Three members of the group started brainstorming and searching for inspirations for the ceiling design of the project. After exploring, sketching and discussing different options, the members have decided and settled on a design that mixes up between two styles which are the exposed ceiling with stripe lighting, and adding a stripe of wooden hangings with vegetations in order to provide the space with natural touches in addition to merging the color theme of walls and furniture into the ceiling.
"After our meeting with the clients, our groups have developed our concepts further to respond to their comments. As we do so, the progression of the project allows them to be closer to being realised. As the first day of the new week, we have also introduced the publication in detail so we are able to plan the content of the pages. Today, we have also started to produce drawings, diagrams and models so that we are able to communicate our concepts to the clients so that they are fully aware of our aims."
An overview of the key activities of our group during the second week of MSA Live. This will include preparations of drawings for the final design, feedback and presentation sessions to our collaborators, and finalization of our work prior to the submission of the project.
Week Two // It’s the final week of MSA Live 21 and Inspire Bradford are ready to pick up where we left off! After a relaxing weekend, the team are ready to continue master-planning and create a design solution for Little Germany.
Our first week included getting to know the Little Germany site, undertaking site analysis, exploring precedent and establishing an initial approach to the area. We enjoyed welcoming Peter Mitchell from Feilden Clegg Bradley and associates from Arup, in which we had very informative and creative conversations relating to both precedent and the Little Germany site.
This week we intend to finalise our master-planning proposal, create visuals and conclusions to the approach we propose to regenerate the site. We are looking forward to welcoming OMI Architects for a talk on Wednesday and to share our finalised ideas with Bradford Civic Society and Plot Twist at the end of the week!
We spent today taking our existing concepts, and pushing them into 3D, to see how they interacted with the wider site, as well as the park. This was a great opportunity to see how sunlight and key views could affect the massing of the extension as we established that daylight and framing views of the park were both key drivers of the project.
Understanding the extension in the wider context of the Leeds South Bank is really important for the social value of the project, as the scheme needs to act as a community hub for local residents, as well as a gallery for tourists.
We also spent time putting together the concepts developed last week with the feedback from our meetings with Bryony and Derek, as well as our narratives developed from the character studies at the start of last week. The designs are now really coming together to be well thought out and exciting strategies for the future of the South Bank.
Welcome to Week 2! This week is all about utilising all the research materials from week 1 to propose an external programmatic extension to the Farmer’s Arms and all the activities it aims to facilitate. The week will start with site analysis and exploration of the existing building, before moving into smaller design teams to create proposals during the second half of the week.
Today, we started with a short presentation from our two wonderful MLA students who gave us an idea of what landscapers will consider in a design proposal. Our site is located in the countryside, so considering the landscape is so important, so this presentation was so informative.
We then moved into 4 study groups to carry out site analysis. These were sun-shadow analysis, accessibility, site lines path-view analysis, and adjacency diagrams. All teams worked really hard and the BA students came up with innovative ideas to present their findings. Tomorrow, we’ll be using this analysis to begin some exciting concept proposals!
Day 5 we used a talk from teacher Ray Lucas on analysing film and how architecture and themes shown in it to aid our film absractions. We researched films that have parks and showed their meaning through art to explore how film represents them through different cultures. Such as The Trial of The Chicago 7 using the park first as a peaceful safe place to protest that turned into a violent riot.
To start off the day, the video subgroup created a series of storyboards for the portfolio workshop video. By talking through the various storyboards that the BA and MArch team members produced, we were able to see the similarities between them. This resulted in the combined storyboard, which you can see in this post. Now that we've agreed on the storyboard, we're spending the rest of the day filming.
Name: Salik Khan
Year Group: BA1
From: Pakistan
Currently Located: Manchester
Interests: I am very much into football and travel; I have previously participated in tournaments at several countries.
Name: Adriana Sokolova
Year Group: BA1
From: Bulgaria
Currently Located: Manchester
Interests: Drawing and Painting, Ecological Preservation, Travel and Film
At the end of last week we started to finalise the designs of each pod and these are the initial sketches that the team produced. We love the variety of the designs and the different materials and textures each group have been testing out.
We have been thinking a lot about modular, 'flat pack' and adaptable structures that could be easily taken apart and reassembled in different locations for the use of different schools and communities.
The next step is to take these sketches into AutoCAD so we can figure out more specific dimensions and develop the designs further before 3D modelling in Sketchup.
New courtyard and accommodation ideas!
The existing space to the back of the Cornerstone site is being looked at for potential new accommodation and a courtyard to grow food and participate in group activities.
This week one of the subgroups is making videos to guide students through making a portfolio which could be used for applying to an undergraduate architecture course. The aim is to demonstrate how this can be done physically with only basic tools or through free digital software. Here is an example of one of the physical portfolios made as part of these tutorial videos.
Filming has started for our final video, a workshop on how to make both digital and physical portfolios for applying for architecture. Here's a quick look behind the scenes. We're excited to see the final outcome!
Peter Wilson at Timber Design Initiatives gave a presentation on several programmes in Scotland in the morning, such as Scottish Scenic Routes and the 1000 Huts. He talked about the role that timber design plays in sustainable development. Peter gave many exciting examples to show the charms of timber houses. He answered the questions from students and had a more in-depth discussion.
A brief overview of what to expect over the following week.
Starting off with a meeting with the architect Mathew Benson.
Followed by more design developments.
Masterplanning ideas!
The proposals are taking shape as students look to add detail and connect interventions to the surrounding context.
New accommodation, refurbishment to the existing Cornerstone building and growing gardens are being considered.
After a week of excellent work and effort from our BA students we thought we would end the week with a bit of fun and our pub quiz-master Laura held an online quiz! In an online Covid-19 world it can be difficult to meet new people, especially as a BA student who is new to the world of architecture school. The afternoon was a great way to wind down at the end of the week and a bit of friendly competition was a fun way to make the BA students feel at ease with the MArch students! On to the next action-packed week!
Today we spent some time consolidating our ideas and design proposals for the Artisan Studio from week 1 of MSA live. Our team has created some great work including atmospheric collages of internal views, sketches of structural elements, and images placing our proposed facades in context. This week we're hoping to streamline some of our ideas into a cohesive design and produce a set of drawings with a shared vision.
The schedule for Day 5 and Summary of the day is here!
10.00 - Group Catch Up
10:35 – Group Work Task
12:00 - Lunch
14:00 – Presenting to the collaborators
15:45 - Debrief
Are we there yet?
Our teams have resumed routing again…! This time, the two teams are working on their second route proposals. Team one is working on the route ‘Sound Walk of Chorlton Waterpark & Its Urban Wildlife’, sounds intriguing right?! But, wait… what about team two’s ‘Cultural Walk’? What story does this tell us? If you’re on the same boat, then see you at the presentation day to find out more!! You’ll be delighted to meet our collaborators Edward and Claire.
The schedule for Day 4 and Summary of the day is here!
10.00 - Group Catch Up
10:35 – Group Work Task
12:00 - Lunch
14:00 - Group Work Task
15:45 - Debrief
First rout mapping? Done and dusted!
The MArch students were grateful to see the two teams that consist of BA and MLA students having completed their first proposed ‘Walk & Ride’ route solution for the Chorlton community. Their route proposals were produced using graphical representations in preparation to sell their ideas to the community on Thursday the 20th!
Further advancements have been made in the design of the site accommodation. We have designed kitchen/breakout spaces and flexible offices. The CAD session was another productive collaborative way of progressing the design from initial sketch ideation to refined plans that comply with the Approved Documents. We look forward to our meeting with an architect next week where we will go through our designs and ask questions about site and the architects role in the construction process.
Welcome to Week 2 of Anthropocene Architecture School! We have a busy week ahead but in the meantime, here is the schedule for Monday 17th May!
9.00 - Group Catch Up
9:30 - Progress Overview and Presentation with Scott McAulay
10:45 - After Effects Tutorial with Kareem
14:00 - Infographic and Animation Production
16:30 - Debrief
Today we covered the basics of photoshop. Following Friday's presentations our four groups have combined into two, developing various parts of the initial concepts. Now that we are getting closer to the final outputs, it was fitting to have a photoshop tutorial.
Afterwards, we had a presentation on landscaping design, inclusive of various precedent studies. Playbox’s adjacency to a park and green spaces provide an ideal challenge for some innovative landscape design.
As we concluded week 1 we wanted to make sure that our pre-planned session plan reflected our BA students expectations, and make improvements on anything the BA students might not want to bring up directly. Our students were asked to submit feedback anonymously on:
1. What they have learnt so far
2. What they would like to focus on more
3. General feedback of week 1
Having MSA Live online this year, our main priority has been to ensure clear communication within the group, in order to maximise everyone's experience.
This morning we have had a workshop presented by Dan, an MArch student within the Blue Line team. The tutorial introduced our BA students to the basics of SketchUp and Photoshop before demonstrating the workflow between these softwares to generate a render image which Dan presented to us at the end of week 1. As a group we can take these skills forward into week 2 to create some final visuals which really show off our project.
We have started off the day with a short creative workshop coordinated by MArch student Adriana Tomeci! Based on her experience with Ray Lucas' Research Method module from this year, the task from today focuses on identifying the atmosphere and showcasing the points of interest in each scene of a chosen movie, analysing the camera movement, sounds and lighting. This is a useful observational exercise in which students will learn how to make informed decisions on how they want to visually communicate their ideas, applicable to all of their work.
Greetings, have a look at our session plan of this week. We are going to meet our collaborators to review our progress from last week and carry on towards our final submission
Day 5 Task:
On the fifth day, all the students were asked to further develop the design of the Tetley space based on their own design ideas of the previous days. The students in the second group adjusted the plan and the plan and drew a great perspective of the Tetley.
Day 4 we explored how parks are represented in social media such as Instagram to see the different ways and similarities between countries. Social media is a huge influence on people's life's today and seeing how parks are used through them tells an aspect of how they are seen today. We have identified popular themes such as the park used as a backdrop to 'selfies' or how famous locations of a park have been replicated as the perfect photograph so many times.
Friday was used to show tutorials on programs the undergrads had specified they had trouble with or wanted to learn the basics from. As masters students, we were aware that learning programs was difficult and doesn't receive much support due to the range of them and although there are a million tutorials online, part of the task is finding what tutorial you need. From the undergrads choice, we have gone through Autocad/Sketchup and Illustrator with Photoshop/Vray to come on Monday. The undergrads were extremely appreciative and gave feedback on how useful they found these sessions, leaving with cheat sheets to refer back to and recorded sessions to support them throughout their degree.
Group 2 have been experimenting with these cultural patterns to create spaces seen from above to represent this pattern but when experienced, users wouldn't be instantly aware, almost like an easter egg to the design. They have been using these experiments to understand how the design originated and what aspects of symmetry, form and shape highlight it's attributes. On the site, they're using this plan to begin to push and pull areas to create individual cultural spaces within the landscape, almost as an open exhibition.
Group 2 have been looking at links and patterns to the Pakistani culture, focusing in on their amazing food markets and trying to re-create a 'path' of unique spaces for these to flourish. They're experimenting on utilising the existing wall and contrasting it with parametric timber fabrications as seen above to house this. Creating large and small spaces from these designs to contain well programmed ideals for the market to successfully operate.
Week 2 is going to be an exciting time for our team! These are the main activities which are going to take place this week. We are starting with a Photoshop workshop on Monday, and after that we will divide the whole team in subgroups to work on different areas of River Irwell in order to develop them in more detail. On Thursday we are going to present our process and design ideas to Urban Splash and Eddy Fox, the guest speakers we had in Week 1.
We're kicking off our second week with guest speaker, Covadonga Maldonado Suarez, an Architect and visual artist from Bristol. Covadonga produces beautiful digital collages and illustrations to support her architectural designs. Our team are looking forward to finding out how she puts her images together as she gives us a some top tips in her presentation that will be followed by a Q&A session.
This will come in handy as we start to think about the final images we are going to create this week of our proposed scheme for the artisan studio in Albert Square.
Day 6! We will be meeting our collaborators today to discuss about the construction sequence and costing.
10:00 - Briefing
10:15 - Discussion
11:30 - Meeting with Manchester city council collaborators
13:00 - Lunch
14:00 - Introduction to building regulations
14:45 - Group discussion
16:30 - Debrief
We have researched on the framing using Light Gauge Steel. This is a rigid material that could be beneficial when building 6-10 stories high apartments.
Today we will start off with group presentations to our collaborators, Jack Youd, Steven Leech and Laura Sanderson. Each group will explain their proposals, design decisions and designs they have developed. We can’t wait to see you all show off your exciting work!
Lunch will be 1 – 2 PM
Last we discovered that more women chose landscape Architecture before the 1990s. Our 2nd-year team member Claudia Rowe interviewed Vanessa Ross. We disused life what university life was like for a woman on the Landscape Architecture course in the 1990s, Vanessa Career, and how times have changed for the better. Although women are yet to be more recognised in senior positions in the built environment it is a delight to know that Vanessa owns her practice and has completed over 220 projects.
10.00 a.m.: Morning catch up and briefing
10.15 a.m.: Instagram takeover & marketing talk with Lauren from Invisible (Manchester)
11.05 a.m.: Coffee break
11.15 a.m.: Presentation of the progress to Invisible (Manchester)
11.45 a.m.: Discussion of feedback
12.05 p.m.: Colouring booklet development and marketing
1.00 p.m.: Lunch break
2.00 p.m: Colouring booklet development and marketing
4.30 p.m: Review of #DAY6
4.45 p.m.: Run-through #DAY7 schedule
5.00 p.m: End of #DAY6
CONFIRMED! Introducing our second guest speaker Alisha Fisher, environmental design practitioner and Partner of the Migrants Bureau. Alisha will offer a fresh and unique perspective on how you can use your architecture degree to work in other areas of the Built environment. We are very excited to be running this event on 20th May on the topic of 'Black and Asian representation in the built environment'. This event will be open to all and you can join via the eventbrite link!
We have highlighted the key activities planned out for each day to give you a heads up on what to expect over this coming week.
For this second and final week, we will be concentrating on the production of the colouring booklet. We will start off the week with a presentation and progress update of the drawings to Invisible Manchester. A marketing and Instagram takeover talk by Invisible Manchester will be held beforehand to prepare the students on how to upload their daily work progresses and project related updates at Invisible Manchester's official Instagram page. Students will also be given a brief exposure on how to contact local businesses that will be selling the colouring booklet. It is going to be a long week ahead but we are thrilled to see how this project is going forward!
Day 5
Design Charette 1 - Initial Development
Masterplan
The masterplan group has begun to develop new programmes on the site and tested out different options of spatial layouts. Irina showed her ideas on how the new masterplan responds to the client's brief and site context with her sketches and bubbles diagram. Other BA students also started to look at some precedents and discussed the masterplan ideas as a team.
To end our first week of Make Build, on Friday we had a premier to showcase all the video tutorials produced by the group for architectural sketching, model making and photography. All the BA students produced amazing videos bringing in their own personalities with consistent graphics.
But before that, these are statistics and notes from our collaborators about homelessness in Manchester. Their work is essential in demonstrating that everyone has great potential, as shown by their tour guides, who were once homeless.
Through a week of cooperation, we have tested the game and understood the educational purpose behind the game. In addition, BA students have excellently optimized the entire game system and redesigned the game's appearance to make it more beautiful.
Thanks to the guests who gave us wonderful lectures this week, and we are also pleased to see the exciting ideas brought by the BA students. We are looking forward to further cooperation with BA students next week and seeing their incredible performance.
MONDAY 17 May
On the second week, we’ll continue to develop the overall architectural volume of our ownHaus project. Using a range of design tools, we could develop a number of aspects such as living spaces, shared communal spaces, outdoors and nature, and so on.
TUESDAY 18 May
We’re excited to welcome our collaborators, Lisa and Rob from Project3, to share their experience in designing social housing projects! Following that, we’ll exchange our ideas in a workshop session.
WEDNESDAY 19 May
After we’ve developed the massing of our project, here’s the chance to design in more detail the living spaces in modules.
We’ll check our progress and work towards finalizing our ownHaus proposals, making sure our diagrams, drawings and models convey our ideas and interests clearly.
THURSDAY 20 May
Get ready to collate our images into competition-style boards! This format is great for a range of presentations - for exhibitions, competitions, portfolios, etc.
FRIDAY 21 May
To conclude our short but exciting Live Project, we’ll set up a virtual exhibition/presentation with our collaborators. Time for you to take the lead and share your ideas!
A great way to end our first week in MSA LIVE 21 with initial concept presentations from the team to our external partners and guests from the community as well as residents of Nelson.
Amazing work has been achieved and feedback was very constructive to students and the whole team.
The first week has been so delightful! As a team we have covered a lot of research, learnt about ethnography and graphical presentation, embarked on a photoshop workshop, spoken to Tara Gbolade, played a diversity quiz, learnt about ‘the system’ and most importantly had fun.
We can’t wait for week 2 to kick off as we have a lot of workshops, guest speakers and design in store! Stay tuned
It’s been an amazing first week with our ownHaus team! After understanding the creative and financial aspects of the ownHaus housing model, the students have begun to test their design ideas on a carpark site tucked away behind Circle Square and the Kimpton Clocktower Hotel. The students turned the constraints presented to them into opportunities to introduce their design moves.
The “base” of the housing project houses facilities that can be shared with the city. A horseshoe plan creates a distance with the adjacent railway, at the same time defining a series of courtyards. Facilities placed on the north edge afford a higher level of privacy and connection to River Medlock
A modular design method based on 6x6m grids enables fast assembly of pre-fabricated parts, customized to suit any chosen site in a city.
By integrating with its surroundings, for instance defining one of the entrances as a semi pedestrianized street for the bars and music venues, the project has potential to create a new vibrant neighbourhood in the city centre.
Excellent proposal and presentation from group 3. They had shown a great understanding of the brief and developed a cohesive concept, which aims to connect the dissected community by placing Karaoke pods around the town of Nelson.
Superb presentation from group 2 and a substantial engagement with the surrounding issues in the town of Nelson has been clearly shown and critically developed in their proposal. Their aim is to target skateboarders as well as, other segments of the community through an interactive structure.
Great weak of presentations, group 1 have presented well their finalised design idea and had been communicating their concept with clarity and great understanding to the brief and site.
Their aim is to connect the different age groups that are currently in Nelson and enhance the community engagement.
Group 3 have been developing their design ideas and shown amazing progression in terms of the ideas and solution to the problems they have identified. They are currently at the stage of finalising the concept approach and design idea of connecting Nelson through music.
Group 2 have shown amazing concept ideas and developed a cohesive understanding to their site and brief. They have critically analysed and identified their key attributes and aims, which clearly conveyed their design solution to the dissected town of Nelson.
Group 1 have been continuing their development for their ideas and had shown a great understanding of the brief and site. they are currently at the stage of preparing for a finalised proposal.
Week 1 fly by so fast! Here are some highlights for Week 2!
As we completed all sharing sessions with guest speakers in the first week, in Week 2, we'll be more focused in visual productions and compiling materials obtained into our publication. Heritage Team will look into connecting the 'story' of Albert Square and Town Hall and represent this visually. Design Team will refine and finalise the design for the visitor's experience centre and QR code display, followed by visual productions. Both teams' works will be integrated in which the narratives set by the Heritage Team will complement design being proposed as well as the Design Team to reflect our 'story' into the design of the visitor's centre. Prior to submission, we'll have a session with our collaborator from Lendlease, Ms. Tamara Karim, on Wednesday to review and provide feedbacks.
Can't wait to see the finished product! Looking forward to meeting everyone tomorrow!
Today at AAS we were developing the narrative for the workshop and discussing content for each slide. In the afternoon, we began to produce graphics for the document based on our carbon research on Manchester and Kareem gave us all a quick introduction to Adobe Premiere Pro. Watch this space for some cool graphics next week.
The schedule for Day 5 is here!
9.00 - Group Catch Up
9:30 - Narrative Development
10:45 - Content Discussion
12:00 - Fill in the Research Gaps
14:00 - Infographic Production
16:00 - Debrief
A first look at a narrative for the workshop that aims to form a fundamental portion of the engagement strategy. A personalized story has the ability to connect with your target audience at an emotional level.
The team began by drawing scenes for each subject area, which will include infographics arising from the research conducted on Wednesday and today.
DESIGN CONCEPT BY NIKITA NANGIA (MLA STUDENT)
1. The hexagonal cells (Manchester's Heritage Symbol) are organized around the main 5 statues which will create window for past to present.
2. The hexagonal sheds can be turned into movable temporary pavillions (MOBILE URBANISM) which can be around the central statue which can act as an information center.
3. Hexangonal cells can be be further broken down into smaller diamond or trangular modules.
4. Minimal interventions to the site is required for the pavillion to be erected.
5. Bioswale around the site will secure the site, adding an aesthetic feature and will also helps in surface drain off.
6. Different zones can be created around every statue.
DESIGN CONCEPT BY CHARLOTTE BELL (BA STUDENT)
These are the initial idea sketches for my design. My idea is to use wooden batons to make up the structure as a whole (as shown in the precedents). The structures are curved and move around the existing features of the site (e.g. trees/statues). The batons would curve into a roof or into a seat etc. Roofs can be made out of the batons in a hexagonal arrangement which references the bees thus Manchester.
DESIGN CONCEPT BY ANDREI GRIGORE (BA STUDENT)
This geometric design explores variations of honeycomb-like structures that refer back to Manchester's heritage symbol: the bee. The fragmented hexagonal shapes generate a labyrinthic walkway through the exhibits, leading back to the centre of the piece and eventually to the entrance of the town hall. This initial idea is meant to create an interactive and engaging experience for the passers-by and bring the ones who enjoy closer to chart the riches of the past.
DESIGN CONCEPT BY MICHAEL BACON (MLA STUDENT)
These are the initial ideas of my design concept. Manchester worker bees colonizing the public space. An organic form in contrast to the formal traditional architecture of the Town Hall. Possibly waterproof fabric stretched over a wooden honeycomb lattice. The structure could be repurposed for use at other events. Shards of honeycomb as outposts. Smaller shelters located throughout the wider civic center showcasing outdoor exhibits/info boards. Potential for these to be dotted around the city center to encourage people from the further field. eg. outside the station or Piccadilly Gardens etc. Possibility to include a temporary green roof element to attract pollinators. Cells planted off-site and inserted into the temporary structure. Can be removed to refresh planting.
The schedule for Day 4 is here!
9.00 - Group Catch Up
9:30 - Narrative Workshop
10:45 - Independent Research Task
12:00 - Group Research Task
14:00 - Visual Scenes
15:15 - Create a Template
Here's a look at some of the early research conducted by the team, with a focus on three main subject areas: Transport, Commercial and Industry, and Domestic.
Transport (32%), Commercial and Industry (35%), and Domestic (33%) make up for all the carbon emissions in Manchester.
Using the user profiles and thinking about how these characters may navigate the extension and the wider city has allowed for exploration of designs that really consider the journey and what they may see. By using this as a technique both groups have produced two proposals that consider the interaction between the existing building and the proposed extension. Using mediums such as sketching and understanding how the concept can be presented is a key learning from this week's work and was successful when presented to the collaborator mid-way through the project.
This morning we witnessed that Group 2 won the quiz!! It had been so good to see everybody having a good time with the Invisible (Manchester) tour guides.
After the quiz, Colour the City team continued with their drawings and they came up with some really amazing progress in the presentation.
We look forward to presenting the amazing works to our collaborator at the start of next week! We are super excited!
We have seen some brilliant work from BA1 students Zach Ng Soong Yan (top right) and Ashlie Ho (bottom left) within the signage and transport sub-group this week! Zach and Ashlie contributed towards producing a visual signage and transport system to ensure simple and easy wayfinding and movement through the Blueline Project along the River Irwell. Excellent stuff!
BA2 students Ana Foianu (top) and Ana-Maria Baldovin (bottom) produced some excellent work this week as part of the structure and art sub-group of the Blueline Project. Ana and Ana-Maria worked on communicating the incorporation of structures, islands and art installations to the River Irwell through a dynamic range of visual collages. Great work!