Jonathan // MA01 // Hello, I live just outside of Manchester and am currently working in the Continuity in architecture atelier. Last year I completed my undergraduate degree at Newcastle University and went straight to study my Masters, so did not take a year out in practice. One fact about myself is that I have an unhealthy addiction to collecting architectural books (89 and counting)!

Week One // MSA Live 21 has begun! The Inspire Bradford team all met today, covered introductions and outlined the project plan for the next two weeks.

Our first week includes getting to know the Little Germany site, with a virtual tour from our collaborator Bradford Civic Society and through detailed site analysis, the team will establish an approach. We are focusing on master-planning and building re-use themes and are looking forward to welcoming associates from Feilden Clegg Bradley and Arup, to discuss with us their previous works and share ideas on the Little Germany site.

By the end of the week, we intend to have a deeper understanding of the site, its heritage values and to have begun developing our master-planning approach and proposals.

Day One // Monday’s Timetable
10:00 - 10:45 Introductions
11:00 - 12:30 Virtual tour of Little Germany District from the Bradford Civic Society.
13:30 - 14:45 Principles and precedents for master-planning and building re-use.
15:00 - 16:30 MArch portfolio presentations

Site Introductions // A huge thank you to our collaborator Kieran for giving us an insightful ‘Virtual Tour’ around Bradford’s ‘Little Germany’ as well as an in depth understanding of the wider city! Looking briefly at the site and surrounding areas, Kieran helped identify some key points for improvement but also opportunities in how we can bring life back to the currently unused part of Bradford through an effective masterplan and building re-use scheme.

We look forward to delving deeper into the analysis of Little Germany as we begin to develop initial responses to the site based on its historical, social and pragmatic nature over the coming days. So watch this space for more updates on our progress tomorrow!

Site Analysis // Historic Analysis

The Historic analysis group looked into the history and narrative of Little Germany. First developed by wealthy European merchants, the city welcomed people from Italy, Ireland and most notably Germany who in turn built a number of Neo-classical buildings that make up the area. The wealthy entrepreneurs moved to the city to make use of its thriving textile industry that was booming for much of the 18th Century.

We looked into mapping this history, both chronologically through historic figure ground analysis and timelines as well as in more abstracted ways through the experimentation of photomontages. Additionally we produced mappings of the various listed buildings that are spread across the site as well as understanding what used to be in the vacant plots that are now used as car parking. We look forward to sharing our findings with the rest of the group tomorrow in developing our understanding of Little Germany!

ARUP Live Talk // This morning Inspire Bradford were joined by Terry Lee-Williams, Manuel Garrido and Lean Doody from Arup for a discussion on the development of a fifteen minute neighbourhood in Little Germany. We shared our findings from the historic, social and pragmatic site analysis carried out over the week as well as the ideas generated from our early sketching activity looking into what we thought should be included in a fifteen minute neighbourhood. Terry, Manuel and Lean identified that Bradford already exhibited many of the qualities needed for a fifteen minute neighbourhood and that Little Germany was a part of the wider strategy for the city. As such the focus shifted in the project, looking more at how Little Germany could become a district in the city with a designated purpose that suited its context. Since the talk we have begun to identify what Little Germany should be and why as an area it is failing, whilst also developing principles that will aid the design of our masterplan for the area. We look forward to building on these ideas tomorrow and into next week as we look reintegrate Little Germany into the life of Bradford.

You can read more on Arup’s research into fifteen minute neighbourhoods here: https://www.arup.com/perspectives/designing-the-fifteen-minute-neighbourhood

Re-building Little Germany: GROUP A // This afternoon we finally put pen to ‘virtual’ paper! By splitting into two groups and drawing on a shared Miro board, we began to build on what we had learned through the week and propose developments for Little Germany. Amazingly, both groups through separate discussions developed very similar themes throughout their proposals. First was the identification of Little Germany as an area with rich historic qualities that are used in various period dramas on TV. This encouraged the groups to be considerate about which facades and buildings were kept and which were more disposable. This was dependent on their value to the area and its image for TV which has become a main selling point for the area. New interventions and ideas are then built around this concept, that Little Germany should become a new artistic, media fragment of Bradford and encourage more involvement from TV studios, but also become an area is which creative arts and media can be produced.

Both groups also identified that cars were a huge issue for the ground level of Little Germany. As such, both employed methods to keep traffic out of the area and place greater emphasis on giving control back to pedestrians. In doing so, car parks are placed around the periphery of the site, one group even proposed to submerge the car parks to help take them out of the space entirely!

The activity has taken a huge step towards developing our solution to Little Germany, we look forward to developing these ideas further at the start of next week!

Re-building Little Germany: GROUP B // This afternoon we finally put pen to ‘virtual’ paper! By splitting into two groups and drawing on a shared Miro board, we began to build on what we had learned through the week and propose developments for Little Germany. Amazingly, both groups through separate discussions developed very similar themes throughout their proposals. First was the identification of Little Germany as an area with rich historic qualities that are used in various period dramas on TV. This encouraged the groups to be considerate about which facades and buildings were kept and which were more disposable. This was dependent on their value to the area and its image for TV which has become a main selling point for the area. New interventions and ideas are then built around this concept, that Little Germany should become a new artistic, media fragment of Bradford and encourage more involvement from TV studios, but also become an area is which creative arts and media can be produced.

Both groups also identified that cars were a huge issue for the ground level of Little Germany. As such, both employed methods to keep traffic out of the area and place greater emphasis on giving control back to pedestrians. In doing so, car parks are placed around the periphery of the site, one group even proposed to submerge the car parks to help take them out of the space entirely!

The activity has taken a huge step towards developing our solution to Little Germany, we look forward to developing these ideas further at the start of next week!