Group 25
IN THE OCEANS OF DIVERSITY

Our team collaborates with the organization 'Building Bridges, Pendle'. Our aim is to regenerate a multifunctional event place, below the offices of a charity’s office in Nelson, into an exciting space to benefit the community. We have given the opportunity to redesign contemporary and innovating concept schemes that would explore the idea of coming together from different backgrounds and cultures.

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Giorgos P / Nuwar D

Activities and Skills

The creative aspect of our project will give the opportunity to the students to develop and present design ideas to the team and our collaborator. This will allow them to evolve their collaborative, technical and personal skills.

Specifically, the development of knowledge of digital software such as these of Adobe suite, AutoCAD and Revit will help the team to create an exciting design proposal, based on coherent research and that will be presented in a good manner. This will be achieved through small workshops that will be organized in the future and that will assist the students to acquire more knowledge on how to use the above software.
Posted 1 Mar 2021 21:38
Social Impact

The aim of this project is to provide a feeling of welcomeness throughout the year. With the use of colors, modularity and a sustainable approach, the project is going to create diversity in the neighbourhood. It will be equipped with modular spaces that can have different functions depending on the needs of the organization.
Posted 2 Mar 2021 11:38
Introducing our Partners!

Building Bridges Pendle are registered Charity and in 2019 they celebrated their twentieth anniversary. The charity contributes to community relation and community cohesion meanwhile raising awareness about people with different backgrounds and cultures. Their aim is to help people, create new friendships that cross-cultural boundaries.
Our first Collaborator is Rauf Bashir who is the project manager of Building Bridges Pendle. He will be acting as our main contact on behalf of the charity along with Shabaz Ahmed and Katie Nolan who are the community developer officers. For further details visit their website at https://www.buildingbridgespendle.org.uk/about
If you want to get involved follow them on:
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/buildingbridgespendle
Twitter - https://twitter.com/bbpendle
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/bbpendle/
YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCI-dd5vRGyz-7GK811jtOmg?view_as=subscriber
Posted 2 Mar 2021 12:38
• Name: Nadezhda Yordanova
• Year: 5th year MArch at Manchester Metropolitan University
• Atelier: Advanced Practice
• Education: BA Architecture at Sheffield Hallam University
• Skills: Revit, Photoshop, illustrator, AutoCad, Presentation and Layout
• Interests: I have always been interested in sustainable design and minimizing the impact of the buildings we create. My aim is to become a chartered Architect and tackle issues such as climate change through my designs. For me, architecture is much more than what can be produced in a software package – I believe that a well-designed building should suit its context, environment and the people who are going to inhabit or use it.
Posted 2 Mar 2021 16:02
• Name: Mohammed Amine Mouaqit
• Year: 5th year March
• Atelier: Advanced Practice
• Skills: Autocad, Sketchup, Archicad, Photoshop
• Interests: My aim is to be a leader in sustainable design as an architect. I want to raise awareness on how beautiful sustainable architecture can be with the use of aesthetically innovative materials. I am in the belief that environmental-friendly design is key to the future of our planet and I am willing to conceptualize examples on how this can be done.
Posted 2 Mar 2021 16:03
• Name: Giorgos Porakos
• Year: 5th Year Master of Architecture
• Atelier: CPU AI
• Education: UWE Bristol
• Skills: Sketchup, Rhino, Autocad, Lumion, Vray, Photshop, Illustrator, Indesign
• Interests: I am a technical-minded architectural student focusing mainly on the relationship between engineering and aesthetic within the field of architecture. My interest is to research, observe and understand buildings technical resolution and how this creates a coherent building project. Also lately, I have developed additional interests in 3D visualization and computational design.
Posted 2 Mar 2021 16:04
• Name: Christina Markaki
• Year: 5th Year Master of Architecture
• Atelier: U.S.E.
• Education: Leicester School of Architecture, DMU
• Skills: Preferred Autodesk software: AutoCAD, preferred 3D software: Rhino, all the Adobe programs from 2D to 3D animation.
• Interests: I am a methodological student working with conceptual, abstract and experimental concepts that can be transform into architecture. Designing while minding the future users’ feelings and senses is what interests me the most as well as Deconstruction and fragmentation as a theoritical background of creating designs. My aim is to continue entering competitions around the world that represent my ideologies. At the moment, I am taking part in a competition in Italy as my final project for this semester.
Posted 2 Mar 2021 16:05
• Name: Effimia Athanasakopoulou
• Year: 5th year March
• Atelier: CPU AI
• Skills: Autocad, Sketchup, InDesign , Photoshop, Revit
• Interests: I am interested in computational design, how data is used and analyzed but also how we can use coding to generate a design, shape, form.
Posted 2 Mar 2021 16:06
• Name: Nuwar Darwish
• Year: 5th Year Master of Architecture
• Atelier: Advanced Practice
• Education: UPM university, KSA.
• Skills: AutoCAD, Revit, Lumion, Adobe illustrator
• Interests: I have always been interested in conceptual architectural designs and sustainability, as well as utilizing sensational experiences to places and taking in consideration the user’s emotional and physical experiences, and social aspects to bring people together while designing. My goal is to be a certified architect that will help to enhance the perspective of a “built environment”.
Posted 2 Mar 2021 16:10
BBP Offices Ground Floor Area

Our project aims to explore ideas of how the ground floor area of Building Bridges Pendle offices in the centre of Nelson town, could be transformed into a vibrant space, accommodating different community events and enterprise activities, promoting the values of diversity and inclusivity.
Posted 10 May 2021 17:04
Week 01 Highlights

An overview of the key activities of our group during the first week of MSA LIve. This will include introductory activities, presentations from our collaborators, software workshops and the development of initial ideas about our project.
Posted 10 May 2021 17:09
Meeting the New Members of Our Team & Introducing the Project

We are excited to meet the new members of our team today. The introduction was including ice-breaking activities, general discussion and briefing about our project and collaborator.
Posted 10 May 2021 17:19
The BA students have met with the collaborators. Adding to our previous meeting with the BA and explaining them our project briefly, the collaborators have also introduced the project to them in details, mentioned set of goals, vision and mission and the main aim of forming this organization and the outcome they are looking forward with working with all of us BA students and March students. Moreover, the BA students engaged and all of their questions were answered clearly from the collaborators in order to have a better clearer vision of the next step.
Posted 11 May 2021 16:46
Guest Speakers

Today we had to listen and exchange ideas with different people from Nelson town and Pendle Area, about the impact of our project on the area's multi-cultural community. The discussion was very useful and gave us a lot of ideas about the development of our project.
Posted 11 May 2021 16:54
Main Design Drivers

After a long meeting we had today with our collaborator, Building Bridges Pendle, we have set some design drivers that will help us for the development of our projects. Those design drivers reflect the ambition and vision of the collaborator for the redevelopment of their ground floor.
Posted 11 May 2021 16:58
A photoshop workshop was held on teams and mainly led by the MArch students Nadezhda Yordanova and Christina Markaki.
Where they have explained to the BA students how to use photoshop starting from the basic tools on how to navigate through the program using each tool for a certain purpose going more into detailed explanation on how to add textures, materials, trees, and people to an elevation. BA students have engaged and learned new skills and techniques using photoshop and all of their questions have been answered clearly in order to use this program by engaging all students in our next step in the project.
Posted 12 May 2021 16:35
An InDesign workshop was held on teams and mainly led by the MArch students Giorgos Porakos and Effimia Athanasakopoulou.
Where they have explained to the BA students how to use InDesign starting from the basic tools on how to navigate through the program using each tool for a certain purpose going more into detailed explanation on how to add landscape/portrait/ two faces pages, setting up a master page and applying its properties to other pages, text, shapes, add page numbers, import an image or a pdf file and export the InDesign file into a different format. BA students have engaged and learned new skills and techniques using InDesign and all of their questions have been answered clearly in order to use this program by engaging all students in our next step in the project.
Posted 12 May 2021 16:45
Site Analysis

Some of the site analysis work we have done today in order to get a better understanding of the area and the site. The work was produced by MArch and BA students. This gave the chance to BA students to apply what they have learnt in yesterday's Photoshop and Indesign workshops.
Posted 13 May 2021 17:11
Today we made alterations to the existing plan, trying to create an open and multi-functional space. We did that focusing on events that will be held in the town centre throughout the year and what they will require, including a kitchen, performance space and exhibition wall that will show off the different cultures and faiths within Nelson.
Posted 13 May 2021 17:14
Research on different Cultures

Today MArch and BA students looked at the different cultural backgrounds of residents within Nelson and researched their traditions including food, art, decorative patterns, trying to think how these could be celebrated in our design. When reflecting on our research we decided that the cultural diversity of Nelson could be visualised through patterns and tiles from different countries within South Asia, North Africa, Eastern Europe, the UK and The Middle East.
Posted 14 May 2021 17:20
Precedent Studies

Today MArch students along with BA students explored different precedent studies that gave us examples for the development of our design. Those precedents were based on the functional requirements of our space, use of colour and expression of cultural identity. This activity helped the group to start sharing different ideas and discussing the how different aspects of the projects could be like.
Posted 14 May 2021 17:27
Revit Workshop

Today MArch students Nadezhda Yordanova and Nuwar Darwish, held a Revit workshop for BA students covering the basic of the software. During the workshop, BA students understood how to do plans, sections, and elevations in Revit, how to export plans and how to import materials. This was very useful for the BA students as for all of them it was the first time that they used Revit. Now, with the new skills they learnt, they are more prepared to assist the rest of the team with the development of our project.
Posted 14 May 2021 18:12
Week 02 Highlights

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.
Posted 17 May 2021 17:26
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.
Posted 17 May 2021 17:31
Interior Design Exploration

Today MArch and BA students collaborated to find ideas for the interior design of the BBPendle ground floor, based on the precedents that our group found yesterday. The outcome was a flexible space providing opportunities for meetings and social events, reflecting at the same time the multicultural identity of the Pendle community.
Posted 17 May 2021 20:14
Preparation for Feedback Session with our Collaborators

Today the team collaborated all together on finishing the design of the ground floor area before start preparing the presentation sheets for tomorrow's feedback session with our collaborator. This will give us the chance to get initial feedback from our collaborators, on our design before the final deadline on Friday.
Posted 18 May 2021 17:00
Feedback Session with our Collaborators

Today we had an interesting discussion with our collaborators. We presented to them our initial ideas and gave them the chance to comment on them and tell us if they wanted to add something and hear their feedback about what we have produced so far. We all felt extremely connected with the design and we really look forward to make the alteration they suggested!
Posted 19 May 2021 14:52
Initial Visuals

Those are the first visuals of our design that were presented today to our collaborators, during our feedback session. The current design received very good feedback from them and we are all looking forward to our final design presentation on Friday.
Posted 19 May 2021 15:10
Responding to the Feedback

Today our team was divided into smaller groups working on different aspects of the project based on the feedback that we received yesterday from our collaborators. According to the feedback, the different groups had to think about how the building could be more secured, find a place for a small reception desk and improve the design of the side elevation.
Posted 20 May 2021 21:33
Preparing the Publication

After finishing the final design changes, our team worked together by preparing the pages for the publication document. Initially, the team had discussions about what to put on each page and then we were divided into smaller groups working on each page separately.
Posted 20 May 2021 21:41
Final Visuals

The post shows a series of internal and external visuals from our project. Our collaborators were really impressed with those images during today's final presentation, mentioning that they helped them to see how their ideas could be materialised.
Posted 21 May 2021 15:31
We added some additional alterations to enhance the function of the building. We combined religious and cultural symbols into a pattern to create for the design of the shutter and used linear lighting to highlight the circulation of the building. The foldable reception area and food stands are designed to take up minimum room when they are not in use, the reception can be folded into the wall and the food stands can be stored in the basement.
Posted 21 May 2021 15:58
Over the past two weeks, we have worked hard as a team to bring the ideas of collaborators, Building Bridges Pendle, into an exciting but thorough design that will hopefully be realised in the near future. There was excellent communication within the group and we felt a strong relationship was formed with the charity. We hope to visit their office, which has been the focus of our project, one day.

The vibrant design we have produced reflects the multi-cultural, welcoming organisation and the collective effort of all our group members. Thank you group 25
Posted 21 May 2021 16:34
Final Presentation to our Collaborators!

A nice conclusion to an expressive and joyful project! Today was the final meeting with the collaborators. The collaborators were very satisfied with the changes we made to the design since our last meeting. A big thank you for the kindness and great teamwork, we enjoyed our collaborations!
Posted 21 May 2021 16:37