing
10:15 - Render Visuals
11:15 - Break
11:30 - Refine Design and Renders
13:00 - Lunch
14:00 - Presentation Outputs
15:15 - Break
15:30 - Combined Documents
16:30 - Debrief
Posted 20 May 2021 09:43
Here we present the different panel parts that are going to be used in this construction.
Posted 20 May 2021 09:27
Today we have completed the house layouts and the facade details. Each house unit is assembled through a panelized system using CLT as the structure. The CLT panels would be manufactured offsite with facade details and the house would be assembled on site.
Posted 20 May 2021 09:26
Today we have completed the apartment layouts and the facade details. Here we present the 3 types of modular rooms that are going to be used. Each modular would be manufactured offsite and delivered on site to be assembled.
Posted 20 May 2021 09:19
It's our final day together over at Rochdale Revival! We will be reflecting on the project and all of your amazing work that you have made over the last two weeks. We will have a half day session today finishing before lunch.

See you at 10 AM
Posted 20 May 2021 09:09
Zine Progress

For the second day working on the Zine, the students started to use some of the content that we managed to get from LGYM based on their memories of the old LGBT centre. Their memories of the centre were brilliant and sat alongside the historical facts, as a way of making the zine about the people who inhabit the buildings, as well as the buildings themselves.

Mini tutorials were carried out today for photoshop. The sessions focused on the basic functions on photoshop alongside simple photo editing techniques; to add colour overlays and stylized effects. In the post you can see some of the pages starting to come together, but we decided to edit the colours as to not give away too much of the content until we are complete!
Posted 20 May 2021 07:58
Youth Group Second Session

We once again met with LGYM, and had a fun and informative session. This weeks focus was on the hopes and wishes the group had for the future, whether this be in their personal life or with the new centre.

The conversation also reflected on the positives and negatives of life online, and their experiences of the virtual youth group. Many commented that they cannot wait to get together again and have the sessions in person, but there was also praise of the online meetings. Sometimes members would not turn up to a meeting in person if they they were having a bad day, while online, they have found it much easier to attend as even if they are having a bad day, being able to attend and not fully commit meant their attendance was more constant.

We would like to thank those that have contributed to our project from the youth group and hope to be able to work with them in the future.
Posted 20 May 2021 07:57
MODEL MAKING HIGHLIGHTS

Day 8 of Mapping Colour consisted of the Model Making Team splitting into two sub-groups, with half working on digital visualisations and the other half creating a physical model in the workshop. Bella, Titi and Kate produced a 1:5 Model of the team’s exhibition booth that could be quickly assembled and disassembled. This was used to show how the posters could be displayed at an event educating people on the levels of diversity within the construction industry.
Posted 20 May 2021 07:24
MODEL MAKING HIGHLIGHTS

Day 8 of Mapping Colour consisted of the Model Making Team splitting into two sub-groups, with half working on digital visualisations and the other half creating a physical model in the workshop. Bella, Titi and Kate produced a 1:5 Model of the team’s exhibition booth that could be quickly assembled and disassembled. This was used to show how the posters could be displayed at an event educating people on the levels of diversity within the construction industry.
Posted 20 May 2021 07:24
MODEL MAKING HIGHLIGHTS

Day 8 of Mapping Colour consisted of the Model Making Team splitting into two sub-groups, with half working on digital visualisations and the other half creating a physical model in the workshop. Bella, Titi and Kate produced a 1:5 Model of the team’s exhibition booth that could be quickly assembled and disassembled. This was used to show how the posters could be displayed at an event educating people on the levels of diversity within the construction industry.
Posted 20 May 2021 07:23
For game character design, there are four characters in the board game: Sylvia who is a Landscape Architect; Archie who is a world-famous scientist; Harold who is a motorway builder; Michael who is an electrical builder.

The team has improved the design of the characters and finished the design of 20 sabotage cards. On top of making the characters more aesthetically appealing and their professional background more understandable to children, the team has also considered the inclusion of different genders and ethnicities as professionals in the UK. Moreover, we hope to improve game fun with the sabotage cards. Good work team!
Posted 20 May 2021 00:06
DAY 8

Meeting our Second Guest Speaker

Our evening talk with Grace Shepherd was inspiring and intriguing! She gave an insight into how students who have studied architecture at the undergraduate level can branch off into different other creative career paths. The questions and discussion that followed her presentation on how she uses skills she learnt as an architecture student to start a set of design projects prompted very interesting conversations. The BA students commented that it was a breath of fresh air to hear about other subjects students in architecture could pursue in the future.
Posted 19 May 2021 23:58
Handicraft Activities - [ Week 2 ] Third Day!

Our team conducted game box production tests. In addition, the sabotage cards design has finished.
Posted 19 May 2021 23:43
Schedule for Day 8 and Summary of the day is here!
10.00 - Group Catch Up
10:30 – Teaching Software’s
12:30 – Debrief
Today our group was able to break away a little from the project and do a fun group learning activity. The MArch students led the BA and MLA students about how to create interactive PDF's on Adobe Photoshop and InDsign. These skills have allowed our group to be more creative in the way we can represent the graphical visualisations for the route making.
Posted 19 May 2021 23:36
Culture Group

Sketches from the previous exercise were overlaid and composed to form abstract architectural drawing. The loose nature of hand sketches prompts the team to break free from conventional building form. It explores how line weight , scale and composition of the individual sketches could structure the envisioned reality of the schemes. Juxtaposition of mosaics with walls and ground, relationship between geometry of the church and the proposed structure are translated into visual form.
Posted 19 May 2021 22:40
History Group

Sketches from the previous exercise were overlaid and composed to form abstract architectural drawing. The loose nature of hand sketches prompts the team to break free from conventional building form. It explores how line weight , scale and composition of the individual sketches could structure the envisioned reality of the schemes. Juxtaposition of mosaics with walls and ground, relationship between geometry of the church and the proposed structure are translated into visual form.
Posted 19 May 2021 22:39
Communitiy Group

Sketches from the previous exercise were overlaid and composed to form abstract architectural drawing. The loose nature of hand sketches prompts the team to break free from conventional building form. It explores how line weight , scale and composition of the individual sketches could structure the envisioned reality of the schemes. Juxtaposition of mosaics with walls and ground, relationship between geometry of the church and the proposed structure are translated into visual form.
Posted 19 May 2021 22:39
Prior to submission this Friday, we had a final review session today with our collaborator from Lendlease, Ms. Tamara Karim. Overall, we received positive feedbacks from her. For the narrative catalogue, Tamara appreciates the interactive elements we did as they were considering for digital publication to reduce use of paper. It would be great to have a printed version as well for now to cater to those without access to digital device.

In terms of the visitor experience centre, she loves our design which she described as modern, in contrast to the more classic architecture of the Town Hall and other listed buildings around the site. She likes our concept that uses hexagonal elements to represent Manchester's iconic symbol of worker bees, which indirectly tells the story and history of Mancunians itself. Her key concern is the mobility of the visitor experience centre to be able to cater to events that will be actively organized in Albert Square all year-long. Luckily, we have considered this since the very beginning by using lightweight and easily dismantled materials for the construction, enabling the centre to easily adapt and moved when required. She gave us a 'green light' to proceed with our proposal and even requested a copy of our work when it is complete.

Our next step is to format our final publication and to clearly show the buildability and mobility aspect of the visitor experience centre in order to convince our audience.
Posted 19 May 2021 22:34
DAY 8 // DESIGN DEVELOPMENT

We were excited to gain new ideas and suggestions from our collaborators, Steve from ownHaus and Rob+Lisa from Project3 Architects. After our presentation, we improved our ownHaus proposal to better respond to our chosen site, while maintaining a modular design method so that our modular prototypes can be later tailored to different locations.

The three main wings now follow the curve of River Medlock. They are connected by large terraces that can hold communal amenities and potted plants that act as an acoustic buffer to the adjacent railway. The overall mass steps down towards the south to admit more daylight to the ground-level open space. A new pond strengthens the concept of a new urban oasis in Manchester - we're excited to see how it will be developed further!
Posted 19 May 2021 22:22
We continue our day with all the students preparing, cleaning up drawings and designing the front and back cover for our booklet. We cant wait to see the progress before our final preparation tomorrow!
Posted 19 May 2021 21:43
DAY EIGHT ...

Final preparations are taking place ready to present our final ideas to our project partners tomorrow. The pressure is on to test our new skills and turn concepts into convincing design proposals.

We can't wait to share our progress tomorrow!
Posted 19 May 2021 19:57